The wife and I had decided that Sunday was going to be such a great day with perfect temps (low 80’s) that it would be an awesome day to ride from our house Winchester VA to Lancaster PA and see the Amish. Just a little lunch (day) ride, 140 miles up and back again. All backroads was the plan and a little of the old Lincoln HWY (Route 30).
So off we were at around 9:30ish, seeing that according to Google and Mayhem (Garmin) it would take around 3 ½ to 4 hours to get there.
The ride started great with nice temps and the roads all to ourselves, just enjoying a leisurely cruise through the VA, WV, MD and PA roads. This route has a lot of historic places to see, such as the Antietam Battlefield just outside of Sharpsburg MD, the town and battlefields at Gettysburg, and many really neat little towns form yesteryear. Wish I had the camera with me, but we forgot it.
Well about 35 miles into this ride just before Shepherdstown WV the first bit of excitement, me rolling lead Petra behind on her scoot, a deer decided it would be an opportune time to cross the road at the same spot and time I was occupying that section of road, much to my surprise we missed each other by an inch or two not much more and the only thought that ran through my mind was “oh crap this is going to hurt”, however after regaining my composure and ensuring that I was actually still on the Valk, I looked back to see if Petra was still on her bike too or did the deer do a U-turn, and much to my enjoyment she was still right there, even though she was white as a ghost. We needed a quick stop to regain composure, clean shorts and rehydrate.
Composure regained shorts checked, all is well. We are off taking MD 34 through Sharpsburg MD the town where the battle of Antietam commenced so many years ago (but not really that long ago) and as you enter the town there is the old train station, and every time I pass it, I can just imagine the soldiers that may have arrived there by train in the 1862 to do battle.
Continuing on State Route 66 up past the Mason-Dixon Dragway (every weekend during the summer you see all the hot rods stopping and fueling up at the Sheets gas station at the corner of Route 40 and SR 66, many cool looking rides
). North on SR 66 we pass through Smithsburg and a multitude of other neat little towns that are lost in time.
After an enjoyable ride we arrive in Gettysburg with the idea of just passing through seeing we have been there multiple times and our destination today is Lancaster, but that’s not to be, as unknown to us it’s the end of the Gettysburg Bike Week and everyone is heading out, traffic is a mess and it take us over 45 minutes to get through town and it should have taken only 20
. Remember in the beginning I said temps in the low 80’s? Well the weather as always got it wrong, by the time we get to Gettysburg it’s already in the upper 80’s and climbing and as we finally exit the town we have to stop and rehydrate at a gas station.
We continued on Route 30 all the way to Lancaster PA, where we stopped at a neat restaurant called Good and Plenty, which offered “Family style dining” or “Menu style dining”, not knowing what Family Style was I had to ask, the lady explained that it is where you are seated with other people (you most likely do not know) and you share the table and food that is brought from the kitchen sort of like sharing a family meal at home. I had never heard of that but thought it an interesting concept and I gather it’s an Amish thing. At $22.50 a person though we opted for the menu as we were not hungry enough to actually make it worth the cost.
After a good Reuben Sandwich for me and a Turkey sandwich for Petra (large portions) we were fat and happy. Paying the bill we headed back outside to our trusty steeds and realized that the temps had risen even more, we later found out it was 96 degrees, (what the hell happened to 80?).
Speaking of steeds the every noticeable clapping of horses hooves got our attention and much to Petra’s pleasure here comes an Amish Buggy down the road, (she had never seen these in real life only on TV and did not believe people still lived the Amish way) and shortly thereafter came what I call the Amish minivan, a horse drawn wagon with family seating for 8 or more. Petra noted how proud the horses trotted down the road and they really do, head high, tail high and clip clap they go.
Now for those of you that know me, there is of course always a story about the ever famous GPS fondly named Mayhem, and how could this day be different?
Deciding that the route we came on was one we have done and seen, we wanted to head home a different direction and so I pushed the buttons on Mayhem telling it to avoid interstates but other than that find a route home. Well after a few seconds of calculation we were off heading towards home and according to our trusty GPS we should be home in 3 ½ hours (yeah right!!)
We started off ok, having to ride a little on HWY 30 through Lancaster (remember it was to be 80 degrees there? This is where I saw the temps on a sign reading 96) down to 462 again traveling through some nice towns such as Mountville and Columbia, crossing the Susquehanna River on an old bridge with some really great construction features that new bridges just lack (wish I had a GoPro or something), so we were thinking WOW Mayhem is getting it right and we are enjoying the ride and we were, until we hit York. We were thinking that we would break off somewhere before we hit the town but that was not to happen and we unfortunately found out the hard way that none of the lights in York are in sync. Finally through York (a couple of pounds lighter from sweating) I see HWY 30 ahead and thought great we will finally make some time and get some wind through our jackets. Ah Nope not to be, we took a left onto 116 towards Spring Gove at top of the speed limit 45 MPH (mostly 35), hitting every little town and stop light all the way to Hanover PA (yes the same place they make the Pretzels BABY!!!). Passing the Hanover pretzel factory the smell was so enticing I wanted to stop for a tour, but it being Sunday and late in the day already we opted to keep going.
From Hanover, Mayhem in its insane wisdom thought the quickest route back to Winchester VA was via every back road and back town that I could not even find on a map all the way to Frederick MD. From Fredrick it found roads that actually had names and numbers and I knew where I was. After almost 5 hours of back country, heat and some very interesting places (Deliverance did come to mind once or twice) we made it home.
All in all we had a great time riding, a little hotter than expected and longer than expected, and remembered that the weather is never right and Mayhem only once in a great while.
And in the end we usually get a good laugh out of how Mayhem took us the back way to our destination, at least after a day or two to ponder the "what the hell was that"
If you made it to the end, thanks for reading... See you on the road
