Mt. Vernon to Roanoke, Virginia; 28 June 2011

After one 600 mile day yesterday we were both tired and excited at the prospect of actually getting Mark home...in Roanoke.  The GPS told me that we needed to go 611 miles to Mark's house.  As usual we were awake at 0530 and on the road before 0700.  Since we just had to stay on I64 there was little planning to be done, just get on the bikes and ride. 

My bike is still limited in range due to the horrible fuel mileage I am experiencing.  We can push to 120 miles between gas stops but since I have run out twice at about 130-135 miles we do not want to take any chances.  We stop at about 100-110 miles.  That's a lot of stops for a 600 mile day and only adds time to the already long day.  At least the weather front seems to be moving ahead of us, meaning that we are dry and cool.  At every stop the people tell us of the bad rain they had earlier in the week or day.

By about the 500 mile mark we finally ran out of weather luck.  We had just paid the final toll on the West Virginia Turnpike (I77) when the ever present black cloud started to spit out rain.  As we were already stopped it was easy to put on rain gear and hope for a short storm.  This turned out to be about 30 minutes of serious rain, the kind where Interstate traffic actually slows down.  Mark and I were both warm and dry so we merely forged ahead and finally rode out of the rain about the same time we rode into Virginia. 

This is the point in the ride where one would expect to slack off a bit.  After all, we had been on the road for 12 hours and made 550+ miles for the day.  However, I was riding with Mark Finkler and he knew a 'shortcut' to his house.  This route turned out to be a two lane goat trail that took 100% of my concentration to keep up with Mark.  After all, I did not know how to get to his house from this direction so what choice did I have?

We finally pulled into Mark's driveway, got off the bikes and had a very cold beer.  Beth made a wonderful dinner which she capped off with something called American Honey (Jack Daniels and honey).  I fell into bed and slept like a dead man...again.  Over 620 mile today.