US-50 Coast-to-Coast: Day 2

I landed at BWI airport last night (Thursday) and stayed in Jessup, Maryland. The next morning I got up early and had James the hotel driver take me to the shipping company to pick the bike up. James was a great guy always who was talking non-stop as we drive the short distance down the road. I told him I was here to pick up my bike and then ride to California. I thought he was going to stop the van  

as he turned his head and looked back at me and said “You do not look like the kind of guy that would jump on a bike and ride it across the country”.

I picked up the bike and went back to the hotel to load the bike with my things. The next stop was the post office where I sent back two large boxes of clothes and things that I had used on the business trip beforehand.  

Things were going pretty good as I headed East to Ocean City, Maryland, the start of US-50 until I got about ½ mile from the bay bridge toll both.  Apparently there had been and accident on the bridge and the lanes were closed down to one lane. We waited at the toll booth while the cars slowly moved forward. What was so hard for me is that there where huge gaps between the cars that I could split, but splitting lanes is illegal in Maryland. I asked the toll both attended if he thought I should split the lanes, but he said I would get a ticket and not to try.  After about an hour the lanes clear, but not after the temperature went from 76 degrees to over 92 degrees while in line.

I decided to deviate from 50 on the inbound and head directly East to catch the coastal road south.  Really bad idea, because there was significant road construction.  I decided to wing an alternate route and got into even worse traffic. The traffic was just terrible everywhere I went. I often found myself in complete stop and go traffic. It took me 5 hours to get to Ocean City. Ocean City looks like Balboa Island on Steroids.  There were a million college students walking around and absolutely no place to park.  I essentially drove to the beginning of US-50 and started coming back to Baltimore.  All together it took 9 hours to make the trip, where I thought it was to be an easy 5 hours. 

Along the way I stopped at a rest stop where I met Ron.  Ron is 67 and recently put his wife in a hospice. He saw my motorcycle and came over to talk to me. He had just let go of his motorcycle.  He had been riding for 50 years. Ron told me that he was to soon move out of his trailer park because he could no longer pay for the unit because his wife was no longer bringing in a pay check.  He also needed to downsize his car because he could not make the payment. He said he would be just fine if he could find a room somewhere to rent. I really hated to leave Ron, but I said my goodbyes and left for the West. 

The corn along the coast was over 6 foot high. There were also produce stands all over the place. I have never seen so many produce stands.  The rain must have been really something to get all the growth.  

Once back over the bay bridge, the traffic was great until about 10 miles in. Then it all stopped.  I saw 4 motorcycle riders go bay on the far right side of the freeway. They then slid to the right and got on the shoulder and kept going. I was wondering how riders could ride on the shoulder if it was illegal to split lanes. My question was answered when I saw I highway patrol car jump on the shoulder and start after them. I lost sight of them shortly after. 

The traffic cleared and we took off at a good clip.  About 10 miles passed and again we hit a complete stop of traffic. There were at least 5 highway patrol cars zooming by on the shoulder. I thought there must be a really bad accident for a complete stop of traffic. I turned my engine off and got off the bike.  About 10 minutes later the traffic started again. We funneled down to one land and then I saw them. There were the 4 motorcycle guys sitting in the grass with their backs to the road.  All were in handcuffs and 10 highway patrol officers surrounded them. Apparently, the riders did not stop for the original highway patrol man. 

I got to the hotel at BWI and checked in around 7 PM.   The weather was beautiful as I put the cover on the bike.  The first day of riding had been really difficult with the traffic and heat. I covered 286 miles today.

Listening to the TV that night there were two things that stood out. The first was they were saying it had rained every day in July, with the exception of one day.  The second thing that was interesting is the government agencies were fighting about who was going to pay overtime for the resources called out for the Baltimore riots. Each agency was accusing the other for calling on each other when the riot occurred, claiming it was the other agency that should pay the overtime.  One person on the TV said "Who is going to pay for all this overtime?"