What a Ride!!!!

It seems that I am narrowly escaping the rain and bad weather. It was raining all night but by the time I woke up and got ready to ride out the rain stopped and it was clear. I left Front Royal, Va at 9:05AM and arrived at Roanoke, Va at 5:00 PM. It cost $10 bucks for motorcycles to get into the park and I believe $30 for cars. It took me 3 hours and 40 minutes to complete the first leg of the Skyline Drive. Bare in mind that inclement weather at times made me reduce my speed at 30 miles per hour and I also made a quick gas stop. When the weather allowed I was cruising at 65-70 miles. Of course, I was not taking the millions of tight curves at that speed.

The end of the Skyline Drive is in Waynesboro, Va after that it's called the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's 128 miles to Roanoke which took me 3 hours to do making short stops for a snack and several bathroom stops. I am planing to continue riding the Blue Ridge Parkway tomorrow until Fancy Gap, Va

The morning was chilly at about 46 F. Perfect temperature for a long ride ahead but I was not ready for what it was waiting ahead of me. It was the perfect recipe for what a motorcycle ride should be. ZERO traffic, cool temperatures and hundreds of miles of twisty roads. I mean it was INCREDIBLE!! For the next 230 miles, I saw a hand full of cars, one or two bikers and lots of  panoramic views.

As I started to climb up the ridge, the temperatures started to descent considerably. At the top of the mountain temperatures felt below 40 degrees and there was snow on the ground (but not on the road) at 3600 feet high.  The  visibility was almost zero for long periods of time but changing dramatically to sunny at times.

After 4 hours on the road, the weather stabilized and the sun would be the norm for the rest of the day.

I made it to Roanoke, Va and tomorrow I am planning to head to Johson City Tn.

What a way to head down South!! I don't see any other way to travel. I will leave the pictures do the talking. I will post the link to the rest of the pictures on the web tomorrow. Notice that there are no cars in my pictures. I also limited the amount of pictures taken because if I stop at all the beautiful outlooks I will never get to my destination on time.

 

It started as a beautiful day and then turned into this

This is the route at the end of Wednesday



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