Hank's Smokehouse-Massanutten

The weather here in Virginia has been gorgeous this November! Another beautiful day for motorcycle riding. Libby and I rode up to Massanutten to eat at Hank's Smokehouse. We stopped at Cuppa Joe's coffee house for a break and a coffee going up.

I really don't remember the leaf color staying so nice in Virginia for so long as it has done this fall. Really pretty!

Hank's Smokehouse was just as good as the reviews!! I had the Texas smoked brisket with whiskey BBQ sauce and Libby had the roast beef.

What a meal. We were two happy campers!!

And we got a great place to park too!!

On the way back we stopped at Cuppa Joe's AGAIN, but this time for ice cream! We took advantage of the lounge chairs outside the restaurant and enjoyed the sunshine and warm air!!

Did "discover" a couple of interesting things on the way back about 10 miles from our home. One of the WORST highway construction events you can encounter is a highway road painting truck!! I also now know that these "things" go only 10 mph. It took us almost an hour to go the last 10 miles on US 522 coming home! You couldn't pass the paint truck and traffic was backed up as far as we could see. Not really a big deal on a day like today and after a great ride with my wife and meal!! We took our time, relaxed and watched the leaves go by as we were in 1st gear going 10 mph!!

Also went over 70,000 miles on the odometer of my 07 Ultra coming back. Gotta schedule a 10,000 mile maintenance soon!

Took a pic in our front yard after we got back as the leaf color in the setting sun was gorgeous here too!

Nice ride out to Appomattox, VA today. Temp was around 70 degrees. Just a beautiful fall day in central Virginia. Leave color is at it peak now here in the central part of the state. Stopped at a Sheetz station in Farmville to get a cup of coffee.

Saw this Landshark van parked there. Reminded me of Key West!

Headed on over to Appomattox, VA and stopped at several of the Lee's surrender locations at the National Park.

The leaf color was just beautiful!

GREAT motorcycle trip today out to Urbanna, VA to the Urbanna Oyster Festival (http://www.urbannaoysterfestival.com/) with wife Libby and friends, Johnny and Pam!! Left this morning around 9:30 with the temps in the 40s but clear blue sunny skies!! Chilly ride, but well worth it. Very smooth ride into Urbanna with no traffic and a great place to park in a CORN FIELD!! At least we had the whole place to ourselves!! (When we came back in the afternoon the entire field was filled with cars and other motorcycles beside us!)

We had about a quarter mile walk into town with great scenic views of the harbor along the way!!

 A nice lady took our picture on the bridge by the harbor (funny, I didn't know Johnny was taller than me! He will do anything to get one up on you!!).

Anyway, on to the downtown festival for some great seafood, entertainment, parades, etc.!! Libby and I both had a cup of delicious crab bisque!! It was very good.

Next was the oyster fritter sandwich. It was HUGE and Libby and I split one. This was a seafood lovers paradise for sure!!

The "highlight" sandwich was Johnny's soft shell crab sandwich. As usual, he "sweet talked" the lady making the sandwiches and ask her to make him a "special" one. Well she did. She put FOUR soft shell crabs on his sandwich. Needless to say, Johnny was a very happy man with that!! (Of course, what is funny is that he doesn't look happy in this photo until he took the first bite (then it was "love at first bite" and he was very happy with a great big smile right after this photo was taken!!)

Libby and I couldn't resist the homemade cinnamon rolls with coffee. Don't these look good (they were even better than they looked!!)

We also had some great entertainment from a blue grass band while we ate.

They even had quilts which Libby loved to see and talk to the ladies who made them.

Lots of beautiful old houses in downtown Urbanna that we walked by.

The walk back out of town to our motorcycles was very nice with beautiful views of the water.

On our way back, we couldn't pass up Digg's Seafood in West Point for one of the great Crab Muffins!!

Pam was so excited to get to stop at Digg's Seafood!!

For those of you that have not experienced a Digg's Seafood Crab Muffin here is a picture. It is just as good as the picture makes it look (maybe even better!!)

We had a nice relaxing time outside Digg's finishing off our muffins and a couple of Deviled Crabs too before we made the return trip back home!! WOW, are we ever stuffed, but it was so good!!

Just another GREAT day of motorcycle riding with great friends and my wife. A great destination in Urbanna and West Point. I think we have found another (at least) annual trip!! We got back home around 6 pm

Great ride today out to the Northern Neck area of Virginia with my wife, Libby and friends Johnny & Pam. Did about 250 miles. Left this morning around 9:15am with the temperature around 40 degrees but it warmed up into the 60s in the afternoon. Headed down to Tappahannock and had lunch at Lowery's Restaurant (http://www.lowerysrestaurant.com/).

What a great lunch of shrimp, crab, crab soup with all the fixin's and delicious rice pudding for dessert. Great food and great friends to enjoy it with. It don't get any better than that!! The restaurant had a Mynah bird in a cage that could really talk and whistle. Johnny had a great time with the bird and with a group of women eating at the restaurant. He made their day with his and the birds whistles!! They were so happy they were hugging each other and everybody!!

We headed on out in the afternoon to tour the Northern Neck area. I had got a route from the site (http://www.openroadjourney.com/loadroute.asp?rid=2544) to ride. As I left the parking lot of Lowery's Restaurant there was quite a dip at the edge of the road and I dragged on the bottom of my bike. I have a center stand so I thought I just hit it which I have done before. The bike felt a little odd so I called to Johnny on the CB to pull over a couple of block from the restaurant to check my bike out. I thought my center stand spring had let it fall, but no I had a FLAT REAR TIRE!! My first flat tire in well over 100,000 miles of motorcycle riding. Just knew there was a nail/screw in the tire so as I rolled the bike back, Johnny looked at the tire to find the puncture, but nothing could be found. (Didn't get a picture but it was kinda funny with Johnny laying down behind my bike while I moved it back and forward!! I am sure some people passing by wondered what was going on with those motorcyclists!!) We then thought maybe the bead got broken as I ran across the dip at the edge of the road coming out of the restaurant. Funny we pulled over at a gas station, but only the gas pumps were open the station was CLOSED!

I have always carried a small air compressor (http://www.amazon.com/Slime-40020-Top-Off-Inflator/dp/B002ZC1EOM/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1320276397&sr=8-12) that I bought at Walmart for about $10. It worked great and pumped the tire back up to 40 pounds in just a few minutes. I let it set and checked it a couple of times and looked like it went down about 1 pound each time I checked it. I drove around the block and checked it again and it was down about 5 pounds so there was definitely a problem!! We rolled the bike back and forth again checking for a puncture but nothing! I finally put a wet finger on the valve end and I could feel and see bubbles of air escaping from the valve stem!! Looked like the valve was loose in the stem. I have always carried a valve stem tool in my tool bag (they are very small) but apparently it had fallen out at some time in the past as I have never needed it before. Johnny took off on his bike and stopped at a tire store a few blocks away in town and they loaned him the tool. (As is normally the case a locksmith stopped by in his van and offered assistance. He was sure he had something in his van of lock tools that would tighten the valve stem, but Johnny had already left to find one. Regardless, the locksmith stayed with us until Johnny returned and he was sure the tire was fixed! People like that are so nice!) Johnny brought it back and I tightened up the valve stem and refilled it with air. The problem was solved and the tire held air!!

We continued on our route cutting several areas short so that we could get back home before dark. It was a great ride though some beautiful country roads along water and autumn leaves. We got back home at 6:15pm as the sun was setting!! The main morale of this trip is to always check and make sure you have a tire valve stem tool in the tool bag and to check the tightness of the valve stem every time you check the air pressure!! Regardless, a great fall motorcycle ride through some beautiful country, great food and GREAT company with the wife and friends!! It don't get any better than this!!!