When you live far away from both of your families/married to Casey, you don’t gather around a big fat turkey for Thanksgiving. You go to the Blue Ridge Mountains, eat at Applebee’s, spend the night in a motel and ride your heart out!
One month with my motorcycle licence, one month riding experience and a Harley desert adventure in Vegas – the next logical step was clearly a winter trip to the mountains in the East Coast right? A bit reluctant at first, this trip pushed my limits, made me scared, made me cry, made me happy, made me excited, but mostly made me a better rider.
We left on Thanksgiving day for a 2 day-1 night trip heading to Skyline Drive first and looping around to West Virginia. We had big ambitions to leave early in the morning but, of course, it didn’t happen. Mostly for 2 reasons:
- The hubby is a serious procrastinator and packing doesn’t get done until 3am the “night” before.
- I am NOT a morning person. Especially when I didn’t get enough sleep (any amount less than 12hrs! 😉 )
Given that we were going on a long ride, we figured it would be safer to get a good night of rest and delay our departure time a bit. We left a little after noon and headed straight to Skyline Drive. After living in Maryland for over 2 years we had been meaning to take a trip down to Virginia to check it out. People had been telling us how beautiful the drive was, especially in the fall. Thanksgiving is definitely closer to winter than fall but we knew the views would still be spectacular! The weather was dry but very chilly – actually warmer than your typical late November on the East Coast – but still chilly. Thankfully I had brand-spanking new heated gloves ( the Gerbing’s G3 12V) that made a huge difference!
We made it to Skyline Drive without any issues, but definitely a little later than expected. We were warned that the gates close at dark and we only had a couple hours of daylight left. The drive was as gorgeous as expected!! Absolutely stunning! And as a bonus, we were pretty much the only ones on the smooth, curvy road.
Since we stopped a few times to enjoy the view and take photos, we didn’t quite make it as far as we had anticipated. We had to exit the park before closing time, promising ourselves that we would be back soon to explore more of Skyline Drive.
It was pitch black at that point and we weren’t sure exactly where we were (but it’s part of the fun, right?). The temperatures had also dropped and, besides my hands, the rest of my body was shivering. We were still a ways away from our hotel but made it there before frost bite set in. I did question why all the store parking-lots were full until I realized it was the beginning of “Black Friday.” We checked-in to our hotel, “treated” ourselves to an Applebee’s Thanksgiving dinner, and sawed logs. An epic Turkey Day!
We woke up early the next morning (we actually did it!!) and headed out. The hubby LOVES riding in the twisties and it was our main goal of the day. We planned to head towards Seneca Rocks and hit the curvy mountain roads on the border of Virginia and West Virginia on our way there. I was definitely VERY nervous about riding on twisty roads (with full on blind turns and hairpin curves) but I figured I was going to have to do it eventually, so why not now?!
After about an hour, we were at the bottom of the mountains. As we were advancing along the road, the signs became ever increasing and their warnings of the sharp turns ahead more intimidating: “15 miles/hr”, “high crash area”, “use caution”. I wanted to pee my pants.
On the other hand, Casey was like a kid in a candy store and was having the time of his life – I wasn’t. Thankfully we had our bluetooth on and he would inform me of especially sharp turns, cars or trucks that were coming in the other lanes or debris on the road (when he wasn’t taking off, leaving me out of bluetooth range!) That helped a lot but I was still tensed, cold and terrified.
Since I was holding back some cars (I took the 15 mph to heart), Casey decided that it would be a good idea to pull over at a scenic overlook to take a break and let them pass us. The turnoff was made of sand and gravel – given my “traumatic” Vegas experience on sand, it was enough to push me over the edge and I might have shed a tear or two (I may also have been sobbing that I just wanted to be home with my cat! 😉 ) After a big hug and some encouragement from the hubby, I gathered myself a bit while he went back in the twisties to have his fun. The scenic overview was breath taking and offered a spectacular vista of the Blue Ridge Mountains!
Going back down the mountain wasn’t quite as scary and I made it without any more tears! 🙂
We rode all the way to Seneca Rocks and started looping back towards Maryland. It was getting close to lunch time by then, so we stopped at a delicious little pizza place. With our bellies full, we got back on the Triumphs and continued our journey back. It was nice and sunny out and the temperatures were on the rise, which made our afternoon really enjoyable as we were cruising on country roads through the woods.
About 2-3hrs in, as we were riding through a little town backed up with some stop-and-go traffic, something caught my eye in the bottom left corner of my visor. Trying to focus of the road, I was attempting to figure out what had caught my attention. The “thing” had now crawled in the middle of my visor, INSIDE my helmet, and I could clearly made out what it was. A bee. A BEE!! Trying to keep my self control (and not freak out), I flipped my bubble shield open and swiped the bee out. It fell on my leg and I swiped it off one more time. I signaled Casey (our bluetooth units were dead since we forgot to charge them the night before) to pull over for a minute as I was a bit shocked to have just had a bee in my helmet (probably the only bee still alive that late in November, by the way!) Casey turned and stopped in a parking lot wondering what was wrong. Our conversation went just like this:
Casey – “What’s wrong?”
Me (starting to cry) – “I had a BEE in my helmet!”
Casey – “What?”
Me (full on crying at this point) – “I HAD A BEE IN MY HELMET!!”
Casey – “Okay…(pause) You can’t just cry all the time.”
He eventually asked if I was okay, and after making him check my helmet for a hidden bee hive (under the lining or something), we were on our way.
We made it home late that night, happy and exhausted. Even with all the tears ( I promise I’m not always that high-maintenance!) and challenges faced over the weekend, I’m so glad we went on this trip as it taught me a lot and pushed me out of my comfort zone. After the twisties, starting on a hill seemed like a piece of cake! 😉
What did you guys do for Thanksgiving?
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