Our Hottest Day - So Far

The first job this morning was to wash our clothes. It meant for a late start, but we were not planning on travelling a long distance today. Leaving Elkins, we backtracked to Parsons with its unusual clock tower.

The reason for backtracking was to ride WV 72. The "No Trucks Allowed" sign at the beginning of the road is full of promise.

The road is not for aggresive riding. It narows to one lane and has many blind corners. It follows the course of a small river for a while then climbs dramatically through swiitchbacks before plunging down into the next valley. We could see everything below and beyond. Heaven!

At the end of the road we turned south to Harman where we stopped at a family diner for lunch. A very feminine, clean setting with faux flowers. Just like my mother's place-spotless and pretty, outside and in. The food and service was second to none. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Apparently some of the locals have behavioural problems.

Riding in the shade helped offset the oppressive heat. The higher hills and mountains are still very green. The lower areas show some dry foilage on the floor of the forests.

The road led next to Seneca Rocks where we filled up the bike with petrol.

The temperature was in the high nineties. We turned north on 55, a road that was faster but less shaded than the roads we had been on so far.

This took us to Petersburg where we stopped for drinks. A bit firther down the road Old 55 joined the new four-lane Highway 55 and the speed picked up.We had several opportunities to get off this raod and back onto Old 55, but didn't. We were getting really tired and the temperarture was still rising.  The lanes and bridges were divided for much of the journey.

It was a great relief to get to our overnight stop at Front Royal in Virginia. It was 99 F when we arrived. We quickly found a good motel at a great price and booked in for two nights.

Finding a supermarket was not easy, but in the end we bought all the ingredients for a delicious meal and headed back to the motel. It was still 99 F at 8pm. The prediction is for more hot weather.