8th Ride to no where on Labor Day

(click image for larger view)

Couldn't pass up this beautiful day. Took a ride out west to no place in particular. Fought the Labor Day traffic all the way home. (I could have done without that!)

GPS stats:

• 137 miles
• 26 mph overall avg
• 38 mph moving avg
• 84 mph max speed (oops!)
  
• 5-hr 12-min total time
• 3-hr 36-min moving time
• 1-hr 35-min stopped time

(GPS on entire trip)

7th Ride - Dahlia Festival in Jeffersonton, VA

Hold any comments about going to see a bunch of flowers...

In an effort to eek another ride in before August evaporated, we took a quick ride west to the Dahlia Festival at Wollam Gardens in Jeffersonton, VA on the 28th. I got a few pics (see below) and then we headed south to Culpeper for lunch. After eating, I listened to an audio book on a bench along Main Street and my wife and friend went antique shopping--whatever that is. I was pretending to be an old person. I'm getting better and better in pulling that one off.

GPS stats:

• 174 miles
• 21 mpg avg overall
• 39 mph moving avg
• 63 mph max speed
• 8:17 total time
• 4:26 moving time
• 3:50 stopped time
• (GPS on entire trip)

All in all, a nice ride. Alas, it looks like we won't be making our annual week long road trip this year. Planning for next year to begin soon...



View Larger Map

6th ride this year

August 7; impromptu trip to Culpeper to eat something; weather perfect; road perfect; ride perfect



More to come!

Fifth Ride 2010 - Quick trip to Yorktown

Slow to getting this one posted...

Quick trip down to Yorktown and back. Nothing particularly special about the ride except that it was nice to ride. If you don't get it, you don't get it...

You can never have too many GPS units

This could work...

crossroads (what to do) from Garvin Nolte on Vimeo.

Stealth technology for motorcycles?

Why wouldn't this work on a motorcycle?


Popular Science is reporting that an Israeli company has developed a paint that will make any aircraft more or less invisible to radar. The claims don't sound outlandish. I willing to test it out...

Stealth Paint New Israeli nanotech paint purportedly turns any airplane or missile into a stealth aircraft.

The Tail of the Dragon has been closed!!

But now it's open...whew!

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported yesterday that US 129, aka the Tail of the Dragon, has reopened yesterday three weeks ahead of schedule. A "massive" rockslide closed the road for nearly four months.

Motorcycle riders everywhere rejoice.

Odd town and road names

I planned a quick overnighter leaving midday on Friday (the gov't got an early out for the 4th...yea!), staying in Culpeper, and returning early evening on Saturday. We passed through a few VA towns with odd names--at least odd to me:

We headed west from home to Gore, VA. A pretty place...no gore.

We headed south for Olddrag, VA. Despite leaving at 2pm, the holiday traffic vacating the nation's Capitol affected our ability to promptly get out of town. Also, I had a suspicion that the route to Olddrag would have us on unpaved roads--something I wasn't in the mood for. So, we called an audible and decided to skip Olddrag and head for the hotel in Culpeper.

After breakfast the next morning, we headed south for Walton's Store Road, then northeast to Cuckoo, and on around to Bumpass, named for Capt. John Thomas Bumpass, Sr.

After stopping at our favorite diner in Fredericksburg for a mid-afternoon lunch, we headed home.

A good trip. We traveled many roads we haven't been on before--something that is increasingly difficult to do in close proximity to home. Total of 345 miles over two days. Lots of fun!

Ride safe...ride often.



A slideshow of some of the photos:

Third Ride 2010

Finally got a few hours on a Saturday to take a ride. With essentially no planning, we headed west to Rte 211 over the mountain and then down the Shenandoah Valley to Harrisonburg where we turned east to Fredericksburg to get a bite and then north back home. A ride we've done a 1000 times, and despite the heat and humidity, it was a nice diversion.

GPS stats:

• Total 242 miles.
• Overall average speed: 29 mph
• Moving average speed: 47 mph
• Max speed: 82 mph
  
• Total time: 8:15
• Moving time: 5:08
• Stopped time: 3:07
  

I intend to do a bit more planning for the next ride.

Ride safe...



View Larger Map

Second Ride

The weekend rides have been few and far between so far this year. I hope to change that soon.

We took off at 8am on Saturday (May 15th) heading south. I quickly laid out a route to upload to my GPS at around midnight the night before so there wasn't much planning that went into this ride. We rode south on Route 1 towards Richmond, headed east on back roads to Route 60 to Jamestown VA. We crossed the Ferry and headed south on Route 31 towards Surry stopping at a small restaurant for lunch. Then northwest on Route 10, crossing the James River near Hopewell continuing on north on Route 2 to Fredericksburg where we stopped for dinner. Then a quick run up I-95 back to home.

We spent a total of 11-hours and 33-minutes to travel the 310 miles. Our moving average was just over 45 mph having spent 6-hours and 40-minutes on the road and the remaining almost 5 hours stopped to eat and for the Ferry. The weather was great and despite essentially no planning, the day trip was a nice diversion from the routine.

Hope to post many more this season. Stay tuned.

Some pics:


Very short video when exiting the Ferry on the Surry side.