Gettysburg Ride Report

I headed down Prince William Parkway, and turned onto Hoadly Road; as I was going up Hoadly, I decided to go down Purcell, wanted to keep my twisty road skills on the sharp side. Since riding the mountains of the Blue Ridge, Purcell isn’t as scary as before. It’s a good road to keep the skill on track…

I pulled back on to the Prince William Parkway and headed towards I-66. The traffic on 66 was on the heavy side; I guess everybody was out enjoying the great weather. I turned off at Haymarket, and turned right on to 15. There is some construction going on in this area, on and off for about 10 miles. As I pasted the 234 route intersection. A pickup truck in the other lane had passed me and I heard a loud bang, I looked over in the other lane and there are two big trash bins siding down the road. Thank goodness they stayed in the other lane. The truck was hauling these bins in the back with the tail gate down; STUPID!!!!!!! Good thing there wasn’t anybody behind him, or they may have hit the bins in to my lane…

I headed up 15 and was really enjoying the ride. I looked down and thought I would stop at Thurmont for gas. As I pulled off the highway onto the exit, there were cars parked on both sides of the exit. Thurmont was having their “colorfest” event today, it took me some time to get to the gas station, I top off, and went inside for a restroom break; another mistake-- everybody was doing this as well, so I had to stand in line for awhile.

I didn’t have too much trouble getting out of Thurmont as getting in. Back up on 15 I pulled into Gettysburg around 12:30 and was hungry, so I decided to stop at KFC for lunch, there were a lot of tour buses out today as well. I swear all the schools were here today.

After Lunch, I headed toward the battlefield visitor center; I wanted to see the film they have, but there were so many people, didn’t want to waste the day waiting around, and so off I went towards the auto tour of the battle field. The ride thru time was awesome, words can’t explain. To know you are riding thru these fields when there was nothing but bodies lying around of the dead, and the moaning of the wounded. The smell of blood in the air must have been like a thick fog!!!!

I stopped to climb the tower to take some pictures, there were two women that were waiting on their husbands. They asked if I rode a motorcycle by myself and I said “yes; that women rule.” They were in awe and said they "wish they could be more independent.” The really sad part of this is, they weren’t that much older then me, maybe 5 or so years older. Sad that women have to rely on men to enjoy life… As I climbed this tower, I started to think that my motorcycle boots are heavy, or is it I’m that out of shape; I think it’s the later!!!! :o)