The trip that gave me the itch
Obviously, we buy motorcycles with the intention of riding them, but that doesn’t always end up happening. We find ourselves putting a few thousand miles on them- or even worse: a few hundred miles, then the winter months arrive and we stop riding or we decide to sell them. We have a big trip planned in our head: VA>AR>CA>WA>ID>CANADA and back- something like that. We let our motorcycles sit in the garage and rot, to never be ridden again- waiting on the big trip.
After the summer of 2021, I noticed many of my friends had moved out of the area, gotten into serious relationships, or were deploying. This led to me having more free time on my hands- something I hadn’t been used to the last few years. Knowing that I would be separating from the military in about a year, I had begun to plan to take time to travel on my motorcycle. I began to watch some YouTube videos and started brainstorming to head out west. It was a good introductory to moto travel, but it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t riding. I was sitting around and dreaming. Observing and watching others “do it” was great to sculpt a vision and a plan, but I wasn’t making any progress in actually living the life I craved.
On October 2, 2021, I had been sitting around the house with chores complete and the rest of my day unoccupied with nothing to do. I said to myself, “you know what? I’m getting out of here.” I didn’t need much. My bike was mechanically sound and I knew I would stick to paved roads. I packed some clothes and took off through the backroads headed west with the ultimate destination of Charlottesville Virginia.
About an hour down the road I sent a quick message to a friend telling her that I was heading in her direction. She quickly called me and we scheduled to meet up. All I told her was “pack a small overnight bag.” After I arrived at her apartment in Richmond, VA, we scavenged to find a cheap motorcycle helmet, then on the road we went. At this point, the spontaneity had peaked. We just went with the flow. An adventure, some would call it. The new goal was to make it to the Blueridge Parkway outside Shenandoah National Park by sunset. The ride up for me was great. There were some twisties; some straightaways; I loved every bit of it. For her, not so much. She leaned against every turn and made everything a little more challenging for me.
After we enjoyed a nice sunset in Shenandoah we headed down into Charlottesville to get a hotel for the night. After settling in, we went out for dinner and a few drinks.
The ferry ride across the James River.
The next morning I was up early and too excited to get back on the road. I knew having a long-term passenger on the trip wasn’t ideal, so dumping her off back at her house was priority number one. After dropping her off, I set out south of Richmond to ride the James River back to Virginia Beach. I had done a trip from Richmond along the James a few times, so this time I had made it a priority to get lost in some unnamed towns. This is where I learned I would have the most fun.
One of the most eye-opening opportunities of this trip was riding along the 10 south of the James, where I drove through many small towns. Along this route, I drove through a town called Spring Grove, where I discovered a logging road that took me off the beaten path. This road took me through some gravel roads, mud, sand, grown over trails, and a powerline road. This was the most off-roading I had done on my bike to date. I was always afraid to take my bike offroad knowing that I would drop it and it didn’t have any protection (skid plate, crash bars, etc). Luckily on this day I didn’t have any issues and didn’t drop my bike.
In Surry County, there was a ferry that went from Scotland to Jamestown. I had never been on a ferry and I found out that it was free, so I decided to take it into Jamestown. This was the best part of the trip. I was traveling across a very historic body of water into a very historic town. It really put that final touch on the short weekend trip. But it didn’t end there! After getting off the ferry, I rode the Colonial Parkway into Yorktown, where I finished with a few pints of beer and a fried oyster sandwich.
The trip was very short, but I felt as if I had covered a lot of ground, and I saw a variety of ecosystems and environments. I can say that this is definitely the trip that drove me to my next upcoming trips and has set the pace for me to explore and do more in the future.
