Cambridge Ontario to Waynesburg Pennsylvania

It wasn’t raining or snowing this morning but the thermometer was right on the freezing mark and the sky was overcast. We put on all the cold weather gear and started down Highway 8 for Hamilton just after 8:00 AM.

We ran 8 right through Hamilton and connected with the QEW in Stoney Creek, following it all the way down to where it ends at the Peace Bridge between Fort Erie and Buffalo. At Fort Erie, we stopped at a McDonalds for some heat and coffee even though it was long before our planned first stop. This was to become the pattern for the day.

The border crossing was easy as usual. Sandy had to take her patented Harley Davidson face mask off before we arrived so that they wouldn’t get any wrong ideas. I had to stop after we cleared customs to give her a chance to put it back on. Then we proceeded down I-190 and caught the Thruway west towards Erie.

There was a major squall line running along the south side of Lake Erie but it seemed to stay just south of the highway until we hit the Pennsylvania line. In North East (a place, not a direction), we stopped again for more coffee. We were talking to a gentleman there who warned us about wild turkeys on I-79. We had to tell him the story since this is where we were hit by the turkey two years ago. It seems he lost an entire windshield in a Yukon to one of that bird’s stupid cousins.

Coming out of North East, I put on the rain totes and gloves. This proved again to be fortuitous since we hit rain within the next few miles. It rained a bit here and there all the way to Pittsburgh where it partially cleared. This was our third coffee stop of the day. After we headed on again, we got caught in a traffic jam at the south I-279 where they are building bridges. From all the construction I saw on 79, I have to figure that Pennsylvania found a lot of road rebuilding money somewhere. We also saw a pair of C-130’s passing low overhead in formation.

As we dragged our feet with repeated stops, the initial target of Beckley West (BG) Virginia became Summersville, which then became Morgantown and finally we settled for Waynesburg Pennsylvania, about twenty miles short of the state line. This will make for a longer day tomorrow, but it is supposed to be sunny and a little warmer. Not at first, mind you. We couldn’t be that lucky.

For supper, we had the Tuesday country fried steak special at the KFC near our hotel. It wasn’t Cracker Barrel but both of us ate for $6.48 total, which helped the budget line. Then we adjourned back to the room (after a brief stop at the Dairy Queen that fate put between the Super 8 and the KFC) to watch Gilmore Girls and The Amazing Race.

The bike continues to run well, but all the cleaning I did before I left home was for naught. It is absolutely filthy, even by my standards. I’ll have to clean it again when we reach Lake Lure.

There is neither high speed access nor a local AOL number here, so I bought a phone card and taught the computer how to use it. I am not sure about Internet access from Lake Lure since we don’t have phones in our rooms. If there is nothing for a few days, trust that I am still writing and will post as soon as I find access. If I am lucky enough to get on-line, please disregard this.