Day 5
We took a day off at Luray, the hotel was really nice and the town, though pretty empty and small was cool to walk and ride around in. The weather report promised rain all through the day, so we thought it would be a good time to stop for a bit. Eventually it just rained in the morning, but it was still nice to take the day off.
Warm up stop
So anyway, we got up in the morning and started riding. The Highway went through farm lands and I kept taking pictures of cows all the time. It’s very odd to see so many huge animal living is basically, someone’s yard. I mean, I always knew that some people lives in farms, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen those farms in which a cow is basically leaning against a tractor and right by 2 kids playing catch. As we were riding farther, I was getting colder and colder. We stopped about an hour later in a gas station and I went inside to get us coffee and tea. I was really miserable – I felt like even the heat of the gas station store \ dunkin donuts place and the coffee aren’t really doing anything to warm me up. Ned wasn’t as cold as me and I felt like I’m just being a drag, too fragile to take it.
He looked in the GPS for the nearest Hearly Davidson store where we hoped we can find some warm gear. We headed there, leaving the mountains behind and going into the Shanadoah valley again. The change in temperature was immediate and surprising. I started to enjoy the day again.
Hearly store
3 or 4 guys in their 50’s and 60’s were trying out huge bikes in front of a huge hanger like space with that big orange and black sign. There was country music playing from a car’s window that was left open. The view into the valley was beautiful. The air so crisp you can see forever. We went in. 3 girls in the clothing department were chatting about eyeliners and one of them helped us find some sweaters. Sadly, everything was way too big for me, that whole place, and I guess everything in this state is slower and larger. The hearly store was at least 6 times larger than the one we go to, and they didn’t even have the bikes we’ve got, only the larger models. The store was full of a million ugly outfits from black and pink leather with huge hearly logos on everything. Eventually we picked some gloves and a neck piece and headed out.
It was already about 3:00 and I felt like I’m ruining this whole trip with the cold thing. The whole day was wasted on finding the stupid store and getting stuff and not even finding what we wanted. Ned did it all the way to the blue ridge mountain a couple of years ago in an 18 hours straight drive on The triumph, one long long day, while it took us 4 days to get here this time. I really felt like I was holding him back and he would have had more fun without me.
Fairfield Diner
Following instruction we got from one of the girls in the store we fail to find any place to eat. Eventually Ned gets us out of some strange business area and find this tiny diner on top of a heel. Outside there a motorcycle that’s like ours but a little bigger with bags that are just like ours though by a different company. Inside sits a couple of bikers, a man and a woman, they smile as we go in, we all talk about how cold it is. They are in their late 50’s maybe, she’s got long black and gray hair, they both wear leather chaps over jeans and leather vests. They came down from Massachusetts and passing through to South Carolina where there’s some Biker week big event going on.
We order burgers and they are excellent, the first cup of coffee feels scolding hot, but when I have another one, it turn out to be lukewarm, it’s just that I was very cold coming from outside. It somehow makes me feel better that even the more experienced riders didn’t expect to be so cold and so I’m not the only fool who didn’t get the right gear.
Blue Ridge PKY
Since it’s so cold in the mountains, we decide to make the trip to the next point on the map which is Blue Ridge parkway long and then go for the beautiful root tomorrow, we pass through a tiny town called Buena Vista which is probably the most remote place we’ve been through so far, it’s so cool to see a place that’s not touristic and not chin stores – just a place, even the gas station doesn’t have a familiar logo of any kind, which makes me like that place right away. 2 guys in hunting camouflage, one wearing an orange vest get out of a big truck and go into the tiny store then come with a 6 pack in a paper bag. Near the door there’s a box full of small onions, and a plastic cup to scoop them up. They look really beautiful.
Somehow, the GPS still lead us to the Blue Ridge Parkway, only several exits before the one we intended to go in, it’s still only about 4:00 PM so we decide to go in.
Which turn out, pretty much right away, to be a big mistake. It’s so cold! As much as it was cold in the Valley, going up those 3000 feet mountains is really bone freezing. We stop every couple of observation point to admire the view, take pictures and say how cold it is. The new gloves are very good for insulation, but once the hands are cold inside the gloves there’s not much to do, even though I’m wearing long underwear and my pants are tucked into my boots, I can feel the chill wind penetrating through and into my legs, from the neckline and sleeves of my jackets and into my hands and chest and through the lower part of the helmet and into my face.
One part of my mind know that it’s going to be fine, and that we’ll get off this mountain soon, one part is amazed at how beautiful the ridge is, all purple and blue from afar and all green, red and yellow up close. At all the beautiful streams and lakes and at the fish we see, swimming in the water, and the ducks. The GPS points about 50 miles more the point we were trying to get to earlier, which means, at the pace of riding in the mountains, about an hour and a half. I really don’t know if I can take this for an hour and a half, I look at the watch every couple of minutes wishing for time to pass faster, and it’s not. My fingers feel numb, I’m pressing my hands between my thighs and Ned’s butt but since the gloves to insulate well, they basically stay the same temperature.
We stop again, Ned take off his gloves and warm his hands on the motorcycle engine, I do the same, but it doesn’t really help. I feel so miserable and scared, and like I’m about to cry, but I really don’t want to.
We go on riding, and Ned follows some sign into a big white building made of wood, it’s a hotel right there on the ridge, it’s called Peak of Otter. We go inside and even just breathing air that’s not ice cold feels like a huge relief.
The woman in reception laugh and say “I understand how cold it is, I also ride motorcycle, I don’t know what it is with this weather, it’s crazy, I wore Sandals to work today, then in the morning, it was 40 here, we had snow on the top of the mountain – snow!”
We ride the bike around to where the rooms are, and go inside, there’s a lake outside and dinner is served between 6:00 and 8:30. But we don’t really care, I fill the bath and we both sit in it for a while, till our fingers stop being numb and this heavy tiredness just falls on us, at 6:30 we are both in bed and fast asleep.
