Eric, Mark, Liz and Hardrock. Getting gas for the first time somewhere near Stuart VA.
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Hello Freedom Riders, a wonderful day was enjoyed riding the Parway again.
Me, Eric, Mark and Hardrock met in Lexingtons McDonalds Sunday morning. ( Thanks Hardrock for riding from Statesville to meet us ).
We picked up Liz in Winston and headed up 8 to the mountains. Soon as we got about a mile off of Hwy 52 the scenery got pretty and stayed that way until we got back down the mountain on Hwy 52. On the way to the Parway at the bottom of the mountain ( 5 miles just below the parkway on Hwy 8) we made a right on a curvy as hell Hwy 40 about 13 miles. There was a sign at the beginning of the highway that read " Tractor Trailers are not recommended on this road ". Hell, they would have never made it ! When then made a left onto Runnett Bag Road ( State Road 793 ) to go up the mountain. This road started off bad and got worse as we went. After 2.5 miles of broken pavement and increasing pitch in the climb the road turned into all gravel. I stopped and thought, damned Id hate to ride that curvy road on 40 again another 13 miles to go up curvy hwy 8 so I turned around and glanced at the strange looks staring at me while I gave my apologies ( for planning this ride ). I will give it a shot and see if the others follow. The troopers never even thought about turning back, but when we got to the top where the road connected to the Parkway, Liz had to take a cigarette break ! I think she was shaken a bit. Runnett Bag Road is about 5 miles long. Look it up on Google Earth in Ferrum Va. We then drove 12 miles to Tuggles Gap to gas up ( some of us ) and in came this monstrous trike. 2300 pounds of homemade pavement ripping terror. The owner/operator ( see you dont ride this thing, you own it and operate it ) loved to answer any questions you could think up about his trike. Certainly with the looks of it , it wouldnt take much imagination to come up with a question. I asked where was the clutch lever, throttle and front brake lever ? There was no operational gadgets on the handlebars. They were all on the floor of the trike. Long story short, if you have to wear a helmet to ride it, I like it. O I forgot to say before we went up that terrible road, we stopped at a beautiful covered bridge called Bob White Covered Bridge. Built in 1921 in a beautiful area. I believe Liz and I were the only ones to brave riding our bikes through it. We ate lunch at Mabry Mills but the 40 minute wait is something I dont intend doing again. Next time we will eat at a biker joint at Orchards Gap just a few miles past there. After a lazy 45 mph cruise on the Parkway we made it to Hwy 52 and back home we went. It was a very great day for riding.
Heres a special treat. I found an email address of a resident who lives on the Runnett Bag Road and asked him to say something about the road he lives on . Heres his reply...
Hi Holland,
It is quite a road isn't it? The first few months we lived here, I would get sick to my stomach driving up Runnett Bag Rd. to get onto the Parkway to go to Floyd. After a while, you just get used to it. We are here because of the beauty of these mountains, certainly not because of the well paved roads!
Happy travels to you.
Inge Terrill
