Arrived at Comfort Suites

Wow what a difference in the weather when we got up; sun was shining and there was no wind but it was very chilly. Need the heated jackets almost all day. Had a great breakfast at the Hilltop Diner and then headed west. Traveling 50 takes you through old towns with stately homes and old churches made of stone with stone walls around their yards or fields. But passing through the many unincorporated crossroads you find small houses in need of some repair or log cabins; not the new expensive versions but the real deal from a hundred years ago. Many yards or fields held rusted shells of old cars and trucks that had been parked where they stopped running and were only a reminder of better days. I could not count the number of houses with Christmas lights hanging from their front porches – either way too early for this coming year or just too much trouble to take down last year. Leaving Romney we were immediately in the mountains with open valleys to our right dotted with large round bales of hay. Many corn fields have already been harvested in the area. As we climb and twist and turn through the hairpin curves we down shift to maintain the power. We reach the top of Saddle Mountain and then begin the decent; ride the ridge for awhile and then climb Cheat Mountain and again thrill to the downhill run with 9% grades where you have to use the lower gears to hold down the speed. We don’t want to ride the breaks for fear of overheating them and the last thing we want is a runaway bike on these roads. I see many things that are very familiar from last year’s trip on 50 but these mountains and twisties will never get old to me. Then all too soon we reach Clarksburg and from here to Parkersburg and then Mineral Wells the road is a 4 lane divided highway much as route 1 is in Delaware. We still have the mountains and we climb a little but you never reach the top because they have dynamited the mountains to level the roads for better travel and greater speeds. We cover more distance in a shorter period of time but not near as much fun. We reach the hotel by 3pm but have to wait over an hour to get our room. We ordered pizza and then saw George and Bernadette ride into the parking lot. After 10 hours of riding they are ready to call it a night. Plans are to meet tomorrow morning for breakfast and then take a ride along the Ohio River and hopefully go to the Oil and Gas Museum. Covered 189 miles today.