Motorcycling with Hannah

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pmkcamp.jpgSitting in the woods seven miles east of Morgantown, West Virginia.

Worker productivity is up while labor costs are down for the second quarter of this year; that combined with a use or lose week of vacation meant it was time for a motorcycle trip.

My riding buddy only has the weekend off starting Friday at 5 p.m. and this is the weekend Hurricane Hannah decided to take a whirlwind tour up the east coast.

Some of my most interesting adventures on a motorcycle have been weather related. You really don't care about weather in a car, but on a bike you are at the mercy of what the sky offers.

It can be the most miserable and the most inspiring of moments. The agony of bone chilling cold with rain driving into your crevices followed by the sweetest scents of spring blasting though your smile. The extremes are memorable, a privilege lost with life inside climate controlled buildings or behind tinted windshield glass.

The direction for this trip was easy. WEST ! and FAST !

I have to smile at people who interact with motorcyclists. The guy behind the counter at Hess said to me on Friday about 5 p.m., "the clouds are closing in fast" My neighbor told me, "it's going to pour tomorrow, did you hear the forecast?" There is usually at least one story about a nephew who was skewered by a chain link fence.

I really don't have a death wish. I just like living.

So as usual we hit the road two...ok, three hours late and the clouds are getting thick. I check the radar and can see the swirls of Hannah pulling up through Maryland. I figure if we can just get over the eastern divide, we will beat the rain by heading mostly west first via the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

It's a great night for riding. A couple hundred miles of interstate, temperatures in the 60's and not one drop of rain. As it turns out, we were even lucky enough to set up tents and get to sleep before a gentle rain that ended before dawn.

Memorable motorcycle weather

Frozen early morning fog on Interstate 91 between Vermont and New Hampshire. It was Summer.

Other motorcycle stories

While up in the coal region near Centrailia, Pennsylvania... "Look at that pretty white cloud hanging on that mountain... " Closer... "wow, that is really cool looking..." Snow ! I have two wheels.

A few weeks ago I was coming up Route 113 in Maryland and a cold front was brushing away the Summer heat. The rain was sparse with a few molten globs shattering on my face shield now and then to remind me of it's potential.

The light show was amazing. That velvety violet and red lightening that paints the sky and threatens but never leaps at you.

By the time the road was coming across the bridge into Ocean City you could see the lightning pounding the ocean. The gail was picking up and the rain starting to intensify.

Tucking under my windshield, I imagined I was a fighter pilot with a few miles to go. Not braving the elements as much as becoming one of them.

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This page contains a single entry by Paul Kuehnel published on September 6, 2008 10:09 PM.

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