Southwest Virginia Tour

Wow, what a trip!! Rode 760 miles over the past two days throughout Southwest Virginia. Picked up 13 more of the Motorcycle Grand Tour of Virginia sites and rode on some of the greatest motorcycle roads anywhere!! Only part was that it was a little cool in the mornings!! It was 54 degrees in Richmond heading out on Tuesday morning and 47 degrees in Hillsville on Wednesday morning!! Both afternoon warmed up into the 80's though. I would have taken my heated gear, but I haven't yet installed the power cord on my new Limited. Did make good use of the heated grips. I like them for those chilly mornings!!

Left on Tuesday morning around 6:30 am. Had to stop in Farmville and get coffee and a biscuit to warm up! Made my first tour stop in Bedford at the tourism center. Stopped in Salem, VA and visited some friends that had just moved there from Richmond. Only stayed about 30 minutes as I knew I had a lot of saddle time ahead of me that day!

Black Bear Harley shop in Wytheville was a nice shop. Just got my tour stamp, had another cup of coffee and used the restroom!

Headed north on US 52 for the Big Walker country store, my next stop. US 52 was a great motorcycle road. Nice scenery, sweeping curves and then you head up Big Walker mountain and that was fun! The country store and lookout tower at the top were very unique.

I didn't walk up the tower. I believe it was $6 to go and again I just didn't have the time that day.  If you look at the tower picture you can see a man coming down. This guy was probably in his 70's and had made it all the up and back down. He said the view as awesome from the top! The view was great from the ground anyway as you can see in the picture below.

I had planned to continue on US 52 to SR 42 and head south towards Bristol. I noticed a paved road leading south beside the country store so I ask the lady in the store if that road went to SR 42 and what kind of shape the road was in. Her (she was an elderly lady) response struck me as very funny. It went something like this, "Well sir, yes that there road goes down the mountain to 42. I drive up that road every morning and down that road every evening from this here store and I ain't dead yet, so I think you will do fine." So I took off down secondary road 621. It was a fun road and I was just glad in the 5 miles I never met another vehicle. It was only one lane with no guard rails and several 5 mph hairpin curves!! What I couldn't imagine was driving that road in the winter with snow on it in a cage!! SR 42 was a really fun motorcycle road and was just a plain pleasant ride. Took it to SR 16 back over to I81 to get on down to Bristol to the next tour stop.

Had to stop and visit Black Wolf Harley shop in Bristol too!

Heading back up I81 the tour passport said to call the next stop ahead of time to make sure someone was there to stamp the passport even though their hours were listed as open 7am to 7pm. I called just in time as the guy said he was just leaving to go to Wytheville and wouldn't be back for the day, BUT he would leave the stamp on a table on the front porch for me to stamp my passport myself. I did ask him where exactly the table would be and he said "oh you can't miss it, it will be with all the cat food"!! This place was Cripple Creek Cabins in Crockett. The road all the way was paved but again it was one lane with barely enough room to turn my Ultra around at the end of the road where the place was located. Sure enough, the stamp was there on the porch on the table with all the cat food bowls everywhere! It was funny too, I tried to to a "check in" on Facebook with my iPhone and it couldn't locate any named place nearby to do a check in. I had not seen that before!! This place was "way out there".

By this time on Tuesday it was getting after 5 pm and I was ready to get to the motel in Hillsville that I had reservations at. My last stop was at Fox Creek Leather in Independence, VA. I got there at 5:45pm and they were closing at 6pm. I could have spent more time there as it was a really nice store and nice people. Had this huge artistic motorcycle on the roof as you can see below. Had a hard time taking a good picture of it as the evening sun was directly behind it. A really neat store. They only sell items they make or is made in the USA. I went on line today and bought a leather billfold from them.

Made it on to the Best Western in Hillsville, VA for the night. Several other motorcycles were there. I met and talked to a couple from Indiana on a new Road Glide. He had dropped it that day and scratched the saddle bag and fairing. It was a shame as he had just finished a custom paint job with eagles airbrushed on the bike. He had named it the Red Eagle! He and his wife had a few scratches too. It was a slow drop at one of the pull over vistas on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

WOW, it was only 47 degrees on Wednesday morning. Cool and crisp. Again the heated grips were turned all the way up and felt really good. I stopped at Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway as it was very near to the intersection with US 58. This is such a picturesque setting! Just beautiful!

The Mountain Laurel was in full bloom too.

On to Thunder Road Harley shop in Danville, VA.

The last stop and one of the highlights of the trip (as far as food & unique places to vist) was the Texas Inn in Lynchburg, VA. I had the Wednesday special which was a Cheesy Western and a Bowl! The Cheesy Western is a cheeseburger with a fried egg on top and the Bowl was their homemade chili!! I am surprised that Guy Fieri hasn't been there yet for Diners, Dives & Drive in, because it is really a classic Dive. It has been there in the same form for about 75 years!! Pretty cool. Oh yes, cheap too. My special was only $5.50!! Everyone eats at the bar on a stool too!

This was the cook!

This was my "waitress"