50 States, Day 125

Day 125, Hershey to Washington, PA 287 Miles

"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in

solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

We started late as usual, but mostly because people stopped by to become friends. Bonny and Paul camped next door and gave us a shout, and Bonnie gave us the cutest light with patriotic colors that matched the bike. 

Very nice! Jim talked to us too, and Jen shared with us the membership benefits of Encore/Thousand Trails, and she doesn't even work for them. We also met Theresa and Carl and enjoyed the evening by the fire with them. Oh, and we met Leo too.

Today we rode the back roads and paid the price. While the roads twisted and followed the rolling hills, they also dumped us into towns with red lights and traffic. Our average speed for the day? 35.

The perfect weather crept a bit past perfect as the afternoon stayed above the ninety mark.

We rolled in to the Flight 93 Memorial, a tribute to the brave men and women who tried to take back the airplane from the hijackers on 9/11. There really is nothing to see as when the plane crashed at 537 mph, it exploded and augured in a big way. They dug forty feet into the earth for evidence. Afterwards the powers that be took every piece away. However, a wall stands with the forty victims' names, a sobering moment.

Exercising his First Amendment rights, a man held court, claiming the government shot down the plane and the Twin Towers was planned. Yeah, well I'll exercise my First Amendment right and state that I think he's a clown and an insult to the men and women of that doomed airliner. Is it a First Amendment right to slap a clown? Oh, sorry. An alleged clown. Probably gone too far.

Since it got hot, I needed to vent a bit.

We rolled closer and QG sent me East on 70 instead of West and immediately through a toll booth. No problem, we whipped a quick safe illegal u turn and returned to the stupid toll gates we just passed through before. After a ten

minute wait for our turn, the guy takes our ticket. Because he's trained to do only one thing, he's lost when the ticket says we left the same toll station ten minutes ago. He dithers for awhile as the heat builds. The line behind me builds and waits patiently. He gets his supervisor. Supe makes the call, and we can go through for free! Wow, only held up twenty people for a cumulative total of sixty minutes of waiting. Love those tolls. How modern.

Now I'm throwing PA under the...um, motor home. We're on a freeway. See the photo? What's that at the end of the on ramp? A stop sign! Who's the nimrod that thought of this? The whole idea of an on ramp is to build speed and merge!

Freeway. Say it three times. See? Free. Flowing. Fast.

Okay, deep breath. Got it. A cool shower and a chunk of Amish fudge and we'll be back on our game with a smile. We? QG is just fine. We're both a bit toasted from the ride today.

Tomorrow, don't miss AMA motocross. Even if you're not a motocross fan, it will be intriguing. See you then and thanks for following.

And a special shout out to Amy Thorleifson, my mother in law who turns...who has a birthday today. Happy birthday Mom. You're the best.