I'm Leaving On A...

[BikerGeek99]

We had a quite nice walk.

It was especially nice after 456 miles in the saddle today.

It was especially nice to be there with Sooze.

It was especially nice to just be away together.

It was just especially nice.

Period.

Winchester has a thing with painted apples. We’ve seen similar things before, so what the heck!

Sooze had done some research and found a local brew-pub, which was within walking distance, so we headed to Piccadilly’s Brew Pub.

Now, I’ve been to brew pubs all over the place.

Typically, they have a limited ‘macro’ beer selection, and offer a range of their own stuff.

Not here.

They did not have one single beer available that they brewed themselves. Not ONE! WTF?!?!? I really, truly just do not understand how a “Brew Pub” would be out of ALL of their own beers.

That’d be like Bob Evans being out of pancake batter…

Tim Hortons being out of coffee…

You get the idea.

We were disappointed, but dealt with it in an appropriate manner.

Out on the deck / patio area, there’s a kick-*** place for kids to play. I was kinda tempted to go down there as well, but:

1. Didn’t want to be “That Guy.”

2. I’m pretty sure if I’da jumped off and tried to land like some of the kids were, I woulda hurt myself, perhaps permanently. In an unpleasant place.

3. There wasn’t a waitress serving beer to people down there.

So I stayed put.

It was a cool place to hang out, I must say.

Being connoisseurs of fried pickles, we tried theirs:

We each took a bite and … holy crapOLA they were hot!! We thought it was the dipping sauce, but after chatting with the waitress aboot it, it was the actual pickles themselves! Them bastages gotta kick to ‘em!!

Mmm… You get one of those mahoogies with each bottle.

The final tally on those for the evening.

One of my favorite lines when I go to a bar and the service sucks is, “This’d be a great place for a bar!”

So, my witty title for this picture is, “This’d be a great place for a brew pub! Too bad these are all EMPTY!” Arrgh….

 

[BikerGeek99]

Since we’d walked to the historic district, then to the brew pub that didn’t actually have any of their own beers available, I called us a cab to get us back to the hotel.

Sooze grabbed a shot of this while waiting for the cab.

And I took this one of us.

Funny thing. I guess it happens to all of us. Do you consider your hometown a prison? A place to get away from as quickly as you can / could? Sooze and I decided to make Winchester our first stop for a reason: it seemed like a cool place to stop.

Our cabbie was a native of Winchester.

His response to our decision to make Winchester our destination was along the lines of, “Guess outsiders see it different.”

His comment really gave me pause, and something to ponder in the saddle.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Sunday, June 17, 2012.

After a night’s sleep at The Geek’s Preferred Hotel Of Choice, we weren’t the only folks on two wheels staying there.

The two bikes in front of us were from Michigan, the one parked behind us was from Pennsylvania. I happened to get to talking to the fella on the purty red Road Glide – he’d just bought it on Thursday. They were from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and were out to ride Skyline Drive after a couple of aborted attempts after various mechanical failures and bumper-tag incidents during previous aborted attempts. Nice guys.

We headed out of Winchester and pointed the front tire towards Front Royal, Virginia. We were greeted with clear skies and a gorgeous June morning.

When we were planning where to go and what to see, I came across a mention of Skyline Drive. We had all to get to where we were going, so we worked in Skyline Drive. Skyline Drive runs through Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. While it could be a ‘fun’ road to ride at a ‘spirited’ pace, since it’s a park, and I know what Performance Awards cost along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I decided to keep the pace sedate and just enjoy the scenery and the ride.

Approaching the Front Royal entrance to Skyline Drive.

Skyline Drive.

The views did not suck.

If ya get a chance, it’s worth the $10 or whatever it cost.

 

[BikerGeek99]

More Skyline Drive scenery.

Time for a page out of the, “It’s a small f’n world” book…

We stopped at Dickey Ridge Visitor Center to scope out some trash ‘n trinkets and maybe a picture or two. A few minutes back, on our way through Front Royal, we’d passed some folks on ‘Wings towing trailers running Ohio license plates. As we were about ready to head out from the visitor center, the ‘Wingers rolled up and parked next to us. I asked ‘em where they are from and, whaddaya know… They are from just down the road from Sooze’s hometown. So, last September I played golf in Hilton Head with a guy that remembered my father-in-law from junior high, and now we’re riding Skyline Drive and met folks that know exactly where Sooze grew up.

Small world, indeed.

Only on a bike can you strike up conversations with total strangers and still have a common denominator, then find something VERY common.

I love stuff like this.

A view from the visitor center.

Gonna be some yawn-inducing scenery shots for a bit. Like this.

And this.

I like the clouds in this shot, and I’m glad the weather was sooooo cooperative for our visit.

While it would be fun to run a “spirited” pace, that stone fence is something to give you a moment to think aboot what’d happen if ya completely blow a turn.

We weren’t always along the fence, though.

Sometimes it was along the other side.

So we pulled over for a photo op. There was this rather interesting looking tree.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Just in front of the bike was a trailer thingamahoogie with a dude dressed in what would otherwise be considered “questionable” to wear in public. He was a pedal-bike guy stationed at a checkpoint or whatever. There were a LOT of people on bicycles riding Skyline Drive this gorgeous Sunday.

Yep – it was a terrific day.

The road.

Us with the weird tree.

Moving on.

This forest rat was hanging out looking at us looking at him / her. I was just glad it stayed put.

We were in and out of the canopy, and temperatures ranged from warm at lower elevations to cool at higher elevations.

Plenty more to come…

 

[Old Michael]

...It was especially nice to be there with Sooze.

It was especially nice to just be away together.

It was just especially nice.

Well,...damn.

When you roll up all the FJR ****, and the motorcycle ****, and the ride report ****, and the scenery ****, ....you get down to brass tacks.

Geek, you're a big *****.

This forum would be less of a place without y'all.

 

[beemerdons]

Another Outstanding Ride Report, Thank You Andy and Sooze!

 

[vabrzn]

Nice report!

 

[BikerGeek99]

Geek, you're a big *****.

Yup. Can't ride for crap or drink beer, either.

This forum would be less of a place without y'all.

Aw, shucks. You're just trying to butter me up for something - what do you want from me?? :lol:

 

[BikerGeek99]

Skyline Drive is a boring road, and the scenery sucks. If you are on a motorcycle, do NOT ride this road.

All you see is stuff like this.

Trbl. Jes’ plain trbl.

If, like Bungie, you are a walking phobia, you prolly won’t like this tunnel, either.

If you don’t like clear skies, and scenic views, then this road just isn’t for you.

Up in the higher elevations, it was pleasantly cool and very clear this day.

It would be kinda more funner if the speed limit weren’t 35.

WHAT was I THINKING coming down this road, I just do not know.

This van was going agonizingly slow… Ugh….

That cloud kinda looks like a fish, if you ask me.

 

[BikerGeek99]

We stopped at the Byrd Visitor Center and this dude was hanging around. He did not have much to say.

There were lots of families with kids running around; otherwise I mighta done something “questionable.” Instead I just leaned on him.

Hippies & tree huggers. Guess everyone needs a hobby.

Before we headed outta the visitor center, I popped my GoPro on the Tour Pack and took video for a while – first facing forward, then facing behind us. Then, for grins, I put it on my helmet.

This dude was hanging out. Either there’s a glitch in the Matrix or we saw this same guy pulled off fiddling with his phone several times. Weird.

Here I am putting the camera on my helmet. All in all this worked great. Right up until it fell off my helmet. And landed in the road. In the other lane. And a minivan was coming. Luckily, I was able to turn the bike around and get back to the camera – the minivan missed it, and other than a scuff on the housing it is no worse for wear.

This was before it fell off.

I’ll try to get around to editing the video. In the meantime you’re stuck with Sooze’s most-excellent still shots.

It wasn’t long before our time on Skyline Drive was done. We rode the entire length, north-to-south. It was worth it.

With that portion of the trip complete, we hopped on I64 and slabbed it toward the coast. Of course, there were unexplainable traffic slow-downs.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Things eventually cleared up and we continued in partly-cloudy skies and warm temperatures. After our trip from Savannah to my dad’s place back in April, we are perfectly OK with warm.

Ship-making, or loading & unloading stuff.

This was heading across the James River Bridge outta Newport News heading towards Carrolton.

Once settled in our hotel in Smithfield, Virginia, we headed to a spot for a bite to eat the Sooze had scoped out. It’s in the building on the right with the tower-ish looking thing.

We were at a spot called Smithfield Station. They have a sense of humor I can appreciate.

They have shops and docks and a hotel and a high-end restaurant. We went to the bar called IBX (think inner banks versus outer banks) Bar and Grill. Their special was shrimp, so Sooze had a pile of fried shrimps.

I had some shrimp wrapped in Smithfield bacon (they make their own bacon!!!) with Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and pepper jack cheese. Mmm… Bacon, cheese and shrimp….

And we split an order of yummy hush puppies.

This is a pretty cool spot to visit.

The US Open was going on right then and we happened to get to chatting with a fella sitting at the bar who had played in a Pro-Am with Tiger Woods. Let’s just say he had his opinions of Tiger based on first-hand observations, and his opinions were not very flattering for Mr. Woods.

After finishing our grub, we headed back to The Geek’s Hotel Of Choice and called it a night.

 

[Bungie]

That tunnel would've done nothing to me. Its the ones where you can't see the end...

 

[GalaxyBlue]

Nice Report Andy!

I miss riding back there. Hell, I miss RIDING period! My FJR gets little action these days.

 

[Niehart]

Good stuff, you two, keep it coming.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Thanks, guys. I appreciate it!

Good stuff, you two, keep it coming.

The storms that ripped through here last Friday took out our power all weekend, and took out our A/C (finally got that fixed - it is DAMN hot here!), and has been wreaking havoc with our internet access. Now that things seem to be settling down, I'll work on finishing 'er up soon!

 

[FJRBandit]

Enjoying the report Geek. Did you happen to see "Turk's Mountain" on Skyline? BTW, did you sell the Feej? :lol:

 

[Redfish Hunter]

I am truly enjoying this excellent report. Thank you for sharing. My compliments on the excellent pics as well.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Did you happen to see "Turk's Mountain" on Skyline?

I believe so! Yes, you popped into my head. That kinda creeped me out. :dribble:

BTW, did you sell the Feej? :lol:

Yeah yeah yeah... No, I didn't sell it - rode it to work today, as a matter of fact. Don't worry - the Feej is going to NERDS and EOM this year. Later in this ride report we spend a few days with some Harley folks. I'll keep all that to a minimum for ya, though.

I am truly enjoying this excellent report. Thank you for sharing. My compliments on the excellent pics as well.

Thanks! Sooze takes most of the pictures - I'll be sure to pass along your compliments!

 

[Tanker]

Great pictures and wonderful report as usual Andy and Sooze!!

Thanks a bunch. :yahoo: