Oh man, I didn’t realize how addicted I am…

…. to the internet. Until I didn’t have it. Which I don’t right now and am relying on the ‘free internet’ policy at the Roxboro Public Library, about 20 minutes from here. “Here” being Timberlake, Nancy’s home in North Carolina.

Day 3 of this, the 2nd instalment of Mary Ellen’s 2009 Most Excellent Adventure (the first being the CFR ride), consisted of riding Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia enroute to Timberlake, North Carolina. Day 4 was spent ….. relaxing and finding internet access!

Well, good thing Mark “allowed” me to sleep in on Tuesday morning as I didn’t go to sleep Monday until almost 0400h. It was The Blog that kept me up - writing, editing, rewriting – all made more of a nuisance because of this wee ‘puter. And, by way of explanation for no post last night…. Nancy has no internet (I love it! I’ve finally met someone who can live – quite nicely – without internet AND a tv!; well, she has a tv but it’s not digital so … there’s no tv). I’m writing this on Wednesday but it won’t actually be posted until Thursday when we’re back on the road again and in a motel with internet access.

Day 3: OMG! What fun and what a beautiful ride!! The entrance to Skyline Drive wasn’t very far at all from Winchester, where we’d spent the night. And, where, by the way, we spent $54.95 for a room – clean, with a fridge (that kept my Stella cold for packing the next day in the sidecases), AND free wireless internet. As opposed to the joint in Farmington CT that wanted us to buy a timeshare AND charge me $4.95 for internet access. And the EconoLodge’s breakfast at least had cinnamon raisin bagels vs big, fat white ones – and juice for the non-coffee drinking Mark. But I digress….

Back to the story…. of course, I missed the exit that would take us onto Skyline Drive, so we had to go an additional 12 km up the highway in order to double back but the secondary road that Zumo took us on was pretty picturesque. We entered Skyline Drive at “Front Royal” which is the north entrance to Shenandoah National Park; entrance fee $10 for motorcycles ($15 for cars). So, there we were on a perfect, sunny day – on great motorcycles, in Virginia – and I thought “aren’t I incredibly lucky?”. And, I have to tell you, tears welled up – what a feeling. And, I repeat what you read here in June - no matter the conditions (rain, snow, wind, cold) or the mood one is in – a day on 2 wheels is better than a day in a car. Anytime.

Skyline Drive is described as: “…a narrow mountain road with beautiful vistas and wildflowers along the shoulders. Take a leisurely drive and pull off at some of our 75 overlooks to see the views.” Add to this the fact that the fall colours added to the ‘beautiful vistas’ and there was very little (albeit, annoying) cage traffic and you have the makings for a great ride. There were very few cars and until we happened across the first one, it didn’t even occur to me that there WOULD be any at all. Duh! The speed limit on the Skyline is 35 mph – because of the many, many tight little turns and the wildlife. All we saw were squirrels and chipmunks (although there WAS a small deer on the side of the Blue Ridge Parkway), and, like the western gophers I told you about in June, not all the squirrels are so lucky in their road crossings. Back to the speed limit…. 35 mph is SLOW, especially on a bike which can take those turns easily at twice that speed. The first cars we fetched up on were 2 small ones travelling – aargh – the speed limit except when they came to a bit of a downhill grade and/ or a curve when the brake lights would flash and the speed would drop to 25. Dear heavens. There are very few (legal) passing opportunities on the Skyline but I took advantage of the first one and made quick work – as only the Feej (and, ok , a few other bikes) can do. Mark, on the other hand, law abiding and polite, stayed behind so I finally slowed down until he caught up with me. Why cars don’t pull over and let bikes – especially sport bikes – pass them is beyond me. With respect to the curves, Mark and I had a discussion about the nomenclature of biking and what, exactly constitutes a “twisty” or a “windy” as opposed to a “sweeper”. I guess we decided that we were riding twisties on the Skyline and they were such that we got into a kind of hypnotizing rhythm – rocking back and forth – up and down. This went on for a couple of hundred miles between the Skyline and Blue Ridge Parkway and it was actually tiring although it was at speeds generally less than 70 and 80 km/ h. Skyline Drive turns into Blue Ridge Parkway at Rockfish Gap (the southern entrance to the Park) and the scenery changed, in my opinion. The fall foliage seemed more vibrant or perhaps it was a different type of foliage, more conducive to a variety of colour. As well, the curves weren’t so “twisty” as “windy”. I found this ride to be even more beautiful for some reason – although by this time we were both getting a little tired. There was less traffic, it was faster moving and there were a few more bikes. The BRP IS a favorite with bikers and is frequently mentioned on the Forum I monitor as a ‘must do’ ride. I know why.

This ride, unlike CFR which was virtually trouble free, has had a few more ‘glitches’ – the bent key and the stupid tipovers (which have me so demoralized I can barely do a u-turn now without negative self-talk; I’ve lost 10 pounds since CFR and I’m thinking I’d better get them pounded back on.) Yesterday, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, my bike started ‘surging’ – having little bursts of speed with no throttle applied. That went on for a couple of kilometers as we climbed in altitude. Finally, it started losing power so I downshifted, which helped, and as I moved along, I’d shift back into 4th and 5th gear. Nope – the Feej wasn’t liking that. I thought at one point that it was a good thing I had CAA Plus (for motorcycles) since I was going to have to be rescued off that mountain – and what a racket THAT was going to be. I finally crippled her over onto a lookout and talked to Mark. The consensus was “to go as long as I could”. Thankfully, we were as high in altitude as were going to be – 1190 meters – and we started back down – with me in 2nd gear. I thought I might have had a little “altitude sickness” but we decided it may have been a speck of dirt in a fuel injector.
Lunchtime came and went while were on BRP so we consulted Zumo for lunch venues. Because there were very few access/ exit points on the Parkway, we took the first one we came across. As it turned out, we ended up at Wintergreen – a ‘closed community’ that, as it turns out, is a popular ski resort. And while it “looked” like a closed community, I didn’t realize it actually was until Mark told me later that I’d blown right by the sign that said “No Motorcycles” (aarh, aarh). We ended up getting gas and having sandwiches made at the adjoining Market. We wolfed down the sandwiches and saddled up again – before someone could actually escort us out .

The weather yesterday started out sunny but it never did get really warm until we got to NC. Maybe 17 degrees. We hit really thick fog on the parkway for a few kilometers and it drizzled lightly for a short time. But nothing to make costume changes for .

Getting to Timberlake, where Nancy lives (with her 2 beautiful Dobies and 2 Morgan horses on 10 acres) , was a bit of an ordeal and it was darker than a wh***’s heart when we finally arrived. She had given Mark a route but that was out the window when we decided to ride the Parkway down to Roanoke, VA. So we made our own route but what we ended up doing was following Zumo’s route. While I thought the latest upgrades to the Zumo firmware had made it a little more reliable, I found out … not so much. I just can’t figure out its madness – it doesn’t seem to show the shortest route nor is it the quickest route. It wants to take the weirdest twists and turns. At any rate, we finally cried “uncle” and called Nancy to come to the “Handy Andy’s” BP station to fetch us – after we’d driven about 10 km round trip into the bowels of rural NC and, even with directions from a couple of women at a Pentecostal church gathering, couldn’t find the right road. Partly because they gave us a church as a landmark, partly because it was darker than a “wh***’s heart and we couldn’t have seen it anyway and partly because there are a LOT of churches down here in the Bible Belt so having one as a landmark isn’t a particularly huge help ….

Nancy had company when we arrived. All three girls – Nancy, Dawn and Sonia – came in Nancy’s pickup truck to meet us. All 3 are nurses at UNC (University of North Carolina hospital) and Dawn and Sonia both know Mark. First things first when we got landed. Mark had a glass of juice and Dawn poured me a Pepsi, and I actually asked for rum. Uncharacteristic of me but what the hey! I’m on vacation and I’d had a long day. It WAS only 680 kms but they were labour intensive :-)

Nancy’s homemade spaghetti for dinner (yummy!) , a zopiclone which worked like a charm and I had a full 8 hours of sleep last night – first time in AGES. Even IF Nancy had internet, it was unlikely there’d have been a blog posting.

Day 4: Wednesday was sunny and 26 (!) degrees. I got up and padded around in my pj’s and motorcycle boots (yup, REAL cute), mucking with the Dobes (Tara and Alex) in their outdoor run and then going for a little stroll with Mark looking for the horses, Wren and Tea (Tay-a). My sister, Kate, has a horse and I admit to an ignorance about horses – more from disinterest than dislike. Plus, I was allergic to them as a young person so never really developed an appreciation for them – except to concede they’re beautiful and majestic animals. Kate would never believe that the horses and I were actually playing kissy-face but these horses don’t actually ‘smell’ like horses ; they actually have very little odour and they didn’t raise even a sniffle in me.

Toast and green tea for breakfast, a shower and we got ready to go for a ride into the next town, Roxboro. Objectives: Mark was hoping to get an oil change, lunch at Nancy’s favorite restaurant ‘La Cocina’ (authentic Mexican food, Mexican-family owned and operated) and I was going to find an internet connection. It was hot so Mark made major fun of me for wanting to wear my riding pants. Although my philosophy is “ a get-off is a get-off” and I should be wearing ATGATT, I relented and wore jeans. Today , it was a case of MTGATT (most of the gear all the time). No dice on Mark’s oil change (I couldn’t believe they wouldn’t accommodate a traveler for a bloody oil change) but the fajitas were delicious and I found free internet at the Library – once I found the Library with very little help from Zumo. Mark came back to the house and I had told him I wouldn’t be long. Yikes! By the time I had checked email, Facebook and the motorcycle Forum and had a little online chat, I had run out of my free minutes. Plus, I wanted to get back on the road well before dark so I didn’t get my blog post made. I was gone much longer than I had anticipated and when I pulled into the driveway, the look on Mark’s face made me think “oh, oh, now I’ve done it – and it’s gotta be bad to make Mark look like THAT”. Thankfully, he was – or seemed ! – more relieved than angry.
I played with the horses and we took the dogs for a walk. I finally settled down with a drink of rum and the wee ‘puter, while we waited for Nancy to get home from work. Takeout pizza for dinner and Mark & Nancy planned Thursday’s ride. We’re headed west into the mountains to ride the Tail of the Dragon at Deal’s Gap on Friday. For some reason, Mark plans to sit in the parking lot with Nancy while I run the Dragon alone once (I and about 500 other bikers) and then we’ll run it together on our way to Tennessee. That’s Plan A. Stay tuned.