A little ride down the Blue Ridge Parkway
July 22nd, 2007 ydant(This was originally posted on on the Adventure Rider board at: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=250623)At the time of writing this, I had only been riding for about 4 months, and, until that weekend, I hadn’t done any trips longer than a single day. I wanted to make a longer trip, and the Blue Ridge Parkway seemed like the perfect choice. It’s filled with long stretches of well maintained roads, lots of curves, and some beautiful scenery. The weather turned out to be absolutely awesome, so I packed up the bike and off I went.
This doesn’t really qualify as “adventure” compared to a lot of the other reports, but it was still a lot of fun. I don’t have much to say, and the pictures are the best part of most ride reports. Hopefully someone’s work day is a little less boring because of this. :)
The plan was a two day trip from Washington, DC to… wherever I felt like stopping and back again. I ended up making it to about 50 miles south of Roanoke, VA.
All loaded up and ready to go.
She’s not “adventure”, but she tries. She might be ugly, but the beauty’s on the inside (even though some of it’s leaking out in various places). The Nelson Rigg bags worked wonderfully.
Mr. Garcia watched me pack and blessed the trip. It helped.
And I’m off!
I thought omniscient would mean you don’t need guidance?
I’ll stick with my Garmin.
Finally, scenery.
Looking far over the VA countryside. The parkway gets a lot twistier and has more elevation further south, but the view in VA is always beautiful.
Pictures never capture the real spirit of the experience
… still, you can’t see these and not want to be there.
The clouds were absolutely beautiful
The bugs didn’t want me to see them.
No pants?
Signs like these are usually reactionary. I wonder what the story is. Depending on gender, I’m not sure these rules need to be enforced.
Night time… Time to find a hotel.
Unfortunately, everything was sold out where I ended up. I finally found something… and it definitely qualified as adventure! Next time I’m taking the stuff I need to camp.
The night clerk gave me a discount and gave me a room where I could park “my scooter” outside the window. Thanks!
Sunday
On Sunday I took some back roads for a bit instead of getting back on the parkway right away. The fun stuff (to see) is definitely on the back roads, but so is the gravel on the roads.
The clouds were out again.
Deer suck, but imagine one of THESE running across your path.
I FOUND IT!
Built by ancients? Magical powers?
Whatever, it’s punny, and I like it. I’d almost consider going to see it…
Guess not. Maybe it’s wrong of me, but I laughed for a bit.
I followed this stream up for a while…
… and the pavement disappeared.
Single-sport? So? I’m not afraid of gravel!
This was going to be a self-portrait, but the grass got in the way, so I gave up. This turned out to be a cool shot anyway.
I found the parkway.
Gravel roads end sometimes… Sometimes they end right where you want to be. (Proper attitude means they always end where you want to be, I guess.)
The sky is visible again.
If you don’t give the road equal attention it will throw gravel at you.
If you look closely, you’ll see the inner beauty leaking out, just like I said.
Adventure riders! I had to stop.
The first I saw of the weekend, and then suddenly they were everywhere. This couple happened to be from close to where I grew up. We spoke of gravel, the mid-west, and the rumours about a F800GS…
They didn’t have an ADV sticker, but, then, neither do I.
Kissin’ Counsins
He barely paid us any attention. Probably didn’t recognize mine for what she is without the makeup on. Poor girl.
And I’m home…
Too tired to take any other pictures. It’s all boring from there on out. Lots of traffic and lots of interstate.
All in all, a really fun trip. No incidents, great weather, and fun roads.