Thinking of riding down to Lake Anna on Sunday to meet up with jpcfjrand then hitting great roads on the way back.Anyone else up for it? The AccuWeather hourly forecast actually looks pretty good and the roads around there are awesome. What say you YermobuffaloYun Lung Yangand all the rest?

It's about 100 miles from College Park:


I'm not yet sure if I can make it.

Sorry guys, I'm not going to be able to make this ride.

Sorry, *waaaaay* behind the curve on this.

I assume you're already under way?

We're in the garage turning wrenches today if you'd like to come over.

rshaug, how'd the ride go? Inquiring minds want to know. 

Yermo it was one of those rides where every time you think "well, it can't get worse" it actually did LOL. In a comically crazy way. Here's the basics:
-Parking lot traffic on 95 south led to taking the back way to Lake Anna, this was actually nice. 234 to 28 south, to 29 south, to 522 south. No traffic at all heading that way, good weather, clean road. Took 2 hours overall to get there though.
-Hit a couple of very nice roads around Lake Anna, jpcfjr buffalo and I (and anyone else that joins us) are going to have an epic day of riding around there. It's fantastic.


*Then* it took a turn....
-Decided to try out Skyline Drive as it had been a long time since either of us had been on it....
-$10 per bike entry fee....should have known it would be down hill from here
-35MPH speed limit! Except of course where it is 25MPH!!! 
-Bad enough but we got endlessly stuck behind cars that were going SLOWER THAN THAT with no passing zones
-There are no intersecting roads for many many miles
-Finally got off on 33 and headed west, thinking that we'd just grab those great roads around the Shenandoah...but no
-Epic storm clouds rolling in from the West meant we did a u-turn on 33 and head back up over the mountin
-After a fun blast UP the mountain on 33 we got stuck behind a long wagon train of terrified drivers in cars that would stand on the brakes in every turn, especially at the apex all the way down the other side and for a long time after
-Finally got to rt29 North thinking we'd hit some roads around there and stopped for gas at the Sheetz...and saw the storm clouds that we took pics of...thus decided to wait it out
-When it cleared up we got on the bikes and decided to just head home...and drove right into the storm
-Spent about 90 minutes in pouring rain that caught us by surprise on open road without shelter...so basically got soaked through in less than 5 minutes...no bothering with rain gear at that point
-Continued to rain like crazy the whole way back. My leathers have quite literally never been wetter and I had little pools of water in my boots.

So in the end: the roads around Lake Anna are epic and I can't wait to tear them up the weekend of the 19th. They are fantastic. After that it was comically bad.

Side note: apparently 66 is made up almost exclusively of tar snakes for about 10 miles. Took extra special attention to stay loose on the bike as it did the squirmy dance under me.

rshaug the emotional scars left by Skyline Drive are still with me decades later. For me it remains "the road that will never again be ridden." Simply horrible. I would have saved you that torment, my friend.

Sorry I'm going to be missing the Lake Anna ride. 

Yermo I think what make Skyline Drive sooo bad is that it is a magnificent road, perfectly paved, beautiful corners that tie together perfectly, worth of a remarkable pace...but you can't.