Day 21 - Bridgeport, WV to Home

We slept in a bit today since the mileage was only about 200 or so miles. Today was a short mileage day. The trip was relatively uneventful save for the tractor trailer that decided to roll over on I-70 causing a 3 mile backup and adding 45 minutes to our ride.

During today's ride, Michele and I spoke about the memories we had on the trip. It seems that the more we do these trips the more fun we have and the more of these we want to do. We came up with our top 10 memorable moments from our Glacier National Park trip.

1. Going to the Sun Road

2. The view from atop the peak at Bear’s Hump trail in Waterton Lakes

3. The grizzly and cub sighting in Glacier

4. Standing at the base of a glacial waterfall (it’s very cold)

5. Sunrise in Glacier NP

6. Trail Ridge Road @ 12,000 feet

7. The look on people’s faces when they realized that we weren’t just from Virginia, but rode a motorcycle from Virginia

8. US93 and ID75 near Salmon, Idaho

9.Flaming Gorge views

10. All 6,800 miles together on the Mighty Wing over 20 ½ days exploring the U.S.A. and Canada!!

Day 20 - Huntington, IN to Bridgeport, WV

Today was a lower mileage day, about 375, and took us from Indiana, into Ohio and on to West Virginia. We had already planned to stop in WV for the night so as to avoid an exceptionally long final day, and give us just a half day to home tomorrow. It was good planning on Rob’s part because the afternoon got very warm. 

We were on the road at 8am and both the skies and roads were calm. We rode on Highway 33 for most of the way, and interestingly, had to stop and make several turns to remain on this same highway. Once we rode through a town it seemed we had to make a dogleg turn to keep going on the same road.

Today was a light photo day compared to all previous days, but we got a few interesting shots along the way.

Like this sculpture.

And these well-blooming oak leaf hydrangeas.

No real complaints, though, we were off the interstate and had a quiet morning ride. The Ohio line sign is right in someone’s yard!

Once in Ohio, we rode a bit before stopping for lunch. The local news said some of the Ohio schools would be starting tomorrow, Tuesday. Much earlier than NoVa.

Back on the road after lunch we rode through more small towns. This house was well cared for, excuse the bad framing of this shot. It’s not easy being a photographer on a moving motorcycle.

We also found this eagle in Ohio.

Around 2pm, we crossed into West Virginia.

There wasn’t a lot happening on the roads and when we came upon a few police vehicles with blue lights, we were excited that perhaps a hot pursuit had just ended with the perpetrator apprehended. No such luck, it was just a truck towing a loader and help was needed.

We got to our hotel around 3:30pm, which is the second only day we arrived anywhere before 4pm. We joked that we finally got our routine and timing right on the last day. 

To fill the time today, we talked about the 10 memorable moments from our trip. Tune in to tomorrow’s blog for those!

Day 19 - Burlington, IA to Huntington, IN

Our morning began with a feast from our hosts! Inez served us crustless quiche, fresh fruit galore and homemade banana bread. We also got “bear” on our plate, not of the grizzly variety, but a watermelon in the shape of a bear. It truly was a work of art on our plates and we didn’t walk away hungry. We shared breakfast with Inez’s friends from Texas, who just returned from a cruise to Alaska, so we chatted about Denali.

Rob had packed the bike before breakfast, so we got on the road at 10am.

We crossed the mighty Mississippi over the Great River Bridge which is an asymmetrical single tower cable-stayed bridge. Soon we were in Illinois, “the Land of Lincoln”.

Since we pushed a bit further yesterday to stay at this B&B, today’s mileage was shorter. Our routes took us on back roads, through farmland. There was very little traffic and we felt like we were truly driving through the farms rather than viewing them from a distance on the highway.

We passed by this gigantic wind farm. Michele counted 85 windmills here but thinks there were more she couldn’t see in the distance.

This town had some very well cared for homes.

And in this one a happy water tower.

After a quick lunch, we crossed into Indiana, the “Crossroads of America”.

This home looked like a southern plantation.

For the last hour of our trip, thunderstorms popped up near the highway but just skirted us.

We got to the hotel around 5:30 and walked a mile and a half into the historic downtown area to a Tripadvisor-recommended restaurant, the Pizza Junction. It’s in a caboose-like building just next to the active railroad. Our salad and pizza were very fresh. On the way back we stopped at the Huntington city courthouse and read about Samuel Huntington who was a signer of Declaration of Independence. The courthouse also had a nice memorial for all veterans for each war and conflict since WWI.

Today was warm and humid but never got to 90 degrees. About an hour from our hotel the temps dropped to 82 because of the nearby storms, so we didn’t roast today.

Tomorrow we head across Ohio into West Virginia.

Day 18 - Grand Island, NE to Burlington, IA

Today’s destination: Iowa! Our 6am alarm was unwelcome this morning, having stayed up a bit late working on overdue blog posts while we had hotel internet access. We got on the road at 7:30am. Temperatures were cool for most of the morning and the skies were sunny.

Not far down the road, a hawk came across the highway straight for Michele, with its talons out! She could see its underside. We think it thought her round white helmet was a gigantic egg.

After about 150 miles, we entered Iowa. The landscape became much more green and hilly, so we had plenty to look at.

We took a break about 2 hours into our day at a gas stop advertising “cleanest restrooms on I-29”. Michele went to inspect them, and returned with news that not only were they clean, they were private stall rooms with fancy toilets. Heated seats, bidet, dryer, etc. She did not try these options, though. This store had it all—150 cc scooters out front for $1799, a stuffed Doberman and German Shepherd lifesize dogs for $199 each, clothes, toys, tools, food. While waiting for Rob to take a break, Michele overheard ladies asking their elderly father if he had the “fancy toilets” in the men’s bathroom also. Haha!

Around 12:15pm we entered Creston, Iowa, and decided to stop for lunch.

At lunch, a gentleman with a Kawasaki Voyager was out for a Saturday ride and asked us where we’re from. He was very kind and talked about his friends who were just riding their bikes in Alaska, and mentioned the somewhat bad road conditions and lack of gas stations. Probably a good idea to carry extra gas with us when we do our ride to Alaska! He also told us about the Freedom Rock just a few blocks away. Artist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II has a program to paint and install large boulders honoring veterans in all 99 counties of Iowa. We went back to check it out since it was on our route, US 34.

What a great artist and even greater tribute.

Back on the road, the day was starting to get toasty but we enjoyed the views.

Corn and soybeans (we think) are the predominant crops here outside of hay. This huge facility piqued our interest.

It is the Big River Resources West Burlington Ethanol Plant. The odor was kinda strange. Out here one can choose between straight gasoline or ethanol gasoline (less expensive) at every station.

Around 4:30pm we arrived in Burlington, Iowa. We’ll be using this bridge to cross the Mississippi river over into Illinois tomorrow.

We got unpacked and met our friendly host at the Squirrel’s Nest B&B. Her property has a great view of the river and was built in the late 1800s. We took her recommendation for dinner and walked under a mile down to the riverfront for dinner at the Drake, which was a hardware store for over 100 years. These ladies were chatting it up on the lobby.

Perhaps they used this Dictaphone in their day.

While walking back, we headed a few blocks over to Snake Alley, which is a Ripley’s Believe it or Not sight as the crookedest street in the world, built in 1894. The bricks were stood on end to provide more traction for horse hooves.

While downtown, we also found this very cobbled cobblestone street. It reminded Rob of the trip he, Tom and Mike took to Savannah on one very unfortunate road. Unlike that trip however, we stayed off this road.

Tomorrow we look forward to our breakfast at the inn, we’ve been promised tons of fruit, and our journey across Illinois into Indiana.