My First Big Trip

As a means to attending my 30th (eek gads) high school reunion, I decided to travel from Maine to Bluefield, WV. The point of the trip was to visit some of my most favorite people. (I’ve posted some photos and photo captions in my photo album on this site.)

I started out by riding from Maine to Montpelier, VT mostly on US 302. This took me through the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I hit some tourist traffic in North Conway, and a little rain in the mountains, but it was beautiful. I spend the night in Montpelier at a historic inn. Capital cities in New England are often dumpy, but Montpelier is a great little city (clean, interesting, historic). Then I crossed Lake Champlain on the ferry and rode right through the middle of the Adirondack Park Preserve. Great riding, beautiful vistas, bikers everywhere. I spent the night with my inlaws in Upstate NY near Rome. Next day (a long day) I rode from Utica, NY to Beaver, PA which is near Pittsburgh. I spent most of the day on US Route 6 in Northern PA. Excellent farm country riding. After a couple of days with friends in PA, I rode down to the southern tip of West Virgina (Bluefield) for my reunion. Again, beautiful riding in the mountains. I crossed the famously-high New River Gorge Bridge. After my reunion, I decided to head home by way of US Route 219 from Virginia to Maryland. This is fabulous riding and would recommend this route to anyone. The rest of the trip (Winchester, VA to Maine) was mostly on interstates.

NOTES & OBSERVATIONS about touring on the SWing: 1. You need to plan enough days so you can take your time and see the sights. 2. Even though I have a throttle boss, I still had major cramps in my right hand from holding the throttle all day (Any recommendations for throttle locks or cruise controls would be appreciated). 3. Riding on the Interstate really isn’t a whole lot of fun. In the future, I’m going to limit interstate travel to about 1 hour per day.

Many thanks for the advice I got on this site about touring and riding in the rain.

Scooterian,

It must be nice to take long trips. Coralee is on a nice long trip too. Take pics to share if you get a chance and give a review of the SWing too. Sounds like fun.