Blue Ridge trip 2016 day 1

Day 1.

Pittsburgh, PA to Mount Airy, NC

Purple Mongoose and Evil Twin met up in Bridgeville to head south. This would be our most ambitious trip yet. 5 days with only the motorcycles.

We hopped on I-79 in the morning and started off. Yes, I know. Interstates aren’t fun. But they do allow you to gobble up the miles. Besides, it wasn’t going to be all interstate. We hopped off at the Buckhannon exit and headed over to Elkins. From there, it was south through a couple of national forests, over the ridges and into Virginia. Then down through Roanoke, and finally into North Carolina.

A quick stop to eat at Fuzzy’s BBQ in Madison for the best damned hush puppies in the world, then off to the small town (I think it says ‘Welcome to Sandy Ridge’ on both sides of the sign) where my dad grew up.

We swung through to take a look at the old homestead. The pine trees lining the road are long gone, as is the thick forest behind the house I remember from my childhood summers. And it’s fallen into quite a state of disrepair since my pap passed away about 10 years before. It wasn’t until after this trip that I found out he actually had a ball of twine he worked on in his basement, and it was nearly 4 feet across. Funny how things come full-circle.

From there, a short ride over to Mayberry — I mean, Mount Airy — got us to our destination for the night, in the town where Andy Griffith was born. We stayed at the Mayberry Motor Inn. The owners are quite big fans of the show, and have a lot of memorabilia from it, including a couple of the better-known vehicles. Walking in to check in was like walking into the ’60s, right down to the fact that Batman (Adam West version) was just running its end credits.

I realized at the end of the day just how comfortable the FJR is for me. After about 10 hours and 500 miles, I was still ready to ride.