Castles, Air Bags, and George Washington's Bathtub

Today was a non-riding day. It was raining when we woke up, and it is still raining now during cocktail hour. We can ride in the rain, and have had to do so many times. But today we didn't have to, so we didn't. Instead, we hung out in Berkeley Springs, home of Berkeley Castle, George Washington's bathtub, and our new home-away-from-home, Maria's Garden & Inn.

Jim slept in this room where the great-great-grandson of George Washington's gardener once slept. Jim really liked the coverlet and pillow shams.

Ron slept in the other bedroom, and I slept on the floor in the kitchen. I really like the bathroom, including the rust-colored carpet on the floor.

We really couldn't go anywhere because Ron had to wait for his new Blackberry to be delivered. After getting the phone around 10 am, he spent another three hours trying to get it activated. Turned out, he wasn't in a Verizon zone, so he couldn't activate it...right now he's about 10 miles south of here in the nearest Verizon zone, trying to complete the job. Isn't technology great?

Berkeley Springs State Park is a tiny state park right in the middle of town where you can take a hot mineral bath, or steam bath, or get a massage, or all three. The bath-house is in the background in this photo.

It is also the home of George Washington's bathtub. Seems that George liked the warm mineral water that bubbles out of the ground here so much, he visited often and had his own soaking tub constructed. The only thing soaking in it today were about a dozen minnows.

We passed on the state park mineral bath spa and decided to check out this place instead...couldn't resist the sign.

Jim finally took the owner's manual for his '08 Goldwing out of its protective wrapping for the first time today and began reading the Airbag Supplement booklet. He now has a whole new set of things to worry about while riding....like hitting a pothole or curb. To quote from the manual, "The airbag might deploy if the front tire drops into a sharp depression, such as a pothole, or strikes a hard raised object, such as a curb. A brief high rate of deceleration can cause the airbag to deploy, even though it would not be needed."


I can see it now, Jim hits a pothole on Skyline drive and the airbag blows him off the bike into the bike or car following behind. He's afraid to even put on his brakes too hard now. So much for technology.