On the way home from West Virginia

Saturday the BMW stayed safely in the parking garage across the street from the Mountaineer Hotel in Williamson, West Virginia while I ran the Hatfield/McCoy marathon. It was everything advertised:  friendly organizers, enthusiastic volunteers, beautiful course, a long and really steep climb up to mile 7 (where a semi-trailer truck parked at the top honked its horn to encourage us to keep climbing), and a big street party at the finish. An actual Hatfield and a McCoy high-fived each finisher.

Three blocks of downtown Williamson were blocked off for the marathon finish plus vendors, musicians, and an elephant. Mike skipped the elephant ride, but enjoyed feeding her while he waited for me to finish running. We spent the afternoon enjoying the friendly atmosphere and the sunshine, relaxing before we head home.

The Coal House, a building built entirely of local coal, was the center of activity during the Hatfield/McCoy reunion weekend.

Today we rode 200 miles to Covington, Virginia in the Alleghany Highlands. The trip had a little bit of everything that motorcycle riders crave: 

tight twisting hair-pin curves on West Virginia 52, with grades up to 11%;

sweeping turns along rivers and streams through the Appalachian Mountains;

riding alongside trains filled with coal under misty clouds that reach down below the mountains;

open fields and countryside backed by mountains as we scooted along the border between Virginia and West Virginia, heading east on route 3 and north on route 311 to Covington.

We had a perfect motorcycle day with warm sunshine and roads with almost no traffic. Tomorrow looks to be another rainy, stormy day as we continue northeast toward Vermont.