Day 1 Friday, May 27
West Chicago, IL to Flatwoods, WV 625 miles

I wanted to head out as early as possible to avoid the rush hour traffic, but was running late per usual. Brian and I finally managed to leave at 6:30AM. The traffic on I-88 was heavy, on I-294 was not too bad for a while but then on I-80 we ran in to major construction. I-65 South was not too bad either. All the while the traffic heading in the other direction on 294, 80 and 65 was much worst. At some point on I-65 Northbound a truck overturned and they closed the interstate completely. For many miles I looked at the barely moving line of cars heading North on the frontage road thinking, thank goodness the truck didn’t overturn heading Eastbound. Though Indianapolis there was some congestion and again on I-74 though Cincinnati. We arrived at I-275 North for the last stretch of slab-o-rama. This would be the slowest moving traffic of the day and it was hot now too. I was thrilled to finally see the exit for 32 East, unfortunately 40 other cars took this exit also. We followed the slow caravan of cars down the ramp at 10-15MPH and got stuck at every single red light ahead. As I sat there looking around, my stomach decided to remind me it was lunch time. With plenty of choices we turned off at the next cross street and pulled in to the Fazoli’s parking lot.

My wrist was all cramped up and hurting since I packed my throttle rocker at the bottom of my tank bag and was too lazy to dig for it. It was just 320 miles of interstate, I’m tough, I can handle it. Maybe I can but my wrist was starting to complain and we were only half way there - 300 more miles to go. Lunch was good but after 45 minutes I was ready to get going again. We had no time to waste today, we had a motel reservation in West Virginia for tonight and I wanted to be there before it got dark. Brian went outside while I made a trip to the bathroom. When I came out Brian’s bike was gone, but his helmet and gloves were laying next to my bike. I looked around and saw him standing next to his bike at the far end of the parking lot. As I approached I saw he was sweating and out of breath. What the hell was he doing? Apparently he left the key in the ignition and the lights on while we were having lunch and the battery was dead in his bike. He was trying to push start the bike but it did not want to start. He wanted help. There was a tiny incline in the parking lot and I pushed him and his bike from the tiny hill a few times, still the bike did not start. It was in the upper 70’s now. The sun was shinning brightly and we were sweating like pigs in our leather pants. Brian decided to cross the road and try his luck on the bigger hill there. I grabbed a bottle of water and sat in the shade waiting. The minutes went by and there was no sign of him anywhere. Finally I heard someone calling, I looked across the street and Brian was waving at me, for me to go over there.

That wasn’t a good sign. I geared up and rode in that direction. I found him sitting next to his bike at the bottom of the hill at some intersection. I asked him why he didn’t park the bike in one of the parking lots, he said he was too tired to move the bike out of the way, he couldn’t push it another inch. Apparently, he called a towing service and was waiting for a guy to come and give him a jump. Another 30 minutes and $35 later the bike was running and once he strapped all the luggage back on the bike we were on our way. We needed gas but he didn’t want to stop until the bike had been running for a while so we continued on 32 East. Traffic was heavy and we ended up sitting at every red light. The reserve gas light was on for a while by the time we pulled over to get gas. It might have been 80 degrees now, it was hot, and we weren’t moving very fast. I grabbed another bottle of water. Finally, hydrated and with a full tank of gas we were on the road again, good for another 120 miles before we need to stop. Then, just a few miles down the road from the gas station we got pulled over for speeding. We had to wait about 20 minutes for the state trooper to write out our tickets. Delays, delays, delays. I saw the white squad car approaching from the opposite direction. I had already slowed down to speed limit by the time he passed me and pulled a u-turn. Apparently he got us on radar before we managed to slow down enough because he had us traveling at 77MPH in a 60 MPH zone.

After taking a nice long break on the side of the road, we proceeded with caution, 32 was thick with fuzz. 60MPH seemed ridiculous for this type of a road, wide and open, hardly just a few high speed sweepers here and there. Near Jackson, OH we turned south on 35. The road was just a bit more wavy then 32. We crossed the Ohio River and we were in West Virginia. I still had a glimmer of hope that even though we had some delays, we could still make it to Flatwoods before sunset. That was before I made a wrong turn on 2 and headed South instead of North. I was looking for 62 which I never saw a sign for but saw a sign for 2, which was the next road that I needed after 62, so I turned towards the south. A few minutes later I realized I needed to go North in order to get to 33. I usually double check my MS Streets & Trips route using an actual street map but the Borders book store had no West Virginia maps in stock and I couldn’t see enough road detail in my Atlas. We needed gas and there was a town ahead so we stopped there. They had no maps, but I checked my GPS and we turned back around and headed North on 2. This mistake would cost us about 8-10 miles. Since the next road I wanted was 33 and it traveled towards the north before heading southeast, I had planned a short cut to 33 via 331 East. 331 was a very twisty, hilly and narrow road. We arrived at an intersection which should have been 33 according to S&T, but it was marked as 62 North. I sat there confused for a few seconds, but my GPS indicated that this was 33 East, so we turned right. Many miles later 33 would join 62 and then 62 would head north. 33 weaved though some forests and a few towns. It was a pleasant ride with many turns, which you could take at higher speeds. With the sun hanging low on the horizon, I had my eyes peeled for deer already but saw none.

In Spencer, WV Brian wanted to layer up, so we pulled over. We should have swapped out our tinted helmet shields for clear ones at this time but didn’t. We turned south on 119 which was a very twisty road with turns posted at 45-25MPH and most turns were blind, hidden behind hills. The sun was setting behind the trees, I had a hard time seeing the road with my tinted visor. This was a road that demanded a lot of concentration and a good view of each turn. There were not many places to pull over so I slowed way down though the turns and was going to pull over before we got on the interstate. When we got to I-79 North, I expected to see a gas station, I really needed to put the clear shield on my helmet and zip my liner in to my jacket, it was chilly now, but there was nothing here, not any place to pull over so I got on the interstate and kept going. Conveniently a few minutes later when I could no longer see the road, there was a rest stop to pull over at. It wasn’t too far now to Flatwoods. With my warm quilted liner zipped in to my jacket and my clear visor in place, I focused my attention on the noise coming out of my bike. It started as a faint tiny noise a couple of hours ago but grew loud pretty quick. Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to go away by itself. It was dark and I couldn’t inspect anything, so I had no choice but to continue to Flatwoods. By the way, I-79 is so twisty and awesome for an interstate. Just after 9PM we arrived at the 67 Truck Stop. We found only one bike parked outside the motel and Bryce must have seen us or heard us since he was approaching. After checking in, the three of us went to the truck stop 67 restaurant, so that Brian and I could eat some dinner, Bryce had already eaten earlier. I ordered chicken enchiladas and Brian ordered a fajita. Then the boys both had dessert. Busy talking about bikes, roads and trips, we realized It was past 11PM, so we retired to our rooms.

 

Day 2 Saturday, May 28
Flatwoods, WV to Summersville, WV 262 miles

The plan was to leave by 9AM, do a nice 300 miles loop and arrive in Summersville, WV. There was light drizzle as I attached the GIVI top case on my bike. By the time we got our gear on and headed outside to check out of our motel room, it was steadily raining. Brian and I didn’t want to ride in rain if we didn’t have to so Bryce took off by himself and we went to grab some breakfast at the truck stop. We took our time eating. Around 10:30AM the skies started to clear up. We rode over the gas station and I started looking for the noise maker on my bike. It took only a few seconds to pinpoint the source. My chain was at the end of its life. It was very loose even though its been tightened recently. We got the tools out and got it tightened as best as we could. I was starting to worry that it wasn’t going to last until the end of this trip. We shot down 19 South to Summersville, the road was a 4 lane highway, 2 lanes in each direction with nice elevation changes and hi speed sweepers. The road was wet but the sun was starting to peek though the clouds now. We arrived in Summersville and checked in to the Super 8. By 12:30PM we were ready to head out and enjoy the surrounding roads.

We took 39 East to Craigsville and 20 North to Webster Springs, both roads were continually twisty with many tight and some not so tight turns. The pavement was also good, some gravel in the turns and some bad patches of pavement from time to time, the worst patch could be found on 39 on the downhill left hander, I thought I was riding a bronco for a few seconds, as I tired to hold the handle bars and slow the bike down through the bumps. The scenery was nice here, with streams and small rivers running parallel to most of the roads. But on 39 and 20 there were many towns to pass though and the road had driveways and houses along it’s entire length except for a few sections where there was some forests. From Webster Springs we took 15 east to 219. 15 was a great road and there were less towns to go though and less houses and driveways. The turns continued through the woods and some were very tight. At times the trees would thin out by the edge of the road you could see that you were up high. The unobstructed view from the road was amazing, there were trees everywhere, green as far as the eye could see. At the intersection of 219 and 15, there was nothing. I was hoping for a gas station. There was gas near by in the next town. We grabbed a beverage and split a slice of pepperoni pizza, we wanted a snack but we were not hungry enough to stop for lunch. It was the last slice of pizza left over from lunch at the gas station/supermarket/restaurant.

219 South was an amazing road with many turns. Hairpins, decreasing radius turns and many sweepers too. I really enjoyed the many spots where the road traveled up through countless tight switchbacks. You would fall in to a turn and before it was over a new turn would begin. So far there were not too many straight sections, and when they came up it was nice to just cruise along for a while and take a break from the twisties. The 18 or so towns along the way, were also a neat little break from the constant curves. But not always, through some towns the road continued to be twisty even there, with 15MPH turns. We arrived in Lewisburg and headed west on 60 chasing the setting sun. At first there were rolling hills and many big sweepers, but then the road would get tight again and it would climb up and over mountains, with tight switchbacks on either side. The day had turned wonderful, after the rain stopped earlier in the day and the roads dried up, some not completely, there were wet spots in the shadows. The temperature still on the cool side in the low to mid 60's, but the sun was warm. Just big puffy clouds and blue skies all day long. But now in the west there were dark clouds visible and once we passed I-64 for the fourth time it was definitely looking like rain up ahead. Heading west towards the sun was making me squint for a while but then the sun hid behind some clouds. They were rain clouds and shortly after the rain started, first as drizzle, then it got harder. Heading though some tight switchbacks in the rain required more concentration. I can’t say riding really tight hairpin turns up a steep grade in the rain is fun. It got worst when the sun came out and it still continued to rain. The sun was burning brightly in my eyes and the falling rain on the visor, made it really hard to see the road. The road itself looked like it was made from a mirror, reflecting the sun and blinding me. It was very hard to navigate though the turns. After about 35-45minutes the rain stopped completely. We stopped for gas and headed North on 19 to Summersville, arriving around 8:30PM. Bryce and Steve were hanging out in the parking lot, arriving themselves not too long ago. We went to our rooms to freshen up and walked over to the Applebee’s for dinner and more talk of bikes and curvy roads.

 

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