When I had had my 92 TDM850 less than a year I decided to explore the state I was born and raised in.
Now most people crossing Pa take the Turnpike. The Pa Turnpike is a multi-lane limited access highway that runs from the Ohio border to the New Jersey border in practically one long west-east line.

That wasn't for me so I decided to make the trip using PA Route 30. Before the turnpike was built in 1940 there was only one good route across Pennsylvania and that was Rt 30.

'Old 30' went around and over mountains, not through them. It was a destination in itself and I decided to step back in time 50 years and see what it was like.

Day 1:
I hate maps and generally navigate by the sun so I left Pittsburgh at 8:00 AM and headed east.
For the first hour I was starting to think I had made a mistake, six lane highways and tractor-trailers trying to re-write physics by occupying the same space as me at the same time...
Then six lanes became four and I finally felt I was close to leaving the metropolitan areas behind me.

It was totally unlike the many turnpike trips I had taken in past years. Everything wasn't graded and leveled to pool table flatness, the road went up and down, curves came bearing me left and right...

The four lane road split about 3 hours out of Pittsburgh, the two east-bound lanes moved into different tracks from the two west-bound lanes untill you couldn't even see them through the trees.
It was a two lane country road that belonged to me... all oncoming traffic had been banished for my ride
.


When ever I could I stopped to take in one relic of an easier paced life after another. Coffee at a coffee shop that was in a coffepot shaped building, riding thru a small town and coming across a 200 year old covered bridge, stopping for bottled water in a store next to a 'never give it a second glance' used car lot and finding a perfectly restored Cord 810 drophead coupe in the parking lot.

About 5 hours out of Pittsburgh I was climbing the into the Allegheny's the westernmost range of the Appalachian mountains (not the Alps but still a good climb). I saw an odd shaped building peeking at me now and then as I rounded corners... Finally I was coming up on it and I had to stop. So help me Moses it was an Ark. It seems back in the 1930's when Rt 30 was the road to take crossing the state an imaginative fellow decided to build a hotel on a bluff that overlooked 3 states and 7 counties, he called it the Grandview Point Hotel but later owner's renamed it Noah's Ark and the name stuck.
 

Noah's Ark was no longer open, the paint was gone and the windows were boarded up (except for a few on one end with suspiciously new looking curtains in them). I stopped there for a drink of water and a smoke and admired the view. There was an old plymouth with texas plates parked there and I got to talking with the couple who were driving it so far from home. They were on their way to Woodstock.
(The revival of course, Woodstock was held in 1969).

They had driven that old k-car heap all the way from San Antonio Texas to get to Woodstock II, the back seat held jugs of water for the ever overheating radiator but they pressed on.

I followed that heap all the way to Summit Pa (which you may guess was where we got to go downhill again). We stopped one last time at the Summit Inn ('no coffee, just beer'). I watched them head off down the other side hoping their brakes were in better shape than their radiator...
Hope Woodstock II was all they expected it to be.

Pennsylvania looked completely different once I was over the Allegheny's...
never knew we had so much farmland.

The roads rolled on as I smelt the pleasant aroma of crops growing, and the less pleasant aroma of cows doing what cows seem to do a lot.

It was late afternoon when I saw the signs for Gettysburg, I had to stop.
Gettysburg Battlefield was a watershed battle in the american civil war and I spent the next hours slowly touring past 'The Wheatfield' and the area that saw Pickett's charge.
No one gets loud at Gettysburg, somehow you just can't.

At Gettysburg I turned south towards Fredricksburg Maryland and a bed for the night.

Day 2:
I left Fredricksburg at 7:00AM and backtracked to Gettysburg where I turned east again on my way to Amish country (The Amish are a religious sect that eschews dependancy on outside groups). Fields are plowed with horse drawn plows and homes are lit with kerosene lanterns. You never hear of Amish crime or delinquency so I guess it works. Amish areas in Pennsylvania are also known for colorful place names and I had to stop at some of them. Intercourse, Bird-In-Hand, Virgin... you get the drift.

Day 2 was a bit cooler than Day 1 so I needed fewer hydration stops and was making better time even though I was pretty much keeping to the speed limit. It's also a good idea to keep your speed down when the next corner may surprise you with a horse-drawn Amish buggy clip-clopping it's way down the side of the road.

In Lancaster county I headed south into the state of Delaware, leaving PA30 for Delaware9...
Delaware 9 heads south along Delaware Bay and is one of God's answers to motorcycling roads!
Cool under the canopy of trees the bay water nourishes, it was a two lane asphalt macadam road with plenty of curves, a 50mph speed limit and no police to tell you you had exceeded it. '9' meandered down past old dilapidated buildings and new structures that must have cost a pretty penny. My destination was Lewes Delaware and the ferry landing. I had stopped for a few too many breaks and it was problematical as to whether I would make the last ferry or have to (ahem) camp out till morning.

When I finally saw the ferry sign '1 mile' I let out a breath I seemed to have been holding for 45 minutes.
The ferry went from Lewes Delaware to Cape May New Jersey (only a few inches on my map)...
When I saw the ferry docking... it was freakin huge! Turned out the crossing took a few hours.
After the first hour I convinced myself the TDM which was backed into a railing with a wooden block under the front wheel was actually not going to fall over when the ferry pitched in the waves! (Somehow I had expected tie-downs or clamps or something)
I finally went to the railing as the sun was fading and there was something out there! Something was pacing the boat. It was dolphins, honest to god dolphins! They stayed with the ferry till the sun had set (and maybe in the dark too?) Finally the ferry pulled into it's slip in Cape May... More people had been met, more goodbyes were said. The ramp lowered and I thanked god I knew the general area as I tooled on north to Somer's Point New Jersey (That's halfway between Ocean City and Atlantic City for the map impaired)

Somer's point looked very inviting as I pulled up onto the sidewalk of my place of rest for night 2.

My butt hurt.

Day 3: Time to go back home. Time was running short on me so it was across New Jersey into Pennsylvania and onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Eight hours of almost nonstop riding back to Pittsburgh. The turnpike was the least enjoyable part of the trip except for the nice long straight bits where I yielded to the temptation to 'open her up a bit'.. I believe the old time bikers called doing 100 mph 'Doing the Ton' and doing 100 mph for 60 minutes was called 'Doing the Long Ton'.
Not that I would ever exceed the posted speed limit mind you.

Pittsburgh, Day 3, Dinnertime..... My trip was over, 1175 miles laid out over 3 days.

I wish I had the time to do it again.

Update:

On a search of the internet on April 4th, 2006 while considering riding back to revisit 'Noah's Ark'...

I came across the following:

"The Ship hotel burned down in October 2001. So all that's left is the view.
The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor Association tried to buy it for $50,000
but the owner wouldn't sell it.
Supposedly, he had no insurance. This was never verified.
Believed to be arson as no one living in it at the time."

 

 

The Grandview saw the likes of
Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, Will Rogers, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford,
and President Calvin Coolidge.

To Noah's Ark (The Grandview). 1932-2001