Just one more hill

Rode down to Roanoke on a recent Sunday for breakfast with friends and, hopefully, a nice ride somewhere.  But only three rode their bikes and one was headed South for a trip to Spartanburg.

So after breakfast, I headed over the the Valley View area to pick up a new power supply for one of my computers and then contemplated the rest of the day.

I rode around Roanoke for a while, visiting a couple of haunts from my time in the city in the 60s, then headed out Brandon Road towards Salem, veering right on Route 311 towards Catawba.

Rode through Catawba and over the mountain to New Castle. The weather continued to warm so I went over Topps Mountain to Paint Bank, stopping at the General Store for some coffee. Struck up a conversation with a couple who recently moved from New England to Troutville. They planned to head towards Blacksburg on Route 18.  I opted to stay on 311 and head over another mountain, this time to Crows, Virginia. With an empty road beckoning, traversed one more mountain to White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia.

After stretching my legs, I headed East on U.S. 60 to Covington and on to Clifton Forge, veering off on U.S. 220 to follow the river towards Fincastle.  My reserve light kicked off just short of Fincastle but I have at least 100 miles left when it lights up so I turned on U.S. 11 at Troutville and headed through Cloverdale and Hollins and into Roanoke. Picked up I-581 at Hershberger Road and headed south, staying on 220.  Stopped for gas at an Exxon Station where 220 turns from a limited access highway into just another four-lane road and looked across the road at the I-Hop on top of the hill. That's where we had breakfast earlier in the day. I had ridden 189 miles since breakfast.

With a full tank of 93-octane premium, I headed south on 220 to the Blue Ridge Parkway. As I headed up Bent Mountain, I realized it had crossed a half-dozen mountains during a day's ride.  I turned off on Franklin Pike, then hit Poor Farm Road and Sandy Flats Road for the short ride home. When I checked the trip odometer in the garage, it read 287 miles since leaving the house 11 hours earlier.

No wonder my butt was sore.