Bryan had told us earlier in the week that he would be coming home over the week-end. And while Julie and I love to think that his motivation was to spend time with us we both knew his reasons were to spend some time with his sweetie Alicia and to pick up his FZ6 that due to rainy weather the week-end before he was forced to leave here at the house. But we love to have our fantasies...
He had told us before hand that he did want to go riding and we invited him to go with us on
the ride we had already planned for Saturday. However, he informed us that he already had plans to meet up with some friends from high school on Friday in Charlotte and wouldn't be done with that until the wee hours of the morning. Which meant he wouldn't be making an early go time on Saturday. Let it be known here and now that I will forever point out that he decided to fore-go a day of riding in order to go partying with the boys.
He did say however that he wanted to go riding on Sunday. Which didn't earn him any bonus points with his mother because she was scheduled to fly out to Florida on business that day. On the other hand, I didn't have any plans... :)
Like me, Bryan was jonesing for some twisties. He mentioned that even though he has ridden some this year and even made a trip across US 421, aka "The Snake", October was the last time he really spent any 'quality time' in the mountains on his bike. So when I saw him briefly late Saturday night (and rubbed in what a great ride he had missed) he asked me if I felt like heading up Hwy 8 to Tuggles Gap on Sunday.
Does a bear poop in the woods?
Julie, being the good sport that she is, gave us both a kitchen pass for the day but asked that I help her print some pictures of Bryan and Alicia before we left. She was hoping to be able to stop by and visit my Dad while in Florida and wanted to have them with her just in case. So after getting that done Bryan and I began prepping for the ride.
We left the house about 9:30 am headed up Hwy 8 and to the mountains. We both had about half a tank of fuel and decided just to ride that out, stopping for fuel when we needed it on up the road. By close to 11:00 am we were in Lawsonville fueling up and grinning after having tackled the Hwy 8 twisties between Winston Salem and Danbury.
The ride up through Stewart, Virginia was a hoot. It was a beautiful spring day, there was little traffic and we were having a ball. After we went through Woolwine we stopped at an old produce stand so that I could set up the Go-Pro camera and clean the windscreen. The plan was to make the run up to Tuggles Gap and check for a place that would allow us to get safely off the road where we could play a bit and take pictures. Then turn around at the top of the mountain and go back to it. When we reached the twisty section Bryan, as usual, checked out on me, but not as bad as he used to do. The FJR deserves all the credit for that. Once at the top and stopped we gathered up and talked about having seen a spot that should work for what we wanted to do and headed back to it.
Play time! Bryan went first and was very photogenic, I really pleased with the way the pictures turned out and plan on putting some up on the wall of the McCrary Man Cave. He made several passes back and forth on the section we were in which allowed me to play with the camera while I took many of shots and even a video of him. The boy grinned from ear to ear when we got back home and he saw the photos posted here! Rightly so!
Now let me just say that neither me nor the FJR are as slim, svelte and nimble as the boy and his FZ6 are. Plus Julie will tell you that I'm not as aggressive either, which on street bikes could be a good thing for an old man and his wife. Still, I made a pass by Bryan and he got a few shots of me, then I went down to where we'd been turning around, as I did an Escalade came by. Not wanting to get caught behind it I waited for several minutes before taking off. But within just a couple of turns I had indeed caught up to it, I guess they must have stopped somewhere for some reason. Regardless, now I was stuck behind this relative to me slow moving behemoth. I slowed way up and tried to give myself a little room so that I could have some momentum when I passed Bryan, but it didn't work. So those photos have the appearance of a tourer, not a sport tourer, which I guess is appropriate.
However, I turned around at the other end our photo section to come back toward Bryan and he was able to click off the photos you see here. I'm tickled enough with them that I'm sure they too will find a home on the wall of the man cave.
At this point I was ready to quit fooling around and get back to the business of riding! But now Bryan was hungry, so we went back to the top of the mountain, got on the BRP headed south down toward Meadows of Dan, Virginia to find a place for a late lunch. Along the way we noticed something we'd hadn't seen prior to this trip. It appeared to be some sort of park and visible from the parkway were a setting of some kind of bushes that were shaped in the form of a treble clef. Checking into once we got home I discovered that what we saw was the site of "
Floydfest" and that those bushes contain lights that are turned on at night during the festival.
After lunch we grabbed a map and asked one of my very favorite questions; Where to next? It was getting later in the day but it hasn't been getting dark until after 8:00 pm recently. Neither of us had any place to be until later on in the day Monday so naturally the "We love to ride McCrary's" decided to venture on and see what we could find. Julie, Bryan and I love US 58 through Virginia but neither Bryan or I had been on the section between Meadows of Dan and Hillsville so that seemed like a plan. We decided from there we would take US 52 north and then check out SR 94, which again, neither of us had ridden. Then we'd take a look at where we were at and the available daylight left. A plan!
58 didn't disappoint us. It wasn't super curvy but it did wind it's way through some beautiful countryside. We both commented about that on the radio while riding. At Hillsville we got on US 52 as planned and headed north. I had just been there the day before with Teddy, Tim and Julie but it's a great ride so what the heck, but Bryan said he'd never been on it before. He was digging it! We were both in full picture taking mode now so I mentioned to him that the "
Shot Tower" state park wasn't far ahead as well a view of the I-77 bridge over the New River and that I'd like to stop and get a few pictures of both since they were close together. As always, he was game.
We rode right past the entrance to the Shot Tower Park and were then immediately on a small bridge going over the New River so we couldn't stop or turn around. The I-77 bridge was right there on our immediate left and Bryan was both spellbound and amazed. Though not in the same category as the New River Gorge bridge further north on US 19, this is still an amazing structure! Having no choice we rode on and went under the big bridge, then stopped at a wide spot to take some pictures. The problem was the way US 52 ran we couldn't get the kind of pictures we wanted, so we came up with a plan...
I kept my camera out of the bag and put the strap around my neck, then put on my helmet and got on the bike, laying the camera on the tank bag. I got the bike fired up and turned around, then proceeded slowly back toward the big bridge, under it, around the corner and then over the small bridge, all the while pointing the camera at what I wanted to photograph. Since I need my right hand to operate the shutter I used the throttle lock on the bike to keep the engine just above an idle and eased along, one hand on the bars, the other holding the camera and taking pictures. Bryan had it easy, he used his small point and shoot. Still, all in all the pictures turned out amazingly well I think.
As I said, this is one big bridge. I find myself in awe of structures like these wondering how man can build something so massive. Bryan said it was due to engineers... But when I asked him if he could do it he told me that was the job of civil engineers, not mechanical. Good answer...
We rolled slowly into the entrance into the Shot Tower park only to find that the gates and the park were closed. We parked the bikes, got off and decided to at least take photos of what we could see. But soon the 'J.B. McCrary' came out in both of us so we ducked under the gates and walked up to the tower anyway. I'm glad we did. It's an interesting piece of history and gave Bryan a chance to continue with the 'civil' vs 'mechanical' engineer thing.
I had no idea what the Shot Tower was. Honestly, looking at it as we rode by on previous trips I figured it might had been a snipers nest during the civil was or something along that lines. Boy, was I wrong. It was designed (by mechanical engineers...) and built to manufacture the lead balls used in the muzzle loader rifles during the 1800's. How it all works is on the information board I took a picture of and is posted below. Also notice where it says "National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark". Bryan did, and made sure to point that out to me. I still think it would be harder to build that bridge...
Still, it was interesting, and another piece of the history of the south during the war. And yes Bryan, I'm sure it took some doing to figure out how to make it work. At the same time it sounds just like something a bunch of college kids would come up with. "Hey lets dig a hole and put a bucket of water in it, then build a tower over the hole and drop things into the bucket!"
We left the Tower park and continued up US 52 to just south of the I-77 intersection, turning onto SR 94 and soon discovered we'd made a find! Riding through the town of Ivanhoe and into the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area we were greeted with fantastic scenery, sweeping curves, tight turns, elevation changes and road surfaces like you might find on a race track. It was great! There was some traffic that slowed our pace some, but not much and for the most part we were flowing with the road and just having a good time. Before long we came to the town of Fries, Virginia (pronounced "Freeze") where the wife of one of Bryan's friends is originally from. Bryan thought it would be fun to stop and take a few pictures to show them that we had actually been there, so we pulled into town and down by the New River.
Bryan's friends had told him how there was a freezer that had a sign in it that read "Welcome to Fries, Virginia which is really what he wanted to get a picture of. We rode all over town trying to find it and never did, then decided just to go down to the river to check it out and get a few photos. From the road we saw a railroad caboose that was in a park located next to the river and rode down to check it out.
Bryan was busy taking 'beauty shots' of the bikes next to the river while I looked around the park to see what I might find. Amazing as it sounds, I found a dam! Not a big one, which explains why we missed it when we pulled in, but a dam none the less. All in all it was a neat little place and worth stopping for a few minutes to see.
Leaving Fries we continued on 94 for several miles until we arrived at SR 274 where we headed west following the New River. It didn't take long to realize we had made another find as not only was the road itself great, so was the ride. Once again we found sweeping turns and gorgeous scenery as the road ran close to the river and then out into the Virginia woodlands. It was decided that we really needed to get back up to the area and do some more exploring, but by now the shadows were getting long as the sun began to get low in the horizon.
We rode 274 out to US 221 and took it over to Independence where we picked up US 21 south riding straight through to Sparta, North Carolina. Bryan was getting hungry and the pot roast that Julie left in the crock pot for us was calling us. We began discussing how much fuel we had and how far out we were from the house, deciding that one more stop was going to needed to make it in. One of our usual stops wasn't far ahead at that point and we decided that we'd fuel up there and then ride straight in to the house.
A fun ride off the mountain on 21 followed until we caught up with some traffic, but that allowed us to chat a little on the radio and take in the sights. Our chatting ended when someone on a base station with a lot and I mean a lot of power took over the channel and started doing the CB base station thing. At first it was entertaining, then it became annoying as no one could talk over him and all he was doing was B.S.'ing and stirring up the airways. The problem was he had so much power we had to endure this guy for miles.
About half way between Elkin and Harmony I spotted some purple and yellow flowers right off the road, Knowing that Julie is looking for flowers that color to make prints of and hang on the wall of the woman cave I asked Bryan if there would be enough light to get any decent pictures. He felt sure there was so we found a place to turn around and headed back to see what we could do.
Bryan took a few as did I, hoping that something might come out that Julie would like and be able to use. We also found some blue something or others that are probably nothing more than weeds because they were covering the ground, but they were pretty and we were thinking of 'momma'.
The amazing thing is they were all growing wild right off the side of the road beside an old abandoned building. Several cars drove by while we were taking these shots and I'm the sight of two motorcyclists parked on the shoulder of the road taking pictures of flowers had to be an entertaining.
It was dark when we left, and close to 9:00 pm when we got home. Julie had left a message on the phone concerned that we were out so late, and we should have called her right away, but didn't. We were stuffing our faces with pot roast when she called back and though a little upset I think she understood.
We found some new roads, saw some beautiful country side, took some great photos, had a ball and got in a almost 320 miles. A great day by anyone's standard. For me it was the second day in the row that I had not only gotten to ride, but had great rides with my family and dear friends. What more could I ask for?
Bruce
