Together is the Best Place to Be, Day 2: Grand Canyon

Nova Scotia 2007
Day 2: Sunday June 17
Copyright(c) 2007, Jim Beachy

Kill-DEER!! Kill-DEER!! Kill-DEER!! The unplanned 5:00 AM wake-up call slashes through my dreams, moving from right to left in the early dawn. I can envision the killdeer’s scimitar-shaped flight as he voices his shrill territorial declaration across the valley. At the same moment, the Amish farmer next to Dad’s property starts the diesel engine that signifies the beginning of another Sunday, a day of rest in name only if you are a dairy farmer.


By about 9:00 AM we have made our goodbyes to the family and find ourselves heading eastward on I-68, then catching US 220 from Cumberland, Maryland and a northerly route to US 6 as it runs east and west across the top of Pennsylvania, near the New York line. It’s a crystal clear day, cool enough in the mountain air but likely to get hotter as the day progresses. US 6 is the longest contiguous highway in the USA, running from coast to coast across the northern reaches of the country. In Pennsylvania, it’s a hidden treasure. I’ve ridden it before on a solo ride; now, I want to share it with Kitty.


We swoop along graceful curves, climb a few hills, run along the river and then roll through farmland interspersed with a few small towns that can do no damage to the feeling that this is a really good road. We take a break at the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania near Wellsboro and gawk into the 800-foot chasm.


Before we know it, we’ve covered 324 miles and have reached Mansfield, Pennsylvania, where I’ve made reservations for the night. It’s been a beautiful slow-ride day and I can feel myself sliding into that zone where I and the bike become one, where I don’t “do” anything to guide the bike: I just “think it” and it happens. I haven’t done two-up riding while towing the trailer for some time, but Kitty is a fantastic and professional passenger; it takes a little while but by the end of the day I’m once again happily captivated and hopelessly immersed in how the mysteries of physics and gyroscopic precession and counter-steering and the illusive perfect lean angle all work in synergy so the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and… wow, this is FUN! I don’t know a better way to spend a day of vacation than to spend it on a motorcycle with the love of my life!


Life is good!