Day 38- July 29

Day 38: July 29th 37,125 on the odometer

We hit the road at what amounts to a usual time for us. We make it to a McDonald’s in time for lunch. Hard to rack up the miles when you sleep away half the morning, and spend the other half gearing up and loading down. It also took a bit of time to clean all the splattered bugs off the windscreens and my face shield.
Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park is awesome. Smooth pavement with lots of elevation changes and winding roads. Beautiful scenery too. It is Monday and traffic is fairly light; a good thing. We still see quite a few other bikes though. We stop at a visitor center to get our stamp, and spend some time watching a mostly disinterested deer. Shortly after we stop briefly at a scenic pull out after spying a very large black bear. You have to remind yourself that it is a wild predator and you shouldn’t let it get too close.
The abundant wildlife in the middle of the day is also a good reminder to keep the speed down. The speed limit is ridiculously low, especially considering the excellent condition of the road, but all it takes is one good sized critter behind a blind hill or curve to ruin your whole day.
There are a few places to get gas along Skyline, but we pass them all up and have to use the gas can to refill Ceci’s Vulcan when we get to the Blue Ridge Parkway. As it turns out, there are much fewer places to get gas on the Blue Ridge. The road itself is similar to Skyline. The pavement is not quite as good, but still decent and full of curves. I am enjoying this, and slowly the tire is becoming less squared off. At over 8,000 miles tire wear is definitely noticeable, but not yet a concern. There is still plenty of grip for my needs, in fact they feel better to me now than they did at the beginning of the trip. I like these Avons.
The scenery is also similar to what we saw in Shenandoah, though we now occasionally see farms and open land. A lot of wild turkeys too, and more butterflies than you can shake a dozen sticks at. I am trying to swerve around in my lane to avoid them, but still collect a fair amount of splattered guts on my bike and gear. I also swerve to miss a bright blue colored bird I can’t quite identify. It appears to be way brighter than any bluebird I have ever seen. As daylight begins to fade to dusk we start seeing herds of deer. Fortunately for us they are staying clear of the pavement and pay us no mind.
We pull off for gas and grub in Roanoke, but get right back on to set up camp at Rocky Knob. It is a nice place to camp, once quiet time nears and the generators on the RV’s go silent. Today was a good day. We covered only 272 miles, but this is almost 100 miles more than yesterday and it is a really good ride. Even my Bandit approves, as the idle is now occasionally working. Ceci also gets some relief as I bitch and moan a little less about my sore posterior and numb hands. A good road goes a long way to make things all better. She’s really enjoying this ride too.
On the other hand, we are now a good 300 miles behind the not too realistic re-revised revised itinerary.