After a restful night, we awoke to foggy conditions in many of the valleys around Beckley, WV but with a promise of sunshine later in the day. Both of us planned to spend a good bit of the day traveling the superslab towards our respective homes, with this being my planned route. After taking advantage of the pretty extensive breakfast buffet offered by the hotel, we loaded up the bikes and prepared to head out. We said our goodbyes, and I reluctantly rolled out of the parking lot onto the highway, wishing that we had another week ahead of us on the road. I watched as my brother gave a wave and rolled onto an entrance ramp to I-77 North, then gassed it and headed onto my ramp to head south on the same highway.
There really isn't too much to report about the ride home. The fog was mostly a non-factor except for one small part of I-64 eastbound in West Virginia, but even that section wasn't thick enough to slow traffic too much. By mid-morning, the fog had burned off, leaving a nice, sunny day for a ride. Riding through National Forests and the Appalachian Mountains is nice, even when riding on an interstate highway. There are always soaring vistas, interesting looking roads that go winding off into the distance, and quaint little towns perched on the sides of hills. Several times I thought about hopping off of the slab in order to wind my way home over some back roads, but just decided to press on. Traffic was relatively light and, after gassing up in Lewisburg, WV, I made good time to Charlottesville, VA.
To celebrate the end of the trip, I decided to stop at the Jersey Mike's sub shop just outside of Charlottesville. I'm not really sure why I like Jersey Mike's subs so much, but I've never had a bad one! A half a Jersey Mike's Original under my belt, I mounted the bike for the final 2-hour push home. Traffic was fairly heavy along US-29 in Virginia, so I kept on my toes--didn't want the trip to end with an "incident" so close to home. I pulled into my driveway around 3 p.m. still wishing I had another week of travels before me. I unloaded the bike, called my brother to see how his trip home went, cleaned my chain, and settled back into my world with fond thoughts of a great week!
Updated Tuesday, 11-Nov-2008 15:16:55 CST.
Copyright 2007 by Kelvin Utendorf