I used to be again at my previous stomping grounds. It was right here, 50 years in the past, the place my life modified, the place a dream took maintain and my street forward took type. The digital camera I bought from a Las Vegas pawn store throughout my navy service set issues in movement. I got here to Ohio College’s extremely regarded pictures program to study and discover my future, and now I used to be again. Athens was a pure starting level, the place I might end a bike journey that started years earlier.
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Till that journey, all my motorcycling adventures had been random, following no particular route, selecting any mixture of highways, typically in a westward route to the Rockies and past. However on that earlier journey I picked one freeway, U.S. Route 50, as soon as referred to by Time journal as “The Spine of America,” my journey starting in Cincinnati, Ohio, and ending in Sacramento, California. On the freeway’s western finish, there was an indication on the opposite aspect of the freeway telling eastbound vacationers that 3,073 miles away was Ocean Metropolis, Maryland. Seeing that signal was all I wanted to encourage my subsequent journey, however life bought in the best way. It was time to complete my U.S. 50 journey.
And there was one other matter. Over my a few years of using, I’d lengthy assumed that I’d touched my bike’s tires in all of the 49 continental states. However a couple of years again I noticed I’d someway missed Delaware. Solely a stone’s throw out of my manner, it turned a second goal for this journey.
To some extent, my two U.S. 50 rides had solely their freeway quantity in frequent, every half of our nation having a really totally different historical past. Using in our expansive West, it was straightforward to ponder the time of stagecoaches, the Pony Specific, and gold and silver discoveries. However now I used to be heading east, farther again in America’s historical past.
As success would have it, my second day on the street was my seventy fifth birthday, giving me cause to pause and take into account my very own historical past. Because the miles slipped by, my thoughts wandered again to life’s turning factors and the singular moments which have come to outline me: the nice and cozy kiss Cindy and I shared after saying “I do”; the primary glimpse of our son, Kevin, when he was born; and an airliner, rushing down the runway at Da Nang Air Base in Vietnam, returning me dwelling to a civilian life.
I knew the primary a part of this freeway effectively. I’d grown up solely an hour away from OU, in Zanesville, and through my early years rode on this space typically. The 4 lanes of straightforward using from Athens to Clarksburg, West Virginia, had modified little, however there have been a couple of variations. In small Ellenboro, there was now a McDonald’s, and in smaller Smithburg, a elaborate gasoline station and motel.
Quickly I noticed an indication, “Freeway Ends One Mile,” and at last, the freeway turned two lanes, remodeling into the land of yard gross sales, crowing roosters, and small household gardens. In solely 5 miles I finished 4 instances for footage, then got here a warning for a 3-mile-stretch with a 9% grade. Ain’t life grand?
On the backside of one of many lengthy downhill grades, I discovered my technique to Cool Springs Park, a basic retailer courting from an period way back. Outdoors have been enormous bins of apples, perhaps for making apple cider or pies, and dried corn on the cob, meant for feeding deer that inhabit the realm.
Every of our 50 states has a particular persona, and West Virginia is a very endearing place. The names of its roads and highways ring true to who they’re, like Mountain Prime, Sundown Drive, Rock Backside, and Grassy Lick.
Just about all of the locations I selected to research have been discovered by happenstance. Forward of me was one thing very totally different: the magical Cathedral State Park. Way back, railroad barons wanted what West Virginia, then a part of Virginia, had: lumber for making railroad ties. Fortunes have been made, the land denuded, besides this place. Because the story goes, the proprietor refused to promote, his now-500-year-old hemlock timber filling this park and my hike there one of many journey’s highlights.
Crossing into Virginia opened a contemporary chapter. The names I noticed evoked a component of distinction: Greystone, Mullwyck, and Amberstone, then Willow Pond and Stone Hill. Not lengthy into the state I discovered Winchester, a vibrant, pleasant place with an unmatched Civil Struggle historical past, a small city I might take into account if I have been in search of a brand new place to name dwelling.
My journey west on U.S. 50 had coated over 2,000 miles; my new journey east solely round 500 over two days. Past my aspect journey to Delaware, there was just one place requiring a cease: Washington, D.C.
At nightfall the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge welcomed me into town. The view was spectacular, the monuments fantastically lit, with U.S. 50 turning into Structure Avenue, one of many metropolis’s main streets.
I used to be one of many fortunate ones. I returned dwelling from Vietnam largely entire. I stepped out of my fatigues and seemingly by no means seemed again. I hadn’t carried a rifle, didn’t fly plane into hurt’s manner, nor went on rescue missions when issues went terribly improper. The heroes did. I used to be no hero. I had a job to do, and I used to be not often at risk. After coming dwelling, school got here and went, then Cindy and Kevin, my years typically trouble-free.
Many years in the past, not lengthy after the constructing of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, I went to D.C. for enterprise and visited “The Wall.” It was darkish and early once I arrived. At first I might barely make out the form of what had been so controversial. Then I used to be sobbing, crying as by no means earlier than, far past something in my previous, even when my dad and mom had handed.
I stood there, blinded by tears. All of the loss welled up from inside. Oddly, my life spared me figuring out even a single soul’s identify perpetually etched on the memorial. With no identify to seek for, my overwhelming thought went to my 50,000 brothers and sisters, all gone, their households perpetually damaged. That is the place I needed to witness once more, to pay my respects and to say a prayer and a thanks for being introduced dwelling.
The freeway into Maryland was a race, even on a Sunday morning. A driver flew by me, his license plate declaring, with unabashed honesty, “TOO FAST.” As soon as once more there was a shift. The state had a special really feel, with the Atlantic Ocean a brief distance away.
In Annapolis, the museum on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Academy was my subsequent cease. We from the Air Pressure and “these guys” have at all times had a rivalry, however we’re all on the identical workforce. The tiny and historic metropolis was charming. In some locations it seemed like a film set, someplace you would possibly discover Captain Jack Sparrow looking for a mug of rum. I rapidly bought the texture for the realm, with streets known as Admiral Drive and Farragut Highway.
My stroll to the museum was brief however simply lengthy sufficient to get caught in the one rain on my technique to Ocean Metropolis. Perhaps the Navy gods have been poking enjoyable on the visiting fly boy. However as soon as contained in the museum, seeing John Paul Jones’ battle flag, “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” set in movement the gravity of what this place represents. Up on the second flooring have been fashions of unimaginable previous ships, however within the again was a group of actually particular fashions, constructed by prisoners throughout the Napoleonic Wars from the bones scavenged from their jail meals.
Subsequent got here my aspect journey to Delaware, my forty ninth state. It was a quick exit from U.S. 50 after which again, however there had been no signal welcoming me to the state, solely a token rectangle reminding everybody to “Preserve DE Litter Free.” Come on, guys!
The east-west U.S. 50 freeway might have led to close by Baltimore, so why was I now using due south for shut to 2 hours to succeed in the freeway’s terminus? As soon as once more, I discovered the freeway lacked curiosity, plagued with occasional site visitors lights with interminably lengthy purple cycles. Maybe my persistence was sporting skinny, my objective in any case these years practically in sight.
Way back, when the highways we all know in the present day have been in improvement, I’m guessing somebody figured there wanted to be a particular japanese origin to start U.S. 50, they usually correctly picked Ocean Metropolis. The place is a testomony to how “enjoyable” may be outlined, with effectively over 100 lodges with greater than 10,000 rooms and a boardwalk generally 40 toes huge and virtually two and a half miles lengthy. In case you can think about it, you will discover it in Ocean Metropolis.
Means again in California I’d photographed the freeway signal, noting the space to Ocean Metropolis. There’s a related sign up Maryland geared toward California. The signal hanging over the bridge leaving city was meant to be my remaining image.
Out in entrance of our resort have been two ladies feeding birds. Neither the ladies nor any of the birds had any curiosity in me, so I took my remaining image. Past the saltwater taffy, the hand-carved carousel, and the boardwalk, it’s the seaside and the ocean which can be this place’s true attraction, a correct remaining reminiscence of my U.S. 50 journey.
Years again I picked this freeway on goal: a dedication – proper, improper, or detached. U.S. Route 50 was designated practically a century in the past, and since then it has morphed by necessity into what was thought-about greatest for the driving public. Some components are four-lane and mundane, whereas others replicate its earlier historical past, the place there’s nonetheless character and the place journey is slower. And I had lastly ridden all of it, from finish to finish.
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U.S. Route 50 Motorbike Journey Assets
Ken Frick’s first story for Rider appeared in 1988, with many others to comply with. He calls central Ohio dwelling, from the place he made his dwelling as a contract business photographer. A library of Ken’s pictures and writing may be discovered at KenFrick.pictures.
