2013 motorcycle trip to Laurel Bluff Cabins wrap up...there was no day we didn't get rained on

On Friday, which was theoretically to have the best weather of our 4 day trip, we headed north west through the mountains on a planned 110-mile loop that ended in Galax, VA. We stopped at a diner on Main Street to have an early dinner and as luck would have it, the Galax's July Cruisin' & Groovin' Car Show was to start at 5pm so we decided to stick around to see it. The hot rods and classic cars started to roll in at around 4pm and I got a few photos, but at about 5:01pm, the sky got dark, clouds rolled in, and the bottom fell out. We donned our rain suits and stood under a roof overhang while rain like you've never seen came down, including pea-sized hail. After the rain eased a bit (but not yet stopped), we decided to forgo the car show and get back to the cabin. We had some difficulty getting out of town as several streets became impassable due to overflowing curb drains. We rode through several "puddles" that came up over our foot pegs and though it was less than 10-miles to the cabin, it took us about 45-min to get there. We arrived safely and spent a nice quiet evening in the cabin.

Terri making friends with a ZZ Top band member (not really) next to his 1934 Chevy coupe.

Terri explaining to the owner of a clean 1964 Chevy pick up that she first learned to drive in her dad's Chevy pickup similar to their's including 3-speed manual shift on the steering column. 

Terri pondering with the owner of a 1931 Ford Model A (I think) who was keen to sell it to her for a measly $44,000.

On Saturday we packed up and hurried out of town hoping to get ahead of the rain coming up from the south. We decided "fast" made more sense than "scenic" so we got on the interstate highway and made a mad dash northward. The rain started and after 100 miles of frenetic speed, traffic, semi trailers, and one accident that slowed traffic to a crawl for about 5-miles, we got off the interstate to gas up the motorcycles and decided to stay on secondary roads. Not counting the "spritzing rain" we encountered even though the sun was trying to shine, we managed to stay ahead of the rain for the rest of the ride home.

I was glad we got off the interstate highway. The ride on the secondary roads is so much more pleasurable with its less traffic and its necessarily slower speed. Plus, I would have never had the chance to wave at the guy sitting in his front yard who waved back with his fly swatter...no, I'm not sure why he was swatting flies in his front yard...

Though we got rained on every day of our 4.5 day motorcycle road trip, we had a great time. It was nice to get away. The stay at Laurel Bluff Cabins was great. The rides through the mountains were great. The rain made it hard...but it's supposed to be hard, if it wasn't hard, everyone would do it, the hard...is what makes it great.

Here are the GPS stats & track:

• 949.8 miles
• 31.8 mph overall avg
• 44.9 mph moving avg
• 77.4 mph max speed

A not so easy to read Google Earth map showing our route color coded by day. It starts out red for the evening of July 9th on I-66 west & I-81 south to Staunton where we spent the night. Then blue on the 10th where we took secondary roads to the cabin. Cyan on the 11th where we made our "eastern loop" and green on the 12th for our "western loop". Magenta for the 13th which was our route back home. Though it looks like we traveled I-81, we only did this for about 100 miles and then rode most of the time on Rte 11 which weaves back and forth across I-81 to Rte 211 through Warrenton to home. All total, nearly 1000-miles!