It's a Beautiful Day In Our Neighborhood....

Yesterday I was riding wearing shorts and a tee shirt under my mesh jacket and pants. Even with the air flowing through I was sweating. Today I was wearing most of the warm clothing I brought with and had the grip heaters set on full, and was still cold.

But it was still a good day.

We started out by slabbing it up Interstate 81 for 3 hours to get some miles behind us before heading north into a series of national parks and forests. The first sign that the day was going to improve was sighting a glider soaring along beside us as he rode the lift generated by the wind going up over a ridge that paralleled the highway. He circled around  a few times, doing steep turns to go back and forth along the ridge, leaving me envious of the way he was effortlessly riding the wind.

We finally left him behind just as we entered the first forest, the houses at the side of the road being replaced by old growth trees rising on either side of the highway to join over our heads as a canopy. The road was perfect, a weaving winding nonstop ribbon stretching out in front of us, hardly ever holding a steady heading, no traffic lights, stop signs, or driveways. We wove back and forth over and around a series of hills and small mountains, little traffic, and no trucks or motor homes holding us up. We After all the tight twisty roads we had spent the last week riding it was a lovely way to wind down from our trip. It was a perfect day, it couldn't have been any better.

That's when we passed a sign warning us about construction for the next 9 miles. The pavement was so perfect it looked like they had finished it that morning, but instead of lasting for 9 miles it went on and on, 50 miles or more of pristine asphalt daring us to go ever quicker. The posted speed limit was 45 MPH but we averaged 60-70, barely slowing down even for the sharper corners. There was no dirt or gravel contaminating the corners, the surface was billiard smooth. It was a perfect day, it couldn't get any better.

That's when we spotted a roadside cafe and pulled in for coffee and a snack. Brenda's Cafe on Pennsylvania Highway 144. It was a hardware store for 132 years before being converted into a general store/cafe. The coffee was hot and fresh, 50 cents for a large cup, and a chicken salad sandwich large enough to choke a horse was 5 bucks. There were huge slabs of extra sharp cheddar on sale dirt cheap and I tried to calculate how many I could fit into my luggage as I tried to remember if was even allowed to bring any across the border. We left with full belly's and full fuel tanks, it was a perfect day, it couldn't get any better.

Highway 144 finally (sadly) ended at highway 6, and we turned to make our final run to tonight's hotel. It always seems that at the end of the day we wind up dealing with a train of slow moving vehicles impeding our progress with no good places to pass, with us blinded by a setting sun.

Not today. We were headed east putting the sun at our backs lighting our way. Every time we needed to pass a group of cars the perfect spot appeared on cue letting us blast by with a quick twist of the throttle. The fact that our bikes have a power to weight ratio similar to a European Supercar helps make short work of anyone in our way. The speed limit went up to 55 and we spent our last hour of the day doing much faster than that as the road took us straight to our hotel.

But tomorrow will be even better. Tomorrow we will be back in Ottawa, our 10 day 5,000 km road trip will be at an end, and I will sleep in my own bed, curled up with Cassandra in my arms. I can't for the life of me think of a better way to end the day than that.