Ride to Graves Mountain

Great ride with my wife to Graves Mountain for the annual Apple Fest (http://www.gravesmountain.com/appleharvest.htm) with Johnny and Pam this Saturday. A little cool in the morning but warmed up very nice for the afternoon as well as during the visit at the Apple Festival. We stopped at a neat little coffee shop on the way up, a "Key West style" coffee house near Palmyra, VA. This brought back some memories of our trip together to the real Key West in June!

About half way, so the break was welcome to warm up to some hot coffee. Johnny even took the opportunity to relax in the hammock!





We took all two lane roads and what a great ride it was. The leaf color seems to be really late in Virginia this year. Leaf color was still very spotty. Looks like this coming weekend will be the peak for at least east of the Blue Ridge. The Apple Festival was fun with some great food!

 The Brunswick stew and BBQ was very good. Tried to save room for some Graves Mountain apple covered funnel cake, but no one could do it. Johnny did have a piece of apple pie though and we brought back some caramel kettle korn!!


A lot of motorcycles there for the third weekend of the Festival. We plan to make this an annual event in the future. Great time, great ride, beautiful day, good food and great company!

Second day of WV fall trip

Another beautiful day of fall motorcycle riding in the mountains. Got up this morning with cloudy skies and about 52 degrees. Talked to a group from Erie, PA returning (in a trailer) from Daytona. They had had a great trip. It was a father and two sons. Ate breakfast at the motel, packed up and headed out around 8:15 am.

After about an hour of riding the skies started to clear out and the sun was shining. The temps warmed up quickly to 70 degrees. The fall leaves were beautiful today on some real nice scenic views.

I came back through Watoga State Park near Marlinton, WV and planned to eat lunch there at the park restaurant. Well, the restaurant was closed for the season so that didn't happen.





Ended up at a picnic table eating an apple, almonds and beef jerky. Not a bad lunch in any case! The park was beautiful and I had it practically to myself. Beautiful leaf color and overlooks. Lots of nice cabins for rent in the park. Might have to plan a trip sometime just to spend a night or two in one of the cabins.



 Did 317 miles today so that made 617 for the two day trip. My 07 Ultra now has almost 69,000 miles on it. Planning a trip to Graves Mountain Lodge near Syria, VA with my wife along with a friend and his wife this coming Saturday for the annual Apple Fest. Looking forward to that trip too.

Oct 2011 West Virginia Trip

Left today on a two day motorcycle trip to the mountains of West Virginia.

Did 300 miles today and am spending the night in Summersville, WV. Beautiful day with skies the whole day and temps between 65 & 70. Autumn was in the air with the cool temps and falling leaves along the roads. Just a great day for a motorcycle ride!!

The autumn leaf color was spotty with the higher elevations already gone and leaves down.

 This was a stop on SR 39 near Summit Lake just a few miles from Richwood, WV. The leaf color was very pretty here.

I met a local rider here on his softtail. He was just out riding for the afternoon enjoying the weather. We talked about Alaska and touring.

 This is Summersville Lake. The leaves were pretty along the lake.

The Thunderbird Cafe and an EARTHQUAKE!!

A near picture perfect motorcycle riding day. Started out around 59 degrees this morning with a zero percent chance of rain. My wife and I took off around 9 am with friends Bill and Johnny heading for the Thunderbird Cafe near Massanutten, VA. It was already in the low 70s at 9am so that was nice. We stayed on the non interstate highways all day and we though some beautiful Virginia countryside. Up US 522 to US 250 to US 15 to US 33.

Had a great late breakfast/lunch at The Thunderbird Cafe (http://thethunderbirdcafe.com/). It was great. Great service and food. The waitress was Marlene and we told her each our names. She remembered all our names all the way though lunch calling us by our first names every time she came to the table.

After lunch we headed down US 340 to Waynesboro and stopped to get gas. I had finished getting gas and Johnny was on the other side of the pump so I walked over to him while he was gassing up. All of a sudden his motorcycle started rocking back and forth. Funny, the first thing I remember thinking was why is he doing that with the gas nozzle in his tank. Even funnier, he thought I was intentionally rocking his motorcycle back an forth to scare him!! I looked over at the cars park in front and they were rocking back and forth too. In about 15 seconds it all stopped and we all looked at each other and said, I think we just had an earthquake! Sure enough a 5.9 earthquake in Virginia. The strongest earthquake in Virginia in over 100 years. Also kinda funny, was the timing with Bill putting gas in his motorcycle! He filled up his tank and looked at the gas pump and it still shows $00.00 and 0.00 gallons. He told the gas attendant and apparently the earthquake confused their gas pumps and they all stopped recording. He offered to pay for the 2-3 gallons he got, but they told him to just forget it since we all just had an earthquake. Johnny and I both had to pay!!!!! I guess poor timing on our part. We told Bill he should go buy a lottery ticket!

Not a whole lot we could do about it, so we went on with our trip. Headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to Humpback Rocks to take a break  (and use the restrooms). Of course everyone, everywhere we stopped was talking about he earthquake and with us having motorcycle, they naturally come to us to talk about it!! We heading on down VA 6 back home to the Richmond area.

A great day with the wife and friends on the motorcycle (even with an earthquake)!!!

2012 Four Corners Tour

Well I am looking more and more at doing the Four Corners Tour in 2012 (http://www.usa4corners.org/). Probably do it in the month of July 2012. I don't like cold and am just afraid of cold weather in the North during the month of June. I went to Alaska in June of 2010 so that I could be there on the first day of summer (June 21). It was cold a lot and even had a foot of snow in Wyoming as I was passing through and had to change my route because of the snow, so I plan to avoid June!! Here is my present planned route:

I plan to ride to Key West, FL to start and end at Madawaska, ME. Also, I do not want to cross over into Canada for the trip across the Northern US. (If this is a Four Corners USA then I want to stay in the USA for the entire trip!) Most riders end up going through Canada from Blaine, WA to Madawaska, ME as that is the fastest & shortest distance. I also plan to ride in the remaining states (Louisiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island. That will take care of all the US states except for Hawaii and I will not make that one! Here is my present map of visited states on my motorcycle:




If anyone reading this has made the Four Corners Tour, please let me know if you have any tips on routes, places to visit along the road, preparation, logistics, etc.