I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!!

I slipped in two afternoon motorcycle rides in this past weekend. I was hoping for longer rides but the weather was very fickle with strong thunderstorms projected for both days. Counter to what is typical for my rides….we did not get wet.

On Saturday I rode with guys from the neighborhood (Don, Charles, and Don’s brother-in-law Gordon who is visiting from Georgia).  We pulled out of Leesburg, VA about 11AM headed south on US Route 15.  It was not long before we had our first exciting moment of the day!

We were less than five miles south of town when an accident occurred right next to us.  Two motorcycles were stopped to make a left hand turn with a SUV stopped behind them.  A car, whose driver must have not have been paying attention, skidded hard into the SUV, which, luckily, did not hit the motorcycles. The car began skidding as it passed Don (on the lead bike) and hit the SUV as I passed (I was the trail bike).  I pulled hard to the right to distance myself from the shrapnel from the collision.  There had to have been less than two seconds from skid to crash.

The folks on the motorcycles stopped to turn left were very lucky the SUV was behind them it was a close call.  The silver car would have hit and killed them; there is no doubt in my mind!  We thought about stopping to help but the location really prohibited stopping on the right and Route 15 North had dozens of cars backed up immediately so we rode on.

Red Horse Tavern

At the intersection of Route 15 and US Route 50 we turned west and headed to our lunch stop in Middleburg (established in 1787).  This part of Route 50 passes through “serious” horse country, it is nothing to see Polo matches, jumping competitions and such as you ride along. In Middleburg we had lunch at the Red Horse Tavern, which was ok and reasonably priced.

From the Tavern we left Middleburg and traveled through multiple back roads finally ending up on Snickersville Road (a Virginia Byway).  We followed this road to its intersection of Route 7 where we turned east back to Leesburg and Payne’s Biker Bar then back to home.

On Sunday Debbie and I rode one of the local “loop” rides we like to take.  It is a 45 mile ride that essentially begins and ends at Point of Rocks, Md.  I will write about this particular route at a later date.

Red Horse Tavern