We started today at 6am. Most of the gear had been packed last night so we only needed to add a few last items. We spent the morning doing final house prep to be away for three weeks.
With the trailer fully packed, Rob rolled out the Wing and the trailer and hooked them up. We were on the bike and ready to roll at 8:15am.
The temps this morning were around 46F when we left and the skies were very overcast. The high temp at our destination was only forecasted to be 44F. Heated gear was definitely getting used today!
Our route took us south down US15/US29. We made our first stop in Madison at about 80 miles. We topped off the bike with fuel and Michele decided to use her second heated gear thermostat since she was feeling cold. Each thermostat has two zones. Just one thermostat was not working well for her since the gloves, pants, and socks were on one zone and the jacket on the other. To keep her legs and feet warm, her gloves were cooking her hands. With the additional thermostat, she could run the pants and socks in a different zone from her gloves, which she turned on the lowest setting from that point on. She was much happier with that setup and vowed that anytime temps are in the 40s, she will absolutely use both thermostats in the future.
Traffic eased after UVA as it usually does, and we enjoyed the mountain views. It was so gusty windy that Michele could not take pictures today.
Our next stop was for lunch at around 11:45 near Liberty University in Lynchburg. We stopped a little early from our original plan since we were hungry. We found a Chick-fil-A and shared a sandwich and fries inside since it was way too cold to eat outside. The wind was really blowing by this point and the temps had only reached 50F. Michele received a compliment on her motorcycle “getup” from a friendly local college student. Next time we are in the area, we may grab lunch at McAllisters just down the road. It has a bigger parking lot and would have been easier to navigate traffic.
We made our way on US460 towards Roanoke where we picked up I81 south. After about an hour, we took an exit in the Roanoke area for a bathroom break and to refuel. When we pulled into the gas station, it started to snow and sleet and the air temperature dropped from 43F to 36F! A man inside the station told Michele, “Cold day for a bike ride.” She agreed! We made our break quick as the wind was blowing the snow and sleet sideways and the roads were starting to get wet.
Rob could see on the radar that the snow/sleet was just in the immediate Roanoke vicinity so we jumped back on the Wing and made our way south on I81. The precipitation switched from rain to snow to sleet continuously for about 10 minutes and the road surface was wet. We were closely watching the temps as we approached the climb up to Christiansburg and were afraid the temps might drop below freezing.
Just as we began to climb, the rain let up, the road surface turned dry, the clouds broke to blue sky, and the temperature rose back to 50F. We had dry weather for the rest of the day but the winds continued to gust above 25mph and the temps fell to 46F.
We arrived at our hotel in Abingdon at about 3:45pm. We settled into our room for awhile and then took a quick 2-minute walk to a nearby pizzeria, Moon Dog Pizza. We got a small greek pizza and a salad as carryout.
We covered about 350 miles today. The Wing and the trailer performed perfectly. Tonight’s temperatures are forecasted to fall into the upper 20s by the time we are scheduled to depart tomorrow at 9:30am. Tomorrow promises to be the coldest morning of our trip. Fortunately, Huntsville, Alabama is expected to get to 54F. While the day will start out cold, it should warm up as we head south. We are excited to stay in an AirBnB cottage in town for four nights, with our own private driveway for the Wing.
