Martinsburg WV – Bedford PA
Sat April 25, 2019
(~967 miles)

I woke around 04:00 and got myself dressed and packed up, despite the the gross omission of complimentary coffee packets in my room. However, the hotel was great enough to open up the breakfast line an hour earlier than usual, to accommodate our early hours, and I knew a fresh pot would be on when I made it downstairs.

I filled up my thermos with ice on the way down and started a waffle cooking before the crowds took over the cafe. Out at the bike, staff member Leon told us the lot was available for staging right away, so I moved the bike as directed before heading back in to eat.

My fellow New Englanders were up and about and we munched a quick breakfast while the activity levels grew. At 05:15 we headed downstairs for the riders’ meeting.

The room was abuzz with energy this morning as we awaited the handing out of rally packets. We all had routes to various locations on a map, with no idea yet what we would find upon arriving there! Rick was all business and got all the packets distributed with help from his volunteer staff. Upon receiving the OK, we all opened our envelopes.

In keeping with the “cold leftovers” theme, Rick had issued us miscellaneous rally flags from past years’ MD2020 themes, with a current sticker applied in one corner. My flag was from 2015, that year’s theme having been “Return of the Cheesedick” (“cheesedickery” a.k.a. bothering the rallymaster with obvious or foolish questions or commentary, is a running theme at the MD2020).

The rally book didn’t contain any major curve balls or puzzles to change the fundamental routes we had all built, so I think there was a collective sigh of relief. As everyone paged through the book, questions were asked and answered, though not as many as in previous years. When discussion dried up, we were released to our bikes, a full fifteen minutes earlier than planned…sweet!

The sky was brightening rapidly as the riders walked or ran up the stairs, out the front entrance, to their motorcycles across the parking lot. I got underway without delay and headed north on I-81 with several other bikes heading in the same direction. As the initial adrenaline rush wore off, riders settled into their highway speed comfort zones and the pack spread out. As I zipped through Maryland and into Pennsylvania, I paced along with two other bikes. I traded lead position a few times with a two-up couple who turned out being rally vets Jeff and Donna. The other solo rider was my friend Bob, also from MA. Donna took some nice photos along that first stretch north.

Photo Credit: Donna Attanasio

Guess this is what I look like in rally mode… – (Photo credit: Donna Attanasio)

It has become tradition in the MD2020 for all riders to visit the military grave site of Jim Young, a former Mason Dixon rider who passed away while riding out west several years ago. It is a mandatory daylight-only bonus, and thus forms one of the cornerstones of any rider’s route. This year it made sense for me to make it my first stop on my way north to a bonus cluster in northeast PA. I’ll never fail to be impressed riding up that entrance way into Fort Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, with all the flags standing in the crisp morning air.

Photo credit: Donna Attanasio

Upon entering the cemetery, all riders must be on their very best behavior to show respect for our surroundings and other visitors there to remember loved ones. This early, we see mostly the groundskeepers, but maintain a solemn pace at the 15mph speed limit back through the winding lanes to Jim’s resting place. There we quietly and deliberately go about our business of recording the bonus information and walking over to get the photo of Jim’s headstone.

After leaving the cemetery, I cranked it back up to highway speeds for the run east to Reading PA. There, my GPS led me through many stoplights, but thankfully deserted city streets, to the bonus location tucked away atop Mt. Pern on the far eastern side of town. Riding up the fun twisty entrance road, I arrived alone at the pagoda and got my photo just before Bob arrived, hot on my tail.

Rick had revealed a couple additional bonuses in the rally book that morning. One of them was to be on the lookout (BOLO) for a pothole and get your picture taken while standing in it. The roads were so rough and bumpy coming through Reading that I decided to watch closely on my way back through town and cross this bonus off my checklist ASAP.

Soon enough, I spotted a sloped parking lot with terrible pavement just a couple miles from the pagoda, pulled a U-ey, and grabbed my small selfie-stick tripod. I decided to put on a very sad face to show my opinion of potholes in general. Bob pulled in as I was packing up, having spotted me and deciding to piggyback on my pothole discovery. I jogged back over and snapped his photo for him, as there was nobody else nearby and he didn’t seem to have a tripod.

I headed north for several miles on some nice two-lane state highways now, through Hamburg and Schuylkill Haven, to get back onto I-81 northbound. I stopped off in Sugar Notch PA, just south of Wilkes-Barre, to get a photo of that town’s war memorial.

I left I-81 in Wilkes-Barre, over to the township of Jenkins on the Susquehanna River, where I captured the historical monument (NOT the historical marker sign also in the photo) for the Knox Mine Disaster. A time check showed that I was running a good half hour ahead of schedule already!

My next two bonii required a loop to the northwest on nice (albeit slower) two lane state highways and US-6. The bonus stop in the rural town of Lopez PA was their military park display that includes five bomb shells with the town letters spelled out.

I continued north and picked up US-220 for a few miles, before my GPS told me to take a sharp right turn UP a steep gravel road. Having learned several lessons about blindly following Garmin’s suggestions, I stopped for a minute here on the side of the road to review the map on my GPS. I finally decided that it only appeared to be a few miles of gravel and seeking another route would cost way too much time. I pulled a U-ey and carefully entered the well-groomed Mesas Road. It actually was only about a mile of gravel before turning back to pavement, so I was happy with my choice to proceed.

I picked my way northeast on a few more back roads toward the Susquehanna, including another short gravel section, before finally coming to a junction with another gravel road. GPS wanted me to proceed straight ahead and down an angled dirt path where there was a Road Closed sign. I saw the sign was conditional based on months of the year and decided to see how the road looked. I went over the edge and almost immediately saw it was a mistake. There was a huge concrete block in the middle of this cow path blocking the way for vehicular traffic. I could see the path did not look like it improved at all further ahead. Now I was stopped on a fairly steep downslope, on a gravelly dirt path, with gullies on either side. There was not enough room or level enough ground to turn the bike around…shit!

Luckily, some locals had created a skinny pathway around the concrete block that looked just wide enough for me to get the bike through. The grade appeared to level out just beyond. I carefully inched my way down the slope and past the block, managing not to scrape the saddlebags or any other part of the bike (but only JUST). Once on more level ground, I was able to do a multi-point turn after dismounting and push/pulling a bit, and ride back up out of there past the block. Whew!

After further examination of the GPS map, I saw that the gravel crossing road here DID appear to offer an alternative way to the bonus location just a few miles away. I followed this new route, hit pavement again, and descended onto the river floodplain to get the necessary photo of the French Azilum historical site monument.

Getting out of there after all that fuss, was of course ridiculously easy, and I was soon on good old US-6, making my way east. The next stop was a welcome sign to the small village of Nebraska PA, northeast of Scranton.

I rode south on the interstate and PA-33 for several miles, followed by a quick stop at Jane Mansfield’s grave site, in Penn Argyl PA.

I made my first crossing of the Delaware River and made my way southeast to Plainsboro NJ. Here on the edge of a modern housing development near a large medical center off US-1, is the grave of the original “Elsie” the cow, symbol and spokes-cow of Borden MIlk from way back in the 1930s. The back-story is an interesting little bit of Americana.

Here I ran into a couple other rally riders who appeared to be riding together, and were stopped for a smoke break. We exchanged brief greetings while completing the bonus stop tasks.

From Elsie’s grave, I continued south on US-1 through Trenton and crossed briefly back into Pennsylvania onto a peninsula in the Delaware River. The area seemed mostly occupied by industrial parks and landfills surrounded by “reclaimed” natural park areas sponsored by the Waste Management company. Hey, at least they’re trying to keep things looking green. Pennsbury Manor State Park occupies a small lobe of this riverside area and was once the home of William Penn, the state’s founder.

We just needed a photo of the entrance sign, so I didn’t get to see the grounds or mansion during this stop. I did take a moment to strip a layer in the day’s warming temperatures and dump some jerkey into my eating cup within my tank bag for snacking on the go. The two riders from the last bonus were also here and I ended up following them back out to the highway, where our paths diverged en route to the next bonus.

Garmin routed me south via the New Jersey Turnpike for a few miles to Haddonfield, where I snapped the next bonus photo of a dinosaur sculpture. Don’t remember why.

Continuing west on I-295 had me crossing the Delaware one final time. I dipped briefly into Delaware to capture this historical marker sign for the Darley House, a historic building that was home to a famous book illustrator.

I had one more bonus to capture before starting the combo bonus string, which would take me through the night over to western Pennsylvania and back. I rode north back into PA to seek out the Paoli Massacre memorial. Upon arriving at the site, there is a large obelisk monument right next to the driveway with the word Paoli engraved on it.

A more inexperienced, more tired, or less-jaded rally rider, might see that word, snap the picture, and move right along. I, however, stayed in my process and did my due diligence. I double-checked the photo in the rally book before even getting off my bike and realized the actual bonus was a different, older obelisk encased in plexiglass, just a short walk away by the edge of a field. Rider Mike Hall pulled up shortly after me and also walked over to capture the correct photo.

I was excited and relived at this point, since the first combo bonus was now only a few miles away, and I had made it well ahead of my predicted schedule. It was the only daylight-only bonus in the combo and therefore was a key checkpoint in the rally to ensure I’d make it there by sundown and be able to proceed with the rest of the combo string. The bonus was the Star Gazer’s Stone, which has an interesting history in the surveying of what would eventually become the Mason-Dixon line.

Feeling like I had a small win under my belt now, I settled in my seat for the long two hour trek west to the second combo bonus. I probably could have saved some additional time here making a beeline for I-76 to the north, but I followed Garmin and took US-30 and PA-283 for a good portion of the ride. I downed a Five-Hour Energy to keep me alert through the evening hours, then skirted Harrisburg in the twilight, and followed US-22 to US-11 along the Susquehanna once again.

I cut northeast on PA-104 to US-522 and then backroads up to Hartley, scorching the black country roads with all the auxiliary lighting lumens I could muster. I was really liking the newer Evitek F2 LED head lamps that I’d recently installed, as they threw more of the light in the proper direction, less bothersome to other drivers and especially useful on high beam. I kept vigilant for deer and other critters, but only spotted one raccoon that crossed way ahead of me. Mike caught up to me again at the Troxelville sign bonus just as it started to rain. We got our photos using my bike lights, and I headed out quickly.

The radar on my phone app showed a clearly defined front with lots of yellow coming through. I knew the deluge would be heavy, but also quick. My original route in Basecamp would have directed me to loop around east before continuing west at this point, probably to make use of the higher speeds on I-80. However, in the rain I either missed a turn and the GPS recalculated, or the GPS just had a different more direct route planned for me from the get-go on back roads.

Rather than being miserable in the rain, I was feeling exhilarated for some reason, and enjoying myself immensely, cozy and dry inside my Klim gear. I rode west on PA-45, then zig-zagged north through Madisonburg, Walker, and Hayward through dark woodlands in heavy rain. I spotted lightning flashes a couple times and heard some thunder. I called Charlotte to chat and give her an update as the storm bore down, telling her I was feeling good and wishing her good night. While she slept, I still had over 100 miles to go before laying my head down for a couple hours rest. I’d be up riding again before she awoke in the morning.

I had paid extra attention to the next bonus (N03) before the rally, having noticed the mapping software had me exiting the location on what appeared to be a very primitive path, called Mt. Orviston Road. I created a “restricted zone” to force the routing away from that road and made a mental note to be sure to leave the bonus on the same road I entered on. Well, planning is all well and good, but I’d never planned for the fact that I’d be approaching the area from a completely different direction and that the GPS would route me IN to the bonus on Mt. Orviston Road! I saw the road sign and then a sign reading “Please use 4WD” and got that sinking feeling in my stomach.

I knew at this point that riding back to the paved way in would take several miles and extra time. The road didn’t actually seem too bad, it was washboarded but well-graded and wide, so I continued on. At least the rain had stopped by then. It was a slow several miles up the mountain to the rural community of Orviston, but I made it without incident.

The two riders I’d last seen in New Jersey were there when I finally arrived at the marker stone, and heading out. I confirmed they’d found a paved road all the way there, so at least I wouldn’t have to deal with gravel on the way back out!

I jotted down the time and ODO reading for the stop, then reached into the top compartment of my tank bag for my rally flag….um, where is my rally flag?! My rally-addled brain immediately launched into high-speed:

Shit! Where’s my f’in flag?
I can’t believe my flag’s not here, this is bullshit!
OK, think what happened at the last bonus? You used the Hammy-stick to get the photo of the sign, so you didn’t leave the flag hanging on anything. It started to rain at that point, did you put the flag down on the bike and then forget to store it?
Crap, it must have fallen off when I started riding! How far back was that bonus? Do I have time to ride back there and get back on track? I DON’T want to have to get my face in every bonus photo for the rest of this f’ing rally! OK, maybe I’ll need to ride back, but what do I do right now about THIS bonus? I’ll have to use my selfie-stick tripod again.

I unzipped my main tank bag compartment to fetch the tripod and…my rally flag! WTF and hooo-yah all at once! Somehow I’d gotten out of my process at the last stop and stored it in the wrong place. Relief flooded through me and I felt like I’d just won the lottery on that dark road in rural Pennsylvania.

I took a few sips of water to calm down and then finished up my tasks at the bonus. Still charged up, I headed out the PAVED twisty road from Orviston as fog began rising off the warm ground in the aftermath of the rain, back down to the highway system and clearer thinking.

The final 100 miles of the night passed quickly via I-99 down to Bedford PA along I-76. I secured my starting receipt for the mandatory three hour REST bonus at a gas station and headed for my pre-booked hotel room at the Super 8.

The Super-8 offered a much better experience than my last stay in Bedford at the Rodeway Inn down the street. I spent some time transcribing the day’s bonus info to my score sheet while wolfing a sandwich, then realized I’d sent the REST receipt photo off without my flag in the photo. I quickly emailed off a corrected photo to the rallymaster, grabbed a quick shower, and settled in for a short sleep.