The national rally was at the Canaan Valley Resort near Davis WV. I was riding with Pete Osta and Malcolm Meyn. Pete left NE Raleigh around 8:00 meeting Malcolm and me at 9:00 north of Hillsboroough on Rt. 86. It was a beautiful day, cool temperatures and clear. We took a leisurely pace through VA heading to Peaks of Otter for lunch. This is a great stop with a good restaurant and hotel overlooking a lake with nice walking trails around. It was a good lunch and as we were leaving Michael Silverman pulled up to stop for lunch. We had already been there for an hour so we left him to eat thinking he might catch up with us that afternoon.
There was no real excitement on the trip, no close calls or potential accidents, just a relaxing pace cruising the twisty's. We managed to stop about every 1 - 1 1/2 hrs for a water break and snacks. My regret is that it was so nice we didn't stop at the tourist overlooks to gather some pictures. Well, fall riding is coming and there will be plenty of that with the colors. We arrived at the Resort at 5:00 with bikes well painted with bugs and check-in was a breeze. We had plenty of company!
The diversity of riders and bikes was amazing. I suspect we had 25+ female riders on every description of bike - sport, adventure and performance road bikes. We also had numerous hacks, sidecar rigs. This were beautifully executed and the engineering was spotless.
Lots of trailers doted the parking lot both bikes with trailers and those that drove towing their bikes. In this area of bikes was a number of vendors with Dunlop changing tires, ROK straps, detailers and in the main vendor area in the lodge were Bob's BMW as well as a number of other merchandise vendors.
Everyone was rolling in a bit tired from many miles and eager to settle in for the night . The Tarheel Travelers gathered at the dining room at 7:00 to plan for the weekend and I suspect most of us retired early. For those of us from the Raleigh area it was a 335 mile day and 7-8 hours on the road.
The hotel had coffee in the lobby at 5:00 am and with that came sunrise
First is the fogged in valley behind the lodge.
Then a couple of hours later a crystal clear day.
Pete and I left around 10:00 for the Green Bank Observatory which is the listening station for outer space. I had been there some years before but due to Covid there was no tour. This time we did the 2 hour tour which was fascinating. This area of science is always intriguing but way over my head. The guide then took us by bus down to the big telescope, if that's what you call it.
The above picture is the original and is not in service anymore. We were standing very close to it in front of the science center. The picture to the left is the big one! That was taken from 1 mile away. That is the closest they allow electronic devices. We actually went down to the base of it that dish, which is in maintenance position, measures 100 yards across.
What little understanding I had from the presentation is the optical telescopes may find an asteroid then they aim this dish at it and they can determine the composition of materials in the asteroid using radio waves.
I had to zoom in to get this picture
This was without the zoom! We had to turn off our cell phones or put them in a secure box on the bus so they didn't interfere with the other telescopes, maybe 10 smaller ones scattered around, smaller but still very large.
Due to the length of the tour we cut short our ride and returned to the lodge meeting up with others for dinner at 7:00.
On Saturday I volunteered at gate security checking peoples registration stickers on the bikes or sending those that weren't registered to the office to check in. There were several that came just for the day to see the bikes and vendors and it was another beautiful day to be outside.
I heard rumblings that the weather had changed significantly for Sunday. Yep what was to be a clear and comfortable ride home on Sunday now was forecast to be somewhat heavy rain and cooler, around 60 degrees. So Pete and I had a choice, enjoy the ride home today or stay a night and spend the day in a slog home in rain on very twisty roads, raising the risk factor. We packed and hit the road at 1:00 and had a wonderful clear ride home. We arrived around 8:45 pm and looking at the weather that hit up in Davis on Sunday we were glad we cut it short.
All together 3 days, 785 miles and a lot of beautiful weather in the mountains of WV! I love riding up there. I want to go back and spend 4 days just visiting the places that I haven't had the time to see.
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