Day 13: Wytheville VA to Lancaster PA
Fri 22 Jun 2024
Miles ridden today: 406 (from home: 3528)
Rode the length of Virginia on I-81 and survived. It was empty and fast at 6am on a Saturday morning. Then it was hot and a bit busy and slightly annoying to Lancaster and arrived a bit after 1pm.
Up early with the light and on the road at 6am and where is all the traffic on I-81, the Road to Hell? Not here, though the rest areas are stuffed with trucks; forget about using any of those. It was 66 when I left, and it quickly warmed up to 85 by 9am.
Thought about doing Skyline Drive, but the clear dry day of yesterday was gone, and the humid haze had settled into the Shenandoah Valley, mixed with what looked like wildfire smoke here and there. Since 81 was behaving, just roll with it.
Stopped at a Starbucks in Winchester for an AC break and some caffeine. Didn't feel particularly safe leaving the bike there--there was an upscale looking homeless woman shaking down drivers waiting for the drive-thru by going from car to car with a "Spare Change?" question before retreating to the shade between each... she had really toned tanned arms and a stylish white sleeveless top, but it had hit 95 degrees ugh. There has been at least one or more irksome homeless encounter pretty much every day of the trip: Dallas, Santa Fe, Little Rock. Upscale Homeless Woman went inside the Starbucks as I was leaving and walked out with what looked like a large pink drink about 10 seconds later... some customer won't be happy their Berry Cooler Whatnot was pilfered.
Easy cruising north, with a Gatorade stop in West Virginia (wtf, this isn't mountain momma, it's a Walmart wasteland) and then the only bit of sub-60mph traffic where I-81 and I-70 hook up with each other. A weird little jog around Harrisburg onto the PA Turnpike then off, mainly to see if E-ZPass is working, and into Lancaster at 1:15pm. I felt like I got real lucky with The I-81 Experience. No accidents, little traffic, no rain (can't imagine it with snow!), just 100 degrees for a hot second or thirty on the bypass around Harrisburg but usually around 97 or so according to the temp gauge on the bike dash.
Showed Glen my bike and answered most all of his questions about the bike and riding and travel and the Garmin and hiking and we spent a couple hours noshing in downtown Lancaster, which I found to be a great little city.