HROT's Virginia Grand Tour
(Part I) - Getting Started

August 25^th, 2004

Shortly after buying my Sabre, I saw an advertisement for Honda Riders of Tidewater (HROT) Virginia Grand Tour. The Tour consisted of 15 locations throughout Virginia. In order to qualify for the Tour pin, a rider had to visit 12 of the 15 sites between April and September. The club had arranged for participating locations to stamp the Tour passports of participating riders. Having no idea what locations were on the tour, I paid my money and signed up. I figured the locations would be based on the club members' experience and I'd be able to see some nice places while improving my riding skills.

Parksley, Va.

My first reaction at looking through the Tour Book was, "Where are these places?" Remembering Joe's article on the ADC atlas, I quickly bought a Virginia State Road Atlas. After plotting the locations on the grid map in the front of the atlas, my second reaction was, "Damn, Virginia's a big state." After mentally backpedaling about whether I had enough free time to complete the tour, I noticed that there were really three categories of locations. Five of the locations were close enough to be individual day trips (a couple hundred miles or so round trip). A group of six locations were located in northern and northwestern Virginia. The last group of four locations was found in the southwestern part of the state.

Seafood in Reesville

Telling myself that I would not be the only person to sign up and not complete the tour, I decided to start with the day trips and see where they took me. Most of the day trips I've written about in previous articles. I won't recap except to say that these trips (and other location travels) convinced me I had made the right decision to return to motorcycling. Whether sprinting across the Bay Bridge on the way to Parksley, riding in the rain after a crab sandwich in Reedsville, meeting some nice Goldwing riders on the way to Shirley Plantation, or finding GARYSBURG after stopping at Valentines, I enjoyed the rides and thoughts that came with these one day journeys of liberation. To quote those great philosophers (The Beatles), "Day Tripper, Yeah!" My only regret was that I didn't figure out that I needed a camera until after I had visited the first three sites.

It is at this point that I must inform the reader of a slight character flaw that occasionally takes control of me. To put it nicely, I can - occasionally - be "backside retentive". This means my measures of success or completion are marred by little details that have nothing to do with the actual event. Why am I telling you this? Well, I decided that since I was going to go to the places listed in the Grand Tour, I should add the additional challenge of driving the full length of as many Virginia roads as I could. Therefore, it wasn't enough just to go to Pawley on the Eastern Shore. Going to Parksley via US-13 wasn't enough; I had to go all the way to Maryland (and then another day ride to North Carolina on US-13). On the first weekend trip, the challenge was to just go the Tour locations, but to travel the length of I-64 (to Staunton) and go north to Winchester where US-17 starts and ride it all the way to North Carolina before heading for Virginia Beach. Like I said, "Backside Retentive".

Shirley House

After completing four of the day trips, I felt like I was ready for my first weekend trip. This decision was helped along by the fact that I had a four-day weekend over the 4TH of July and that my family had already gone to Spain. I decided to head for the northwestern / northern locations. I'd been stationed in D.C. and had at least been out to the Shenandoah Mountains 30 years ago. Besides, the trip looked shorter on the map then trying the southwestern group.

A side benefit of this trip was that I had to go shopping for a rain suit and a T-Bag. After some "CLAP" shopping, I got down to some serious planning. Given that I was making the trip over the 4TH, I guessed how far I could make it per day (with site-seeing) and made motel reservations in Staunton (I-64 and I-81) and Warrenton (US 17 and US 29). While the motels were not located at the end of my daily travels, they did serve me well as a base of operations (ride early, check in, make some early afternoon trips, and return to the motel). With basic logistics arranged (and all excuses out of the way), it was time to hit the road.

Next week - HROT Virginia Grand Tour (Part II) - The Shenandoah Experience

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