Day
7
Dave
and Kelsie were the ride leaders today and they had a very nice route picked
out. Our group was small today with only
11 people going on the ride which is normal for the last day of the rally. Some have shopping to do, others had to run
to the Harley shop for a new tire and some had a particular destination they
wanted to see and it had not been included on any of the rides during the week.
And then we began losing members along the way.
We wondered country roads and after a while entered Babcock State
Park. We walked around, took pictures
and visited the gift shop. They had
stables and horseback riding at Babcock so Leon decided to stay and do some
riding. More back roads and we were
riding in the bottom of the New River Gorge with mountains all around us. As you look up the mountains are tree covered
and you think there is nothing there but forest but as the road begins to climb
and climb you finally reach the top and discover a whole town with stores, a
post office, homes and gardens. At the
top it doesn’t seem to have any more trees than any other location. You ride for a few miles on the top of the world
and then begin to descend into another valley or gorge. A turn or two and we find ourselves on
highway 19 right in Beckley at noon.
Beckley is a very large city and the traffic is bumper to bumper and
stop and go through traffic lights. We pull
into a Panera Bread Café for lunch; Don and I have never eaten at one of these establishments
but it was very nice. Back on the road and our next stop is the New River
Bridge where we walked around, watched the movie about the gorge and the bridge
and lost 2 more members. Bill Drylie and
Mike Brittingham headed off to take route 82 down and under the bridge; a route
I had done the year we had our rally in Fayetteville and it is the most
spectacular view of the bridge from underneath and right down to the river’s
edge. Coming back to the hotel it looks
like everyone is back and the guys began playing cards so four of us ladies
headed downtown to the Hardman’s hardware store which is much more than a
hardware store. Oh my goodness, there
were handcraft items, candles, games and
toys, gift items, cooking utensils and actual hardware. I don’t like to shop but I sure did my share
to help the local economy. And as we
rode through town they were setting up for the Potato Festival which begins
tonight and there were food vendors and craft vendors like our festivals at
home and of course it might be nice to run downtown tonight after our banquet
if we have time.
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