Curves, curves and more curves

Monday came (July 11), and we were packed and ready to ride. 

Bye, Goldie.

The deal was Richid would get us to the Holland Tunnel and we’d be on our own after that.  We made it, waving our good byes and setting out in the big, bad city. 

It's a beautiful city with lots to do.  But I wouldn't want to live there.

I'm so grateful we had Richid.

Still smiling, kind of, even in all the traffic.

And there was a lot of traffic.

This is where Richid left us ... the Holland Tunnel.

And we popped out the other side, going to Jersey City, New Jersey.  Another state for Rockin' Rita.

And on we rode, like we knew where we were going.

We wanted to get to Pennsylvania.  We had a detour, or two, and wandered in some fields that had no signage, but we always get where we’re going.  This time it took some talking to an old guy sitting on his porch at the corner of two pasture roads to get us headed in the right direction.  I’m sure he was wondering what two women on motorcycles were doing in the middle of nowhere, and why one was coming up his walkway. His directions to us were perfect.  We were only one turn away from where we were supposed to be.  It was interesting as our detour was not well marked.

There's always something to see, including creative use of an old vehicle in the landscaping.

Another first for me came on Tuesday, July 12, as I got us lost in a roundabout.  We had to go around it twice as there was only one way out … to me that’s not a real roundabout.  It’s supposed to have multiple outlets, not just one at either end.  Oh well.  We just practiced going round-and-round.

It was a day of what was supposed to be easy, pleasant riding on Skyline Drive down through Virginia.  It’s a beautiful ride, and I was enjoying showing Rockin’ Rita that there’s sure a lot more than a north or south road like at home.  It was a great ride. 

The lushness of the area always amazes me.

And a personal favorite ... tunnels.

We still had nice weather at this point.

There were two bears, although I only saw one of them.  It was perched on the top of a stone guard rail right next to the road as we came around a corner.  How exciting.  We also saw a deer and a groundhog.  I sure do love seeing that wildlife as long as it’s not in the middle of the road when I’m coming through a turn.

We could see the rain in our future.

Once again we got our daily portion of rain.  Some of these roads are not where you want to have rain … Skyline Drive isn’t the worst place, but it sure isn’t the best with some of the cornering you need to do.  The rain was hitting so hard it bounced back up.  It hit us in the eyes even with glasses and the pain made our eyes react and slam shut.  There was no bad juju as nothing jumped out in front of us.  And I was glad there was no lightning or thunder as there’s no place to really stop except some turnouts and there’s no real cover at them except for a few trees where you do not want to be standing.

We came up fast on a bike about 15 miles from the end of Skyline.  It looked like another female on a white bike, a braid of hair falling out from under the helmet.  The bike was going considerably slower than we were, but we followed it to the bottom.  It pulled over, as did we.  It turned out to be a guy.  He’d seen us come up behind him and thought we were guys.  Was it due to our great riding ability in the rain?  We were certainly used to it by now.  Haha.  Maybe he didn’t think women rode in the rain?  Or maybe women didn’t ride at all?  Who knows.  We were all wrong in our assumptions of who was who.

We made a few phone calls around and found a hotel for the evening.  Then we got lost getting to the hotel.  It seems it was a day of lost effort but it makes for a lot of excitement.  Then we tried to get in the wrong hotel room.  Guess what.  The key didn’t work.  I believe we were very tired.

The next day we slept a bit longer.  (Wednesday, July 13)  We needed a bit extra, but it didn’t seem to help as I still seemed to be tired, washing my hair in body gel and conditioning it in hand lotion.  Wow.  Yep.  I’m tired.  But we needed to hit the road and get onto the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Another Iron Horse.

 

We weren’t going to have the time to run the entire Blue Ridge but something is better than nothing.  This is another incredibly beautiful ride with some gentle, sweeping turns, wonderful scenery and places to stop and enjoy the views and smell of the trees. 

A beautiful stop along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Yep.  The Blue Ridge Parkway is worth the time.

Some of the trees arch over the road and make for a setting out of a movie.  We were loving it.  We were even stopping now to take photos with Flat Rocky.  Flat Rocky is the latest mascot from Women on Wheels.  It used to be a new stuffed animal yearly that would get mailed to a number of locations and the WOW groups would take photos and submit them for inclusion in the annual slide show at the Ride In.  That was pretty cumbersome.  Someone came up with printing a picture and putting it on a stick so everyone can have one and take it places and it easily fits on a bike taking up nearly no room at all.  What a great idea, and we were totally into taking photos with him.

Flat Rocky and Quackers enjoyed a moment at a pond.  Quackers couldn't wait to get into the water.

Along the way, Flat Rocky acquired a new friend, Quackers.  Quackers is a biker duck that came to us from a hotel that left little rubber ducks in the rooms.  They had biker ones, and so we ended up with a whole package of them from the maid who took a liking to us.

Enjoying the Blue Ridge Parkway.

What a great road to ride this one is.

We got off the parkway for gas and then headed back to the scenic highway.  Whoops.  I’d forgotten to pay for my gas, so we turned around and headed back as I didn’t want the cops and us having a chase scene on the highway.  Partway back, I realized I’d paid with cash which I never do.  Whoops.  Let’s turn around again and head back to the parkway.  Good grief.  We MUST be tired with the silly mistakes being made the past few days.

We'd taken a rest break.  Guess they don't like refilling these things too often.  It's amazing what you see sometimes.

It's beautiful country, but you could see the storm clouds gathering up in the distance.  Oh, yay.

Our daily ration of rain showed up and we were just so excited to be riding in it again.  This time we were treated to the wind and thunder we’d missed the previous day.  At least this time there was no lightning so we weren’t in any danger from that.  It was a heavy rain, though, and the wind was tossing debris on the road that we were having to dodge. 

Then our ride got really fun.  We came up on some construction with a pilot car.  The only thing that made this even better was riding in slippery dirt and gravel.  We’re getting it all on this trip, and we were now feeling so at home with the rain and construction we were hitting.

There was a real bright spot in the whole construction zone.  There was a guy running up on a truck ahead of us and it was going into the merge-to-one lane.  The truck didn’t back down and the other guy had to slam on his brakes to avoid hitting the construction cones.  It gave us our laugh for the day.

Who knew we'd ride by the Bristol Speedway in our travels.  NASCAR fans, this one's for you.

We found our hotel for the night and guess what.  This time we tried to get into our room on the fourth floor.  Once again we were trying to get into the wrong room.  Ours was on the third floor.  I was figuring we were still pretty tired.  The every-day rain is draining, and we have had more than our fair share on this trip.  In fact, I’m quite tired of it. 

The following day, Thursday, July 14, we headed to the Tail of the Dragon in North Carolina.  Rockin’ Rita wanted to ride it, and I was certainly in as it’s a fun road, but don’t let your attention lapse for an instant or you, too, could be a statistic on the Tree of Shame. 

Our dose of rain showed up but we fooled it this time.  We were at a Harley shop so we just went and had lunch until it passed.  Haha, Mother Nature.  Gotcha this time.

A former Alaska WOW member, Dana, lives near the Dragon and let us know she was up for meeting us and riding it with us.  Yahoo.  I love how there’s someone in most states that will come and see us, ride with us, or even want to have us stay.  We thought we were supposed to meet her at the Harley shop near where we had lunch.  Nope.  It was another one, a T-shirt shop at one end of the Dragon.  So we rushed on over there, and there she was.  It was so good to see her.  She’s been down here a while, and missed.  But it was nice to have a friend in the area. 

There's our Dana.

There goes Dana into the corner.

There comes around the corner, Rockin' Rita.

Yep.  A selfie on the Tail of the Dragon.  It can be done.

The Tail of the Dragon was splendid.  We had a great time and at Deal’s Gap we did the usual … patches, pins, shirts, photos.  And sat and enjoyed a cold drink.  It was a ton of fun and we had a wonderful visit.  While we were there a guy came in looking for a phone.  A single motorcycle accident.  A guy slid out on a corner.  Apparently he wasn’t hurt too bad and who knows if any of his parts and pieces ended up on the Tree of Shame.

Thank you to Butch, who purchased photos for us from the Tail of the Dragon ride.

The curves show a bit better here.

Gotter dun.  Slayed that old dragon ...

No Tree of Shame for us. 

This one's for you, Biker Bill (Marine).

There's always room for a dragon photo, especially one that talks about Highway 129, and 318 curves in 11 miles.

The Dragon.  Slain!!!

We outran another storm and quit early in Bryson City, North Carolina.  We were sure covering a lot of territory on this trip.  And we were nowhere near done.  We’d barely gotten started.

We stopped at a little convenience store/gas station.  This was a sign on the door.

We’d heard about a few other rides from Joanna in New York City … the Back of the Dragon and the Claw of the Dragon in Virginia.  On Friday, July 15, we headed for the Back of the Dragon.  This one is 32 miles of curves, just like the Tail, except nearly three times the length.  Woo hoo.  Fun, fun, fun.  We had a blast, and got our patches and pins.

Been there, done that now.

And signed the wall.

The Claw is made up of five different rides, and we didn’t have the time to run them all, just a piece of one as we were meeting up with Greg and Deb from Pennsylvania.  We’d ride with them for a day or so, and then spend the night.

I’d met Greg and his friend, Doug, on the Blue Ridge Parkway several years ago.  They were stopped along the road so I stopped to see if they were okay.  I don’t do that.  But I did that time, and it’s blossomed into a couple of great friendships.  The boys were running to do the Dragon and some other well-known roads in the area such as the Diamondback, so I ran with them and did it all.

Greg had been inviting me to come visit and stay, so this was the year.  We were going to meet them at a hotel in Bluefield.  We looked and looked for the hotel and couldn’t find it.  Back and forth on the highway, down into town, and back up to the highway again.  Well, no wonder.  There’s a Bluefield, Virginia, and a Bluefield, West Virginia, only 10-15 miles apart.  We finally got there, and they’d arrived before us, wondering where we were because we had been so close when we’d talked.  But, we did add a few extra miles that way.  It was my first time to meet Deb, and I felt immediately comfortable with her.  We hit it off well, and I knew we’d made a good choice to meet up with them.

We had no rain, avoided it all, although we’d ridden in overcast weather.  That was okay as it wasn’t so hot that way.  And I’d sure rather have overcast than rain. 

Dinner was an awesome barbecue place; I learned that you have to have a smoker out back and a pile of wood.  Otherwise, it's not real barbecue because they're probably using Liquid Smoke.  And, yes, the day was pretty much perfect.