Guy Boutin's Motorcycle Touring and Travel Pages

Adventures in Sport Touring with the Honda ST 1100, 1300 and the BMW 1200RT

Exploring North America...One Road at a Time


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Day 7
April 6th, 2004
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

The morning was cold when I threw my bag in the back seat of the KIA, and took the short drive to Valley Forge.

The park was quiet as I drove through the area.  I could picture how cold it must have been in those dark times, how the smoke from hundreds of campfires filled the grounds, and soldiers shivered in huts trying to stay warm.  The park is located in the busy suburbs of the Philadelphia, and locals were using the grounds for their morning walk.


    Continental Soldiers used these huts for shelter.

I just wasn’t having a good time without the 1300. It wasn't the same.  I finished the park and headed back south to DC.  I stopped off at a mega mart store and bought TastyCakes, how I love those things, but you can’t find them outside of Pa.

The drive back was awful.  It was still cold, but the KIA was like a sled on dirt.  It was terrible, all I wanted was to get back to the 1300.

I made it back to Lorton before rush hour and the first place I went to was the garage to check the 1300.  It sat there just like me, waiting for the weather to break.

I checked the weather, it was calling for less wind and warmer temps.  I was riding south in the morning no matter what.  As long as I knew warm weather was only a half days ride away, I was bugging out.  I jotted the routes down to get back south.  My last trip from here took me through Gatlinburg, and I remembered it as a good ride.  I went back to my web site and checked the routes I used that day.

I was good to go, I’ve never looked more forward to a ride than the one awaiting the next day.  I have 200 miles of slab to deal with in the morning, and after that I have a ride in the hills to look forward to.  But after the KIA, even the slab miles sounded good.

The Enterprise office doesn’t open till 8am, so it will be a late start.

  
My niece tries out the 1300, while my nephew tries on the Arai.
I had just pulled in the garage on Day 5.

I played with the kids and went to bed early.

Next: Great riding south to the East Tennessee Hills, good leaning and scenery.

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