BRP Harley Trip - Day 4: Ashland, KY to Waynseboro, VA

Welcome to "Ride And Rally" with "Fix My Hog". Where are we going today? We're going to Waynesboro, Virginia. We're in Ashland, Kentucky right now and it's, when we finished yesterday we were saying kinda didn't wanna get off the bikes 'cause it was starting to look cool. We're at 550 feet of elevation right now, we're headed for 1,250 feet of elevation, so I've already warned Charlie, see what the weather does, but I think one driver might be constantly signaling, "We gotta stop and take a picture!

We gotta stop and take..." 'cause I think this is about to get really cool. Yeah, yeah, it'll get good and I'm patient. And this is why we're here, is Waynesboro is kind of the trailhead to get us on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is tomorrow. One more sleep to the BRB. Wow.

Is that good timing for ya? Yeah, yeah. Weather report? Uh- Wet. Yeah, it's very gray everywhere, so we're- It's dark rolling in, so...

Preemptively gonna start with rain gear today and a little bit of a late start, 'cause we both had office work we had to do, but, uh, we gotta hit it. Yep, let's do it! Good. We just went through Charleston, West Virginia, boy, is the countryside here pretty. You can have a look at those rolling hills and the way the road has cut through 'em, this has been a really nice morning.

We got rained on just a little bit. We'll stop now for gas and to pull our rain gear off, and obviously it's looks very nice to the east, the direction we're going. Still about 200 miles from Waynesboro at this point. So the good news is Charlie just took his official rain cover off his tail bag, which is a garbage bag. Right.

'Cause the rain stopped. We're standing out here in the noisy parking lot 'cause we're just, I dunno, what are we now, probably 30 miles east of Charleston? Yeah. Or so? Yeah.

And look behind us. We're there. You start to see why we're making this trip. This, we're on Interstate 64. Woo, woo, woo, woo!

Lots and lots of peaks coming up on either side of the road. It's really become fun. We just did our first toll booth, that was interesting. Well, I didn't, you did. Um, two more of those to go before we to Waynesboro.

Wow, somebody really lit it up. So, turned into a beautiful day, in fact, it's really hot now. Yeah. So, we're gonna see you when we get to Waynesboro. See you then.

Lunch break is over, what a weather change. Man, this morning it was cold and rainy and we're higher elevation now, felt like we climbed most of the morning and it's a mid 80's or so now and sunny. It feels great to have the rain gear off, and it feels great to be on the road that we're here to be on. So I guess that in this part of the country, if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes. Charlie and I just stopped again and put our frog togs back on.

Really gray ahead, as you can see, and it's raining. You know, it's not raining hard right now, but it seemed like a good preemptive strike. Kinda nice to put your gear on when you're not standing in a downpour. It is, it's absolutely pouring on us. However, man, I wish it was sunny because the scenery around us is absolutely amazing.

We're on a very steep grade going down right now, there are these signs, well here's one right here, for runaway truck ramps, that tells you how steep the grade is, but the hills in the distance are absolutely beautiful, even in the rain. Oh, I wish we could see 'em. But yeah, it's just a good, a good indication here of what Charlie and I are up against on this particular part of the ride. Downpour and downhill. I dunno if the camera's gonna get this, look at the rainbow way out there between the mountain straight ahead and the mountain a little bit to the right.

There's a rainbow in that mist between the two. Ah, so Charlie, how does that make you feel? We are, we're not really talking about the ride today, we're talking about the hotel that I booked, which like... The last couple nights were very nice, you know, Hampton Inn's and whatnot and- Which Charlie booked. Oh, I booked those?

Yes, yes. Oh, oh. Yes, I figured I'd point that out before you did, and we are in, currently in a Quality Inn which, as Charlie said, it's a pretty loose definition of the word, but I guess it's more part of the adventure is the unique places that we're staying along the way. Yes. I'm, I was sure, so, you know, we set up a budget, we were shopping price and we had so much per guy that we were trying to hit each night.

So, I'm sure that I had two things, I was shopping price and the really good news is, according- $30.00. Yeah, and 42 cents. The really good news is, according to the woman at the front desk, we're three miles from the head of the Blue Ridge Parkway. So, what we lack in amenities... I got a sliver in my foot in the shower.

We make up in being really, really really close to the Blue Ridge for tomorrow. So it's- It was only a hypodermic needle, so... So we can, so we can go very quickly in the morning. Um- Is there breakfast here? Yes, there is breakfast.

No, there's not. So, in and out of the rain today, but holy crap, I'll tell you what, the scenery changed- Yeah. Like nobody's business and we, I wanna go back and look at our track and whatever pass we came over 'cause we went from Ashland, we went up and up and up and up and up and then right about where we had lunch, which you saw before, after that, really, it was all downhill from there, including our hotel. Yeah. Um- But yeah, we got the hit, I mean it was sunny and hot, 85 and sunny at lunch, and three miles later we were in deluge.

Epic, epic downpour, and I tried to capture, we'll see if it shows up or not, but at one point with the mist in the mountains, there was a mountain mist rainbow and I'm guessing that the bike camera just didn't have enough length to reach out there and get that, but it was really neat because there was this huge bands of color instead of the more narrow stripes that you typically see when it rains and you get a rainbow. So, that was amazing and it was just another scenario of, like, looking off to the side and, "Oh my gosh, that's amazing, and that's amazing, and that's amazing" and the clouds broke enough that the sun came out. Yeah. And the countryside here is absolutely beautiful. Yeah, it's gorgeous.

Which we're gonna get a lot more of over the next, like, three or four days now when we're actually on the Parkway. Right. So, about a 220 mile day today. For you. Well yeah, somebody, somebody went a little further, go ahead, tell your story.

I just took the wrong exit ramp, entrance ramp, and- We stopped for gas and we've been on 64 East for like 175 miles at this point, pretty close to the hotel. So we stopped for gas, and when we came back, there's a cloverleaf and Charlie chose to get on 64 West. He wanted to go back to Ashland. Yeah. I guess.

But I caught you. Yeah, yeah, so I continued east and he had, I eventually saw his headlight in my rear view mirror. Part of the reason was, I did stop on the side of the road with my DSLR and try to get pictures of the rainbow, and by the time I found a safe spot with a view to the south where I could take a picture, the rainbow was gone, so that didn't work out so well. One thing, though, that is worth mentioning it, and I pointed out at one time we were riding, there is no trash, no garbage, no nothing in the ditches- Yeah. Medians, it is spectacularly clean and that median looked like a golf course fairway.

Yeah, so in West Virginia and Virginia, well maintained roads and I guess they don't get the winter like we get so- Right. I mean, from an asphalt perspective, but too, the- Yeah. Just the way everything looked was very amazing. It's very clean. Yeah.

Very, very clean. Yeah. Very well kept. All right, well, we have ordered pizza, we're eating in tonight, and gin and what are you having? Whiskey.

More whiskey for the end of the day. So, tomorrow's another day and we'll see you then. This is like Alistair MacLean's, whatever that show was. Like, I feel like we should be, I don't know, discussing a movie or something. Anyway, we'll see you tomorrow.

See ya.