It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and Allen just had to take the 2004 Pitbull chopper out for a ride. This also was a good time to take some pictures of the bike in the hope that someday it might get featured in a bike magazine. So here we have a few pictures taken along the George Washington Parkway in Virginia - right along the Potomac River. There were three stops in total, the last one just north of the Reagan National Airport where people go to watch the planes land and take off. There were lots of people around so it was difficult to find locations free of distracting backgrounds. There must have been a dozen people asking about the bike and several of them took pictures too. With perfect weather it was an enjoyable ride.

Emmett had another ride in his bag of trips, and this one was just as good as the last back roads ride we did a few weeks ago. We started by meeting at our usual Starbucks in Clifton at 0900. Mike and Allen met there and we rode our Harley's down Route 29 to Route 55 and then north on Route 15 to meet Emmett at the intersection of Route 704 and 15 at 1100, right in the no-name gas station near that intersection. Once the three of us were ready to move out, we headed up north through Purcellville to Route 287 (Berlin Turnpike) and rode though Lovettsville. We crossed over the Potomac into Brunswick Maryland and then headed north on Route 17 until it ended at Route 77 (near Hopkins Ridge, almost to Pennsylvania). Then we turned right on Route 77 and rode through Cumberland Falls State Park to Thurmont. We had a tasty lunch of NY Pizza in Thurmont before gassing up the bikes for the ride back to Leesburg via some more back roads. It was on the return ride that Allen got a present from nature - bird poop from above onto the face shield! Luckily for Allen he was wearing a full face helmet so nothing penetrated to human flesh. A quick picture and wipe from a napkin and it was history. Overall this ride was about 200 miles for Mike and Allen. Emmett got off easy with perhaps a 75 mile ride. It was pretty cold too - about 10 degrees colder in Maryland and you really noticed that. Good thing we were bundled up for the ride and everyone had a good time. Thanks again to Emmett for his ride planning. He certainly knows the back roads of Virginia and Maryland.

Please note the barn yard sign. That picture was taken especially for Greg - a friend of Sandra & Allen!

Several WORMS members (Mike, Woody, Emmett and Allen) met at two locations on a fine Sunday morning, first at our Starbucks in Clifton at 0930 and then at the McDonald's restaurant in Haymarket at 1100, to partake in a ride. Information for the ride was sent out in an e-mail on the 14th; most people read the e-mail - most people except for Woody that is. Woody surprised Mike and Allen as they sat at the Starbucks sipping their espresso drinks; the surprise was seeing Woody (he's been working on his basement for the past 6 months) and then watching him ride on by without seeing us! Woody didn't see our bikes either so he motored right on out of the parking lot. Allen called Woody's cell a couple of times and the 2nd voice mail did the trick. Woody soon returned and the boys all rode together over to Haymarket to meet Emmett. So we had four WORMS riders ready to hit the road and Emmett was going to take us on a great back roads run.

There are two maps below, and each one identifies a road we didn't know about before we met Emmett a few weeks ago. The first road is Route 647 - Crest Hill Road. We got onto this from Route 55 (right where it joins I-66 for a brief period), and we took it south to Route 522 (we know that road real well). In fact it came out at that Griffin restaurant - the one we ate lunch at during last months' Fun Run ride with Jimmy. Anyway, we headed north up Route 522 into Front Royal and Woody elected to head back home at this point (along Route 55) to take care of some chores. Mike, Emmett and Allen kept going north on Route 55 until we reached the George Washington National Forest. We've ridden past this point earlier in the summer during that Smoke Hole Caverns ride. So we turned south onto Route 678 (Fort Valley Road) and took that down to Route 675 and then the town of Luray. At this point we got onto Route 211 and passed over Skyline Drive and basically headed back home. Overall this was about a 175-200 mile ride. We thank Emmett for sharing these roads with us!

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