It's Official

We made it to VA. The drive was almost exactly 10 hours, but that included a few gas, bathroom, and food breaks. All in all, not that bad of a drive. We hit no traffic and not too much rain. Let's hope we get that lucky on the return trip.

We've only been here for one day, but I am officially in love with Virginia. The funny thing is that we never even would have considered this as a vacation destination. And now . . . I'm pretty sure I want to live here! It is a very good thing that we love our existing house as much as we do. Otherwise I would be flipping through real estate magazines right this minute. Everything is so amazingly beautiful here. Who knew? The landscape reminds of us Austria and Switzerland. It really has the beauty of WA, VT and ME, only with a much better climate. I am sold. Maybe we can buy Rick and Nancy's house – again!

Today the weather man promised showers and thunderstorms so we spent most of the day traveling by car. Stupid weather guy. We never saw rain all day. We spent most of the day strolling through historic down towns, shopping, eating, visiting a glassblowing gallery, walking through a park and wine tasting. Finally, Karlo couldn't take it anymore and insisted we get back to the hotel, unload the bike, and take a ride.

We took what Karlo called "a short ride" and now my butt is officially worn out. We rode for 3 hours without stopping. And I mean without stopping. I think we encountered 2 traffic lights in over 120 miles. The ride was unbelievable. If I could have captured half of the beauty that we saw I could have published a coffee table book. Every mile presented even more spectacular scenery. It made me so sad that I couldn't capture any of it.

We headed west through the George Washington Forrest into West Virginia. We had to climb over the Alleghany mountains twice – once out and then again to get back. Holy M it was a wild and scary ride. Miles and miles of hairpin turns and 10% grades. I was getting very dizzy on the back of the bike and Karlo did a great job keeping us on the road. If this ride was great I can't wait to see the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway. That's coming tomorrow . . .

For such an amazingly beautiful day, I have an amazingly slim number of pictures to document it. So unlike me! The pictures I did take can be viewed here.