Day One - Departure Day

Today was the day. I woke to the alarm at 5am and while getting ready I heard what sounded like rain on the roof. A quick check outside confirmed it. Today would be a wet riding day.

I loaded the bike and awaited Tom's arrival. Right on time, Tom arrived at 6am and while the rain had stopped for the most part, a scan of the radar assured us that we would be needing our rain gear. In an attempt to confuse Mother Nature, Tom wore his rain jacket while I wore my rain pants. It didn't work.

Our route today was basically straight west on US 50. We would go from VA to WV to MD back to WV and then to OH for our day's destination of Chillicothe, Ohio.

About an hour west of Winchester, the rain began to pick up and I could see on the Wing's radar map that we were heading into heavier rain. We made a quick stop in Brookside, WV and Tom put on his rain pants and I put on my rain jacket and gloves. Shortly after setting out again, the rain picked up to a real frog strangler.

US 50 was incredibly slick. The bikes were really moving around on the wet pavement. We backed down the speed to a safe pace figuring it was better to get there a bit later than expected than not at all.

We made our first fuel stop in Grafton, WV. We met a fellow motorcyclist who was himself on a long distance ride. He was heading for New Jersey from St. Louis. We chatted a bit and then headed out; he going east on US 50 while we went west.

We stopped for lunch at Marietta, OH (just across the WV/OH border off I-77). The rain was still coming down as we went inside to have a sandwich at a Subway. It actually started raining even harder while we ate lunch. We came out to a good down pour. I guess Mother Nature was trying to make up for us being inside for lunch.

Given the amount of rain that was falling, Tom broke out his "booties" to cover up his riding boots and we remounted the bikes and headed North on I-77. We then turned off of I-77 and headed west following the Muskingum River Parkway into McConnelsville. From there we followed Rt. 37, Rt. 377, and Rt. 78. Rt. 78 took us by the Burr Oak State Park and into Glouster and then Buchtel.

We made our way across US. 33 to 278 and to 56 into the Hocking State Forest. Rt. 374 (which runs through the Hocking State Forest) sure would be a fun road in the dry. But seeing how it was still raining and the roads were still slick, we kept the bikes fairly vertical and enjoyed the very green scenery.

We made our final fuel stop near Adelphi about 40 miles from Chillicothe. On the final leg of the day we made our way south on 327 only to be met by a freshly tar and chipped roadway. We gingerly made our way across the 7 or so miles of tar and chip without incident (although Tom claims I threw up a stone that stung his knee cap) onto US 50 and into Chillicothe for the night.

Although wet for nearly 8 hours of our 10 hour day, the ride was good and we made good time even with the slower pace. We saw some fantastic scenery with the low hanging clouds that rainy weather tends to bring. Simply fantastic stuff!

Tomorrow we will head out in a westerly direction and stop in Hannibal, MO (birth place of Mark Twain). A distance of about 540 miles. The weather is looking drier with only a 40% chance of rain. In fact, I just saw a bit of the sun out the hotel window. Something I haven't seen all day. :-)