2022 FALL FIESTA RECAP

Shippensburg Start…

Ido not think we’d have called only the second batch of rain to come our way since summer to tackle us head-on as we left for this year’s annual Fall Fiesta. But, fate is a fickle bitch, and although getting caught in the rain bites, leaving in the rain is never much fun and can take the air out of your riding balloon. Still, the plan was for the first night of this soiree to take place on a Thursday in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania – The Shippensburg Inn now called a Clarion. We’d been here several times before and it has always been a crowd favorite - with a superb hotel and plenty of restaurants and civilization to be found in the PA college town.

With this all etched in stone we met a few friendly riders near the Delaware Water Gap and began a damp romp southwest with the threat of ever-brightening blues skies right over the horizon.

Riders would scoot in from all directions and from as far south as Florida and north from Canada, while our day was spent zigzagging along the eastern Appalachians and the ridges leading to the Susquehanna River. We passed over the ‘burning’ town of Centralia and in and out of tiny burgs known as Pillow and Ringtown.

Our planned lunch stop turned out to be closed this week, so, as per Team Orders, we rode into Plan B and found some late lunch at a Christian Coffee house called Kingdom Grounds. From here it was a super and twisty 40 miles through the Amish farmlands with their rolling hills and pristine asphalt to the hotel in Shippensburg – where we found the lot full of machines and getting fuller by the minute. By dusk, we had a full crew and the Fall Fiesta was underway.

To West Virginia…

This Friday would be the first day of Autumn, and on cue, Mother Nature responded with a chilly 50 degrees, but under a brilliant azure sky.

As usual, we had a few suggested routes south to the South Branch Inn, in Moorefield, West Virginia. We have stayed at the South Branch several times as well, and even had another rally here a few years back. In addition to having some spectacular riding in this part of the Mountain State, the South Branch has a few other things to offer as well – but they would come into play later this weekend.

First? We had to get there.

With three different routes to choose we had riders all over southern Pennsylvania, Maryland and West “By God” Virginia.

One route brought Fall Fiesta Peeps past the Farnham Colossi – one of the most unusual yards in the nation. Filled with all sorts of giant “colossi” – this seven-acre parcel of farmland in Unger, West Virginia, is home to a small army of giants. Displayed around the property are more than 20 enormous fiberglass figures designed in the 1960s for roadside advertising. Although not all the figures are male (or even human), these “colossi” are known generically as “Muffler Men.”

We have brought riders here for years and it is one of those oddly special

places that will always bring a smile to your face. It sure did to the riders this day.

For me, I followed Shira the Red along some great backroads she had mixed together, and ran for a good deal along the C & O Canal. With an entire day to get just over 200 miles we stopped in the town of Berkeley Springs to visit The Black Cat Music Shop. This is one of those tiny and happy music stores that get young ones interested and keeps our music flowing in this country. I always try to stop and shop at these stores as, in the days of Box Store everything, places like The Black Cat seem rarer and rarer.

We rode up into the mountains from here and then followed a tiny road called Detour – that was an absolute joy. Tiny and twisty and following the hills and dales in an almost musical manner – it was a fairly well-paved blast.

That led us a bit west and past Paw Paw – famed for their long tunnel and named for the largest edible fruit in North America – the PawPaw - that grew in abundance here in the region.

The nearby Paw Paw Tunnel was named for the town and is a major attraction for travelers along the C & O Canal that runs from Cumberland, MD to Washington, DC. which was built to bypass the 6-mile stretch of the Potomac known as the Paw Paw Bends. It opened for canal traffic in 1850 and continued operating until 1923. Following the canal, we rode between states before stopping for lunch in the city of Cumberland. This part of Maryland was at the epicenter of much of the Civil War, but since 1918 one of the things it has been famous for is Curtis Coney Island famous Wieners. Gino Giatras and family have been slinging these scrumptious dogs for a very long time and while we were there their customers kept on rolling in. A stop on the Great All American Diner Run for sure. Shira’s ride then brought us back across the Potomac and canal and through the town of Lonaconing. Here the massive Lonaconing Furnace, also known as The George’s Creek Coal and Iron Company Furnace No. 1 dominates the center of the town. This is a very big furnace, as furnaces go. It is a truncated square pyramid constructed of sandstone, 50 feet high, 50 feet square at the base, and 25 feet square at the top. Well worth the stop.

We then rode past the Kingsford Barbeque Briquette Factory – hey, they are everywhere and they have to come from somewhere; and that somewhere is here.

With all this heat, the ride’s view went in the other direction as we rode beneath miles of giant wind turbines, a bright and stark white against the bright blue sky of the day.

By early evening we rolled into Moorfield and the South Branch Inn. Small gatherings popped up, and parked bikes from some meant it was time for adult refreshment.

Some of us rode into town for a superb meal at Mullins 1847 – a place that has been around since before the Civil War and has seen both generals from that time, Lee and Grant, overnight in its rooms. Today it is a happening local jewel and they took great care of us.

Free day in West Virginia

So much to do and so many miles to be ridden.,

We threw out a bunch of routes, but everybody seemed too happy enough just getting out this first full day of Autumn.

It certainly was a bit chilly again, and a tad moist. Moist enough to have a light rainbow run across the South Branch valley sky right after a fiery dawn.

We had mixed up a few roads that we knew of down here and some we had never ridden before and came up pretty much aces all the way to Seneca Rocks.

Rising old and stark, nearly 900 feet above the North Fork River below, these rocks have long been a gathering spot for native tribes, settlers, climbers, and today’s riders.

From here our route got wonky and we had a quick, if puffy, white gravity-storm re-route up and over some charming Mountain State backroads and then south towards Pocahontas County. As you enter there is a historic sign that says Birthplace of Rivers, as the county is the site of the headwaters for eight rivers: Cherry, Cranberry, Elk, Gauley, Greenbrier, Tygart Valley, Williams, and Shaver’s Fork of the Cheat River.

The roads were empty and it became a very sporty ride to say the least and by noon-ish we had passed the Radio Observatory at Green Bank. We went in search of a meal at the Company Store at the Cass Railroad and, with lunch finished, the coal-fired locomotive came down the mountain, the giant steel and iron monster belching smoke and filling the valley with its echoing whistle. It made for that perfect Kodak Moment.

As we doubled back north we stopped at Greenbank, passing on the Visitors Center as they are stuck in 2020 and we are not. Still, the radio

telescopes are very impressive, especially the Grote Reber, which was handbuilt by Grote Reber, the world’s first radio astronomer, in his mother’s backyard in 1937, and was the prototype for its kind.

Our run back north was as spirited as they come, especially up and over the mountains on Route 33 – a perennial favorite of Backroads.

As the day wound down, riders began to pull back into the hotel’s lot as it was getting close to one of the highlights of this weekend – the second ever Big Backroadski Bowling Tournament.

Teams were made, bowling shirts created and fun certainly ahead, and it was.

Funny thing; when riders that kinda know each other are suddenly thrown together and have to operate like a team they do just that. Like helping out a rider in need - a bond of sorts is formed. Like a Band of Brothers – without the danger and sacrifice.

The Potomac Lanes did a great job with handling the influx of our people taking over half the bowling alley (Thank you Penny) and the Backroads camaraderie skipped to a very high level with everybody rooting for everybody else. A strike from your closest opponent was heartily cheered and gutter balls were kindly overlooked. There was even a little birthday celebration as two of our riders were checking off another trip around the sun – Happy Birthday Betsy and Jeff!

There were medals handed out for Best Team Name and Logo, Highest Score (Congrats Klaus), Low Score, Most Strikes, Most Gutters, and a few others as well; as we had bought the medals wholesale and were giving them away for just about anything.

To Lancaster, Pennsylvania…

So far, through this entire Fall Fiesta, the seasons of Summer and Fall were in the middle of their yearly skirmish We started in cold, wet conditions, and that gave way to pleasantly cool temperatures in the high 60s and with Mr. Blue Sky, after deciding not to hide on us anymore, looking down on us for most of the rest of the week.

But, Sunday’s ramble back north to Lancaster, Pennsylvania would see the weather flip flop all day.

The ride north, ‘Brought to you in Living Color’ with not a spread of gravel to be seen, was a Shiraka creation and was a most excellent ride as it scooted north along some very twistalicious backroads and crossed the border with the Old Line State at Shepherdstown. This day it was just Shira, myself, and

birthday boy King Jeff and we found an easy parking spot and had a walk about the Potomac River town – grabbing some Paw Paw fruit at the local Farmer’s Market and then lunch. Right about then, we heard our son was getting married. Very appropriate as the restaurant’s name was Betty’s – his grandmother’s name.

Ha – we rode in hungry and rode out with a daughter.

As we suited up to leave, Dark Sky chimed tornado warnings and the brilliant blue sky to the east ran dark black to the west.

Ahh, the Battle of Evermore, the dark against the light.

For about twenty minutes dark and wet won and we rode across the river into Maryland in a tempest; passing

by Antietam with dark cold rain pouring on us seemed apposite along these hallowed grounds.

The windy road up and over Catoctin mountain brought a brightening sky as we slid past Camp David and eventually rolled into McSherrystown, PA, for the required ice cream stop per Shira’s decree at a small shop called Ripleigh’s. This place seemed like just another ice cream stop, but it turned out to be a bit more, as you can read in this month’s ‘Inside Scoop’.

By late afternoon we slid over the Mason-Dixon Line and then crossed the Susquehanna River on the Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge.

This is one of our favorite crossings – so beautifully conceived and built it was nominated to the American Society of Civil Engineers where they said, “a splendid example of the graceful multiple-span, a reinforced-concrete arched form popular in early 20th Century highway bridges in the United States.” We agree.

Soon after we made our last overnight stop at the Fulton Steamboat Hotel, outside Lancaster. Built to lure the touristy crowd – it worked well for us too.

That evening saw a lot of friends hanging tough to a bit late in the evening as many knew that, at least for 2022, the Backroads gatherings were done – but we think we had a pretty good run – this being the 25th year of these shindigs. A quarter century – wow!

What a superb weekend. Great roads, interesting weather. Old friends and new.

It really doesn’t get much better.

Our 2023 Spring Rally will be held the same weekend as the National BMW Rally, this year on the east coast just north of Richmond, VA. Full details can be found on our website. We hope you can join us. ,