L8RGYZ

Trip to Roanoke wasn't bad. 13 between Powhatan & Cumberland is always a cool little ride. Then took Rt. 636 thru the Buckingham-Appomattox State Forest over to 24. 15 miles of nice smooth windy pavement. Nothing radical, just constant curves.

I only had about an hour of work to do at the offsite and my boss said I didn't have to rush back to the office. The weather was expected to be good until late in the day so this was going to be a blast!
Plan was to take 311 out of Roanoke over to Covington. But my co-worker screwed up the timetable by BSing @ the jobsite for an hour (on MY TIME). So grabbed a burger & decided on the BRP instead. By now gray clouds were building up on the mountains. Suddenly I can feel the winds kick up, & the temp is dropping. Went about 2 miles west on the BRP & felt the rain tapping on my helmet. Turn around back to 460. I'm just ahead of the rains.
Bedford; I try to get west again by taking 43 to the Peaks of Otter. Frickin' optimist... I'm riding right into the storm... it's pretty obvious this storm is following a north-easterly track right up the spine of the Blue Ridge... I'm still just ahead of the rains, so I'm thinking 122 to Big Island... same deal... so it's 221 to Lynchburg.
Figured I might get ahead of this thing at Forest and take Perrowville Rd. over to Big Island. Again I'm just riding right into the downpour. The whole time I can look back 30-40 miles to the southwest & see where the strom has already passed. I can see ahead where the storm hasn't hit yet. It's starting to spill over the mountains now though. So I turn around again, but every time i start to head west to the mountains & have to double back, the gray clouds claw back the little ground I've gained on them.
Guess I'll head for Amherst on the 29 bypass. I'd have stayed dry if I'd stuck with the black R1/R6 that fell in behind me heading west on 460, but I didn't make this trip just to slab it all day... I'm determined to strafe some decent roads.
Anyway as soon as I cross the James the winds start blowing me around & i can feel the coolness of the storm system. I can see I'm riding right into it. Screw it, I'm not turning around again. Maybe I'll punch thru to partly cloudy skies. At least I can run 56 over to Buckingham. Yeah, right, in the rain... oh, well.
I'm wet now after riding in the rain for an hour, but on the upside, it's 80 degrees so I'm not cold at all. I finally punch thru the clouds @ Dillwyn, so I'm finally on the leading edge of the weather, but I have to stop for gas, Ho-Hos & 1/4 cup of coffee... so my nemesis overtakes me again. I get to run that nice stretch of 610 in the rain today.
There's a theme developing here. At least it's a gentle spring rain, and there's no puddles in my boots!
About 10 miles from home I get ahead if the biatch again. Wouldn't you know. So riding the bike on the company dime didn't work out as planned. I'm tempted to say it was a waste of good tread rubber, but then again, at least i was riding & not sitting at a desk all day.

Zedicus