In addition to a really nice family holiday, I have been spending time between Christmas and New Years planning routes for a motorcycle ride this summer. I know, thinking about motorcycling in the middle of winter is crazy, but certain types of mental illness are not preventable.
Naturally, you can do a lot of planning online these days, but there is no substitute for going there. Every route that I planned at home needed "adjusting" once I saw it in person. Happily, I can have fun driving these roads in the Fiat and exploring is fun, no matter what the weather. Well, almost any weather.
I learned a long time ago that it's difficult to take good pictures of curvy roads, so I've taken the liberty of showing screen clips of Google Maps, both terrain maps with fun roads and street view of select corners. Full kudos and honor is due to Google for their wonderful maps and full credit for the map images and street shot views. Full warning, Google street view shots vary in quality depending on when they were taken and where along the road, so the screen shot above is more than a bit fuzzy. The road is fun, though. I just love a high speed esses section like this.
Naturally, I took a few shots myself, but only with my poor phone. It's easy to tell the Street View shots, mine are winter with ice and theirs are summer with leaves.
This is Ohiopyle Falls with ice on the edges. I do like exploring in winter. The trees have lost their leaves and the snow lights up the shadows, so you can see many things that you would miss in summer. Let's just face facts. I have an itchy foot and have to travel to scratch that itch, no matter what time of year.
I wouldn't have wanted to try this road in winter. Better saved for summer.
This is what happens to the bedrock faces along the road. Water seeps out between the layers of rock and forms icicles. They are everywhere in Ohio and W. Virginia and they are as varied as they are beautiful.
Here is wishing you and yours a wonderful new year.
