Virginia!!

Almost made it home tonight. I am in Roanoke, Virginia - about 200 miles from home.

I did about 540 miles today in 10 hours. I was pushing to get home but it got dark and, frankly, I was way uncomfortable in the seat by about 7 pm. ( I also lost the hour crossing into the Eastern Time Zone.)

The Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee were beautiful, and I made a brief lunch stop near Gatlinburg. I was briefly tempted to go visit Dollywood, but the urge soon passed. It was fun to drive through Nashville, but Knoxville is a complete mess with I-40 closed down and a detour that goes around the city. I hit it after rush hour, so it was not much of a delay.

Fortunately, the Weather Channel "experts" proved to be completely wrong and the weather was beautiful all day. How do they keep their jobs?

After passing through 12 states I must say that one of the most beautiful places I've ridden was in the mountains of southwestern Virginia, near Pulaski County and Radford. After all of that, some of the best riding is in your own backyard.

I should be home tomorrow morning!

Mike