A couple of weeks ago, I decided I wanted to look an old friend of mine up. Hadn't seen him in years. He was one of my HS buddies. I actually had my first MC experience with him (bad). He was the one reason that swore me off bikes for many many years. My first and only demo ride with him was on an off-road bike. I was riding bitch with him and I don't really remember much except that I was dumped and missed a farm pond by this much. He was also one of my staunchest drinking buddies. Ahh, good times.
He eventually wound up as a LEO in South Hill, VA which is a bit strange I guess. Several of my drinking buddies there are members of the force. At any rate we touched base about 10 years ago. In 2007, he committed suicide. I wasn't able to come to the funeral as I didn't know about it until much later. He was buried in NC near Roanoke Rapids. I felt very guilty that I didn't know about the demons affecting him. Still don't know why. I may go ask some of the LEOs that I know and see what they know.
I found the location via
http://www.findagrave.com. So a trip was in order via bike. Only fitting way to do it, I would think. My wife went on ahead. I went via 3 east, 301 south, 295 south, 95 north, and 85 south. The only excitement along the way was on 295 in the Hopewell area. This is a known speed enforcement area. They are there all the time (at least every time I've gone by). Today was no exception and two were pulled over, usually out of state drivers. Be very wary.
I mention this because my wife related a story that happened to her on the way down in the cage. She came up on a driver pulled over to the right. A black non-descript Charger had pulled him over. As she went by, the Charger pulled out and eventually came up on her, albeit in the left lane. She also noticed another vehicle coming up fast in the left lane behind the Charger. It was in fact tailgating. The Charger moved over to the right and got into the right lane in front of my wife. Just after it passed at a high rate of speed, the Charger lighted him up and pulled him over. My nephew, the deputy, had a good chuckle over that one. I85 is a known enforcement area as well. Both Dinwiddie and Brunswick counties use deputies on overtime to write tickets.
Saturday arrives and I've decided to take the scenic route (of course) to see Randy. US1 south through South Hill to 158 east at Norlina. US1 was a scenic road until the US58 improvements widened it out south of South Hill. I passed my HS (Park View Senior HS - Dragons), the satellite dump across the street from the HS (this used to be a scenic wayside....there's a tree in there with both my wife's and mine initials), and the house where I used to live. After US1 veers off US58 the road becomes 3 lanes. I pass over the Roanoke river and lament the loss of 'Steel Bridge'. Just after the NC line, I pass the country store (where it used to be) where we all used to buy beer and wine. I get to Norlina and turn onto 158 east.
158 east is a two lane road to Roanoke Rapids. It's scenic if you like small towns and not much going on. A very nice road indeed. It was still fairly cool out. I came up on the church fairly quickly...no gps for me....yet. It took me a bit of time to find him as he was 2/3s of the way in as I walked the lines of graves. I stood there for a bit and thought good thoughts about him. I took some pictures for findagrave to put on their website.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=41038092. Mine is the one with the granite marker.
I then followed 158 east to 301 north. Stopped at McDonalds for a break and was getting ready to leave when a guy in an SUV started talking to me. Had a good conversation and we both got ready to pull out. Looked behind me and a kid unaccompanied by an adult was walking behind the SUV when it started to pull out. I yelled at the kid to get out of way as he was oblivious to anything happening around him. The SUV heard my yell and stopped in time.
This is one of my worst fears in a parking lot, that some kid runs out and gets run over because someone doesn't see him or her. If I'm in a parking lot with my grandkids they are handheld until we get to the store or sidewalk.
301 north for a little ways and then 186 east. Then to 35 north until I95 north until 295 north. Both 186 and 35 are very good scenic two lanes. Well worth the time to ride. On 295 I pass through the zone, again cars pulled over. As I get close to the 295 I64 intersection I see brake lights. Ah, just in time I veer off to the side feeder for 64 east. Crap, blocked there as well, so I veer off to 60 west. I figure I can take 156 and get on 295 from there. Get to the exit and it's blocked by troopers. I can see south that 295 is roadblocked in all 4 lanes. North view is nothing, not a car on the road. Must be a hazmat incident I say to myself and decide to follow 156 to where ever it leads. At least it's going the way I want it to....towards Mechanicsville. Hmmmm a gps might come in handy.
It's starting to get threatening and I decide to pull into a gas station to put on gear. There's a deputy there as well so I can ask him what's going on with 295. I stand outside his window and wait while he fiddles with his laptop. He sees me with a start and then rolls down the window. I apologize for scaring him and then ask what's going on. At first he wasn't aware of anything and then he remembers....'The President is in town.'. Well so much for getting back on 295. I ask him about going through to Hanover. He says 'Oh no, you don't want to do that. The Tomato festival is in full swing.' He then tells me an alternate route to get to 360 east.
I make it to 360 and get rained on twice. The PR3s work very well, indeed. I take 17 north to Port Royal. 17 is a nice scenic road for a 4 lane non-interstate, which is typical in VA. I pick up 301 north then take a back road cut through to King George.
I enjoyed the ride. It was nice to be out. The Heli ST Horizons worked very well for my neck. Although I did pull my back on something as I could barely get off the bike when I got home. I'm thinking it was Camel Back full of water.
