Order in the Fully Enclosed Carport

A blogger buddy of mine, Trobairitz, posted a challenge in response to a blog post from the blog of someone she knows.

That's how this blog circle works. Circle of owners, that is. You get to know someone, enjoy their blog and, soon enough, you find yourself reading stuff they enjoy reading. Sometimes it feels a bit like stalking. But it's all in good fun.

I've "met" lots of cool people that way. Check out my blog roll on the bottom left if you don't believe me.

Anyway, the challenge was a humble one thrown down by Flyboy at A View From Above. After sharing images showing the building of his man cave, he challenged fellow bloggers to post a pic or two so others can see where your bicycle or motorcycle lives.

Even though I abhor the term "man cave" -- sorry, I really do -- I can't resist a photo challenge.

Especially since both of my bikes live in the same place. Look closely to the left of those two motorized machines and you may spot a tiny piece of my woefully underutilized bicycle.

Hubby's bikes share the space. Actually, I should say that my bikes share the space with his. He's the one that does such a fine job maintaining order in that little garage of ours.

That's my motorcycle on the left. In case you can't tell the difference. 

It's just a plain, old, unremarkable garage. But it houses some pretty cool stuff, eh?

If you'd like to join in, don't forget to link back to Flyboy's original post. You never know what new friends you might encounter along the way.

A Different Kind of Ride

We didn't get out on the bikes at all this past weekend. But I'm cool with that. Because I did something that was far more fun.

Wait, did I just say more fun than riding my motorcycle? Gasp!

As a matter of fact, I did. But that's just because it involved my 11-year-old granddaughter, Brianna. AND riding. Just not motorcycle riding. Instead, we rode on horseback.

It was awesome.

Since moving to the heart of horse country, I've been itching to ride a horse. Hubby and I went horseback riding about 20 years ago in the Baltimore suburbs, but it sucked. Big time. The location was just so-so. And all our horses wanted to do was return to the barn. So, in my mind, that doesn't count.

This Virginia horseback riding experience was a first for both Brianna and me. The location, which is just about 35 minutes from our house, was fabulous. We rode on the 4,200-acre Marriott Ranch. Yep, those Marriotts.

As it turns out, the founder of the Marriott Corp discovered a farm back in the 1950s, known as Fairfield Farm, that reminded him of his home in Utah. He bought it and gradually over the years purchased additional parcels of land surrounding Fairfield.

The original manor house, built in the early 1800s, is still in use today as the only bed-and-breakfast in the Marriott portfolio. The Inn at Fairfield Farm has gotten mixed reviews as a B&B. But, let me tell you, the exterior of the place is gorgeous.

The Inn at Fairfield Farm

If you are one of those folks who can't get your partner to go along for a ride unless there's a nice destination involved, this could be the place for you to visit. If you'd rather not stay in the main building, there are a few outbuildings with lodging, too. Unfortunately, one of those -- The Baroness Cottage -- caught fire last week.

Recently-burned Baroness Cottage

Hopefully, it can be restored.

The Marriott Ranch is actually a working cattle ranch, with something like 1,200+ head of cattle.

You know what that means, right?

A picturesque barn...

Barn at Marriott Ranch

And cow pictures!

How Now Brown Cow

Actually, I think that's a steer. One of these days I'll educate myself on how to tell the dang things apart.

I just loved that cow/steer shot with the stormy sky as a backdrop.

There were even some babies laying amongst the grasses.

These pictures were taken late Saturday afternoon. Luckily we got our ride in before the freak storm front rolled through. You know, the one that has been dumping SNOW on many locations across the Eastern United States?

No snow here, fortunately. But it sure has been cold. Yesterday I don't think it got out of the 40s all day.

The front did make for some cool photos.

The next one is my favorite.

Hume Barn

When I have more time, I'll give you some detail on the roads in the area. They are FUN. Truly.

Hubby and I were actually riding in this area a couple of weeks ago. On Easter, to be exact. 

I'll do a route post and provide a map soon. For now, work calls. Sigh...

Our Three-hour Tour

Hubby and I actually got to ride together the other day (Sunday). The weather was a gorgeous sunny and about 80 degrees. Saturday would have been equally as awesome for riding, but we had to attend a surprise birthday party for a very good friend instead. It was so worth it, too.

Anyway... I let Hubby map-out the route and lead for a change. A nice change, I should say. Sometimes it's nice just to follow without having to expend much mental energy on wayfinding.

I had the helmet cam rolling the entire time. Excluding stops, which were few. I have a Tachyon helmet cam. It works okay. It'll work even better once I get the position properly adjusted (someone forgot to mark the position on the helmet last year...). Except for the fact that there's no rhyme or reason that I have figured out to the order in which it stores images. So you end up with thousands of images all out of order when you are done. I think I need to invest in a different set-up. Time to go back re-read Bobskoot's camera and mounting posts! :-)

Helmet cams are cool, but you end up with literally thousands of images that pretty much look the same. It takes forever to scroll through them all. I did pick a few to share, so you can see a bit more of the countryside, but the images I shot with my point-and-shoot camera when we stopped for lunch are far more interesting.

Like this one...

We were in Culpeper, Virginia, which is about 20 miles or so south of Warrenton. I believe this strange blue woman was in front of a chocolate shop.

I found it interesting that the main shopping drag in "downtown" Culpeper looks a lot like a western town. I thought so, anyway.

We had a very mediocre lunch at The Smokehouse, which is next to the train station in Culpeper. The building looked cool from the outside. And the inside was okay. But the food was just so-so. Like Hubby said, any restaurant that serves previously frozen crinkle-cut fries can't be good. Really. Are real potatoes that difficult to work with?

I think that old hardware store is a restaurant. Or maybe a general store with a cafe. We didn't look very closely.

The old church was cute, too. But there was no good camera angle that let you see beyond the trees.

Since it was a nice day, there were lots of other bikes out and about.

We stayed in the foothills for most of the day. Hubby didn't enjoy the roads all that much, but I did. It was a pretty ride. It's true that there weren't a lot of elevation changes or challenging twisties. But it was lovely nonetheless as you can see from the images I have posted below.

I'm still loving Virginia.

A day on the bike in nice weather, mountain roads or not, is still a good day, right?

A Good, Good Friday

So I'm a little slow posting this. But, I must say, my Good Friday was awesome.

For the first time since 2003 (I think), I had Good Friday as a work holiday.

Yay! It could have been a tad warmer. But I am not complaining. The sky was bluer than blue and I had the day all to myself. What does any self-respecting motorcyclist do on a day such as that? Go for a nice, long ride of course.

I figured it would be as good a time as any to check out Skyline Drive.

The Skyline Drive runs 105 miles north and south along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Shenandoah National Park and is the only public road through the park. You can enter Shenandoah at four places: Front Royal near Rt. 66 and 340, Thornton Gap at Rt. 211, Swift Run Gap at Rt. 33, and Rockfish Gap at Rt. 64 and Rt. 250 (also the northern entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway). It takes about three hours to travel the entire length of the park on a clear day. (quote from the NPS Shenandoah National Park site.)

If I'd remembered to assemble my jacket properly, the day would have been perfect. I didn't realize my wind liner was missing until right before I got on the bike at my house. It was in one of my panniers, but I didn't feel like taking my jacket off, removing the insulated liner, adding the wind liner, replacing the insulated one...

I wanted to GO. Know what I'm sayin'? So off I went. Besides, it was a balmy 55 degrees. That wasn't bad at all.

I headed out of Warrenton on 211, planning to enter the park at the Thornton Gap entrance. Of course, the higher I got (in elevation!), the lower the temps went. It was 45.5 at the entrance station. Rather than stop there to insert that wind liner, I pushed on to the the first visitor center. I needed a pit stop anyway.

I was more than happy to do the disassemble/reassemble thing once there. Especially since the temps had continued the decline all the way down to 40 degrees. I enjoyed a steaming hot mocha coffee while inside fixing the jacket. After that, everything was perfect. Even at those temps, I was perfectly comfortable. The heated grips helped.

If you are not familiar with Skyline Drive, check out this Shenandoah National Park MAP.

It's still pretty early in the year, so not a lot of stuff is in bloom there yet. But that's okay, because THIS is what I was looking for... 

I saw lots of that.

And not much traffic at all.

Which was nice. Skyline Drive is gorgeous. Especially during late-Spring when all of the Mountain Laurel and Rhododendrons are in bloom. And Fall, of course. But, being so close to the DC Metropolitan Area means it can get pretty crowded. Weekends are particularly bad.

I'm glad I went when I did. I plan on returning when the flowers are blooming.

At lower elevations, some of the trees were starting to blossom.

But most of the trees are still pretty bare.

I was tickled to see this blooming Redbud, one of my favorite trees, when I pulled in for a potty break.

If you have never been on Skyline Drive, you may want to check out this slide show...

It's not the most-riveting slide show ever made, but it'll give you a very good idea of the ride.


It really was a lovely day.

I would have given it a two-thumbs up, but my other hand was busy holding the camera.

Have you been to Skyline Drive before? Love it? Hate it?

Hey, if you are planning a visit, let me know. I'd love to join you.