Until recently, Farmville was just the name of a town I’d seen on road signs. It probably stuck in my head because of FarmVille, the farming simulation social network game (I have never played).
As I was planning my trip, I did a quick little bit of research on every targeted LOVEwork location to see if there was anything interesting enough that I could see quickly on my way through. I didn’t read much about each location, just sorta browsed images of the area to see what I might see. Of course, I also checked RoadsideAmerica.com to see if anything stood out. Because, you know, if I am going to be in a certain neighborhood, I should at least know what awesome oddities are nearby.
Heading SE into Farmville on US 15 (business).
In addition to the LOVEworks, there were only four other things I noted as must sees. Along the entire 800-plus-mile route. One of those was this cool mural in Farmville, which is part of the Paint Farmville Downtown program.
Cool Mural in Farmville
I don’t know why, but I sorta pictured the majority of the route to Farmville being flat, straight, and uninteresting. It wasn’t. I was pleasantly surprised at the nice roads and pretty scenery. It helped that there are more colorful leaves on the trees south of us.
Very pretty drive.
Images of the car as part of the landscape don’t quite have the same appeal as images with the bike, do they?
Nowhere near as interesting as a shot of the bike.
Grumpy Man with Mole
I immediately saw a face when I spotted that building. How about you?
Heading NE into Farmville on US 15 (business).
Main Street (it was rush hour on a Friday)
Main Street
Repurposed Warehouses
I really liked Farmville. It’s definitely on my list of “need to re-visit and spend more time” places. It’s obvious that a lot of love and effort were put into renovating the downtown. Not only is it visually pleasing, there are all kinds of cool shops and eateries along Main Street, too. Oh, and a really, really cool bicycle/walking path, which is a 31-mile rails-to-trails conversion.
Check this out… High Bridge Trail State Park and/or watch the nifty video embedded below to see how the park got its name. Kudos to whoever planned/designed the park plaza on Main Street. Even the bathrooms are amazingly well done and charming. No crap. LOL.
Rather than post too many pics here, I decided to upload them to Flickr for sharing. To see more pics in and around, follow this link to my Farmville album on Flickr.
Do you find it easier to see the pics on Flickr, or would you rather I just added them to the post?
Y’all know I don’t usually subject my Hubby to really weird stuff that I know he won’t appreciate or enjoy, right? But sometimes, I can’t help myself. Especially when there’s something that is just SO up my amusement alley, in a location we’re not likely to re-visit anytime soon. Which is why, after leaving Mount Airy, North Carolina on our recent trip, I included a stop at Slick’s Pottery in the neighboring town of Slate Mountain. I may or may not have planned the route specifically because it passed through that particular locale. 🙂
Along a rural road, an unexpected army of concrete warriors, animals, and Jesi crowd a hillside below a concrete statue factory. The selection no doubt varies continually, but on the day that we stopped by we saw what Americans apparently crave for their lawns and gardens: a dragon, lion, eagle, Indian chiefs, enraptured worshippers, armless Venuses, a pink elephant, an Amish buggy, and a cow up on a pole painted as a tribute to New York City. And there were many more statues arrayed in ordered battalions back from the road, up to the factory. It’s all about the latest ironic juxtaposition waiting to be photographed.
How could I pass THAT up? I would’ve been kicking myself indefinitely if we hadn’t stopped, always wondering what amazing wonders we could have seen.
And, in the end, we only spent five minutes there.
Yes, I can work fast when required.
I think he even enjoyed the visit. A little, anyway.It really was a small hillside full of statues.
The business was closed while we were there (a Sunday morning). 🙁
ToadMama with Hippo and Chicken
Of course, when I saw the above picture of me was missing an important third component, I requested a re-do.
ToadMama with Hippo, Chicken, and SasquatchYankee CowArtsy ShotThere was quite an assortment.Obligatory Bike ShotToadMama with Soldier (and mooning photobomber on left)I found one for my yard!This is actually the mooning photobomber.
I read somewhere that the four-foot-tall Sasquatch is one of their biggest sellers.
Hubby spotted the giant green rooftop ape.Another concrete hippo. And a camel.Pink Elephant on Platform
Wasn’t that a fun stop? If only Slick’s place wasn’t so far from home.
I know I owe y’all some other pics from our last moto-ride weekend, but I just finished a fun road trip and have to share some of those pics first.
I’m still working on that self-imposed LOVEworks scavenger hunt. You know, the one where I visit and photograph all of the LOVE sculptures around Virginia that are part of the state’s “Virginia is for Lovers” campaign? As their website says…
We’re out to prove that “love is at the heart of every Virginia vacation” in a BIG way by having giant “LOVE” artworks pop up in many different and unexpected places across Virginia.
Ever since seeing that there’s a LOVEwork in Chincoteague, I’d been pondering how and when to capture that one. Chincoteague is a town on Chincoteague Island, which is off of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. There’s no quick way to get there from here. I’d either have to head north and east through Maryland, crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis or head south and east to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel near Norfolk/Virginia Beach. Either way, it’s about a four-hour drive, much of which is via highway.
Rather than re-tracing my steps, which was one option, I preferred doing it as a loop, as shown below.
The Route
I’d hoped to do it on the bike, but it’s getting late in the year and the days are shorter, not to mention colder and sometimes wetter. Since the weather was sketchy for the weekend and I wanted to cover as much ground as possible, I took the car.
Of course, I included a “few” other LOVEworks sites I hadn’t yet visited. In all, I captured nine LOVEworks this weekend — yay, me! — bringing my total captures to 36. Pretty good, eh? I only have 11 more to capture and I’ll have seen all of the big ones, assuming no other new ones get added anytime soon. Three new ones were just added to the list on Thursday, the night before my journey began.
Anyway, the trip was a complete success. I saw all of the LOVEworks I’d planned on seeing AND lots of other fun stuff along the way. My Instagram feed over the last few days is full of odd stuff, LOL.
It was a hurried, but fun, trip. The best thing about this wacky scavenger hunt of mine is seeing parts of the state and/or towns I may never have seen otherwise, revisiting places I don’t get to often, and getting to visit places I’d been wanting to see, but never had a compelling enough reason to go.
Anyway, here they are, in order of capture.
Farmville LOVEworkSouth Boston LOVEworkEmporia LOVEworkVirginia Beach LOVEworkNewport News LOVEworkNorfolk (Lafayette Park) LOVEworkNorfolk International Airport LOVEworkCape Charles LOVEworkChincoteague LOVEwork
If Chincoteague (pronounced like shin-cuh-teak, said quickly) sounds familiar to some of you, it’s because the town is known for the Chincoteague Ponies. The ponies and the annual Pony Penning Day are the subject of Marguerite Henry’s book, Misty of Chincoteague. It was one of my favorites as a kid. The ponies are actually on neighboring Assateague Island, which I’ll explain later. Chincoteague deserves a post of it’s own.
One of the coolest things about the Chincoteague LOVEwork, which I first visited Saturday evening, is the welcoming committee that greeted me.
You’ll need to have your sound on to appreciate this quick video.
I enjoy seeing the diversity of these sculptures/art pieces. Which of these nine is your favorite? I’m sort of partial to Farmville, with Cape Charles and Chincoteague tied for a close second. But, really, I LOVE them all. 🙂
There are pros and cons to using a helmet camera while riding. One of the cons being that you end up with a TON of images to sort through, which takes time. That’s why some of my images never get viewed by anyone other than me.
Yesterday, as I sorted through pics captured on October 18, the last day of Hubby’s birthday weekend ride, I came across a series of shots showing Virginia’s Charity Highway.
It is definitely one of my favorite stretches of road enjoyed that weekend. The 21 or so miles from Woolwine, the western end of VA-40, to just before the town of Ferrum were the best. We only went as far as Rocky Mount, so I can’t tell you whether the other end of the highway is good or not.
Like many roads, that “highway” got its name because it passes through the town of Charity. The posted speed limit was 55 MPH, but it was so curvy, I can’t imagine being able to maintain that speed for long.
That section of VA-40 parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP). It would be a great alternate route on days that the BRP is fogged-in, too darn crowded, or you just need a change of pace. Remember, the 45 MPH speed limit on the BRP is strictly enforced.
When riding, I am often amazed at how little traffic uses many of the back roads we enjoy. Some folks have even asked, after watching another of my slideshows/videos, if we even have traffic.
The answer is yes, we do. I just usually omit slides/video segments where I’m stuck behind some other vehicle. Who wants to look at the ass-end of a car or truck?
This time, I decided to keep it real and include ALL of the 330+ slides from that stretch of road. Images were captured every 5 seconds, so it’s about 28 minutes of ride time condensed into a slideshow that’s 3:28 in length. You’ll get to see all of the traffic we encountered and the annoying sun glare as well as the road and some pretty nice scenery.
The slideshow is relatively quick. I added music, so you may want to mute your speakers if you’re watching in stealth mode.
For you map lovers, here’s a link to GOOGLE Map: Charity Highway, ~21-mile portion of VA-40 between Woolwine and Ferrum, Virginia. I have no idea how long those links stay active so, if it’s broken, just open GOOGLE Maps and search for Woolwine, Virginia.
As I mentioned the other day, Mike turned 60 on October 4. We don’t usually make a huge deal over birthdays, but I thought hitting 60 was a milestone that deserved a celebration. And what better way to make merry than spending a long, three-day weekend riding our bikes through the mountains of Virginia and neighboring states?
Overview Map of Route
I worked long and hard planning, and re-working, a route that would take us on some of our favorite roads and let us explore some new roads in the same general regions we’ve been enjoying recently.
One of Mike’s favorite roads is US-33 between Rawley Springs, Virginia and Brandywine, West Virginia. I like it, too, but we were both disappointed to discover recent road work left the pavement, especially in the turns, sprinkled with lots of fine, loose gravel. Not good at all for motorcycles. It was still nice — no traffic! — just not as much fun. That’s okay, though. The ride was just getting started. And it was a lovely day.
Looking at the mountains in Brandywine, West Virginia.
From there, we headed south WV-21/Sugar Grove Road, which becomes VA-614/Cowpasture River Road N after you cross into Virginia. We went west on US-250 then south on VA-678/Bullpasture River Road, which becomes Indian Draft Road before turning into VA-625 / River Road at some point.
Bullpasture River
Hubby waiting patiently.
Except for the stint on US-250, those are what I call putt-putt roads. They’re paved, but have no lines, and travel through scenic and very picturesque valleys. There’s not always a posted speed limit, but I tend to max-out at about 45 mph as there’s not a lot of signage and turns tend to sneak up on you.
River Road (we’d just crossed the Cowpasture River).
Looking east over the Cowpasture River.
Looking west over the Cowpasture River.
They’re not fast roads, but that combo is definitely going to be included on my official list of favorite roads (as opposed to the mental list, where they’ve been included for a while).
From there, we headed west on VA-39, a fast and fun road. After that long stretch of putt-putt roads, I was happy to roll on the throttle and enjoy some curves. I was a bit amazed to see a car in my rearview mirrors doing a pretty good job of keeping up with me as we zipped along. I laughed out loud then thought “uh oh” when I realized, after about five minutes, it was a Virginia State Police car. All was good, though. Either the officer hadn’t been watching the speedometer or they enjoyed seeing this “crazy frog lady” (as it says on my bumper sticker) have some fun.
From there, we headed south on US-220 through Warm Springs. By then, we needed gas, and Hubby was hungry, so we pulled into a gas station that was affiliated with or adjacent to Cucci’s Restaurant (pronounced like coochies).
I chose not to order the Sloppy Cucci.
After a quick, okay lunch, we filled up and continued south on US-220 to Hot Springs, veering west on VA-615 / Main Street then south on VA-687 / Jackson River Turnpike.
At some point, I realized I hadn’t re-started my tracker app when restarting the phone at Cucci’s, so we paused for a moment then pressed on. At Falling Spring, we headed back east on VA-640 / Falls Road, to rejoin US-220 just north of Covington. That stretch of US-220 into Covington was a repeat road, because it is delightfully curvaceous. There’s a lovely waterfall just south of where we met back up with 220, but, having seen it before, we didn’t stop.
Just south of Covington, we picked up VA-18 / Potts Creek Road, which was nice, but not as fun as I thought it might be. At Paint Bank, VA, we turned toward the east on VA-311 — a definite favorite road — and then headed south again on VA-658 / John’s Creek Road, continuing on VA-658 when it became Dicks Creek Road. (Both of the creek roads were excellent recommendations from my America Rides Map.)
Along Dicks Creek Road north of Maggie, VA.
Dicks Creek Road north of Maggie, VA.
After a brief stretch-break, we continued making our way south and west, hopping on VA-42 — always lovely — then took US-460 west to VA-730 / Eggleston Road (another excellent America Rides Maps recommendation). We re-joined VA-42 eventually, then took an intriguing-looking shortcut I’d noticed on the map — VA-738 / Robinson Tract Road — which would take us closer to Wytheville, our stop for the night.
OMG, what an odd road. It crosses Walker Creek then runs along the Pecker Branch for a little ways before going up and over the mountain. It was paved, thank goodness, but was little-used, as evidenced by the fact that the pavement was almost completely covered with fallen leaves in places. And there were stacked switchbacks, steep enough that I could see Hubby making his way down the mountain a few turns below me.
VA-738 / Robinson Tract Road
VA-738 / Robinson Tract Road
It was definitely one of those “why is this road here” moments.
We continued making our way south and west towards Wytheville. The roads were lovely, but the sun was brutal. Both of us were practically blinded by the light as we wound our way along VA-601 / Little Creek Highway. Hubby had a close encounter with a fast-moving deer we’re convinced was goaded by his buddies into playing chicken with Mike. I watched that crazy critter angle at full speed alongside then across the road in front of Hubby. The deer could have easily crossed between us. Hubby said there were inches to spare between him and the deer. And, thanks to the glaring sun, he hadn’t seen it until it was right in front of him.
We were both quite happy to reach our hotel in Wytheville. That sun really had been brutal. And we were both tired after a long, fabulous day. The roads had been amazing. But I knew some of the best were yet to come.
If you’d like to see the Spotwalla tracker map, CLICK HERE.
This past weekend, Hubby and I went on a three-day ride from Virginia, into West Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, then back into Virginia, the state we call home.
When planning the trip, I tried to include some new roads along with a few of our favorites. One of the roads we enjoyed on Saturday was Tennessee’s US-421 / The Snake.
Later in the day, when discussing our ride, we couldn’t remember if it had been two or three vehicles we’d come up behind that actually slowed down to let us pass. Really.
I know it’s hard to believe. But watching the video confirmed that THREE drivers actually slowed down to let us pass on The Snake. Hubby’s response to my confirming that it had been three separate drivers was, “Good people, all of them!”
Sadly, cars/trucks/buses letting motorcyclists pass is a rarity here in America. Even though motorcycles can usually travel about twice as fast as cars on curvy roads. I guess it’s that whole “me first” or “wait your turn” mentality.
Saturday was actually the second time this year we’d ridden The Snake. The road only got a brief mention after our first visit. This time, I took the GoPro and captured the ride on video.
The Snake’s web page (link shared above) describes the road as 33 miles long with 489 curves as it crosses three mountains and one valley. My video only includes about a 14-mile segment of the road, the really fun part, which is shown on the map below. Sorry, I didn’t count the curves in that portion.
I’m sure the rest of the road is nice enough. As snakes go, though, which would get your adrenaline pumping more, one that’s all stretched out, relaxing in the sun? Or one that’s all scrunched up, unpredictable, and ready to strike?
The video ends about 4 miles from Holston Lake. It’s a pretty four-mile ride to the lake, and the crossing is picturesque, but I wanted to focus on the FUN stuff. I deleted some of the straights in the valley to make the video a bit shorter. It’s running at 2x speed, too.
I was also going to post it at regular speed, but the video was too long for YouTube. If anyone wants to see the video at regular speed, let me know and I can edit it down.
