I woke in the morning not feeling perfectly refreshed, but ready to finish the last 200 miles. Nothing dramatic about the ride down until we reached the overlook where a Gold Wing trike pulled out right in front of me. The woman driving seemed to think it was funny, but I really did not see the humor in it.

We saw some of the new signs warning the trucks about the road ahead. I suspect they are working because it seemed like we saw fewer trucks on 129.

We got a warm greeting from Dennis upon our arrival! Dennis is the pin striping guy at the Deals Gap Motorcycle resort and he is a great guy who does great work. The Gap pretty much feels like my home away from home and it is always great to get back. I did a little back and forth and as the sun set we started a campfire and cooked some dogs.

Tuesday we decided to take the boy to Cherokee where they hit the junk stores and we got some pizza. The weather was sunny and warm so we headed to the top of the Smokies. The trip started out excellent with the sighting of several Elk and then the weather went downhill quickly. Soon we were in heavy fog and rain and the view was totally obscured. We did hit some clearing on the way back down and got some spectacular views. Our route back was via Little River Road, but it turned out to be closed due to a rock slide. This was a bummer because it meant we had to get back via Pigeon Forge. It ended up being not all that bad and we were treated to several more spectacular views along the Foothills Parkway. We were followed by a tow truck on the Parkway and figured that meant there was a crash on the Gap, and sure enough when we got to 2 square there it was. I managed to get a little back and forth in and then returned for a delicious steak dinner. We saw some lightning off in the distance and I headed to the overlook to take pictures, but got scared when the winds picked up that a tree might come down and I would not be able to get back to my steak so I turned around at Picnic Tables.

Brady is still up to her old tricks. Walking around pretending to be homeless and then people feel bad and feed her. We know better but she still ended up getting a delicious steak from us and many hot dogs.

Wednesday was all about rain. The weather started out perfect, but by the time I finished my pancakes it was getting pretty dark. I got a half a pass in and got pretty wet so I headed back. It stopped raining pretty quickly and a few hours later the road was dry so I got another hour of riding in before it started raining again. Finally at around 3:30 the sun came back out and by 7:00 the road was mostly dry so we got about two hours of good riding in.

Thursday began with a forecast calling for an 80% chance of rain. It rained pretty hard late into the night on Wednesday so I really had no plans on getting a sunrise ride in due to wet roads. The truth is there has not been much reason to do a sunrise ride because I have had the road mostly to myself all week.

The weather ended up being much better than predicted, and we had more good weather than I had energy. As far as I could see everyone was riding safe and I saw no wrecks all day. We had some LEO presence but I did not see anyone getting a ticket, but like I said people seemed to be riding well so there really was no need for them to ticket anybody. I actually spent some time talking to one of them at the overlook and he was a good guy who has the same love of motorcycles we have. I ended up with a full day of riding before the rain started and once it got wet we jumped into the car and got Mexican food and ice cream in Robbinsville.

The best news of the day was the arrival of Alex – the Arkansas guy! This time he also brought his son. It’s great to see him again! He is a fun guy to hang out with and this makes our visit all that much more fun.

If you run into these guys at the Gap make sure you get a chance to hang out with them.

Friday started out cloudy but we never saw any rain and we had plenty of sunshine throughout the day. I started off with my usual coffee at the overlook, but instead of returning for breakfast I went on a wildlife search. The first thing I found was a huge flock of turkeys. There were at least 30 of them, but I did not get the camera out fast enough and only got pictures of a few.

The next thing I came across was a family of pigs. I managed to get pretty close to them and got some great pictures.

By the time I took the picture above she was staring to get pretty agitated with me so I decided it was time to move on.

Deer were the next animals I found.

All in all I would say my hunt was pretty successful! I also saw some nice Largemouth Bass, but Ben claims they are uncatchable. Next trip down I am going to see if he is right.

For most of the day it was my usual back and forth, and then tragedy struck. A car backed into my motorcycle at the overlook and knocked it over. It broke my turn signal, clutch lever, and bar end and put scratches in my fairing and saddlebag.

Friday night we got together with Alex and his crew and Dennis and his girlfriend and had some awesome BBQ.

Saturday ended up being the best day of the week for us. The morning started out wet for us, but there was no rain in the radar so I slept in waiting for the road to dry then got a full day of riding in.

It was pretty busy and there was one bad wreck that involved the rider loosing his arm to the guard rail. I have heard nothing more on the riders status so I do hope for the best for him.

As usual we ended up with a lot of food on the last day so we grilled it up and offered it to all who wanted it. While we ate Mikey told stories and kept us all laughing.

The last day is always the saddest day because I never want to leave. It helps to know I only have to work three days and then it is off to MotoGP, and then I return home to go to work for two days and then I will return to the Gap again. The weather was pretty poor this week and it really made the trip less than perfect, but we did get a few good days in. I just figure it is payback time for the excellent weather the last two years. I will be camping over Labor Day weekend, so I may cancel the trip if there is a lot of rain in the forecast.

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In the picture to the left you can see what appears to be the main building in the town. It appears to be very old but it is in very good condition, as are most of the buildings in this town.

The grounds are maintained like a golf course, but there was absolutely no sign of life.

There must be times when the place is very busy because there were pavilions ond chairs everywhere, just no people to be seen. It was actually a little bit creepy.

There were a lot of busses and passenger vans parked all over the town, but they had no markings on them to identify them.

As you can see in the picture the streets are all named and there are also streetlights.

Here are some pictures of the many buildings in this town. Notice how abandoned everything seems, but at the same time it is all so well maintained.

Another interesting thing I found was a very large generator.

The buildings mostly seemed to be pretty old, and a lot of them had fallout shelter signs.

There was some activity, because a noise was coming from this building and smoke was coming from the smokestack.

Here are some more pictures:

OK, now you tell me. What is this place? A secret government facility? A religious cult? A college?

I have no idea what it is, but I hope someone out there does know!

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Click here for a GPX file with all the waypoints.

GPS makes attempting such a thing pretty simple.  I simply downloaded a file of waypoints for each of the bridges and told the GPS to route me to each one of them.  I know a lot of people say that a GPS takes away the freedom of riding a motorcycle, but I think it does just the opposite.  I think it gives complete freedom when you are riding.  It would be so much more work to do a ride like this without a GPS.  With the GPS all you do is enjoy the ride and you don’t have to worry one bit where the next turn might be.

My first stop on the trip was the Windsor Mills Bridge.  I think it is one of the nicest bridges in the county.  It has a very nice wood inlay on the front and back and appears as if great pains were taken to make this an attractive bridge.  The bridge was built in 1867, and then it was rebuilt on opened for traffic again in early 2004. The supports are made from sandstone that was taken from a nearby quarry, and from stone right out of the river it goes over. Here is the location of the Windsor Mills Bridge: View Map

My next stop was the Riverdale Road Bridge. This bridge is really starting to show signs of its age.  This one was built in 1847 and was rebuilt in 1981. Here is the location of the Riverdale Road Bridge: View Map

If you are not comfortable riding on dirt or gravel roads, you probably should not attempt to see all these bridges.  You will ride many miles on roads like these if you do take the bridge tour.  As far as dirt roads go, they were all in very excellent condition and I had no problem at all riding comfortably at 50mph on these roads.  If you are the type of person who does not like to see his motorcycle get dirty you should probably avoid it as well.  By the end my bike was totally covered in dirt.

My next stop was the crown jewel of all the bridges in Ashtabula, the Harpersfield Bridge.  The bridge itself is quite nice, but it is also surrounded by a spectacular park.  A great place for picnicking, swimming, or fishing.  This bridge was built in 1868 and the steel section was added in 1913 after a flood washed out the north end of the bridge and altered the river channel.

If you are only going to see one bridge, this is the one I would recommend.  If you are making a day of it this would also be a great place for your midpoint.  Pack a lunch and hang out for an hour or two here.

Here is a map to the Harpersfield Bridge:

View Map

My next stop was the Mechanicsville Road Bridge.  Personally, I found this one quite unattractive.  This one was built in 1867 and is believed to be the oldest one in Ashtabula.  Across the street from this one is a great bar that serves some very excellent food, so this would also be a good place to take a break during your tour.

Here is a map to the Mechanicsville Road Bridge:

View Map

This bridge was built in 1868.  In 1987 it was renovated and a laminated arch was added.

Several of these bridges feature a laminated arch and I think they are very interesting.  It seems like a more honest way to provide support for the bridge than to run a bunch of steel underneath it.

Here is a map to the Doyle Road Bridge:

View Map

Next up was the Netcher Road Bridge.  This is one of the newest bridges in the county as it was built in 1998.  It also features a laminated arch and the walls are inverted Haupt style.

Here is a map to the Netcher Road Bridge:
View Map

The Giddings Road Bridge, built in 1995 was my next stop.

Here is a map to the Giddings Road Bridge:

View Map

The Olin bridge was named after a family that has owned the land next to the bridge since it was built in 1873.  This was also one of my favorites because it was in a very scenic and peaceful area.

The Olins Museum of Covered bridges is just past the Olin bridge, but they had a sign in the window that said closed the day I was there.  I don’t know what the hours are that they are open, but it might be an interesting place to visit if you are interested in learning more about the bridges.

Here is a map to the Olin Bridge:

View Map

Another laminated arch bridge, this one was built in 1900 and renovated in 1985.

Here is a map to the Benetka Bridge:

View Map

This one was built of southern pine and oak in 1983.

Here is a map to the State Road Bridge:

View Map

I had got a fairly late start for the ride, so I was beginning to run out of daylight.  To make matters worse, somebody was borrowing my camera and the camera I was using did not work nearly as well in low light, so I needed to pick up the pace if I was going to hit all the bridges before it got dark.

Nobody knows when the Creek Road bridge was built, but it was renovated in 1994.

Here is a map to the Creek Road Bridge:

View Map

Middle Road Bridge, built in 1868 and renovated in 1984.

Here is a map to the Middle Road Bridge:

View Map

The Root Road Bridge was built in 1868 and rebuilt in 1983.

Here is a map to the Root Road Bridge.

View Map

With time running out on me, the Graham Road Bridge was a bummer.  You can’t even drive through this one!  It was washed downstream during the 1913 flood and it was rebuilt from the remains in this field alongside the road.

Here is a map to the Graham Road Bridge:

View Map

This is the first Pratt truss bridge built in Ohio.  The Caine Road Bridge was built in 1986 to celebrate Ashtabula Countys 175th anniversary.

Here is a map to the Caine Road Bridge:

View Map

Unfortunately for me, this would be the last bridge I could see because it was getting too dark for the camera to get a good picture.  I still did pretty well considering I had not even left home until after 1:00.  The only bridge I missed was the South Denmark Road Bridge and I plan on doing this again in the fall when the leaves change!

I highly recommend this ride for anybody.  Even if you don’t care about the bridges there is some very nice motorcycle riding involved in getting to each of them.  I guarantee you will not be disapointed if you spend the day searching these bridges down!

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Above is one of the customs at the show. Now for me I would never really want to ride a bike like this, and I guess nobody really rides bikes like this. You do have to be impressed with it. It just sparkled like a diamond and the paint job was very complex and well done. Not really my cup of tea, but still an impressive motorcycle.

The Hayabusa above is something I am a little bit more drawn to, but this one was really strange. The wheels appeared to be hubless, but they were not. It was a solid wheel, but the inside part was some kind of Plexiglas or something. I just can’t imagine that this could hold up at all. I could not find any information on the bike so maybe there is something I am missing, but I imagine within an hour I could have those wheels destroyed. Now this is my idea of a sweet custom motorcycle. This Ducati was really attracting a lot of attention. If you like purple motorcycles with fat rear tires, this is the bike for you. This is not the bike for me. The bikes above are interesting. Actually, they are the same motorcycle. It looks different from each side. Victory really makes some beautiful motorcycles. Now here is a custom motorcycle I would love to have! This is Casey Stoners Moto GP bike.

And here is the bike Valentino Rossi rode last year. Getting the chance to see these bikes up close is one of my favorite things about the motorcycle show.

I also love the engine cutaways. On the left is a BMW and on the right is the new Buell engine. I can stare at these for a long time.

This is Roger Hayden’s Supersport Kawasaki.

Here is BUB 7, the bike that holds the current land speed record.

I am sure you have noticed that there has been no Harley bashing in this writeup. These tough guys pulled up on me and told me if I did any Harley bashing they would find me. I love Harley’s!

I am not going to say who the Korean manufacturer is that puts the sticker above on their bikes. Cool Boy? Would you ride a motorcycle that says Cool Boy on the side? Those Koreans probably wanted to put something like “Bad Ass” on the side, but translated it to Cool Boy. The rep there said that the sticker comes of really easy.

Here is the exit Nazi. She looks nice and friendly, but don’t try to exit through her entrance. I turned on the charm and tried to talk her into letting me do it anyway, but she would have none of it. I have never seen a woman who could resist my charms before.

Supposedly this is another land speed bike, but to me it looks like something Donald Duck would ride.

I don’t think there is a single kid in the whole world who doesn’t want one of these. I know I want one!

On the way home we had Pizza in Parma. The boy and I killed an entire large, plus garlic bread!

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Here we are on our first gas stop for the trip.  It was a pretty cold morning and the sun was finally starting to warm up.  Someone in the group was supposed to be fasting and he came out of the gas station with a bag of pepperoni rolls.  He had to pass them out to everyone to shut us all up. 

We took a little break along the freeway and I noticed that I might have put a little too much chain lube on my chain.  The lube was really dripping on the ground.  Next time I’ll have to use a little bit less.

The spot I chose to stop at along the freeway was just so pretty we decided to stay there for a while.  It is so fun watching the cars go by.  For a while I thought I might just spend the whole weekend right at this spot.  I told everyone else to go on ahead without me, but they enjoyed this spot as much as I did and they decided to just stand around on the edge of the freeway with me.  I had a great time!

Gold Wing riders are real practical jokers.  While I was enjoying the freeway I must have fallen asleep.  They cooked up the idea that they would hide my motorcycle so I could not find it when I woke up.  Since they did not have a key they called a tow truck to come pick it up and take it somewhere that I could not find it.

When I woke up I knew something was up.  Everyone had this silly little grin on their faces.  I went to get some sunglasses out of the bike and I could not find it!  It was nowhere to be seen!  Everybody laughed and laughed!  I told them this is the best joke anybody ever played on me!  You guys really got me this time!

After we all had a good laugh they called the tow truck driver back to take me to my motorcycle.  The truck driver thought it was a pretty funny prank as well.  He was pulled over by the police as he was towing the bike.  He asked the cop what the problem was and the cop told him that he must be stealing the motorcycle because he has never seen a Suzuki that needed a tow truck before.  The tow truck driver explained how the Gold Wing guys were pranking me and they had a good laugh also!

All this tomfoolery was putting us a little behind schedule so we had to get back on the road and press pretty hard if we were going to make it to the motel by dark.  Here is a nice view near Gauley Bridge WV.  Hawks Nest State Park is just up the road, but we really did not have time to make it up there so we just checked out the sights here for a while and then continued south on 16.

We enjoyed our stop along the freeway so much we decided to hang out on the freeway again for a while.  You better believe I never took a nap this time, and I kept my eye on the motorcycle the whole time!

Rt. 16 is such a twisty, beautiful road.  We stopped to get some action shots of each of us going around the turns.  Here is a shot of me flying through the turn.  Boy was it fun.  I was the fastest person on the road that day.  Usually I cannot keep up with Mark, but today was just my day.  I had so much fun I wished it would never end.

Ray was really railing the Gold Wing through the turns also.  That Ring of Fire seemed to act like some kind of turbo.  I had a real hard time doing it, but I did manage to smoke even Ray with the Ring of Fire.  I could see the disapointment in Rays eyes and knew it wasn’t over.  Ray is not used to being smoked and I could tell he was not real happy about it, but he remained a gentleman.

Life is not all about mind bending speed, so as the sun set we took another break and just enjoyed the beauty around us.  Sometimes we may get a little competitive, but it is all in good fun and we all have the deepest respect for each other.  As we stood looking into the sunset we held hands with tears in our eyes and then had a great big group hug. 

All the hugging and crying made us really hungry so we found this really nice Italian place to eat.  The food was really good but it was pretty expensive.  We tried to sneak out without paying the bill but the caught us at the door.  This left us all with pretty much no money at all but we figured we would be home tomorrow so we could probably go that long without food. 

The next morning we went to Burkes Garden.  It really was a pretty place.  All surrounded by mountains it did not matter which way you looked there was a mountain in the background.  This was a place where time stood still.  A place where the town folk all know each other.  A place you do not have to lock your doors.  A place where people trusted others and strangers were treated like friends.  A place we could rob blind so we would have money to buy food on the way home.

Since nobody locks doors we were able to walk right into the church.  Ray found some cases of jelly the church was selling to raise money to help a child in town that had some kind of disease, so he stole the jelly.  We figured the sugar would give us the energy we needed to steal some gas so we could make it home.

As Ray was stealing the jelly, a kind old lady arrived.  It turns out she volunteers to clean the church every Sunday afternoon and she was a really nice lady, but we could not have her go inside and catch Ray.  Nick reacted quickly and grabbed her and stuffed her into the trunk of his Gold Wing.  We looked through the truck and unfortunately could find nothing of value.  We did siphon the gas out of her truck and filled the gas tanks of our bikes.  I would never have thought a little old lady could make so much noise, but she was a feisty one!  We told her to calm down, we were not going to hurt her we just wanted to steal all her stuff.

We told Ray to hurry up.  He found the collection plate and stuffed all the money in his pocket.

Ray high tailed it to the bikes and we got out of town.

Once we got to the Appalachian Trail we let the nice lady out of Nicks trunk.  We thanked her for the gasoline and showed her the direction back to town. 

With our bellies and gas tanks full it was time to raise hell again!  Ray was determined to recapture his title as the fastest rider and decided to show us all what a Gold Wing can do on a dirt road.  I figured the Vstrom would give me a hell of an advantage on the dirt road, but as you can see by the picture Ray was riding like a man possessed.  We watched in awe as Ray flew around the gravel turns dragging his knee.  It was the most impressive riding I have ever seen, and a true testimony to the versatility of a Gold Wing.  Name another motorcycle that you can ride all day in comfort, fit an old lady in the trunk, and then slide through the turns like this.

We found this beautiful lake and thought we might go swimming.

We saw these folks fishing, and when we saw the size of the fish they had hooked decided we better not swim here!  We just hung out and watched this giant fish jump over and over again and drag the pontoon boat up and down the lake.  We don’t know if they ever landed the fish.

We were almost home by now and when we found this little gas station we figured it would be a good place to rob.  Not many people around and we could steal gasoline, food, and cash all at one place.  We really did not have time to waste so this really helped keep us on schedule.

As the sun set we thought about what a great weekend we had.  We met some new friends and saw some great scenery.  I can’t wait to do it again!

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I made great time on the way down.  No traffic, great weather.  There sure were a lot of police out in Ohio for the Labor Day weekend, but somehow I managed to avoid their radar.  Many others were not so lucky.  All was well until I got half way through Kentucky.  This is where I ran into a massive traffic jam.  There was a terrible wreck that just destroyed a big truck, and it really tied up traffic bad.  Even with the wreck I managed to arrive at the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort around 3:30PM so I still managed to make the trip pretty fast.

Saturday they had the dam open for the kayakers.  I had never gone down to see them before and decided this time I would take some time out to watch these guys.  I ran into Robbinsville to pick up some supplies for the room and got a chance to see a lot of the kayaks on the way to the store.  Unfortunately, there was only kayaking on Saturday, so when I went down to the river on Sunday to watch them I was all alone.

I took the short trip down 28 to Fontana Dam and checked it out.  It is pretty cool because it is one of the few dams that you can actually drive across

Each morning I tried to get in a sunrise ride, but I never quite made it.  I was having a really hard time waking up in the morning and I missed some pretty good mornings.  There is nothing like sitting at the overlook drinking your morning coffee and watching the sun come up.  It was usually the same group of folks up there each morning.  One of the guys is from Knoxville and he is retired.  Every morning he wakes up, jumps on the SV650, and goes and rides the gap.  He gets breakfast at the store, rides a little more, and then goes home.  I told him he is living the life.   

Here is a view of Fontana Lake.  This drought thing is no joke, the lake is really low.  I’d rather the lake run completely dry than have a trip ruined by rain.  I suffered in the rain so much last year I really do deserve the nice dry year I have had this year.

I really had a great time on this trip.  What made it so good is that there were a great bunch of folks staying at the motel.  Hanging out with these folks was just as much fun as riding the motorcycle. 

I have run into this guy a couple of times this year.  This trip was kind of unlucky for him because he dumped his bike pretty early on in the trip.  He still kept his spirits up and seemed to have a lot of fun even if he did not have a bike to ride.

Check out this exotic Italian beauty.  I’m talking about the Aprilia.  I am kind of impressed by this picture because they both look pretty European.  You really can’t tell from the picture, but she is pretty down to earth and a regular person.  This picture makes her look pretty exotic/supermodelish I think.

Nothing exotic here but the motorcycle.  He specifically requested for me not to put a smart ass caption at the bottom of his picture, so I will say no more.

Here is the troublemaker of the week.  This woman is out of control.  I have to tell you, when she gets wound up just get out of the way.  Kind of like the Tasmanian Devil.

Here is her main accomplice.  Don’t even try to talk on the telephone when she gets all wound up.  This is her old mans bike,

and this is her bike. 

We never got a chance to do any riding together, but we did have a lot of great motorcycle talk.  Just hanging out and meeting folks is worth the trip.

She really surprised a lot of people.  When I got back to the store I told them that I have been passed by a girl before.  I have been passed by a Harley before.  I have even been passed by someone from Florida before.  It still hurt my manhood to get smoked by a girl from Florida riding a Harley.

What can I say?  The women just adore me.  I can’t blame them.  Everywhere I go I leave a trail of broken hearts.

It really was hard to leave this time.  I really had such a great time.  If all I was looking at was a freeway ride home it would have been really hard to leave, but I was heading for my all time favorite road in the world, the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I don’t think I have ever seen a day so clear on the parkway.  Above is the view from Mt. Mitchell.  I think this is why they call it the Blue Ridge!  There was not a cloud in the sky and you could see forever!  No matter how many times I go through here it is just as stunning as it was the first time.  A lot of guys say they don’t like the parkway because of the 45mph speed limit, but I just cannot imagine blasting through here trying to make time.  This road is not for making time.  This road is for riding.  It is pretty rare for me to go further than 20 miles without stopping.

This is really what riding is all about.  The North Carolina side of the Blue Ridge Parkway has nearly 200 miles worth of what you see above.

On the way home I stopped at the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Campground.  The guy on the right is Phil and the guy on the left is Chuck.  Chuck seems to be the guy who does all the work.  I did not spend the night there, but the place looks really nice and the folks are friendly.

In addition to camping they also have these little cabins.  They do have lights and heat, but there is no electric outlet that you can charge your Chatterbox and such with.  Phil told me that you can recharge any devices you might have in their little clubhouse.  The day I was there a Kawasaki Concours rally was just beginning as well as some type of dual sport get together.  This is the best type of place to stay when you are out riding.  Checking into a motel and going inside to watch television is not the thing to do.  A huge part is telling stories and listening to other peoples stories.  I wish there were more places like this.

This is the clubhouse.  This is one of the most important things for a motorcycle campground to have.  The worst thing that can happen on a motorcycle camping trip is for the weather to turn rainy and cold.  This can create pure misery as you just sit in your tent and wait for the weather to clear.  It is nice when you have a place like this to hand out warm and dry.

I decided to check out Shady Valley on my way home and found the THP doing the same stupid stuff there they are doing at the Gap.  Some of the locals told me they have been blocking off the road quite a bit and stopping all traffic going through and looking for some reason to issue a ticket.  Pretty much all I did was eat a cheeseburger and head out.  It is a shame the THP is causing such a problem this year.

Here is a shot of the valley on Rt. 16 near the Virginia/West Virginia border.  This is just a spectacular view.  It kind of reminds me of being out west.  We will be going back down here at the end of the month.

I stopped at Hawks Nest State Park in West Virginia.  These folks asked if they were going to be on the internet tomorrow.  I told them they would not be.  It was over a week ago that I took the picture, so I did not lie.

Here is the view to the right,

and here is the view to the left.

Some times signs just beg you to do things.  It really never occurred to me to throw anything over the overlook, but once I read this I realized how cool it would be to throw something over.  Like a refrigerator.  Or maybe a Porta-John.  I decided to leave before I put much more thought into this and got arrested.

It wasn’t too long after I left Hawks Nest that I got on the interstate and finished the trip home.  I was getting really tired.  Nine days of staying up late and waking up early to ride all day were really beginning to wear me down.  I was even starting to ride more sloppy than usual, so I figured the interstate would be a safer place for me.  It did take a while to recover, but as I write this I have been home for six days and I would do it all over again tomorrow if I had the chance.  I don’t know if I will ever have a trip quite the same as this one ever again, but even if the destination is the same they are all different and memorable for different things.  I should be heading out for the gap again on October 6.

I can’t wait.

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