Oct 25th - From Raining sideways to Amish country

My plan today was to go directly home.  I was a little downtrodden last night and said enough was enough.
I went to bed late, and didn't care for getting up early except to get to some emails and have their free breakfast.

I felt the whole building shake and there was some noise outside...
Looking outside, i could see only one thing.
It was raining sideways... debris was flying everywhere.  brutal.  The bike was still standing, so that's good.

I walked out the room and the owner of the motel was walking quickly past me saying "this is not good... this is not good"

I walked out to their breakfast... a couple of bagels, toast and cereal... they also had waffle mix.
meh.  i went for the corn flakes and a coffee.  no picture.

I spoke to the owners wife about the weather.  "So, does this happen often" i ask...
her reply "This NEVER happens"  WTF.  brutal.  There was debris in the parking lot, shingles were torn off the roof of the motel (just had it redone) and a sign was ripped off and broken.

I checked out the NOAA site and seems i was completely surrounded by crap.  flood advisories, tornado advisories and severe storm watches all around.  It put me in a down mood.
i decided to wait until the last possible second to get out of the room... after all,  i was in no rush.

There are no pics in the morning as i packed the camera to be ready for the storm.

got out of the room and packed up the bike... hunh.  no rain. no wind. odd.   getting lucky i guess.
I took off and i couldn't get the bike off the center stand... i was literally moving the bike around n the stand like a tripod.  The pavement as recently redone and it was like a skating rink with all the tar oils coming to the surface.

side note.  my toe hurts like hell.  The night before after filling up, i took the bike off the center stand, and the side stand landed on the joint of my big toe.  Nothing like a 600+lbs hammer to hit you there.  brutal.
This is the same toe/foot i hurt twice already... both times with the front of the bike slid out in soft deep sand (that i didn't see) and put my foot down. ah.  biggest problem.  It's my shifting foot and it's exactly where you put the shifter... swollen, but no change in color...bruised the bone maybe?

Off i went and found a Starbucks the next town over in Johnson city.  lots of hotties and it was a busy Starbucks.  must be a college town.  remember friends.  college towns have two things.  Starbucks, and hotties in them.

The weather was actually nice.  I had my jacket liner in, and just the suit.  i was comfortable.  onwards!
Oddly enough, the bike was running very well, except when i started it this morning and it backfired a lot.

Whenever the neutral light problem came up, the bike was running well.  who knows, maybe i had bad gas gumming up the carbs, something else... but it's running like a champ.  Yay Beast.

i'm not sure what all the speed limits were, but i tried to keep it between 78-85... and i still had some left to pass. heh.

I rode through Marion,VA and could not find a non-chain place to eat.  I had nothing for supper the night before except a pizzaroni at a gas station. was ... gross, but  it put my hunger at bay for a while and then cereal in the morning.  I was hungry and i wanted good food.

I kept riding, certain i would find something along the road.  I was not about to settle.
About 10 miles down the road or so, i found this place.

All i could see from the interstate was RESTAURANT
must be good then, right?

so... would you eat here?  folding chairs, things that don't match... etc.
i looked at the menu and laughed.  They had "hillbilly burgers".

They also have a lot of hikers that come to hike in the hills, and they have a monstrosity called the Hiker burger.  It's 1lbs of beef. seriously.  so took that and tater tots.  I had never seen battered cauliflower before, so i ordered that too.

That's Beaucoup beef!  me love you long time.
taters in the plate, cauliflower in the bowl.

that's a stack.
I spoke to the waitress and told her i never understood why people go to McDonald's when you have places like this.  hate chains.  The burger was good.  Real beef, hand pressed and fried on the griddle... best way to eat a burger.  the veggies on the burger were fresh too... not reconstituted onions!

now THAT's a burger.  freaking awesome.  I told the waitress what i thought about the food and chains... i think i put her in a good mood saying that i've been travelling all over, and i've been avoiding chains and looking for places like this.
Seriously, you're in the area and want good home cooked food. go there.
To note, the cauliflower was good... i liked it.. not even greasy... (also made by hand)
tater tots... they are always awesome...

total price of the meal? under $10.  seriously.
I wanted to tip and there was a tip jar "Cooks Tips" and asked if they shared.  She said to just put it in as it's her husband who's the cook.

my kind of place.  We need more like these across the states.  people need to stop being greedy and stop selling out to the major chains.

I took off and saw a horrific crash on the side of the road... the jaws were used to pull the roof off a car and there were a ton of emergency personnel there.  hope the person behind the wheel will be ok.

There was debris everywhere... trees knocked down, signs knocked over, crap all over the highway.  I seem to have let the storm pass before i left.  good timing for once?

I love this one

all sorts of awesome

it was really windy, but i took some shots.  not many turned out but it was to show the rolling hills.  Virginia has some nice rolling hills.

is nice

but what... what do we there over yonder!

looking nasty and heading across my path.
uh oh.

purdy colors tho

blurry but a huge storm system moving in.

So i figured all i could do was try and outrun it.  which i did for the most part of 2 hours... but i caught up to it.A few little drops of rain (not even enough to bead up on the visor) and that was it.

I didn't know if i should ride through the night or stop over soon.  I got a hotel coupon book (3 actually) and scanned them for a cheap option.  I found one for a town 10 miles up the road and headed there.

The place i got was cheap... but they had wifi.
$40, and i got a room with a king bed, a retro 80s lazy boy (in really good shape) two nice chairs and a table, Tv, Ac and Wifi.
No shampoo though. DAMMIT.  now i have to wash my hair with the bar of soap again.  pain in the ass.

Luckily for me they have a washer and dryer on the floor.  woot.  no soap. crap.  I did a load of laundry with no soap.  Meh, it'll smell a bit better anyhow, it's not like i sweat that much. heh. hot water alone can do wonders.

Hungry a little so i went off to denny's next door.  As a client of this hotel, i get a discount. heh.
I'm in the states, so what else should i get?

The All-American Slam!
it's breakfast... stop making a big deal out of the names. jesus.  I ate most of it.  was... meh.

the greybeard is grey

yes. not that thrilled with it,  but then again, you go to Denny's with high expectations, you go home disappointed.  i had no expectations... i was tired.

To recap, i left Tennessee at 11am... passed though Virginia, West Virgina and Maryland and now in Pennsylvania.  A little town called Chambersburg.  I did 416 miles... not that great... i should have been able to do more, considering i was averaging 80 the whole time.  Maybe Beast is ready for the stables.  Maybe i am.  One thing i know for sure.
It's not time for home just yet.

I'm shipping off to Boston in the morning.