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Want to share the details of a 200+ mile day trip on the Sunday of the time change to Daylight Savings. I live in the Richmond, VA, area and had been talking with Steve, another of the regulars at The Baja Bean, our favorite pool hall/watering hole, about taking a trip once the weather improved. He's got a really tricked out V-Star and rides every chance he gets.
We agreed to meet in the parking lot of a bar/restauant on the east side of town at 8 AM, and a third rider on a Ducati 900 was supposed to join us, but I think he had a case of the "brown bottle flu" and never showed up.
I reset my alarm ahead an hour to EDT and turned in early, not sure just how far we would be riding. I pulled into the parking lot at 7:59 and was alone. When I called Steve on his cell, he said we had agreed to meet at 8, right?, and I told him it was eight. He'd fogotten to set his clock ahead. I wandered over to the BP station for coffee and a pie to kill time. Steve showed up at 8:45 and we waited till 9 for Josh, the Ducati rider, but he was a no-show.
Nodding for Steve to take the lead, we eased out onto RTE 5 heading toward Colonial Williamsburg. This is a very historic an beautiful 2-lane road and I always look forward to riding it. Twenty odd miles east of Richmond, we turned south on Rte 106 and crossed the scenic James River on the Benjamin Harrison Bridge. My Bridgestone BattlAx's, 100 up front and 130 on the rear, are not exactly confidence inspiring when I hit the grating section of the drawbridge, but I've never had a problem. The weather was clear and in the mid-50's by then, so I was comfortable, but it was still nice to stop for a soda when we hit Rte 10, another historic road, but this time on the south side of the James. They had just repave about 25 miles of this road and we were riding on what was essentially virgin 2-lane asphalt at between 75-85 MPH for about 30 minutes before turning north again on Rte 31 to get to the Jamestown/Scotland ferry which would take us across the James River for the 2nd time that day. About 1/4 mile before reaching the ferry slip, a cager with a utility trailer luched out of his driveway and nearly collected Steve's big V-twin with the trailer. Steve hollered something at him and he stopped. I had to ride into the oncoming lane to avoid the trailer, but there was no traffic coming off the ferry, so no big deal. The ferry ride is always fun, it's free and you get to watch the gulls and cormorants doing their thing trying to find enough to eat to survive and breed. Sometimes I think that's all any of us are doing.
The northern terminus of the ferry is Historic Jamestown, VA, which will be celebrating it's 400th birthday next year and will be so mobbed with tourists, we may not even want to make this trip again during that time. The next leg of the journey after disembarking the ferry is 20 plus miles on a beautiful stretch of road called the Colonial Parkway. This is a limited access road, 45MPH speed limit, that connects Jamestown, on the James River with Yorktown on the, yes you guessed it, York River. We had the road pretty much to ourselves for much of the trip and Steve set a pace of 55-60MPH, which was occasionally interrupted by a cager who was taking the speed limit signs a bit too literally in a no passing area. Yorktown has a very nice biker bar at the end of the main drag and we stopped there for lunch and a couple of malt beverages to clear out the road dust.
This place is well know for the "scenery" and we weren't diappointed when a shaply leather-clad honey wheeled her custom Harley up in front of out window, removed her helmet, and shook out slightly curly raven hair that came to her mid-back.
Inspecting her bike when we left, I couldn't help but note all the tasteful mods she had made and the South Dakota plate. I am no H-D lover, but I can appreciate attention to detail and a customization job that she had been working on for years.
Leaving Yorktown to get onto Rte 17 east heading for Newport News was the first heavy traffic of the day. Most of the cagers were on their best behavior though, and the bumper to bumper traffic move along well. Thankfully. nobody tail gated me, as I get nervous when I see a girl on a cell phone driving her daddy's Excursion 10 feet off my tail light at 50 in traffic. Yeah, I though some of you knew what I was talking about.
Next stop was Hoss's Deli in Newport News, a bona-fide biker hang out that sports a huge chain link fenced "cage" in the rear for security for the bikes. It felt a little odd riding an antique Yamaha into this den of H-D worshippers. We never heard a diparaging word from the Harley crowd, however, so I can't complain. A young girl drove a sports car straight up a utility pole guy wire right where we had turned into Hoss's less than 5 minutes earlier and we spent an hour watching to see how they woul get the car down. Finally left when everone but a wrecker had showed up. I'll bet she had some 'splainin' to do to daddy.
We pulled out of Hoss's after a couple of brews and headed west on I-64, not my favorite part of the trip, following Steve at 80-85MPH in the left lane. I was happier when we got off at the Williamsburg exit and took Rte 60 west, although the pace didn't fall off much. My '80G is a naked bike and the 15-20 MPH west wind hitting me in the face didn't make for a comfortable ride at that speed. Steve has a big windshield, so he was fine. We finally made it back to Richmond, temps were in the upper 60's and we stopped at the Baja Bean for a couple of games of 8-ball , and, yep, you guessed it, a couple more beers. I don't encourage drinking while riding, but I think I had a total of 5 beers over a 6 hour period, and at 215#, I never felt impaired in any way. Remember, no matter who is at fault, we lose in an altercation with a cage, so let your conscience (and your reflexes) be your guide when you are day-trippin'. Any of you other VA XSives that have a good day trip route, please share it with the rest of us.
We agreed to meet in the parking lot of a bar/restauant on the east side of town at 8 AM, and a third rider on a Ducati 900 was supposed to join us, but I think he had a case of the "brown bottle flu" and never showed up.
I reset my alarm ahead an hour to EDT and turned in early, not sure just how far we would be riding. I pulled into the parking lot at 7:59 and was alone. When I called Steve on his cell, he said we had agreed to meet at 8, right?, and I told him it was eight. He'd fogotten to set his clock ahead. I wandered over to the BP station for coffee and a pie to kill time. Steve showed up at 8:45 and we waited till 9 for Josh, the Ducati rider, but he was a no-show.
Nodding for Steve to take the lead, we eased out onto RTE 5 heading toward Colonial Williamsburg. This is a very historic an beautiful 2-lane road and I always look forward to riding it. Twenty odd miles east of Richmond, we turned south on Rte 106 and crossed the scenic James River on the Benjamin Harrison Bridge. My Bridgestone BattlAx's, 100 up front and 130 on the rear, are not exactly confidence inspiring when I hit the grating section of the drawbridge, but I've never had a problem. The weather was clear and in the mid-50's by then, so I was comfortable, but it was still nice to stop for a soda when we hit Rte 10, another historic road, but this time on the south side of the James. They had just repave about 25 miles of this road and we were riding on what was essentially virgin 2-lane asphalt at between 75-85 MPH for about 30 minutes before turning north again on Rte 31 to get to the Jamestown/Scotland ferry which would take us across the James River for the 2nd time that day. About 1/4 mile before reaching the ferry slip, a cager with a utility trailer luched out of his driveway and nearly collected Steve's big V-twin with the trailer. Steve hollered something at him and he stopped. I had to ride into the oncoming lane to avoid the trailer, but there was no traffic coming off the ferry, so no big deal. The ferry ride is always fun, it's free and you get to watch the gulls and cormorants doing their thing trying to find enough to eat to survive and breed. Sometimes I think that's all any of us are doing.
The northern terminus of the ferry is Historic Jamestown, VA, which will be celebrating it's 400th birthday next year and will be so mobbed with tourists, we may not even want to make this trip again during that time. The next leg of the journey after disembarking the ferry is 20 plus miles on a beautiful stretch of road called the Colonial Parkway. This is a limited access road, 45MPH speed limit, that connects Jamestown, on the James River with Yorktown on the, yes you guessed it, York River. We had the road pretty much to ourselves for much of the trip and Steve set a pace of 55-60MPH, which was occasionally interrupted by a cager who was taking the speed limit signs a bit too literally in a no passing area. Yorktown has a very nice biker bar at the end of the main drag and we stopped there for lunch and a couple of malt beverages to clear out the road dust.
This place is well know for the "scenery" and we weren't diappointed when a shaply leather-clad honey wheeled her custom Harley up in front of out window, removed her helmet, and shook out slightly curly raven hair that came to her mid-back.
Inspecting her bike when we left, I couldn't help but note all the tasteful mods she had made and the South Dakota plate. I am no H-D lover, but I can appreciate attention to detail and a customization job that she had been working on for years.
Leaving Yorktown to get onto Rte 17 east heading for Newport News was the first heavy traffic of the day. Most of the cagers were on their best behavior though, and the bumper to bumper traffic move along well. Thankfully. nobody tail gated me, as I get nervous when I see a girl on a cell phone driving her daddy's Excursion 10 feet off my tail light at 50 in traffic. Yeah, I though some of you knew what I was talking about.
Next stop was Hoss's Deli in Newport News, a bona-fide biker hang out that sports a huge chain link fenced "cage" in the rear for security for the bikes. It felt a little odd riding an antique Yamaha into this den of H-D worshippers. We never heard a diparaging word from the Harley crowd, however, so I can't complain. A young girl drove a sports car straight up a utility pole guy wire right where we had turned into Hoss's less than 5 minutes earlier and we spent an hour watching to see how they woul get the car down. Finally left when everone but a wrecker had showed up. I'll bet she had some 'splainin' to do to daddy.
We pulled out of Hoss's after a couple of brews and headed west on I-64, not my favorite part of the trip, following Steve at 80-85MPH in the left lane. I was happier when we got off at the Williamsburg exit and took Rte 60 west, although the pace didn't fall off much. My '80G is a naked bike and the 15-20 MPH west wind hitting me in the face didn't make for a comfortable ride at that speed. Steve has a big windshield, so he was fine. We finally made it back to Richmond, temps were in the upper 60's and we stopped at the Baja Bean for a couple of games of 8-ball , and, yep, you guessed it, a couple more beers. I don't encourage drinking while riding, but I think I had a total of 5 beers over a 6 hour period, and at 215#, I never felt impaired in any way. Remember, no matter who is at fault, we lose in an altercation with a cage, so let your conscience (and your reflexes) be your guide when you are day-trippin'. Any of you other VA XSives that have a good day trip route, please share it with the rest of us.