744 miles down.
https://www.justgiving.com/Matt-Tipper1/
Again sorry in advance, I have a day off tomorrow so I may have consumed some alcohol this evening.
I was woken up at about 7am by Kawasaki owners talking about Kawasakis,the beer from the night before had left me a bit dry and slightly nauseous so drank loads of water and craved mountain dew, I am becoming Americanised.
The plan for today was to ride to the flight 93 memorial and then head on to Pittsburgh, nice easy 3 or 4 hour ride. I ate another amazing American breakfast of fried stuff and sugar based stuff,loaded up the scoot,replaced a few bolts that I had lost along the way with cable ties,said goodbye to my new biker buddies and hit the road.
The flight 93 memorial is on route 30 otherwise known as the Lincoln highway which is an amazing road to ride on. Full of twists,turns,up hills,down hills and beautiful countryside.At points I was a few thousand feet above sea level which plays havok with the air/fuel mixture of a carbureted engine. Sorry to repeat myself but I wont go into boring details bits basically the hirer you go the slower the engine gets,couple this up with climbing mountains and you are in for a 35mph climb in second gear.
I turned off the 30 on to the long driveway to the flight 93 crash site. there was instantly a weird,sad haunting feeling in the air which almost brought me to tears for some unknown reason. I had been on a similar flight a few days before and no matter what you believe actually happened that day a shit load of innocent people lost their lives. The whole site is in the middle of a a rejuvenation and they are pumping money into a glossy visitor centre.
I parked up next to a load of the Kawasaki lot and took a walk down to the crash site.
The crash site…
The boulder marks the spot where the plane touched down,not quite sure how they know this.
Tried to get an arty shot of the half mast flag.
I made my way back to the car park and got talking to another group of bikers. One of them had relatives in England and took lots of photos of me which he is going to email to me at some point,I hate having my photo taken.
I said my goodbyes and headed back out on the the glorious roads of Pennsylvania. The ride was pretty uneventful,lots of rolling hills,green stuff and road kill (baby deer seem to be the most popular choice). I saw a few funny things along the way my favourite was a warning sign saying ‘partial sighted child’. I had a good look for a kid with a cane but I couldn’t see/him her.
I arrived at the outskirts of Pittsburgh and immediately hit a load of traffic and traffic lights. I picked my way through it,reached the hotel,unloaded,received my free cookie from the front desk (bit weird) and headed straight to the bar for a nice and while I was waiting for Syd a Pittsburgh native I drank a well deserved cold beer or three. In the mean time I got talking to the bar tender,an old black lady,a pilot and two smokers.
Syd arrived and we drank a shot of honey whiskey and then headed into town to meet Andre,China and Eanna (more natives) at this place for dinner and more drinks.
Its basically a church that has been converted into a brewery,bar and restaurant. Those of you from Frome imagine the Griffin but huge,in a church and with table service and good food.
In this very place I tried something that changed my life PEROGIS !!!!! kind of like ravioli but with mashed potato inside served with sour cream and fried onions. I had three portions and I already want more.
Andre and the other witches headed off to a 40th birthday party and me and Syd went off to meet a very famous greyhound. If you are instagram follow Mosleythegreyound I have been following him for a while now and I am not ashamed (I am very ashamed) to say that I was a tiny bit stat struck when I met him. We hung around outside a bar,took photos,talked and Mosley lay sprawled out in the middle of the ‘sidewalk’.
We then headed on to another bar,I drank a shot of old grand dad’s whiskey which was as bad as the witches had made it out to be and smoked inside (trip highlight).
Fake Franco whored it up a bit with the natives,we had some pretty dodgy conversations which apparently I am not allowed to blog about and then me and Syd headed off across the many bridges of Pittsburgh back to the hotel.
I think queens might have rubber off on me a bit …
Today has been a great day,lots of nice riding,meeting new people,meeting people I have wanted to meet for a long time,sunshine and alcohol what more could a guy want ?
Tomorrow I am going to a hardware store to buy bolts,best buy to get a spare battery for my sat nav,a hill to view the city in the evening and then to a freak show at night.
Rollin on tens. 