The morning came early, as usual. That's actually a good thing. We're up before most people in the camp grounds. We can take care of the morning rounds....then wake everybody as we leave.
Actually we're pretty quiet when we take off in the morning....unless there's reason not to be.
As a side note...I really need Doug's pictures for the rest of this trip. I'll try to get them tomorrow. Meanwhile I'll post what I have.
In the morning, we gathered up our gear, packed the bikes and hit the road. We drove out the lot and turned left drove half a block to the Cadillac Ranch for breakfast. The Cadillac Ranch is a restaurant dedicated to Elvis. The food was good though. Is there an Elvis thing on bike trips? We really aren't Elvis fans but we seem to stop at places dedicated to him. Oh well. Onward!
After breakfast it was on to I81S to the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway.
Now at this point, I think I figured out part of our problem. We’re really good at making a 3 hour trip turn into a 9 hour trip. When deciding to go to the parkway, Jim, Doug and I were looking at the map. During the mounted portion of the day my glasses are safely tucked away, so I do no reading. Looking at the map, Jim said it was only a mile or two, Doug said it was about ten. Fourteen miles later we hit the parkway. As we entered the Blue Ridge Parkway the weather started turning a bit wetter. Not really raining but we were definitely riding through the clouds. This was starting to turn into an interesting ride. The higher we got, the wetter it got. The wetter it got, the less I could see. Doug and Jim both ride Electroglides. Their bikes are built with fairings and wind shields that allow them a little better protection. Me…not so much. I ride a Wide Glide with an after market wind shield. I wear dark glasses most days because the sunlight really bothers my eyes. The more overcast and misty it got, the less I could see. The wind shield doesn’t shed the mist so it gets very hard to see through. Add the dark glasses that also fog up and we have a recipe for nearly total blindness. Picture this…..we are now riding on some very winding roads with no guard rails, with drop offs of, in some cases, a couple hundred feet. Now…close your eyes! It got to the point where I was riding down the road with my glasses in my teeth looking over the wind shield trying to see the road in front of me. At times it wasn’t too clear where it was or which way it turned. After a few miles of this I had to turn off the highway into a scenic overlook, take out a clear pair of glasses, clean my wind shield then resume the ride. I caught up with Doug and Jim a few miles later where they had stopped to see what had happened to me. Explaining why I stopped I found that both Jim and Doug had similar problems. None of us were to keen on driving these roads in these conditions. Unlike the ride out west, these drop offs we might actually be able to ride out for a hundred feet or so before we smashed into the trees or rocks. I digress..... Fortunately, we road out of most of the foggy areas in just a short while.
Our first stop of the day was the James River Way side Museum. This was an interesting little stop. It consisted of a small museum along the James river with a restored lock and canal for moving traffic up and down the river.
Doug on the bridge across the James River.To get to the restored lock, we had to cross the James river on this bridge.
If you look at the picture closely you can see, in the upper level of the lock, the original pine planking on the bottom. Cool!After the lock and canal it was on to Virginia Beach!
We stopped for a couple of pictures at this scenic overlook.
We continued on 39 until we came to I81
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