East - Chincoteague Natl. Wildlife Refuge Beach
North - Cacapon Resort [WV
] State Park
South - An unremarkable backroad just south of Danville, VA
West - A trailhead parking lot just beside Cumberland Gap, TN
We did it in 15 hours, 26 minutes with 10 minutes of daylight to spare.
East was the beach at Chincoteague Natl. Wildlife Refuge. Sunrise was at 0539, I got there about 0515. Mike about 10 minutes later. Neither one of us slept very well the night before.
Morning twilight over the Atlantic:
Mike made a friend - guy was up from Louisiana on vacation:
Sunrise and two Doofs ruin a beach picture:
Wheels up but not before Mike pulled over to catch this:
From there a frustrating search for breakfast (places don't open 'till 7 AM or have not fully re-opened yet), back north to the bridge, and me making getting on I-97 more interesting than necessary (stupid Maryland highway signs). West on I-70 from B'more to Hancock, south through Berkley Springs, WV to Cacapon Resort State Park where West Virginia owns the northernmost point in Virginia. Yes, it's true. To get there you go uphill on a gravel road and get stuck behind two hilbillies in a Ford Focus.
At least the view was nice. Until these two show up again (I remembered to fix my hair this time):
Back down the gravel, Mike coasted to cool off his bike, and now all (mostly) 4 lane highway to Danville, VA.
Fun fact - When you take your bike down off of the center stand it's enough of a shock to make your RAM-Mounted iPhone think you've been in a crash and it automatically dials 911. Thank you to the very understanding 911 operator who called back make sure I was ok.
Not much to say about the ride down to Danville. Mike was cooking in the mid-day sun and put his hoodie on for some relief.
The end of the road just south of Danville. Beyond there lay strange creatures known as Tarheels.
Hopped on 58 West in Danville and went...well, west. Not much to say except that when we got to the twisty bit my lack of ability combined with being tired showed. Then when the SEMI showed up blowing a turn coming from the other direction
I was done. Waved Mike by and he presumably had some fun going through the Lover's Leap area. I caught up and we headed on for more slab.
A self-righteous SOB on 77 N below Hillsville decided that he wasn't going to go over 65 in the left lane. Bastage backed up the highway for a few miles behind him. Mike showed his appreciation by extending the middle finger of friendship as we passed
Down 81 to Bristol/Kingsport and a frustrating series of traffic lights then finally west to Cumberland Gap, TN.
The GPS clicked over to dark mode at 2056 (8:56 PM), sunset. We were nine miles from the final destination. Frustrating. But it was still evening twilight. Arrived in Cumberland Gap at 2106 (9:06). At the western edge of town there's a little thumb of a parking lot for the trailhead up to the tri-border point in the Natl. Park. This little parking lot is the westernmost point in VA you can get to by public road.
Two very tired Doofs. But we did it with 10 minutes of daylight to spare.
Hopped back on the bikes and went through the tunnel to Middlesboro, KY. A decent Mexican dinner and two Modelo Darks to celebrate the accomplishment.
I had to get up early and head out Monday, was not able to get the night off from work. My poor cat was very happy to have me home then equally upset when I had to leave for work an hour later. Mike left a little later, saw Dippsy in Roanoke. We both made it home safely, but exhausted.
My tripmeter at the end:
And, of course, the low beam bulb blew when I started the bike to come home. Stupid lampf.