Nice wet ride ....

[Lannis]

So, since I can pick any time I want now and visit anywhere I want to go, Fay and I were heading from our home to our son and daughter-in-law 140 miles southwest of us.   As always, Fay was taking pictures from the back of the bike while we were riding …. just random ones.

Started out on a regular highway up in the mountains, somewhere in the triangle formed by US 221, VA 8, and US 11:



Then found a little road (by compass) that went past people’s gardens and yards:



Then started to get a little smaller:



Then got really narrow.– on this road, before we got to the end, the bushes and trees grew just as close to the road as any Kentish lane ….



But after 10 miles of dirt and gravel, we saw a stop sign!



and it went off THAT way and the road started getting wet …



And then we rode under THIS:



And the camera had to be put away or it would have floated away.   A few wet miles later, we reached our goal:




and had dinner and got on the bike and hustled home on the big roads and arrived safe and sound with no more pictures but a good day of riding!

Lannis

[stuarto49]

Nice story and pics.  I'll be that tiny gravel lane was not on the GPS (how would you know?)   

Stuart

[Bill Hagan]

Nice story and pics.  I'll be that tiny gravel lane was not on the GPS (how would you know?)   

Stuart

Yup.  [Visualize laughing emoticon; my Safari lets me use them here only when it feels like it.]

Nice pix, tho, Lannis.

I need to convince Kathi to be camera(wo)man on rides.

Have had a few close calls while punching the button on my bar mounted cams, and have decided not to do that as often if at all.

Bill

[Kev m]

Was this over the weekend?

On Saturday I headed out to my old friend's funeral (ok, "anti-funeral, celebration of life party"). He was an old friend/riding partner/riding fanatic who worked with me at Chilton back in the 90s. I knew I HAD to ride, so despite the call for storms I saddled up the Harley and headed out for the little under 300 mile round trip.

I put on the Stich as the clouds were spitting off an on, but by the time I got to Delaware the sun was starting to peak out. So I took off and stowed the Stich pants for a pleasant run down the DE shoreline. I was taking a windy route that my bud and I rode together some 20 years ago (figured he'd appreciate that) and it was marvelous.

(Sorry, don't know how to imbed the new goggle pics these days, they seem to have disabled that type of link):

https://goo.gl/photos/9uBeGuvTNRaDCDN49

But I should have known the clouds were still threatening... and when I turned a corner down near Dover Airforce Base it was like riding into a car wash, I LITERALLY rode into a wall of water that soaked my jeans before I could pull over. I figured screw it and continued, and by the time I passed the base it was over and I luckily had another 20-30 miles to go. By the time I got to his place for the services I had mostly dried out (except my boots, I hate it when water gets in the TOP of waterproof boots).

The ride home that evening was uneventful except that I kept the Stich on the hole way even when the sun came back out from the dark clouds.

All in all, it was a ride that my buddy Rob probably would have loved:

https://goo.gl/photos/6bAijumk8EFr18Q16

[rdbandkab]

Nice pics!    Karen always gets quiet when we ride on a road that gets smaller and smaller and smallerand smaller.....

We were down in the Staunton, Harrisonburg, and surrounding areas Sat/Sun..  We got lucky with the weather though..

[paul in rochester]

We tried the "back-back road" thing in the Finger Lakes region. Dirt road...to two track...to grassy thing...to barbed wire across the "road"!
Surprise!

The cows on the other side were underwhelmed.

paul

[Lannis]

We tried the "back-back road" thing in the Finger Lakes region. Dirt road...to two track...to grassy thing...to barbed wire across the "road"!
Surprise!

The cows on the other side were underwhelmed.

paul

That's part of the fun!   Mapquest and Google Maps used to send you down a road called Spring Lane that joined two dirt roads along the James River, as if it were a real "road".   Just a track through the woods, going past the occasional dodgy-looking trailer or shack.   I notice that the 911-required road sign has been taken down now, so I don't go that way any more ....

Lannis

[rdbandkab]

At one point this weekend,  I decided to follow a "thinner" line on the Garmin handheld (*dirt/gravel roads show as dotted lines).   The road was still paved but we decided to turn around when we passed an old beat up mobile home that had so much garbage in the front yard that I could barely make out the 3 full sized mattresses strewn about.   The people walking around in the mess didn't instill much confidence either!!
Again...........Kar en got quiet.....