Fancy Gap - Day 3

It is going to be hard to beat the ride I had on Day 2 heading up to Tazewell. Yes, the Back of the Dragon was good but actually all the supporting roads I travelled were phenomenal. It is amazing what you can find if you look hard enough.

Today's ride will be going over to Floyd, VA. We start on the Blue Ridge Parkway then leave for less travelled roads. In this case, the roads I want to take kind of zig zap over the mountain get on a highway for a bit then get over and go back over again. I do not make a ton of progress on reaching Floyd using this technique but I do get to see of lot of countryside and some really cools roads.

So at the last minute, I decided to skip the first part of the ride that would be along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I would head south and pick up my route just a bit later. No reason to skip other than I would be riding this section again coming back home and wanted to try something new.

From the campground, I hopped on 52 South. This is a FUN road as it twists and turns down the mountain. What a great way to start the day. I got to my turn off which is a small road that will wind me through the countryside to eventually meet up with my original route.

As soon as I made the turn, the road had just been resurfaced. Not asphalt but tar and chip. Those not familiar with this it is basically a layer of tar is laid on the surface of the road and then covered with small gravel/rocks (chip). The idea is that the rocks will set into the tar creating a nice water proof and hard surface. The only issue is the chip stays on the surface. This is VERY slick for motorcycles and you must ride slow. At some point, the county will come by and brush off the loose rock but that can take a while.

So for the next 6 miles, I rode on a twisty, up and down hill road loaded with loose rock. Fun! Also, to make things even more fun, I missed my turn so after looking at the map, I found another back road that will take me to my original route. This road was pretty cool as well. No loose gravel but it was a tight twisty road up and over the small mountain. This road was full of unexpected twists and turns and the surface was chunky in places. It is hard to believe that so many folks live on a road like this especially in the winter. It makes for a great ride though!

At one point, I hit road construction. Yup! Even in the middle of know where, you cannot escape road work. I got to the flagman and had to wait almost 10 minutes. I figured they must be using a pilot car and sure enough, it popped out of nowhere with a few cars following it. Once it was our turn, we started on a back road journey for almost 1 mile. They were repaving (it needed it). It takes about 5 minutes to get to the end of the road work but once there, the road was smooth in many sections. You can tell they have done a lot of work on the roads here.

After a few more missed turns, I finally got back to my original route. And do not get me wrong, these missed turns actually turned out to be some of the coolest rides of the day! Where I joined up the original route started me on a nice road that was in a valley. Great views and following small creeks and streams. Just like yesterday, there is a LOT of debris on the road - mainly leaves and small branches - but it make it difficult to see other items (like a dead animal). I also noticed another kind of debris on the road that I could not initially identify. It did not take long as a large dump truck was barreling down the road. It did not have on a tonneau cover so whatever was in the back could blow out.

Its SAWDUST! Tons and tons of saw dust is all over the road. As I am riding down the road, I would pass MANY of these trucks. I am assuming there must be a place where they are either grinding up all the debris from the latest storms or what. All I know is that there were a lot of truck blowing sawdust all over the place. I did not try any tight turns with all this on the road. If you have ever roofed a house and needed to saw board, that loose sawdust is slippery!

I finally reached my next turn off and like yesterday, there were some warning signs that large trucks, etc should not take this route (love seeing those signs). Most the ride going to Floyd was taking a small road like this as a cut through to a main road. Once there, ride a bit and turn off on yet another back road. I repeated this process MANY times slowly making my way to Floyd. What a ride. Most of the roads were like riding through tunnels.

This type of road never gets old. At times the road can get a bit bumpy but overall, nice views and little traffic. I bet I did not hit but maybe 1 stop light on the entire ride from the campground to Floyd.

I arrived in Floyd about 1:30. It took me a while to get here. With all my detours and road conditions, it just takes a while. It was not a ton of miles just slow going. I was going to eat at this place called Outerspace. This is a quirky place to eat.

First, there is a BBQ place. That is what I got and it was damn good. Then there is the Space Bar where you can get beer, wine, etc. There is also a smoothie place called Revolution Juice. And you can also order farm to table and vegetarian meals. There is only outdoor seating that I could see but definitely worth a stop if in town.

After lunch, I jumped on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a bit. After about 20 minutes or so, I needed to use the bathroom and looked for a picnic area. I found one and pulled in. This place was huge. And it is very rustic. I looked for the bathroom and could not see it. I was driving around it the whole time.

As you can tell, everything is covered in leaves (including the walkways and roads). It just never dawned on me that this run down looking building was actually the toilet. If the walkways were clear, it would have been a LOT more obvious as this building is NOT near the road and parking spots.

Once I finished at the picnic area, I just programmed the GPS to take me to the campground but instead of following a path, I just started taking lefts and rights on various roads. Some roads were a ton of fun and others were a bit boring but I did manage to make my way back with no distinct path in mind.

Once I got back, I sat on the porch for a while and enjoyed the nice weather. I was listening to music and having a drink. Once the bike cooled off, I covered it and then made dinner. Once it got dark, it got cooler so I headed inside to work on the computer, read, and eventually hit the sack for another day.

Overall, another great day and looking forward to tomorrow.