Monday, May 20, 2019: Day 9, Winston-Salem, NC to Staunton, VA via Blue Ridge Parkway
Heading north on NC Hwy 52 from Winston-Salem, NC I pointed out the places I once lived and frequented 18 years ago when I served as a military production recruiter. Pilot Mountain is a prominent landmark on the way to Mt. Airy, the hometown of Andy Griffith and the inspiration for the town of Mayberry in the iconic Andy Griffith Show. We arrived just in time to experience our first torrential rainstorm which gave us and Raven our first North Carolina rainwater rinse…with our brand-spankin’ new H-D matching rainsuits safely tucked away in our motorcycle bags!
But we took this surprise development in stride and we decided to wait out the rainstorm in a nearby diner where we met a lovely couple, Donna and Steve Isenhour, who shared their love of travel and music tales with us…
The storm moved on, we wiped Raven down, and we headed to Fancy Gap, VA where we once again picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway…
We took a needed Butter Pecan rest break at Mabry Mill, a picturesque turn-of-the-last-century sawmill that reminded us of the difficulty rural life could be to cut lumber, grind corn, work wood and iron, and cook sorghum juice into molasses…no wonder corn mash was commonly distilled into moonshine to treat ‘the rhumatiz’, as Granny Clampett would often say…
As the sun began to dip below the horizon it was time to depart the Parkway as the deepening darkness combined with curves and no road edge (fog) lines required us to slow considerably. Running low on fuel was also an incentive to head for the nearest services…
Descending from the Ridge became an adventure in and of itself: pitch black dark, 20 MPH hairpin curves and switchbacks combined with a steep grade required constant up-down shift to take advantage of Raven’s high compression engine to brake her momentum. Those last 3-4 miles coming off the Ridge following Raven’s spotlight was more intensely technical than I’d ever experienced, especially with precious ‘cargo’ aboard! But we arrived in Staunton, VA prepared to enter Shenandoah National Park on our final leg to Front Royal, VA and Washington, DC on Wednesday!
Raven Tales 