We continue our trip North up the East Coast. Then an unexpected email sends us west across the country in a week to set up our new home.
After leaving
Asheville we rode North and camped in Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia.
It was a nice, quiet night as we began the Mid Atlantic Backcountry Discovery
Route. We then rode through a bit of off road trails to the Walnut Flats free
camp site where we met a number of other riders doing the route on BMW's, and
had a great evening talking bikes by the campfire with them.
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| This campground didn't work out... |
The next day we
rode on and had a great day. But near the end, when we were 2 miles from our
campsite, Josh decided to attempt a water crossing. He miscalculated the depth
and ended up drowning his bike. This was the first time we've ever had to deal
with this, and it was not an ideal way to end our day. While Johanna went to
set up camp, Josh drained the oil out and did his best to dry out the airbox.
After putting new oil in, it still didn't look great, but we got it to the
campsite to keep working on it. While there, another camper approached us, also
on an XT250. We meet the coolest people when we have bike issues haha. Jeff had
been traveling around the US and Mexico for almost the same amount of time, and
helped us get Josh's bike running smoothly again. We spent the rest of the
evening enjoying beers around an intense fire.
The next day we rode
into West Virginia and stayed in the Monongahela National Forest. In the
morning we rode a short ways to meet Cloudsplitter aka Dave from ADVRider. He
offered to let us stay with him and his family over the rainy weekend. It was
great to get a break from the trails and sleep in a real bed. We enjoyed a
great time with Dave and his family before continuing North East to York,
Pennsylvania. There we stayed with Barry, also from ADVRider, who showed us his
great collection of bikes and trophies from his racing days.
The next day we rode through lots of historical areas, complete with Amish
towns and covered bridges, before camping in the Delaware State Forest,
(located weirdly in Pennsylvania). The next morning we rode into New Jersey,
and got all the way to the waterfront to see the Statue Of Liberty. From there
we went back to an Airbnb that we had reserved in Elizabeth, run by an
Ecuadorian family. We had a great time talking about Ecuador with them, and
spent the next few days exploring Elizabeth and New York City.
While there, Johanna
reached out to her job about returning, and hey were ready for her to come
back. We were excited to learn of this, but they said she needed to start June
1st. We were faced with a tough decision. We had plans to not arrive back in Washington
until July. But we were starting to miss having an income, and in the end we realized the
choice was easy. We had one more house sit in Cape Cod before we returned home,
so we headed that way. Of course, on the day we left it was raining hard. On
the way out of New Jersey, Johanna hit a man-hole cover and her bike went down.
She was mostly ok, but we were concerned she may have broken her thumb. We
rigged up a thumb brace for her and continued our 2 day ride to Cape Cod in
freezing cold rain. When we finally made it Cape Cod, some time off the bikes
sounded perfect. We had a week there to check out the beach and neighboring
towns, and spend time with some great Old English Bulldogs.
Right before we left
we secured a 15' Uhaul truck. It had a ramp so we were able to just ride the
bikes right into the truck. We then spent the next 8 long days driving from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, stopping along the way to see our friend Rachel
in Indiana, Gabe and Teresa in Wisconsin, and Cecilia and her husband Evan in
Idaho.
We finally got back to Seattle on Memorial Day, and have been working
hard on reassembling our home. Our trip ended a little early and unexpected,
but trips like these rarely go the way you plan. We had an amazing journey,
with fond memories that will last a lifetime. Now for some well-earned rest.