Day twenty, east stroudsburg, pa to arlingtoN va
Let’s just say today’s ride doesn’t rate as even justifying some commentary. The predicted hottest day on record for the north east for the last few years was well and truly that, we hit 47 degrees in the afternoon just before arriving.
Those sort of temperatures are not conducive to pleasant motorcycle riding in Washington DC Sunday afternoon traffic. Enough said.
We called in at the Harley Davidson Factory in York, Pennsylvania on the way through but not open on Sundays so not even a browse through the shop. It’s a massive complex, like several rugby fields and Harley own the park of several hundred acres is is set on. pretty impressive.
Thats about all that impressed in York, Pennsylvania, just saying.
DC accommodation prices were a tad on the high side so we opted for a Motel in a suburb of Arlington called Roslyn. Arlington of course, being just across the river from DC. The Motel, the Red Lion, is Just across the road from the Arlington National Cemetery in fact. When we popped around the corner to the supermarket it appears this is rather a ritzy wee suburb of residential apartments that I suspect cost a lot of money to buy or rent. very up market.
Tommorrow we have arranged a rather pricey private tour of the sights of DC with a company that takes all eight of us in an air conditioned van, that does it for me. Even though the temps are supposed to get back to normal from Monday, the reviews on all the hop on hop off buses were rubbish, shades of our New York experience with lots of walking and no bloody buses coming back to pick you up came to mind. With record high temps in the country that option was off the table pretty quick. Will report back on how the tour goes. Janelle has spent quite a bit of time reviewing the private tour outfits and slashing and burning to the best reviewed companies, so fingers crossed. Hope they know where the good coffee stops are.
From a motorcycling perspective, us Kiwi’s are pretty lucky with such great roads to ride in any town we live in. The poor old Harley riders in this part of the country have wee pockets of nice riding here and there with miles and miles of crappy interstate riding to those wee pockets and home again. The American dream eh?
When we leave Washington DC we are into rural Pennsylvania and then on the Blue Ridge Mountains , Shenandoah Mountains and the Smokey Mountains for the next almost three weeks so hoping for some great riding in those areas.
Pic below is looking down the street from the supermarket around the corner in Roslyn, Arlington.
