Author: ToadMama

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?

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.)

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.

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.

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My Hubby turned 60 on October 4. Sixty! 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?

I worked long and hard planning a ride. It’s not as easy a you might think. Why? Because it’s not about the destination, it’s about the roads. The roads are what make the trip fun. Really.

I still get a chuckle at the look of confusion on people’s faces after I tell them I don’t really have a destination in mind for a three-day excursion into the mountains. I mean, I had planned overnight spots, but they were just convenient resting places.

After a couple weeks of sporadic research and planning, I settled on a route. Then the East Coast region was hit by a crazy combination of storms — a nor’easter AND tropical storm/hurricane — which made us cancel our plans.

A lot can change in two weeks. Fall has arrived. Each day we have fewer hours of sunlight. AND temps have been dropping. So, once we settled on make-up dates, I had to re-work the route. Remember, celebrating Hubby’s birthday was the point of this trip, so I couldn’t plan many stops to see goofy stuff, which I enjoy but he doesn’t.

He knows I like roadside oddities, but he also knows that I know he thinks that’s all sorta silly. Still. He knows if I see some roadside awesomeness, I’m gonna stop. Which is why we both had a good chuckle over breakfast on Saturday.

There was a Bojangles’ in Wytheville, which I love, so it was my job to get us there from the hotel. After checking in on Yelp, which also posts to Facebook, my friend, Rachael (aka Fuzzy), commented, “Home of the big pencil!” Fuzzy likes roadside oddities even more than I do.

Her comment made me laugh out loud. Of course, Hubby wondered why I was laughing, so I had to explain Rachael’s comment.

“She said that about your Bojangles’ check-in?” Hubby asked, with a look of confusion.

“Yes, because it said Bojangles’ in Wytheville. And she knows Wytheville’s the home of the big pencil. I’m not sure where it is though,” I told him.

“What? I saw it. You didn’t see it?” he asked. “I thought for sure that’s why you were turning when you turned.”

“Wait… you saw the big pencil and didn’t say anything?!?” I asked.

“I thought you saw it,” he insisted, sheepishly, because he and I both knew he was really hoping I hadn’t seen it, ’cause that would have meant stopping for a photo, which would have delayed breakfast. Plus, we were already a tad later than we would’ve liked.

He tried explaining the location, saying how I could just follow the GPS route backwards or plot a return trip to our hotel or some other scheme that would’ve required far too much thought at that early hour.

“I’ll just plug in the address. Finding it will take two seconds,” I told him. The look of confusion on his face was priceless.

How does one quickly find the address for a business with a very large pencil as a sign? With the RoadsideAmerica.com phone app of course (Fuzzy told me about that one years ago). All I had to do was enter “Wytheville, VA” to get a list of local oddities. The Big Pencil was at the top of the list.

Since he was probably feeling a teeny bit guilty for not having said, “Oh my God, did you see the big pencil?” as we’d passed, he didn’t complain about retracing our steps. And he was happy to take this pic for me.

It really is a pretty impressive pencil. Thanks for that timely reminder, Fuzzy!

I’ll tell y’all more about the ride in future posts. It was awesome. Here are a few teaser pics for you.

And y’all wonder why I don’t post more pics of myself.