Homeward bound with 357 miles and two states to go. Our
morning started out a chilly 44 degrees and extremely foggy. It made for
interesting photos of Interstate 64 East as the sun tried to break through.
In higher elevations the fog cleared.
We made good time, taking a single break at 11 am for an early
lunch. We stopped at a small WV gas station/feed store/convenience
store/Subway. It is not often one can buy night crawlers, bulk mulch, a ham sub, and whiskey
in the same place!
Unfortunately this convenience store did not have any
convenient tables (no tables or benches at all actually) so we ate on the seats
of the bike like drifters. The sun was warm so we just watched folks come and
go in the store while we ate.
After lunch, we noticed that traffic increased and became
a bit frenetic on I-79 North, likely the result of a football game in Morgantown, judging by
the WV flag adorned vehicles. We took our turn onto 68 East just before Morgantown and traffic was
more sparse. We also grossly misjudged the temperatures for this final leg,
falsely thinking it was warm while in the sun at lunch. Brrrr! As we entered
Maryland and the Cumberland area, the temps dropped from the 60s to the 50s in the hills (although only 1,000 feet or so in elevation, it was enough to make things cold).
The fall color was staring to show here. Out West there
were no red hues, just yellow and green. It was nice to come back to Fall.
We saw this interesting cloud formation.
At around 2:30pm we arrived home.
Our trip got the Wing very dirty! Rob packed it well, as
you can see from this photo (there was even enough room for Michele to buy a few things and bring them home!).
(Rob also adjusted the cables for the reverse once we got home....just in time for the trip to be over).
We went through 18 states over 16 days and covered about 6,000
miles. The weather held amazingly well for us, with minimal rain that never
really hampered our fun. Temperatures ranged from 89 to 34. We were surprised
at the wildlife and variation in scenery in Colorado. The sand dunes were
really cool, the mountains delivered incredible views, Steamboat Springs is a
new favorite place, and Michele got to see her special friend Lynn after way
too long. We feel like we got a great sense of many parts of the state that we
would not have seen if we had not had to change plans due to the flooding.
Although we had hoped to see Rocky Mountain National Park on this trip, it gives us
an excuse to return!
Thank you to everyone who followed our blog!
