Whuzzup? Two dates for the Blue Ridge Parkway?
Uhhhh, let me explain.
One of the reasons why I chose the Honda Pacific Coast as my first bike is solely due to the recommendation of an old friend of mine, John Westerman in Virginia. I recall our first conversation about the bike, "Hey man, it's cool, it's got a trunk, it's quiet, it's fast...". So I ended up buying one, and thereafter we swore to get together one weekend to ride.
So we finally got our act in gear and decided to attempt it on the weekend of June 21, 2002.
Attempt #1
June 21 was a Friday, and my plan was to work from my house that morning, pack the bike over lunchtime, and head down to John's house in Virginia to arrive by dinnertime, a 366 mile route. Big mistake. The morning ended up being very busy, work-and-family wise, and my packing job was rushed. So I hit the road around 100pm and it wasn't long before I started realizing all the stuff that I had forgotten to pack.
Cell phone
directions to John's house, etc.
Well, no turning around now....I mean, I'm TEN MILES from my house and I just can't waste the time to turn around. Besides, who needs a cell phone....and I had John's house coordinates punched into my GPS. No worries, mate. Adventure on!
It was hot that day and I made good time along I-70 and the PA Turnpike.
RRRRRRRRRRRR....<koff> <koff>...........RRRRRRRRRRRR
WTF was that?!!!
I was at about the 210 mile point when the bike started surging and bucking a little. I had never had a problem with this bike before....hmmmm. Onward.
Just as I approached a pack of Harleys and was about to pass them up a hill, I lost power altogether. I pulled over to the side and coasted to a stop. Engine dead. It would not re-start!
To make a very long story short, I flagged down an angel, used her cell phone to call HRCA and get a tow. Two guys, who I'll call "Tex" and "Goober" showed up, both Harley riders, both dogging me about my rice-burning Honda, didn't know where to tow me, didn't know how to use alphabetical order in the yellow pages....finally towed me to a closed Honda dealership outside of Somerset, PA. I checked into a hotel and cancelled my weekend with John.
In the morning, I met the first guy at the dealership that morning.
Me: "Hi, I died on the turnpike, so HRCA towed my bike here"
Him: "do you have an appointment? we don't have a bike mechanic here today"
Me: "got any tools I can borrow?"
To make another long story short, I disassembled the bike and worked on the fuel system. I replaced the filter (since the dealer at least had parts) and tested the fuel pump for flow....and damned if it didn't start running again! The final diagnosis to this problem was that I had water or some other crap in the gas, which blocked the fuel line.
The second part of my weekend, after I had ridden the Blue Ridge Parkway, was to have continued west to meet my wife and kids in Elizabethtown, KY to hit a hotel and visit Mammoth Cave on sunday. So I hit off through Southwestern PA, West Virginia, and across Kentucky to meet them there that night....another 450 miles. It was great to spend time with them, horsing around the hotel pool and at the cave the next day.
I did about 1000 miles that weekend, but the whole breakdown thing was a bummer and ruined my Blue Ridge ride with John. So, we tried again....
Attempt #2
During the weeks in between, I had drained my fuel tank, tested the fuel pump, etc.....ran it dry through a couple of tanks....and proclaimed it fixed. (bad gas) So I felt confident in the bike again. Through some last-second planning and encouragement by my wife, we tried again the weekend of July 12, 2002.
I started out at about 530pm this time, much later than before, and didn't expect to get to John's place until midnight. The trip to John's was uneventful apart from me thumbing my nose at the spot that I had been stranded at outside Somerset just three weeks earlier. Having GPS coordinates to John's saved me a lot of aggravation as it was very dark and rural in his area....street signs hard to see....and I didn't think about the fact that my Mapquest directions wouldn't be visible at night! (duh...)
I rolled into John's around midnight...it was good to see him and his wife Gloria again after quite some time.
The next day, John and I saddled up and headed out at around 1030am, and our destination was Front Royal, VA....the start of the Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Forest. After paying a small fee to get into the park, we hit it....curve after curve, vista after vista....for over 100 miles. It was a fantastic road to practice your cornering technique, which I don't get much of on my commute. John was very smooth and fast through the corners on his PC800, and it was difficult to keep pace with him. I took a very conservative line through the corners, as they were basically all blind corners.....you didn't know what a corner was going to do until you got there. The biggest challenge on the Skyline was keeping a rhythm up, since there were so many RV's and gawking touristas that would just stop their car in the middle of the road....
But there were NO lights and NO stops and you could just keep going and going.......
We stopped for lunch at around 2pm, and John just grinned about what lay ahead.....the actual Blue Ridge Parkway.
Once we made the transition from Skyline to the BRP, it was like night and day....it was just as pretty, but MUCH less traffic. We kept up a good clip as we still had over 100 miles to go so we could get to our hotel in Bedford, VA. A quick gas stop for John and we were rolling again.
The weather forecast had called for cloudy conditions, but now it began to rain. Nothing hard, just a steady sprinkle which followed us the rest of the day.
Here is a shot that John took up in Arnold Valley on the BRP:
Near the end of the day, John pulled further and further ahead....I had gotten tired and could not stay focused well enough to pick the right line through the turns, so I just slowed down through the curves and nailed it on the straights as a way to keep up.
We finally hit Bedford at around 700pm, found a great restaurant and just caught up on life.
The next morning, I got up at around 0400am to head home. After 400 miles of slabs and cool VA detours, I made it home about 8 hours later so I could play with my kids for awhile.
It was cool to finally accomplish what we had planned on a year earlier, and it was VERY cool to have ridden some of the best bike roads in the country!