DAY TWO - Skyline and Blue Ridge Parkway

WOW!!  Pretty much sums it up.  The Shenandoah National Park - Skyline Drive - follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains for 105 miles.  The views are spectacular.  The road is amazing!  Fresh pavement, lots of curves, wildlife, lots of motorcycles, bicycles and cars.  There are over 75 scenic overlooks as they call them, with beautiful views.  The 35 mile per hour speed limit is slow but very necessary as there are curves the whole way!  The canopy of trees that surrounded the road for most the ride was much appreciated as the weather and sunshine was beautiful.  I would love to go back in the fall some time to see the colors! 


Skip joined us this morning before we headed out onto Skyline Drive.  It was great to see another Route 66 biker.  It doesn't seem very long ago that we were all together on Route 66.  I got thinking at supper tonight that I have been in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma,Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia with Miles and most of those states with both of these gentlemen!  That is 21 states so far - and more to go on this trip!  This is all in less than one year.  Amazing.


After lunch we finished up the Skyline Drive and headed right onto the Blue Ridge Parkway which is spectacular - a little faster at 45 mph but not much.  Most of the corners you still have to slow down but well worth the drive.  Some of the ride is right on the ridge of the mountains where you can see from both sides of the road the views each way.  We went through two small tunnels but they were very neat.  I am sure you could see the smile on my face today as I was enjoying the views, the smells of the forest and the great company.


There are so many bikers on the road and when we stop everyone is so friendly and are amazed that we are heading to New Orleans.  Some people are unaware of the HOG rides that are organized and can't wait to go back home and look them up on the HOG website. 


Tonight we are in Troutville, Virginia and will continue our ride along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I am looking forward to more scenic views and meeting more bikers along the way. 


Today we rode about 390 km (all on one tank - with about 80 km left!)  I guess when you go slow and coast downhill you actually don't use as much gas.  At one point I thought we were going to run out as we were about 50 miles outside of Troutville and we all thought we had enough gas until we started climbing again.  I watched in horror as my gas was getting used up and the thoughts of walking for gas anywhere was appalling in this heat!  But as we started heading downhill I saw the gas gauge gain back all that was lost!  Crazy!  Tomorrow we all agreed that we are not going to leave it so tight!