Today is the day we will cruise Skyline drive and hit Gettysburg and then the York HD plant. We fuel up have a coffee and a doughnut and hit the trail. Skyline drive runs 103 miles in the mountains from Waynesboro to Front Royal through Shenandoah. It truly is beautiful. A wiggling winding up and down carnival of road with some breathtaking vistas scattered throughout.  If you have not given this road a shot do your self a favor and do it because

not only is it a great wildlife filled ride it spills out at its south end onto the Blue Ridge Parkway which is a vacation in and of its self. The only downer about these roads is if you are looking to make time forget it its 35 mph all the way. However the interstate parallels those most of the way.

So here we are early in the morning carving our way north and of course I am video taping. At one point we came up on a deer and her doe right in the middle of the road the scamper ahead of us. Now I am video taping as I said so I figure I will follow and get a cool shot. So I give a little throttle and then let momentum do the rest. First the mom ran into the woods and the little guy kept tearing down the asphalt before eventually darting into the woods. I know I scared the little guy but it was cool to track him like that. The guys pulled over at the next overlook. I stopped and told them I would shoot ahead to get a shot of them coming at the camera. I got the shot and packed up and started after them.

About a mile in I come around a curve and Bill is in the road signaling to slow down. My first thought was we were coming up on someone in trouble but not us. I slowly come up on each of us on the side of the road and notice skid marks in the grass and a batch of grass and dirt in the road. Diamond had put down his Roadking.  Thankfully he was wearing his leather gloves shirt and helmet. He tore up the flesh on his arm pretty good and split his elbow and banged up his knee. We applied a little first aid (I traveled with a small kit but Joey had a freaking hospital with him so we were ready for anything) and then tended to the bike.

After some bending and pulling and grunting the Roadking was road worthy and we got back on the road. About an hour later we landed in a diner in Front Royal. Diamonds knee was very swollen and we had to coax him to ice it down. During breakfast we decided to blow off Gettysburg and York and shoot for home. We rode hard stopping only for water, gas, ice for Diamonds knee and pictures of state signs. At one point in I think in Maryland the interstate was being worked on and for a five mile stretch the asphalt was scrapped off the road and we had to ride on the grooves left behind. Very precarious and all I thought was Diamonds has got to be hating this. The bike just wiggles the whole time and to have to fight the road conditions after a fall. Man! I have to say Diamond got the right name he had to be in pain but he was willing to do what ever we wanted and never complained. Diamond, hard, tough and a class act. 

We planned from the start to head through Manhattan and not around it and of course we hit it at 5:15 we decided to go for diner in little Italy.  So we are heading through the Holland Tunnel that’s right “a shave and a haircut…vroom vroom. Riding in the city is like a video game. And no I did not tape it. We made our way to Angelo’s and had a sumptuous banquet filled with laughs and recollections from the trip. By the way I had Rabbit. When we started for the island it was twilight and we met a friend who escorted us through traffic to Nassau and we hopped on the HOV and stopped at the rest area near LIE exit 53. We took a final picture and headed our separate ways. Now Diamond Joey and I live out at exits 63 and 64. We stopped at 63 and I got my laptop from Diamonds bike and we split up. As I pulled away I noticed that lightning was flashing in the north and as I rolled into my driveway it started to drizzle. I felt blessed to be home and ahead of the storm. I looked down at my odometer and read 3819.3 and just smiled.

   As the garage door closed I heard my children and Ladyfingers coming out of the house and amongst the joyous welcome and happy faces I could not help but think about Diamond who after all he endured on this trip was probably going to get caught in the rain in his last couple miles.