Ridin'Ard (The h is silent)

Miles today: 248.0 Total miles: 925.5 Bridges: 10 Tunnels: 2 Departure: 11:30 am Arrival: 7:30 pm We blew off the 10:00 am check out this morning and decided that 11:00 was much more reasonable. Today we went from Virginia Beach to home via the DelMarVa peninsula. It was a long day. We joked about making it even longer in order to get the trip total over 1,000 miles. The day's odometer read 0.3 by the time we exited the parking garage. Before we hit the Chesapeake Bay crossing, Julie went in to a gas station to buy drinks & used the restroom in my helmet, then realized I had to take it off in order to drink. They didn't have any straws, damnit. We saw a purple big rig! It was almost the same purple as my bike. Also, lots of chicken must be processed on the DelMarVa peninsula. We passed both Tyson's & Perdue plants plus another less recognizable brand I can't remember. I've gotta say, we didn't get any rain in 6 days. The weather was 50-80...

Miles today: 215.2 Miles so far: 677.5 Bridges: 7+? Departure: 11:00 Arrival: 6:00 Parking garage: Level 5 We made it to Virginia Beach and will go home tomorrow via the DelMarVa peninsula IOT (in order to) avoid Friday evening DC traffic.  Today we took 17 north. It was ok, scenic at parts but almost a highway. In fact, there were several signs indicating that we were on the future I-87. We cruised at 60-70 mph in to a strong headwind. It turns out Julie's ass needs a break from her urban cruiser about every hour.  Breakfast at the Harborlight B&B was delicious. They brought it to our room, there was no dining room, so that was fancy. Here is a picture of our view from the B&B this morning.  We stopped for lunch at 2:00 at some locally owned fried place. Apparently Jaron got super hangry yesterday on the ferry and then there were no places to stop afterwards, so he was only mildly hangry today so we stopped at the first place we saw on the exit.  A...

Miles today: 63.0 Miles so far: 462.3 Ferries: 1 Bridges: 6+ Departure: 11:15 Arrival: 5:00 Stop the presses--Julie got ready to go before breakfast. Breakfast was bangin'. The housekeeper got a lot of compliments, and I made a point to throw mine in.  By breakfast, every room on the Ocracoke(?) island was booked, so we made a reservation near Emerald Isle and got going. Apparently Easter is the start of the season here. Some restaurants weren't open yesterday but start opening today or tomorrow. So, no more freewheeling. Destination trip it is.  At 11:30 we discovered that the next ferry was at 1:00. The next earlier ferry was at 7:30, so it's not like we would have been on it, so that's just how it goes. We were fit on near the end again. One of the staff had us stop on the incline because he forgot to ask for our tickets before waving us on. Jaron tried to tell him to take them out of his front pocket, but he didn't understand and said nevermind. This ti...

Bridges: 1.5 Ferries: 1 Miles today: 80-something Miles so far: 400ish Departure: 11:30 Arrival: 4:30 Well, I dropped my purple girl today for the first time. We were moving from a gas pump to park by the gas station building. I was too concerned about not parking too close to Jaron or the car next to us that I forgot to put the kickstand down. I realized what happened when it leaned over further than I was used to, and next thing I knew, I'd landed squarely on my knee armor after blasting profanity over the intercom. I may not even get a bruise at all, all I have is a small red mark at the end of the day and it's not tender. Jaron was right there and we picked her back up and had a look. Fortunately I had the handlebars turned all the way to the left for parking and the windshield got scratched, NOT the beautiful purple gas tank. It also scratched the corner of my mirror which required adjustment after. All replaceable parts. And I didn't break any turn signals! (Th...

Bridges: 6 Tunnels: 2 Miles today: 115.9 Miles so far: 325.1 Departure: 11a Arrival: 5p (the times are opposite from yesterday) The morning started with a vacation faux pas: Julie's weekday silent alarm went off. Boo. I wasn't able to get back to sleep, which suuucked after that late night. Our bikes were covered in pollen, so we did a little wiping down with a hotel hand towel.  We started the morning off with a bang, going over 3 bridges and 2 tunnels. That was seriously fucking awesome and exhilarating. Jaron said he enjoyed these bridges because they were not tall like the Bay Bridge. The way Julie's helmet works, it takes two hands to put the sun visor attachment up & down, so going through dark tunnels with a sun visor was exciting.  Jaron found a restaurant on one of the islands in between the DelMarVa (Delaware/Maryland/Virginia - real name) peninsula and Virginia Beach, so we decided to stop there for lunch. It required a pretty perilous u-turn to the ...

Departure: 5pm Arrival: 11pm Miles: 209.2 (plus a couple bc I did not zero my odometer until after we left) Bridges: 5 including the Bay Bridge Temp: 52*-74* Pretty boring day today, road-wise. We just followed 50/13 from home and down the MD/VA peninsula (I just made that up). Since we left late it got dark pretty soon and was not well-lit, so it's just as well that we were on a highway today. Note: when we go camping, we also leave at 5 and get in at 11.  We stopped at Panera in Easton, MD for dinner at 6 and made a reservation for a hotel in Cape Charles, on the tip of the peninsula. A guy in the parking lot took this picture.  At a gas station, I used a car windshield washer thing on my motorcycle windshield. Smelled it first to make sure no one urinated in the cleaner reservoir (fool me once...).  Around 9p, I say: "Lesson learned -- don't make a reservation at dinner. We have passed two viable hotels already." Jaron says: "I like my hotels like I li...

After a day of errands, we went for a checkride to determine which gear Julie would take (long story). Fortunately, Julie was wearing the right gear when we had to turn around on a two-lane road that was blocked. The road was crowned, and Jaron let his front tire get too close to the edge and was unable to walk it back. He got off and starting pushing from the front. Of course the handlebars turned and it looked like the bike was going down but he caught it before it went down too far. He was squared away by the time I got to him to help.  Today's accomplishments: got Jaron's old bike  to the dealership for a consignment sale, got Julie's gear figured out, fixed Jaron's intercom mike, and did not drop Jaron's bike.  Edit: After much deliberation last night, we are playing it by ear and not making reservations ahead of time. We are both planners, so this is going to be hard, but it will give us more flexibility. For example, neither of us are packed yet as of this e...

This will be our second motorcycle trip. Our first was to  Piney Point, MD  over President's Day weekend. It was kind of a spontaneous trip as there were no hotel rooms available by the time we figured out that it was going to be warm enough for a trip. We had given up on being able to go, but Jaron checked again Sunday morning and there had been a cancellation so we were able to go! It was a good break-in trip, less than 100 miles from home and just one night. So! Julie got a new job so this is a good a time as any to take a week-long motorcycle trip. We're planning to leave on Sunday and get back on Friday or Saturday. We're thinking of going to North Carolina. We could cross bridges, tunnels, and a ferry and follow the coastline down through the Outer Banks. We have done some basic research on where places to stay are, but other than that we're totally playing it by ear. One problem is that spring break may make it hard to find places to stay. So if that's th...