May 22

We awoke today on our last day of our adventure with the threat of rain. We watched the qualifying session for MotoGP in LeMans after breakfast. At 9am, when we were about to head out, it began raining. Luckily the showers stopped, we wiped down the bike and hit the road at 9:30am with the goal of six Grand Tour passport stops, avoiding more rain and getting home safely.

Our first Grand Tour stop was the Quiznos in a new shopping center in Farmville, VA. It’s a nice town with a cute historic district, but our itinerary kept us moving today.

Getting from Farmville to Orange, VA saw us taking several narrow and twisty country roads. They were lightly traveled and offered very scenic views of the rolling Virginia countryside.

Around Noon, we were traveling through Gordonsville and needed to find a location for lunch. The Gordonsville Deli looked inviting and busy so we stopped. Rob met a couple that moved here from Minnesota who had previously owned a Goldwing, but sold it to get two bikes (a Honda 1300 VTX for him and a Yamaha 650 for her) so they could each ride.

After lunch we made the short 15 minute hop over to Waugh Harley Davidson in Orange. They were having a “bike fest” with a band, food, and discounted merchandise. It was packed. We got our stamp and headed onward.

We spent most of the afternoon on Routes 522, 15 and 3. Our next location was the Culpeper Visitor’s Center. It appeared to be in an old train depot.

Downtown Culpeper looked like a fun location to shop and eat—definitely a longer visit is in our future.

After getting that passport stamp, we were headed over to Fredericksburg. It was about this time we seriously paid attention to the Wing’s weather radar, watching the large green blob of rain close in on us from the west. The system had been steadily closing in on us and now it was within 10-15 miles.

We stayed dry as we arrived in Fredericksburg at Morton’s BMW. It was a nice store, and a potential customer was eyeing the new S1000RR which Rob said was “wicked fast”. With no new motorcycles in our future, we made our way to the Spotsylvania Visitor’s Center.

Still no rain at this point, we cruised over to the Courtyard Marriott passport stop in historic Fredericksburg. Inside we met a nice couple from Louisa also doing the Grand Tour stops. We chatted for about 20 minutes and traded tips on the stops we’ve each been to so far.

With all of our Grand Tour stops done for the day, we wanted to quickly motor north to escape the rain. It wasn’t meant to be—as we were departing the historic Fredericksburg area, the rain began to fall. A quick look at the weather map on the Wing told us that things were going to get worse fast so we quickly stopped at an Arby’s to put on all the rain gear.

After 2,000 miles of riding over 10 days, we didn’t have significant rain until the last 50 miles of our trip. I guess Mother Nature decided to make up for missed time because she just hammered us all the way home with constant rain (very heavy at times).

So, after a little more than 2,000 miles, we are sad to see our vacation end but happy that it went better than we could have expected. In retrospect, we were smart to schedule some down time off the bike, like the afternoon at the beach and our day at the Space Center.

It’s always fun to talk with folks on our travels. Most just look at us in bewilderment when we tell them we are traveling on our bike. Some understand the fun that can be had by traveling around the USA on two wheels and experiences it brings. All have genuinely wished us well on our travels.

With this trip concluded, we’ll begin planning our big trip for next year. That one promises to be a good one!