| Blue Ridge Parkway Trip Sept 7th - 14th, 2002 A Daily Journal by Fran Hill |
| 12th |
| Robin and I should have been expecting a payback for the 1st night pool joke we played on Gail and Andi. This morning was it. When I opened the motel room door to walk out and pack my bike , I walked headlong into a curtain of toilet paper hanging from the top of the door. Andi and Gail were standing outside with a camera to capture my surprise. That was nothing compared to what we found when we got to our bikes. They had waited until Robin and I had gone to sleep last night and then sneaked outside to totally gift-wrap our bikes in toilet paper! They said they used all the �tp� they had available in their room, but then had none left for necessities! Two guys in the next room were outside waiting to see our reaction when we saw the bikes. I wonder what they were thinking!! Finding my bike wrapped in toilet paper in the morning was appropriate since I felt like shit by the end of the day!! |
| We started out at 7:00am. It was freezing!!! At our first stop, Andi staged a �mini-mutiny� and refused to go any further until it warmed up. We stopped in Buena Vista, Virginia to gas up at Rennie�s Convenience Store. A woman named Bonnie Kendrick at another gas pump started asking us questions about our trip and was all enthused to see 4 women on such a journey. She was a character to say the least! In the short time we were there, she told us about her troubles with alcohol and drugs..that she was going to counseling and had been clean for a year �and that when other women saw us out doing things like this motorcycle trip, it uplifted all their spirits. From the reactions we have gotten from women throughout our trip, I think I would agree. Bonnie was ecstatic when I asked her to pose for a picture with the motorcycle group, and asked to be sent a copy of the photo. I am definitely going to do that for it. Miles upon miles of driving up Rt 81 and the tractor-trailer traffic took a toll on me both mentally and physically. I am not only the oldest rider in the group, but I am also on the smallest bike (700cc) with no windshield. We had booked rooms at Best Western in Harrisburg, PA earlier in the day not realizing how many miles it actually was. It turned out to be 470 miles !! At each stop, I tried to find the strength to continue on, but it was getting harder to even think or talk coherently. I just focused on Robin�s taillight and kept driving. At one time, Andi, following behind me, said it looked like I was actually asleep. I think at one point, I might very well have been close. In hindsight, it was a very dumb thing to be on a bike in that condition, going 65mph up a busy highway, sandwiched by tractor-trailers. I will not ever try it again! When I finally saw the sign �Best Western, exit 72B�, I was so relieved�. but then Robin turned at exit 72A�NO, NO..I yelled ..72B. The thought of taking the wrong exit and driving even one mile further was more than I could handle in my state of exhaustion. I just pulled over in disbelief and waited for Robin to realize her mistake. Andi pulled over beside me and said I was mumbling like �Rain Man��I don�t remember. We made it to the Best Western and I stumbled off my bike. Thank God, this motel had �the best� whirlpool..I needed it. We met people from Vermont�also, a couple from Quebec, who became quite talkative when they discovered Gail spoke fluent French. While we were relaxing in the whirlpool, 2 women stopped by. One was from Salem, NH ! We have decided to sleep in late tomorrow to try and recover from the long day today. I have no argument with that! The toilet paper on the bikes seems liked it happened days ago and it was only this morning! Total Miles- Day 6 - 470 Miles |
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