Last Sunday - April 15th - Chris and I planned to take a ride on the Concours. There was a Nittany Road Riders ride planned for that day. However, due to some very scattered early morning showers (did I mention they were scattered?), the ride was postponed. This left us to come up with our own ride. In true sport-touring fashion, I wanted to go in search of two things - some nice roads and some ice cream! Mid-morning, our friend Marty sent out an e-mail to the NRR group stating that he intended to spend the afternoon riding and that anyone interested should meet him at the Sheetz at Valley Vista at 1:30 PM. A-ha! Chris shot Marty a quick e-mail to let him know we'd be there and we quickly planned the rest of our morning/early afternoon. In the absence of anything "good" for lunch here at The Homestead, we planned for a 12:45 departure so Chris could grab an MTO sub before Marty arrived.
We rolled down the driveway at 12:44 and headed to Sheetz in search of petrol, pretzels, and provolone (pretzels for me, provolone on Chris' sub).
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| Our C14 |
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| Kickstand up! |
Sheetz was - as usual - hopping! I waited with the bike and our gear in the parking lot and made three canine friends in the process.
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| Two of the three pups chose to pose for the camera. |
Marty arrived about 1:10 while Chris was still inside waiting for his sub. Once outside, Chris ate his sub, I snacked on some pretzels, and we plotted our ride for the afternoon. No one else showed up for the ride (just as we expected), so we headed out from Sheetz in search of adventure!
From Sheetz we took North Atherton Street to Stevenson Lane to PA 550 headed toward Bellefonte. In Bellefonte, we picked up Howard Street, which eventually becomes Jacksonville Road (PA 26). We ran Jacksonville Road out to Walnut Street (PA 26) into Howard. At the intersection of PA 26 and PA 150, we headed north on PA 150 to Marsh Creek Road. We rode Marsh Creek Road to Summit Hill Road (passing Aunt Wanda's house along the way!). We looped up Summit Hill Road, back to Marsh Creek Road (which becomes Little Marsh Creek Road which becomes Yarnell Road), and stopped for ice cream at Jack's Snack Shack along Yarnell Road.
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| Pond along PA 550 just past Waddle. |
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| Tallyrand Park in Bellefonte. |
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| Following Marty out Howard Street/Jacksonville Road. |
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| Marty leads the way! |
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| Chris is like the Gray Stig. |
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| Approaching a left-hander. |
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| Foster Joseph Sayers Reservoir at Bald Eagle State Park in Howard, PA. |
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| Chasing Marty along Marsh Creek Road. |
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| The view from behind Chris' right shoulder. |
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| Leaning into a right turn. |
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| A barn. Of course! |
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| Jack's Snack Shack, complete with four-legged greeter! |
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| The dog came over and stood with us while we enjoyed our ice cream, then followed Chris to the trash can so he could throw away his dish (Marty and I had cones). |
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| Chris let the dog lick the remnants of his ice cream while giving the dog a scratch. |
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| The dog came back over to check out Marty's Tiger. |
After our snack break, we decided to make our way "sorta south." We did this by continuing out Yarnell Road until it became Bush Hollow Road and finally Thomas Hill Road. At PA 144, we headed south very briefly and then turned right onto Chestnut Grove Road, which becomes Bush Hollow Road again (stupid PA roads, grumble-grumble) and ends at Alt-US 220. We went south on Alt-US 220 to Unionville where we turned onto Chestnut Street/Unionville Pike/Purdue Mountain Road to head up over the mountain. Purdue Mountain Road turns into North Fillmore Road and we rode past my friend Rachel's house (alas, she wasn't home).
We crossed PA 550 on Fillmore Road and turned left onto Airport Road where we passed...wait for it...the airport. We took Rock Road to Trout Road to Shiloh Road where we made a quick pit stop at the Sheetz at the Benner Pike. We headed out the Benner Pike to Rishel Hill Road to and through Axemann and Pleasant Gap along PA 144. We took PA 144 over the mountain to Centre Hall where we turned onto Upper Brush Valley Road to Rock Hill Road to Linden Hall Road to PA 45. We took PA 45 through Shingletown (beeping as we passed Sandy's house) and stopped at Ferguson Elementary to decide whether to continue riding (it was after 4 at this point). We decided to keep going and Marty relinquished the lead to Chris.
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| University Park Airport - Mom and I will be headed out from here in July en route to Denver! |
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| It was a lovely day for a ride...mid-70s and mostly sunny. |
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| Lots of pollen-generating weeds out there! |
From the school, Chris took off up (well, down, really) PA 26 over the mountain to Charter Oak Road, which becomes Shavers Creek Road and eventually PA 305. We rode through Petersburg and Alexandria until we picked up US 22.
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| Hey, look! Marty is waving (not flipping me off like the last ride...LOL!) |
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I finally got a somewhat centered picture by actually turning around in my seat!
(Usually, I just point the camera backwards and hope for the best.) |
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| Another barn! |
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| Coming into Alexandria. |
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| The single-lane underpass in Spruce Creek. |
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| Marty emerging from the stone underpass. |
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| Crossing the bridge in Spruce Creek. |
From US 22, we turned onto PA 453/45 and veered onto PA 45 to head through Spruce Creek and back toward Pennsylvania Furnace...where we picked up...wait for it...MARENGO ROAD! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had what was quite possibly our best run EVER up Marengo Road. I was tucked in behind Chris, leaning into the turns, squeezing with my legs, and squealing like a school girl inside my helmet! The road was surprisingly clean and with a new front tire and a new-ish rear tire, it was a thrilling ride!
In all, we did a 151.3 mile jaunt in and around Centre County that took about four hours. It was great to get out for a few hours with Chris and Marty and log some seat time. We've got the Region 6 Spring Meet in 10 days and I'm not sure my butt is ready for 800 miles in a weekend...but I really have no choice...so I'll just pack lots of Advil!
