This is for yesterday, June 20. Total trip mileage, about 5450.
Photos for today are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/daveste99/20080620
The hotel in Roanoke is situated next to the Roanoke airport and Karen thought for just a second about the idea of taking a plane home, instead of the bike. Actually, she never really considered it at all, but I did!
We got on the road at about 8:15 and headed north out of town to catch the next entrance to the BRP. We had just a short distance to go and once we got back on the Parkway we felt we were home again. It seems like no matter where you enter the Parkway, the road quickly climbs to elevation. The views are always spectacular and at the same time a bit intimidating when rounding curves on the bike, seeing just empty space with no barrier between you and the valley far below.
The Parkway is pristine. It is well maintained and the road surface is very good most of the time. The best part is there is little to no traffic and we pretty much had the road to ourselves most all of the time. However, riding the Parkway requires a great deal of effort and concentration. While you might think this is what we motorcyclists live for, you would be mostly correct, but after nearly 600 miles of this type of riding, it takes its toll on the body and the brain. The curves only stop when you are off the bike resting or refueling.
After a while, we crossed the state line into Virginia. Not much changed but we started seeing a whole bunch more deer right away and the trees on each side of the highway formed a canopy over the road. Karen took lots of pictures while rocking out to Led Zeplin’s Stairway to heaven. This section and Skyline Drive were teeming with deer.
We took a side trip to visit the Natural Bridge in VA. This is designated as one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. You can read about it here: http://www.naturalbridgeva.com/. We walked down 137 steps then took a path to the bridge. When I came around the corner and saw it for the first time, I was amazed at how large it really is. It rises higher than Niagara Falls! We walked the remainder of the path and saw some scaly creatures sunning themselves on a rock wall that bordered the path. We also looked into the Saltpeter cave and thought about how inventive people are to be able to take bird and bat crap and make gunpowder. We spent at least a couple of hours there then hit the road again.
I opted to take a nice secondary road, Hwy 501 north for a ways then took a jog back onto the BRP. At Rockfish gap, the BRP ends and Skyline Drive begins. The Shenandoah National Forest begins here also and continues for just over 100 miles where it terminates at the town of Front Royal. A highlight of this part of the Drive was that Karen saw a black bear eating foliage on the side of the road but the bummer was, the camera wasn’t out.
We completed the Drive and stayed the night in Front Royal arriving too late to get a room in our favorite motel chain and had to resort to staying in a Super 8 motel, much to Karen’s intense dislike of this type of accommodations. We found the Mountain Soul BBQ joint nearby and enjoyed some very good pork and chicken BBQ. We then walked to the center of town and were entertained by an orchestral concert in the park. It was quaint and very small town sort of thing you only imagine. Remind me to tell you about the “frozen custard”.
We walked back to the motel where we fell into bed and that ended the day.
We got on the road at about 8:15 and headed north out of town to catch the next entrance to the BRP. We had just a short distance to go and once we got back on the Parkway we felt we were home again. It seems like no matter where you enter the Parkway, the road quickly climbs to elevation. The views are always spectacular and at the same time a bit intimidating when rounding curves on the bike, seeing just empty space with no barrier between you and the valley far below.
The Parkway is pristine. It is well maintained and the road surface is very good most of the time. The best part is there is little to no traffic and we pretty much had the road to ourselves most all of the time. However, riding the Parkway requires a great deal of effort and concentration. While you might think this is what we motorcyclists live for, you would be mostly correct, but after nearly 600 miles of this type of riding, it takes its toll on the body and the brain. The curves only stop when you are off the bike resting or refueling.
After a while, we crossed the state line into Virginia. Not much changed but we started seeing a whole bunch more deer right away and the trees on each side of the highway formed a canopy over the road. Karen took lots of pictures while rocking out to Led Zeplin’s Stairway to heaven. This section and Skyline Drive were teeming with deer.
We took a side trip to visit the Natural Bridge in VA. This is designated as one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. You can read about it here: http://www.naturalbridgeva.com/. We walked down 137 steps then took a path to the bridge. When I came around the corner and saw it for the first time, I was amazed at how large it really is. It rises higher than Niagara Falls! We walked the remainder of the path and saw some scaly creatures sunning themselves on a rock wall that bordered the path. We also looked into the Saltpeter cave and thought about how inventive people are to be able to take bird and bat crap and make gunpowder. We spent at least a couple of hours there then hit the road again.
I opted to take a nice secondary road, Hwy 501 north for a ways then took a jog back onto the BRP. At Rockfish gap, the BRP ends and Skyline Drive begins. The Shenandoah National Forest begins here also and continues for just over 100 miles where it terminates at the town of Front Royal. A highlight of this part of the Drive was that Karen saw a black bear eating foliage on the side of the road but the bummer was, the camera wasn’t out.
We completed the Drive and stayed the night in Front Royal arriving too late to get a room in our favorite motel chain and had to resort to staying in a Super 8 motel, much to Karen’s intense dislike of this type of accommodations. We found the Mountain Soul BBQ joint nearby and enjoyed some very good pork and chicken BBQ. We then walked to the center of town and were entertained by an orchestral concert in the park. It was quaint and very small town sort of thing you only imagine. Remind me to tell you about the “frozen custard”.
We walked back to the motel where we fell into bed and that ended the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment