The Great Trek +3

[kentompkins]

So, I'm unofficially starting The Great Trek today (it starts officially this Saturday at 6AM near Nashville, TN) but stopped at my daughter's who lives in DC to spend time with her, her husband and, best of all, my 4 1/2 year old grand-daugher!

The trip was just over 200 miles from the Jersey shore to DC and I was concerned about starting on July 4th with great lines of traffic heading to the Md shore. I will take any excuse to avoid I95 so I left home at 5AM to get out of Jersey and into DE with few problems.

Of course it rained; not one of those long, constant rains making the struggle to put on rain gear worth it. Nope! This was one of those rains that drive you under a bridge to put on gear only to have it stop once leaving the bridge. You then debate whether to take your gear off and as you do, it starts raining again. That kind of rain.

I took Rt 301 south from Newark, DE today. It's a long, straight road through DE and MD climaxed with the Bay Bridge outside of Annapolis. If you want an I95 avoidance Rt. 301 is your friend. The last time I took this road was in the fall and I saw a Bald Eagle land in the top of a tree in full sunlight.

Being with grand-daughters is always wonderful and sad when it ends. My time today was wonderful, funny, inventive, cool, loud, soft, musical and much storytelling. I will slip out tomorrow morning at 5AM taking the Beltway to I66 and then on to Front Royal in VA. Instead of taking I81, this time I'm taking county roads to Princeton, WV.
I will describe that trip tomorrow.

ken tompkins


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[SpyderAnn01]

I hope you got the wet weather out of the way today and the rest of your trip is dry. Looking forward to hearing about your adventure.

[NancysToy]

Looking forward to your reports. Godspeed!

[bruiser]

Ken, we take 301 all the time when going to NJ or Delaware to visit kin. The only time I take 95 all the way is if we're going to Pa. to see my sister. Then it's 95-495-270-11. I don't like it but it's shorter than going through Baltimore. Safe trip and looking forwad to your reports.

[Paula(Butch2025)]

Ken have a wonderful trip, looking forward to hearing your adventures and later seeing some photos too! Save travels!

[d.o.spyder-rts]

Ken, hope you have a great safe trip. Dale

[flamingobabe]

Ken...sounds like a good start to an exciting adventure...keep us posted

[DrAwkward]

I like the way you tell a story, well written- you should write for a bike mag, add in a few pics and make a few bucks along the road.
Keep sending in the stories from the road!
Doc

So, I'm unofficially starting The Great Trek today (it starts officially this Saturday at 6AM near Nashville, TN) but stopped at my daughter's who lives in DC to spend time with her, her husband and, best of all, my 4 1/2 year old grand-daugher!

The trip was just over 200 miles from the Jersey shore to DC and I was concerned about starting on July 4th with great lines of traffic heading to the Md shore. I will take any excuse to avoid I95 so I left home at 5AM to get out of Jersey and into DE with few problems.

Of course it rained; not one of those long, constant rains making the struggle to put on rain gear worth it. Nope! This was one of those rains that drive you under a bridge to put on gear only to have it stop once leaving the bridge. You then debate whether to take your gear off and as you do, it starts raining again. That kind of rain.

I took Rt 301 south from Newark, DE today. It's a long, straight road through DE and MD climaxed with the Bay Bridge outside of Annapolis. If you want an I95 avoidance Rt. 301 is your friend. The last time I took this road was in the fall and I saw a Bald Eagle land in the top of a tree in full sunlight.

Being with grand-daughters is always wonderful and sad when it ends. My time today was wonderful, funny, inventive, cool, loud, soft, musical and much storytelling. I will slip out tomorrow morning at 5AM taking the Beltway to I66 and then on to Front Royal in VA. Instead of taking I81, this time I'm taking county roads to Princeton, WV.
I will describe that trip tomorrow.

ken tompkins


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[ARtraveler]

Looking forward to more posts of your travels. Ride safe.

[kentompkins]

Today's ride was one of great contrasts: hot to cold, poor to rich and back to poor, wide valleys to snapping twists and from five hours to ten.

I got out of DC on the beltway (I hate it) to I66 at 5AM; the temperature was 78. I66 connects DC and Front Royal, VA. DC traffic was intense with few going out but thousands headed for the city. As you approach the Shenandoah Valley you have to decend first to The Plains and then to the bottom of the valley. As I descended the temperature reading on the Spyder went from 78 to 71 in a few miles.

This same quick drop occurred as I entered the George Washington National Forest (hit very hard by the recent "derecho" that did so much damage in NJ last weekend. The temp was 93 when I entered the forest and so deep was the shade that it dropped first to 89 and then to 87. Welcomed relief.

The basic routes I took to Princeton (I took two lane back roads to avoid I81) were Rt. 55 and Rt 220. The latter is a fantastic route; one of the best I've ever been on. Parts of it equal the Dragon's Tail in intensity of the twists. High banked, complex curves stretching unused muscles, focus and attention for me, at least, for miles. Strangely, I don't remember seeing it referred to on the forum. It should be on everyone's lists.

Two dramatic descents are into Hot Springs, VA and Covington, VA. Western Virginia and West Virginia are economically poor places. I saw this vividly as I wound my way through these forgotten valleys. The evidence was everywhere: poor housing, hundreds of "For Sale" signs, men standing outside of small stores and derelict stores in the towns. Then, I dropped down into Warm Springs (where it was, well.......warm) and then Hot Springs. What a change! Gated mansions, golf courses and, of course, the gargantuan hotels for taking the waters or playing golf. I had descended from the 99% to the 1% in about 10 miles. I strongly suspect that the latter has no knowledge and experience of the former.

A similar descent goes the other way from the GW National Forest in a wild 9% grade into Covington -- a mill town with a pervasive odor to match. The city had been clobbered by the Derecho with limbs and large trees down everywhere. Their website doesn't mention the paper mill -- the second largest in US and like something out of a post-apocalyptic film.

The trip was supposed to take 5 hours (gps talk); it took me 10. Because of the heat, I halted frequnetly to hydrate and to get gas (not easy because of the storm and the loss of electricity). At one, where I stopped for gas and to don my rain gear because of a huge storm ahead at Beckley, WV. They were out of gas so I wrestled with my gear. Four good souls saw me at the gas station and stopped to advise me to delay going on the Beckley or not to go there at all because of another intense storm. What good folk to think of my helplessness and to warn me away from the danger. In NJ, I hate to admit, no one would have stopped.

I'm safe in my motel for the night (though there are ominous signs in the parking lot disavowing responsibility for damage to vehicles!). I've left behind those I met today and the great ride that brought me here. Strange parts of my body are going to complain tomorrow. In protest I may take I81 south.

ken tompkins

[spyder3]

Thanks Ken,

keep up the post. Be safe.

[Daisyjoe]

Wonderful to read your posts. Your descriptive form of writing makes me feel like I am there looking at the sites. Ride safe!!

[bruiser]

Sounds like quite a trip. I haven't been up that way in years. I vaguely remember 55. What does stick out is 11w. That was the main road to take from Tennessee to Virginia before I81 was completed through Bristol. Stay safe and waiting for the next chapter.

[kentompkins]

Hello! My name is Ken Tompkins and I'm an obsessive reader. It all started with "Dick and Jane" (doesn't everything?) and Spot, of course. Then it went on to "My Weekly Reader" then to cereal boxes (remember Kellogs PEP?) and later to all signs (the Burma-Shave ones were my favorites and finally to licence plates and street signs.

It started with my mother as such compulsions sometimes do, who got me a library card when I was five. So, now, when a car goes by and I read the plate WHZ 998, I see it as Whiz 998 or Whose 998 or Whas -- as in Whassup -- 998. All of this goes on in my head as the car rushes by until that plate is replaced by another and another.

You'll understand, then, that on the way down to Nashville through WV and VA I read a goodly number of road signs. There was Turkey Run, Ruddle (I suppose townsfolk know about The Ruddles), Dog Lick, SmokeHole, Hungry Mother and Frozen Head (this latter boggles the mind).

These names are real coming from real experiences by real people though it may be hard to figure out why. Did someone actually find a frozen head? And why was the mother hungry?

Modern names like Whispering Hills seem unreal -- even phoney. Names are connected to an area and a culture. I can't imagine Frozen Head appearing in NJ though I can imagine some place called Buried Body.

Anyway, I love local names and wish over the years I had made a record of them.

On our first day we visited Shiloh and today we visited the battlefield at Vicksbuurg. Both places are hauntingly beautiful and terribly sad. Shiloh had 23,000 killed in two days and Vicksburg claimed 20,000. I'm reminded when I see vast rows of simple grave markers of aline from Eliot's "The Wasteland": "I had not thought death had undone so many." I wiil not forget either place as I have never forgotten Arlington or the Viet Nam Memorial; this latter produces tears every time I go there.

I am now in Marshall, TX on our way to The Museum of the War in the Pacific near Dallas. I have much more to write and some pictures to share but have almost no time to write. For example, tomorrow morning we leave here at 4 AM! But I'll keep writing when I can though whatever I write may not be absolutely chronological.

Thanks for reading.

ken tompkins

[flamingobabe]

welcome to Texas....sounds like you are taking the time to reflect and embrace your experiences/adventures...looking forward to the next

[NancysToy]

Ken, you not only read well, but you write well...not that I would have expected any less. Looking forward to the next chapters.

[SpyderAnn01]

Fun with Dick and Jane, Spot and don't forget Sally. I can't wait to read the next chapter.

[Big Arm]

Ryde safe, Ken, and keep the stories coming.

[Firefly]

Keep the stories coming Ken... be safe (and hopefully DRY!).

[kentompkins]

In the movie "Amadeus", the Austrian Emporer when commenting to Mozart after the first performance of "Cosi fan Tutte", states, Oh so knowingly, that the opera was good but it has one slight flaw: it had too many notes!

Yesterday in Vicksburg we started at 4AM to beat the heat (we will do so again this morning; I'm typing this at 3 AM) and we worked our way to Fredericksburg (ironically named after the Emporer above), TX.

There is, simply, too much space in Texas! Crowd things in a bit and things would be easier.

All of this occured to me as I noticed the plethora of signs along the highway. I don't mean billboards -- there are plenty of those too -- but small 6' signs, one right after the others. For example, here's a sign for a law office. These signs are not elegant, by the way, like those carved out of faux wood and painted gold. These are the run of the mill painted boards nailed to two posts. So, a lawyer builds a building and "hangs her shingle". In NJ there would be a pizza place immediately next door. But in Texas there might be a hundred yards or even more before the pizza place which has also erected the same kind of sign. Next, there is a baby store and,finally, a small church with a cross-topped steeple. Each of these establishments remains aloof from its neighbors and each puts up a sign.

NJ crams everyone together. In this sense, we prefer community while Texans assert their independence. I have this sense that NJ is a big, diverse family arguing, lying, but also loving and supporting while raucously asserting connections for better or worse. Uncle Vinny may be a serial divorcer but he is OUR serial divorcer. In Texas, the lawyer seems to say to the pizza owner: "Look! You run your place over there and I will run my place here. If you don't like my place, too bad. You are far enough down the road that you don't have to look.

I understand these are oversimplifications. One way is not better than the other. We arrive at the same place but on different paths. Texas has abundant space and it throws it around like oil men used to throw money. NJ has 7 1/2 million people shoved together in one of the smallest states in the Union. Like a large family shoved together in two rooms, we have to get along though doing so can be rough.

All of this occured to me while endlessly churning out the miles in Texas.

We visited LBJ's ranch near Johnson City but sadly we were all so tired that we didn't get to see the "Texas White House" itself. Our goal was the Museum of the War in the Pacific. It is incredibly well done showing the terrible struggles during WWII. They have collected endless artifacts including a Japanese mini-sub that was at Pearl Harbor, a B25 bomber and a Hellcat fighter. It is vastly worth the trip.

I want to write about our group but am pressed for time now. We head out for Carlsbad in a few minutes.

ken tompkins

[spyder3]

[SpyderAnn01]

Keep up the stories I'm really enjoying them

[bruiser]

Your writing elicits mind pictures. Bruisersbaby's dad was on the Hornet during WWII. Would love to visit that museum. Am I to assume Carlsbad, New Mexico??

[kentompkins]

No, it's Fredericksburg, TX. A fabulous place and wonderfully presented. Thanks for asking.

kt

Your writing elicits mind pictures. Bruisersbaby's dad was on the Hornet during WWII. Would love to visit that museum. Am I to assume Carlsbad, New Mexico??

[bruiser]

Ken, where are you???