Seneca Forest State Park to Somewhere near Morehead, KY....and points beyond..
Almost 400 long miles......400 miles on any day is a long ride....But when over 200 of those are climbing/descending twisty mountains roads, it almost feels as if you can double the miles!!
A great night of sleep, up early, packed up and on the road by 7:00am.
In a previous post, someone wanted to know about camping with a CPAP.....It was pretty easily accomplished, after a bit of McGyvering. (and not paying $400.00 for the pre assembled kit)....All I needed is pictured here....
12V SLA 18MAH battery, the 12v adapter for my unit, (Respironics), and a female cig adapter with alligator clips to attach the battery.....Now for charging I had found a male cig adapter with a little harness that would plug in directly to the battery. Same little 12v harness to power vests, gloves, etc. It worked very well. Pretty small footprint. Weight is pretty big, but if you need the CPAP to sleep, this is the key.
First thing was to head back to the GBT (Great Big Telescope) for some early morning shots. On the way to the GBT, I found a bit of fog and got this nice shot of cows.
Jumped back on the bike, heading North towards the GBT and suddenly appeared two big black labs running across the road. I thought to myself "Wow, those dogs really can climb up that hill fast".... As I got closer, I realized the labs were not labs, but some young black bears!! They were gone way to fast to photograph them, but I do believe it was my first bear sighting.
The GBT is quite impressive. Supposedly the largest directional radio telescope in the world.
Traveled a bit of Route 66, (the WV Version) for a quick stop in a little town called Cass, for these shots. On the way to Cass, got these nice wildflowers.
And the town of Cass...
Now, south to Thurmond. Still about 150 miles to this destination, along some wicked twisties and a very large gorge!! Several months ago I discovered this old RR Town and dedcided I had to find it. Very cool place. But of course, many photo ops appeared on the way to Thurmond....This great bridge over the New River Gorge...near Fayettville, WV. The view from atop was not that great, so I got low!!
On to Thurmond.........shot of the day......
Wow, where did the time go? It's was almost 2:30 and I've only traveled about 175 miles....Not great since now the real haul began. Headed back towards I77 but very quickly had a slight delay...
Headed North thru Charleston.... No need to stop, as I had to travel a way. Outside of Huntington passed the one of the giant Amazon.com customer service centers. Hey, I've talked to people in that place before!! Now I can put a building with a voice!!
As I needed to make up some miles, wanting to return by Saturday, I kept heading east and found a little place called Lake View Motel near Moorhead, KY. Deceiving, as it does not have a Lake View....(or at least in the Spring/Summer/Fall). It was fine, and I chose the motel and storms were approaching from the South. Glad I did as we got some rain...........Nice little BBQ place for some Catfish.....I highly recommend this joint. One of the few remaining places that actually cooks their own food. By that I mean it is freshly prepared, not commercially prepped and dropped into a fryer. Located on Hwy 60 and Hwy 801 about 5 miles south of I-64 near Moorhead, KY
On the road now. Heading to Millersville, MO just outside of Jackson for my final night on the road. It's been quite a journey.
Day 17 Recap. The ride to Millersville was very uneventful. And quite boring. Never even took the camera out. After the Mountains, the plains become quite monotonous. Rode through Lexington, passed the big racetrack, then proceeded SouthWest of the Blue Grass Parkway!! BORING!! I started wishing there were some billboards to break up the endless stream of nothing! Rather flat, rather straight. Rather uninspiring.
Weather started getting hot, and removed the jacket around 11:00. I still had several hundred miles to go....Arrived in Millersville about 5:40PM. About 94 degrees. Tired, but so relieved. Another 400 + day. Met up with an old friend at his Farm. Nice spread. Tooled around on the Kubota,
scouted out some locations to see what was supposed to be a "mega moon"....(which we missed)....
drank lots of beer, and miraculously made it till 2:30..
Slept in. All the way to 9:30am! Hung out for a while more, and finally hit the road for home. Last gas stop of the trip in Farmington. Yes, the tank does indeed hold more than 5.3 gallons. And this was filled while it was on the kickstand.
Only a mere 120 miles for the last day. Arrived safely around 5:00pm, with storms developing to the north! It's been quite a journey. Reconnected with some great people. Met some new ones as well.
In a few weeks, time to head west to Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and other states to be named later!!
