Getting ready for rally number 28; Grantsville, MD
August 30, 2022
We leave in 3 days!
So, packing needs to begin soon.
Just put a new front tire on my bike and everything else was checked in
the spring. Don hasn’t ridden much at
all this year so his bike is good to go; just hope he is. Riding isn’t what it use to be. Not sure how I’ll make out with the pain in
my hip and leg and Don’s surgery is healed but still has issues. Getting old is not for sissies that’s for
sure. We will be riding to the rally
this year since it is only 234 miles from our home. Not planning to play around on back roads or shortcuts,
taking 301/50 over the bridge and then off on 97 then 70 and 68 west to
Grantsville. Brittany will be watching
the kids for the first 3 days and then Shawn.
Figured we would leave at 7:30AM Saturday; not as early as in the past
but since we don’t have as many miles to travel but we will have to stop every
hour.
September 3, 2022 – The bikes are gassed up, trailer
hooked up and packed and bikes packed. Had
prayer and then pulled out. First stop
the Hardee’s just before the Bay Bridge; we ate a biscuit and waited for a few
minutes to see if anyone was joining us.
We left there around 8:50AM and just as we got across the bridge I
noticed a dozen or more police cars with lights and sirens on heading towards
the bridge. We made it across just
before a major car pile up right on the bridge.
God is good. We rode for about
100 miles before we decided to stop and fill up with gas and just stretch our
legs. Checked the google maps and we had
exactly 100 more miles. Traveling all
major highways running 65 and 70 mph we covered the last 100 miles in about 2
hours and arrived at the hotel around 1:25 and they had our room ready. We saw Scott pass us and then we passed Bill
and Sandra but we all pulled in at the same time. Bob and Cathy were already here. Not long after we got settled in Roger and
Ginny arrived as well as Gary and Ruth and finally Dave and Kelsie. This year our group is small; six had to
cancel due to health issues at the last minute.
We went to Castleman’s restaurant
for dinner; we rode with Gary and Ruth in the truck.
September 4, 2022 – temps in the low 60’s this morning
as we pulled out of the parking lot at 9:30.
Gary led us over Backbone Mountain some beautiful wooded roads and
through some very old little towns. Sky
became dark and threatened rain but we headed back to the hotel and missed the
rain. Got back around 1:45 and some
walked down the hill to Katie’s for ice cream.
I’m having way too much pain in my hip to do much walking at all; in
fact, I have to use a cane most of the time now. This is getting to be a real bother. Ruth suggested I talk to my doctor and ask if
it might be bursitis. She said it sounds
just the way she felt and a cortisone shot helped. Might do that. Plans tonight are to have subs and chips here
and Gary has a slide show and a meeting planned. Should be very interesting. I have spent the last 3 hours doing
payroll. Deb felt she was not ready to
handle it alone so I had to bring it with me.
This is the one thing I said I would not do.
September 5, 2022 – rained all day – not a soft rain
but rather a heavy down pouring all day.
So we jumped in trucks and took off and traveled back roads around WV. The view was beautiful what we could
see. We went to a small museum in
Grantsville and had a guided tour and details about a B52 carrying 2
thermonuclear bombs that crashed in the worst blizzard of 1964 right here in
Grantsville. An amazing story which was
never publicized. If those bombs had
exploded it would have wiped out everything from here to the Atlantic
ocean. They have a count down from 10 to
0 when they are to drop a bomb and they were at 4 when the plane went
down. We ate at Castleman’s Inn – food
was good. The Castleman’s Inn was built when
the National Road was the main way to travel through the area. Stagecoaches stopped, drovers stopped,
families stopped. Meeting tonight.
September 6, 2022 – still raining! Trucks again.
Today we went to Flight 93 and the Que Creek Mine rescue. Flight 93 is just as amazing as always and
just as emotional as every time I visit.
I cannot walk through the museum and watch the TV or hear the voices of
the passengers without crying. To think
about these 40 people knowing they were going to die and deciding they would
take things into their own hands and stop the terrorist is amazing. The Que Creek mine disaster was so
fascinating. The location was on this
man’s farm, he was one of the rescuers and all the miners were friends of his,
school friends, church friends, the rescue was a personal thing for him and you
could feel that in his film and talk. He
ended by telling of the one man who wanted to be taken out last because during
the whole ordeal he found God and wanted 5 more minutes to pray. Bill said he was a so so church goer, thought
he was a good person but the ordeal brought him face to face with God and he
realized that Jesus is our only rescue.
It was so good to hear him give just a few words of testimony. I mentioned that it had to be God directing
them when they drilled to put a pipe down to give them air and they drilled
exactly in the right spot the first time – 240 feet down. Bill smiled and said yes it was God directing
them because they had no way to know where the men were. When they later reopened the mine they had to
drill and missed what they needed 3 times.
The hole they drilled had to be exactly plumb and they used a level and
thought they had it right so the rescue tube could go down to get the men one
at a time. It worked perfect but later a
mine engineer went down there and had someone up top use a laser to center and
the laser beam never touched the floor.
That tube should not have been able to travel up and down the hole – but
it did. Praise God for his hand on these
people.
September 7, 2022 – looked like rain so some of us
still went in trucks but a few decided to take their chances and go on
bikes. The sun came out and those of us
in trucks were a little envious. We went
to Whispering Pine a very unique gift and furniture store. Furniture well made by hand, I purchased
another wind chime and a couple of items for the kids. We did more riding on country roads then
returned to the hotel. Dinner was
planned to go back to Castleman’s but a couple of people didn’t like that so
they went off on their own. The rest of
us decided to go to Penn Alps where we are going to have our banquet. It was very good. Walked through the village but no shops open;
we did walk up on the Castleman’s Bridge.
After dinner I asked to have a short board meeting and we discussed
changing the rally to 3 days Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Arriving on Sunday and leaving on Thursday. Everyone was in favor of the change; makes
sense in the economy and we are all getting older. We also will move the rally date to the
second week in September to get away from Labor Day. Gary said he and Ruth are looking at Elkins
WV for next year’s rally and everyone liked that idea. We also discussed and approved a ByLaw
change. Removing the 2 term limit on
Board of Directors members. I will bring
this up at the next meeting so the full membership has a chance to discuss
before we put it in the By Laws.
September 8, 2022 – weatherman was calling for no rain
so we gassed up the bikes and headed out – in rain. We were going to Ft. Necessity and then to
Bradocks Tomb. Only 30 miles away but it
rained the whole time. Even if the sun
came out it was still raining. We ate
lunch at Bradocks Restaurant and the food was great and a lot of it! As we left the sun came out and was a
beautiful ride back to the hotel – a whole 60 miles today! Game night tonight after dinner. Ok I cannot
completely give justice to describing the game Ruth and Gary had planned. The time they put into this was amazing. First we divided into 3 teams and Ruth gave
each of us a decoding wheel and we practiced decoding a few messages. Then the fun began. Each team decoded a message which led us to
a place in the parking lot. There we
found a box and inside was an envelop with our team number on it. Opening the envelop we found another message
to decode and an item we had to take with us.
This went on for about 4 different boxes. Each message led us to the next but it was
also a question about something we learned or should have learned in our trips
and Gary’s lessons each night. Last we
each had to throw one bean bag in the corn hole toss to earn points. I dropped the bean bag in the hole. The last challenge was someone on each team
had to whistle Yankee Doodle but first they had to eat 2 crackers. Our team came in second, only 1 point below
the winners. It was such a fun
night.
September 9, 2022 –Heading home tomorrow, which is
kinda good since the weather is to be sunny tomorrow. Don and I headed out this morning on our own
going to Whispering Pines and then rode a loop back to the hotel. Nice ride over some back roads together. Gary led a ride this morning but only about 4
people went with him. The banquet is at
1PM then packing up and Ruth has a movie at 7PM. And then this year’s rally will be over. Ken and Lois left yesterday and Bob and Cathy
and Jim and Kim will leave right after the banquet. Our group this year was pretty slim with only
17 total but 1 left after one day due to an issue at home, a couple left in the
middle and a couple arrived in the middle.
Just returned from the banquet and as usual Gary and Ruth had a nice
little skit planned. The banquet food
was wonderful; a seafood buffet at Penn Alps.
Gassed up the bikes, hooked up the trailer and now to pack. Leon will be heading out with us tomorrow morning. Hope to leave by 8AM at the latest depending
on the fog. Rally 28 is complete.
