We pulled out of our driveway on a cool, crisp Friday morning for a long weekend motorcycle ride. By cool & crisp I mean 51 degrees Fahrenheit, a little less with wind chill, of course. We knew it was going to be at least that or a bit less on Skyline Drive.
We had decked ourselves out in appropriate clothing and closed the vents of the Harley Davidson Ultra Limited, so the chill was not very noticeable. Otherwise, the sun was out with blue sky all about and traffic out of town was quite light.
It took us about an hour to get from home to the northern terminus of Skyline Drive in Front Royal, Virginia. I really think that the state could do a bit better job of signage to get people to the park. I knew where it was but, until you are right upon it the signs are few and far between.
Once we were on Skyline Drive the cool air got a bit cooler! There was nearly a 10-degree difference from the valley to the top of the mountain. While we did notice it, and I turned on the heated grips, the motorcycle seemed to love the cool air and purred as it rolled up, down and around the ridge.
The leaves had not yet started to change colors or drop from the trees, but the greens were awesome to view. I do have another complaint, maybe it is a by-product of Covid 2020 but several of the overlooks really did not overlook. The trees and bush build up limited the view on some of the stops. Only a minor disappointment as the day was so nice!
We reached the southern terminus of the parkway late afternoon and headed to our hotel in Charlottesville, VA. The next day we went to some local site like Monticello. Our return tip was via the American Byway “Journey Through Hallowed Ground Byway”, which will be documented on another post.
Skyline Drive by motorcycle really shows that the adage “Riding in car is like watching a movie. Riding on a motorcycle is like being in the movie” is absolutely true.
If you live on the east coast this ride needs to be on your bucket list.
Ride On, Ride Safe
history nut and we spent a some time in the museum before our stomachs told us it was lunch time. Walking down main street we decided to have lunch at 
I must state that I had thought about why there was no “handle” to raise the lid and that it was kind of weird that you had to grab the lip of the lid to push it open. But when I read Kuryakyn’s part description they hooked me “Kuryakyn Tour-Pak lid grips blend in perfectly, while providing ideal leverage to easily unlatch and open the lid in one fluent motion.” 
LOL, dummy the screw heads are on the inside of the lid behind the rubber weather seal. Out they came with a Torx T20 screwdriver and off comes the old part. I cleaned the area, surprising how much road grime gets into small spots, and then slipped the new Kuryakyn Lid Grip on and replaced the screws.
I am going to avoid some of the more obvious stuff like T-CLOCS and try to hit the things you might have overlooked or not thought about. Of course, you REALLY should do the T-CLOCS, with a much detail as possible, but there are dozens of articles out there about those tasks.
I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!! 