Day Eighteen - Home

The fog welcomed us this morning as we stepped outside. Temperatures were very pleasant in the mid 60s. Today would be a short day at only 250 miles from Wheeling, WV to Leesburg, VA.

We left the hotel at 7:30am. As we all know, no day is complete without a good u-turn situation. Rob decided making a u-turn on a 10% grade dead-end hill would be a good way to start the morning.

U-turn complete, we topped off with fuel and proceeded east along I-70 crossing into Pennsylvania (our 19th state visited on this trip).

After about 30 miles, we exited onto the Historic National Highway 40. We followed US-40 for about 90 miles.

Again we found an interesting sign. All you parents should take note of this one. ;-)

We picked up I-68 east where we crossed the Eastern Continental Divide.

We were then back on I-70 for a short spell and took our last leg-stretcher of this trip at around 180 miles on the trip meter for the day.

We then made our way into familiar territory routing through Boonsboro via 67 and past Sandy Hook where we picked up US-340 and then RT. 671 to RT. 9.

Rob and Michele said their good-bye’s to Tom at Leesburg. Tom continued on to his home in Herndon for another 10 or so miles.

Rob and Michele picked up some lunch and pulled in the driveway at 1pm. We had traveled 6,700 miles over 18 days. We got to experience rain, hail, crazy winds, freezing temperatures, 11,000 foot altitudes, muddy pothole ridden roads, and lightening. We survived near collisions with deer, bear, buffalo, and bald eagles. We crossed 19 states and saw some fantastic scenery across this vast country. We had a complete blast and are already looking forward to our next motorcycle trip.

Look for a retrospective on our trip and some of our lessons learned that we’ll share for those looking to undertake a similar motorcycle adventure.