Ocean City, VA. US 50

Day 10 Monday, April 26, 2010



My alarm went off at 6 AM. I got up and got dressed. I finished packing when Bruce woke up and was up and about. I went downstairs and read the paper in the breakfast room. Bruce soon joined me and started with the sports section. I bet you would have never guessed! The old men of the group, Ken and C.E., soon joined us. Breakfast started for the group. Jan and Chuck soon joined us for breakfast. After breakfast, we got our Motors ready for our ride today. The weather was nice. The temperature was 68 degrees. Jan and I started this morning without our jackets. We soon left at 8:35 AM.



C.E. led us to a gas station in Onley, VA. We had ridden for 13.6 miles and arrived at 8:49 AM. Of course you realize that we just had breakfast, drank coffee and the weather was cool. Yes, we also made a pit stop. At this point, the rest of the guys took off their jackets and packed them away. We left at 9:00 AM with Chuck in the lead.



We were headed to Ocean City, MD. We were northbound on US 113. We had passed the city of Pokomoke, MD and were in the outskirts when Chuck pointed at a side street. We quickly turned off onto the side street and stopped at 9:43 AM after riding 42.2 miles. One of the guys had asked Chuck if we were stopping to put on our jackets. He stated that that wasn't the reason. We had passed a sign that said that headlights were required and he was stopping to make sure that Ken's headlights were operational. It was 59 degrees. It was definately time to put our jackets on. It was cold and we took the opportunity to utilize the forestry. We love to water the plants when we can! One of the guys, I won't say who, said that he was so cold that his nipples froze off! We put on our jackets and took care of business and we were on our way at 9:50 AM.



We drove through beautiful country and eventually rode into the outskirts of Ocean City. We stopped at the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce at 10:16 AM after riding 10.9 miles. Chuck was hitting on the old lady volunteer at the counter. She showed him a map of downtown Ocean City and told him where we could park and which roads to take. Who knows what else she showed him. He was happy, and so was she! She was a nice, little, old lady. We left at 10:28 AM.



We arrived in beautiful, downtown Ocean City, MD. at 10:37 AM after riding another 1.2 miles. We found the parking lot and parked the Motors. Downtown Ocean City is a boardwalk. It spans 3 miles long along the beach. the entire street or floor is wood. That is why it is called a "Boardwalk." Duh... We walked a small section of the boardwalk. (We were not going to do the entire 3 miles) We did a little shopping and took some pictures. These three miles have many shops, eating establishments, carnivals, hotel and other things...and also dive-bombing seagulls! We spend enough time there so it was time to move on. We rode to the entrance of downtown Ocean City and stopped in a parking lot. I don't know what it was a parking lot for. There was only one vehicle there. There was a sign over the road for westbound travel that said, "Sacramento, CA 3073." That is how many miles it is to Sacramento, CA. We positioned our Motors and ourselves so that a picture can be taken with the sign in the background. Also in the background on the opposite side of the street is the "West US 50" sign. We left at 11:58 AM.



We originally had intended to ride north to Delaware and do a scenic ride in lower New Jersey. When we arrived in Ocean City, we saw that the Atlantic Ocean was very choppy. It was 57 degrees. We were going to take a Fairy (not that kind) over into New Jersey into Cape May. Like I end my blog, tomorrow we are going to do ...this, but everything is subject to change.



We rode west on US 50 and stopped at 12:48 PM in Mardela Springs, MD after riding 43.6 miles. It was time for lunch and we stopped at a Subway. We were there for a little over an hour and left at 1:52 PM.



We rode for another 62.2 miles and at 2:54 PM we stopped for a pit stop at Piney Creek. We were taking a break and plans changed again. We had planned to stop, or drive through downtown Annapolis. Because of the time and what time we would be there, we decided to not do Annapolis and try to get past Washington D.C. We didn't want to be in our Nation's Capital during rush hour. I set my navigation system for Winchester, VA. at a Best Western. We left at 3:18 PM with Jan in the lead.



US 50 at this point was a 6 lane road. We continued until Us 50 intersected with I-495. I-495 is the outer loop of Washington D.C. It makes a complete loop around D.C. As we got to I-495, we turned to the north loop. By the time we got to the northern part of the loop, it started to sprinkle. The further west we got, the harder is rained. By the time we were on the west side of the loop, it was raining hard. We all had been seperated by the traffic and the rain. Jan exited I-495 at the US 66 exit. We had ridden 67.2 miles and it was 4:37 PM. I was behind Jan, as was C.E. I got a hold of Chuck on the CB and told him that we had exited and we had stopped under the first overpass. Chuck told me that he saw us exit and that we had two missing. We had waited a few minutes and Chuck came riding in. A few minutes later, Ken and Bruce arrived. We were wet! We all put on our rain gear, except for Chuck. We left at 5:00 PM. As you can see by the time, it was the "rush hour." This is the time that we DID'T want to be in D.C. We continued on. It was sprinkling at this time. Soon, it stopped raining. The sun peeked through the sky at it was humid and warm. As we continued west, it started to rain again. It felt warm but it was 61 degrees. We rode on through the bumper to bumper traffic. We had to go at least another 10 miles before the traffic cleared to the point that we could speed up to almost the posted speed limit of 55 mph.



We rode on and eventually entered the city of Winchester, VA. We arrived at the Best Western at 6:51 PM and after riding another 61.4 miles. The Best Western had a Perkins Restaurant attached to it. It was very busy and we thought that there would be no vacancies at the Best Western. I noticed that it looked like the Perkins was busy and the the Best Western. Bruce went in to "make the deal." He came out and told us that there were rooms available at a very good price. Three of the guys went in to check in. When they came out, they told us that if we eat at the Perkins tonight, we would get 50% off of the price of our meal. They also told the guys that there was no continental breakfast, however, Perkins serves breakfast and as guests of Best Western, the gave us each a coupon for $2.50 off. What a deal! We rode our Motors to our rooms, unpacked our bags and tucked our Motors in for the night. We took our bags to our rooms and then walked over to Perkins for breakfast. We agreed that we were all very tired and were looking forward to our beds. We returned to our rooms and relaxed for a while. My kind of relaxation was doing laundry. If I didn't, it would be an awfully cold ride tomorrow riding ala Lady Godiva, only she has hair! After laundry, time for the blog.



Today we rode for 318 miles. So far this trip, we have ridden for 3,188.0 miles. I'm not sure where we will end up tomorrow, but I do know that we will be on US 50. So, until tomorrow...