The Road To Norfolk: Ride to Norfolk - Hillsboro, OH to Winchester, VA

Day one is in the books and day two (Labor Day) brings rain! Again! No rest for the weary or bikers on a tight schedule. Winchester, Va. is 377 miles away and rain or not we need to be there by nightfall. So on go the rain suits and away we go! The George Washington Hwy (US-50) is our chosen path and is a multi-lane highway to Chillicothe, Ohio where we stop at an IHOP for breakfast. Hot coffee and flapjacks are most welcome as we check our smart-phones for the latest radar images. How geeky we must have looked sipping hot joe and working our hand held twidget machines! No immediate break in the weather, but we can tell that the tropical depression is spinning East and losing intensity. Chillicothe was home that weekend to the Easy Rider National Rodeo and I thought the IHOP would have been packed with soggy bikers looking for a dry, hot meal. Not another biker in the place. Maybe the rain chased them all home early? Back into the rain gear and off to Virginia!
Traversing the rolling countryside the rain finally lets up and we enjoy the dry ride until a bit after noon and hunger soon calls out our names. I spy a small 1950's style cafe, in Clarksburg W.V., that looks interesting and we pull in. Inside T&L Hot Dogs is a slice of pure 50's Americana and had excellent food to boot! We do our dweeby best to check-in on Facebook and take some pictures. After a refueling we hit the road once again.
The next leg of the ride was one of the best and most challenging of the trip. Clarksburg, W.V to Gore, Va. is 137 miles of 9% grades, 15 mph hairpin turns, and non-stop scenic beauty! You had to pay particular attention to each and every turn as an improper set-up would get you in trouble in a hurry! Outside, inside, outside, inside . . . for three hours! By the time we got to the resort town of Clear Springs, W.V. I had had enough! But that was only about the half-way point and we had well over an hour of riding left! Wrestling a 850lb Harley for 3 hours is a huge workout! Boy was I glad to hit Maryland and then Virginia with its straighter roads and beautiful pastures. Pulling into Winchester I again had to make a command decision on which way to go in order to end up at our hotel. This time it was a left, right, or straight ahead decision. I went straight, straight into a mall parking lot! Digging out the iPhone we got our bearings and proceeded to the hotel. Totally spent, and totally thrilled with the ride, we enjoyed yet another Yuengling with a well deserved steak dinner!