Ridin'Ard

Hours in the saddle: 6:47

Julie’s soundtrack: Fast & Furious 1-10

Jaron’s soundtrack: his own thoughts

Today we finally left after 2 wks of rest. Jaron got bronchitis, then Julie got whatever gave him the bronchitis (but minus the bronchitis). Super shitty timing for being sick instead of going on OUR FIRST MOTORCYCLE TRIP IN 3 YEARS. Boooooooo. 

So this morning when Julie was killing time playing the NYTimes Spelling Bee waiting on Jaron who was watching MotoGP practice, she said what the fuck am I doing with my life right now? And announced to Jaron that she was leaving in 30 min. 

First we hit some unexpected (unmapped) traffic on the beltway at 10am on a Friday. That’s ok, we’re having fun. It clears up and we continue on. Great. Then it starts raining. That’s ok, we knew there would be a little rain off & on today. We get to our first stop and close vents/change gloves. Still raining. Fine. Now there’s stop & go traffic on 66W far outside of town. Wtf? Fuck it, we’re whitelining in the rain on bikes that are fully loaded for 2 wks. Turns out there were 3 emergency vehicles dealing with an accident. Ok, traffic clears up and rain lets up. Now we’re really outta here. Awesome. 

We stop at Subway and take off our wet gear. Excellent, still having fun. Open vents and change gloves back. Stop in Petersburg to close vents and change gloves again, bc there are some spots of extreme rain on the radar. Fabulous. Sigh. Keep going. 

Julie didn’t drop her bike once today, despite the fact that it’s the tallest bike and she’s out of practice. Had a few opportunities at slow speeds and saved it. I’m so strong now! There was also some mud in the road in a turn (in the rain) and my back wheel definitely squirmed. I straightened the bike up and went in to the other lane and it was fine. I didn’t freak out. 

We get to Snowshoe and park under the awning. Go inside and realize that while this is where we are staying, check in is somewhere else. Jaron hops back on his bike to go find it, and then it REALLY starts coming down. Julie finds out that check in is half a mile away and can’t call Jaron bc there’s no cell service. Keeps an eye on his location but has no way of knowing if he needs help. 

It’s raining so hard that Julie goes inside to wait it out. Jaron makes it back and we unload our shit. He’s talking about a shuttle to the restaurants in the village, and Julie says we have camper meals. No way am I going back out in that pounding ass rain. 

The forecast called for 0.27″ during the 8 o’clock hour. 

We have the camper meals (and stove, tent, etc) bc we chose not to repack our bikes even tho now we are just hoteling it for 2 nights. 

Pack-It Gourmet to the rescue! We had a black bean dip appetizer, then Texas Style Chili + Chicken & Dumplings, and meyer lemon cheesecake for dessert, which was a great use for the little camping whisk Julie got for Jaron’s milk powder coffee creamer. 

He was actually very happy with the dessert.