Wednesday August 1st

Well, by the time we got packed and ready it was 7... not too bad, only 2 hours late ;-) Hot (88 deg) muggy day... First impressions? Can definitely feel the extra weight. It’s not awkward or unwieldy so much as 'just there'. I suppose that's kind of the definition of inertia?

I took a little video along the way, the clouds east were quite pretty; big billowing puffy white in the evening sun. As we headed west the thunderstorms (forecast was rain in Winchester at 8:00) were also so very pretty.

As we continued along it wasn't long before we drove under the clouds we were admiring earlier. It was fun to see the changes. Early they were heavy black and we could see the sun lighting up the edges, giving high lights. Later as the sun set and we were about to slide underneath it was just a pile of big black ominous storm clouds. Latter still little hints of red under the storm front way off in the west hinting that the rain would end and skies would clear...

While there wasn't a great deal of lightning, there was some. Here we caught a strike...

... which lite up the entire cloud.

Just before the rain began we looked to the right and it was obvious that it was pouring to the north. Deep blue/black streaking down from heavens to earth, God's brush strokes I suppose. The scene is too dark for a good capture, but added it here anyway to set the tone for the darkness that descended as we passed into the clouds. The hints of purple dance on the periphery amidst the black as you look at the photo.

We even imagined that it might pass by without us getting wet, but not quite :-) Although it really wasn't bad. We stopped at a gas station to put rain gear on, I just brought the jacket, and when we arrived in Winchester I wasn’t even wet - the jacket worked well and we were at speed so my lower half stayed mostly dry behind the fairing.

Air B&B host was wonderful, room very nice. About to go get a cup of coffee and breakfast then off we go!

--- September 2 wow, took way too long to come back to this, an entire month. Well at least I have a disclaimer in the blog subtitle :-(. ---

The name of the property on the Air B&B website is Beautiful Colonial House. Sure is...

Seems a shame not to sit on the porch and relax, but today is the big day. Plan is to load up the front end a bit with higher miles while we are fresh then take a more leisurely pace later. We'll see how that works!

Additional pictures, stories, and details in this interactive map. Enjoy!