Rich06FJR1300 Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 well, we made it! got back at 7 pm last night. Did 1200 miles in about 6 days of riding. Me (FJR), my brother (VFR), and a friend of ours (VMAX). What a trip. It started out horrible though, rain the first day we were there in SnowShoe (we attended this RailFan weekend in Cass, WV) so the first train ride was set in Elkins which is about 40 miles away. The guys I were with didn't ride in this kind of weather before and weren't really prepared for it. My brother was soaked to the bone and his friend wasn't much better (though he did have a partial rainsuit), the only thing i was missing was a pair of winter gloves. Temps that day were int he mid-30's/40's and it rained all day and even snowed as we got to the top of the mountain (on the train ride, not on the bikes) but did hear reports it did snow in higher elevations at Snowshoe. So we got there in Elkins and did take the train ride. They had covered cars and they were heated on the train so that was a good thing. I was mostly dry as i have a Rallye 2 suit with the goretex liners and also a frog toggs rainsuit so i was pretty dry coming onto the train. So that lasted all day and then we had to ride back to Snowshoe in the rain again...my brother and his buddy were miserable and reflecting after said they should have just said forget this LOL. Anyway, the hotel has a jacuzzi and it was much needed. Saturday we managed to get a ride in a car to Cass for the next train excursion. Day was much nicer but still a bit cool and yes, we did see more snow going up the mountain in Cass. This was another long day as the accumulated run-by's for avid photographers was abundant and took a lot of time. They even had a night shoot at 10 pm! But we got to see some nice stuff including some cool model layouts in Cass and also a nice dinner. Sunday we said forget the trains, let's go for a ride. So we decided to go to Seneca Rocks and see the sights...nice roads going there...love 33, those sweepers really are nice. There is still some gravel in the curves so you have to watch it. Route 28 is also very nice. Even saw some mountain climbers going up the rocks. Then we headed over to the caverns (no, did not take the tour) and had dinner at a family restaurant they have there. After this, we had enough of WV and headed up to Altoona, PA to see? you guess it, more trains LOL. Headed up to the historic Horseshoe Curve...about a 200 mile ride from where we stayed in Snowshoe. Got there around 4 pm courtesy of my Zumo (zumo had that awful recalc feature but new release corrected this as i just uploaded it when i got back). Watched some trains go around the curve (took many pics) and then looked for a hotel. Found a nice comfort inn in Duncansville with a nice microbrewery right by it..couldn't ask for a better place to stay the night. Next day we headed over to the Railroaders museum in Altoona and did the tour (museum is 3 floors and full of railroad history) and reminded me a lot of steamtown only bigger. Also Altoona is train city, as there are huge cargo trains going through the town. So Herbie (that's the guy with the Vmax) is a big model train fan and took video after video of it...he wanted to stay longer but chuck just wanted to go home LOL. So we stopped by this one dispatch yard full of trains and he was in heaven. Me? i was overdosed at this point...give me a showroom full of new bikes and that makes me grin But, all in all, a great trip and the longest i've done this year (and with my brother) so far. I was in the lead for the most part (being i had the gps) and the zumo operated pretty good...found all our destinations with little difficulty...we still had to stop and ask where the national radio observatory was as it had me stop just down the street of the entrance to it (yes, we took a tour of the place) but overall it's a handy device...it helped find out hotel in altoona, also found our hotel in snowshoe and the museum in altoona as well...horseshoe curve was the most difficult as i missed a turn and it kept recalcuating and confused the heck out of me! but i had to just pull over and get my bearings straight and it eventually found it. now back to work.. Link to comment
Laura Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Welcome back, sounds like a great trip I betcha all got tired of stopping every 100 miles to fill up that VMAX though. Link to comment
Rich06FJR1300 Posted May 23, 2007 Author Share Posted May 23, 2007 yes, that was a pain on the trip and he had loud pipes to boot so i was glad i wasn't in back of him. Link to comment
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