Friday, September 15, 2017

Sweet Home.... Pennsylvania

From Alabama to Pennsylvania in a day and a morning.  Not long after we left the hotel in Fort Payne, we started seeing some rolling hills, which I did not know existed in Alabama, and which soon gave way to the foothills, which soon became the southern end of the Appalachians in Georgia.








We had to average about 425 miles a day leaving Texas, and with the reroute around Irma, this was extended a bit further.  So, we stopped to refuel, to eat, and for one poker chip outside Knoxville, TN and that was about it.  Except for a 60-some mile stretch of US-19 in West Virginia, along which we stopped for the night, it was all watching interstate roll by.  And, just like on the way down, it was rolling past us in our cold weather gear and rain pants.  Unbelievable!  It never broke 70 degrees from the time we crossed out of Texas, until we arrived in Erie 3 days later.

Before picking up US-19, we decided to find a room along that route, and ended up getting dumped on just after crossing the New River Gorge bridge a few miles short of our bed.  We'll be getting a closer look at the gorge next year, and will be riding down the last mile of US-19 where it terminates in downtown Erie, but in the morning we picked up the big road again a few miles north, and got back to the grind.

"Dreary" Erie turned out to be our oasis, the sun breaking out not far outside Pittsburgh and remaining our friend for the time we were there.  Tonight and Saturday would be spent at "home," with Saturday the big event for which we added Erie to the trip.  We pulled in early afternoon and ordered lunch from our favorite sandwich shop.

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