Day Twelve: Blue Ridge Parkway and on to Manassas

Day Twelve: Blue Ridge Parkway and on to Manassas

If your coffee doesn't wake you up, starting the day driving directly into the sun on the Blue Ridge Parkway certainly will.

Tuesday was Part Two of our ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We'd crossed into Virginia as the end of the day on Monday and would continue to the Parkway's end and on to Manassas. I've come to love riding these byways in the early morning when the day is still quiet and sleepy and the sunlight is streaming through the trees. We were surrounded by the fragrance of new grass and wildflowers and a very different landscape than the one we'd experienced on Monday.

The Blue Ridge Parkway through Virginia is at a lower elevation - 3,000 or more feet lower, so the peaks were less knife-like. The landscape was also different. While we'd seen nary a sign of civilization on Monday, Tuesday's ride offered farms and barns, grazing cows and fields with hayrolls waiting collection, plotted like a farm version of "Connect the Dots".

While we headed to the higher elevations, I could see images of farms flicker through the treeline like an old silent movie. Higher and higher we climbed, until we were literally driving through a cloud. At one point, we could see about five feet in front of us. It was eerie and amazing at the same time.  It cleared from the roadway, but the sky above us was still white, and would stay that way for the duration of the ride.  The clearing was short lived. The temperature flirted with sixty degrees, but it felt much colder on the bike. As we began our descent, we ran into it again, a thick misting on the road and the ridge, but the white surrounded us beyond the trees on the mountainside. The first overlook sign I could actually see put us at Petite's Gap, an elevation of 2361 feet.

It wasn't until mile marker 72 that we broke through the second round of cloud riding. The clouds had cleared the road, but still clung stubbornly to the valleys and divides on the peaks to our right. It didn't feel like we'd actually left the heavens until our pit stop for gas at Big Island on Route 501. You could smell the grease from whatever they were frying at the Mountainview Restaurant, so we passed on that establishment for lunch, snacking on our stash of raisins and almonds instead.

We continued back on the Parkway until the end, and then onto Skyline Drive through Shenandoah Valley National Park. Unfortunately, the combination of cloud cover and altitude forced us to stop and suit up with rain gear, in part to keep warm, and to prepare for the rain that threatened.

Luckily the rain held off and we made it to Manassas without incident. It had been the longest ride of the trip - eleven hours - and we were exhausted.  Our energy level piqued as we rode past the entrance to the Manassas National Battlefield on the way to our hotel. It propelled us through dinner, but we were both asleep by 9:00pm.

The Blue Ridge Parkway was an amazing ride, and an experience we won't soon forget.

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Day Eleven: The Ride through the Blue Ridge Mountains

Day Eleven: The Ride through the Blue Ridge Mountains

Sorry for the delay... the network was down at our hotel in Manassas, so I'm a bit behind....

We left Cherokee, NC on Monday and began our two day trek through the Blue Ridge Mountains. One of the first signs I saw when we entered the Blue Ridge Parkway read, "CAUTION: Steep, winding mountain road next 35 miles." My stomach pit, lurched and I took a huge deep breath.

There are numerous overlooks all along the parkway - perfect photo opportunities - including the highest spot on the parkway at 6053 ft. I did most of my clicking from the back of the bike with great results.


As we climbed higher and higher, the word of the day was undoubtedly "wow", often spoken in an awe-inspired hush as we  gasped at the majesty of the sites we saw. At one point, near Craggy Ridge, the entire mountain was enveloped in a cloud, a palette of grays and whites with ghostly wisps dancing across the roadway. It was like riding in a dream.

To the left, the sky behind the towering evergreens was as white as snow. To the right, as we neared and rounded the curve, it was a tranquil blue, and changed again as we rode around the next bend. The constant change was amazing.

We had lunch at Mount Mitchell State Park (elevation 6,684). As we sat, we watched the entire mountain disappear into the fog before our eyes. It rained for about five minutes and then the mountain began to slowly fade back into view. It was like watching a nature movie over lunch.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the favorite rides of motorcycle enthusiasts, and was the ride Jason was waiting to do on this trip. The postcard we got for Zander was a vintage 40's style illustration of a motorcyclist riding on the Parkway. There were SO MANY bikes on the ride! It was very cool to see.  One of the very cool things about bikers is that they salute each other as they pass... a wave, a few fingers, a head nod. Regardless of what state,road, highway or byway we've travelled, that is a constant.

The day ended in a small Virginia town named Galax. Leveraging Jason's affection for Star Wars, I referred to it as "A Galax far, far away....."  It got more than a few chuckles.

We had dinner at a local restaurant called Macabos which featured an amazing menu of really cool sandwiches, burgers and the like. We each had a dinner named appropriately for our personalities. Jason had "The Lone Ranger", a corned beef, hot pastrami, melted swiss and cole slaw on an everything bagel. He said it was great. For me, it was the "Ricochet Rabbit" - since Jason says that's who I remind him of when I wake up ready to bing bing bing go first thing in the morning - turkey, swiss, chicken breast, lettuce, tomato and mayo on a plain bagel. Also terrific.

After dinner, it was back to the hotel for a good night sleep and Day Two of the Blue Ridge in the morning.

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