Friday, May 10, 2013

Ride Report -- 10 May 2013

The Big Money Rally is rapidly coming to an end, and I needed to scrounge up 28 points to be a finisher this year. I planned a route that would take me south, somewhat west, then north again. That route would net 19 of the 28 points needed, which was very good. I ended up having to make a trip over to Joint Base Andrews, however, that soaked up two of the hours needed for that ride.

I deleted a four-point trip to Momma Rosa’s in Gretna, Virginia to get some time back. That left me with 15 points for the day, which wasn’t too bad.

As you can see, I got a much later start on the day than I should have to get this much riding done. Also note that it was 63 deg F…it would get to 90 deg F (or warmer) during the ride. Wow. Summer’s here (already).

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The ride south was all slab, but I this was a rally-like run, so I needed to get south to start collecting bonuses.

The weather was really good, and since it was a Friday morning, the traffic was heavy but moving very fast. I tucked myself in amongst the I-95 crowd, and moved along.

Today’s ride was to be a LOT of rural road riding after the slab south. I was destined to ride through a lot of older, rural settlements.

My first stop was to Grandpa’s Kitchen in Littleton, NC. Littleton is an interesting place…one of the thousands of interesting places I get to see on the bike.

Note the flying pig on the sidewalk. For such a small town, there was a lot of traffic on the main drag.

Next stop: Boydton, Virginia (which, incidentally, is the home of a Microsoft Data Center). The coordinates I had loaded for the Boydton Volunteer Fire Department were off by quite a bit, so I did a little riding around Boydton to find the right location.

From  Boydton, I headed north to Drakes Branch, Virginia.

From Drakes Branch, I continued north to Meherrin, Virginia, birthplace of Roy Clark.

Then, on to Burkeville, Virginia. A local resident came over to see the bike, and to chat a bit. A drawback of a full-face helmet is that small talk is tough.

Here’s the Dillwyn, Virginia Fire Company’s building:

My last stop of the day was James Madison’s Montpelier.

From Orange, it’s a short ride home.

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