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Sorry we missed you guys this morning but, what a F*%#%%^$#% RIDE!!!

+1 on the ride!!! Thanks to Don for putting it together!
Nice to meet all you guys and Cale gets the prize for longest distance travelled to join us.

So when are we doing this again???

Thanks Nick; I was certainly feelin' it by the time I got home. But nothing a trip to Margaritaville didn't cure. That was absolutely an incredible ride! Good weather, awesome roads and fantastic people. +1 to Don !

I'm thinking Oct 5th in Leesburg for the 18th VA Brit Bike Rally. I know I'll do all I can to be there. Have to see if I can talk the girlfriend in on this one. She's not one to normally miss out on the British spirit.

Great ride. Great folks, some real nice bikes. Awesome burger. I should change my name to "slow on curves". Thanks for the coordination Don. Glad to hear Dupre made it home, that was a serious ride for him. Wondered why he didn't peel off on 17 with me. He later went by on one of my many smoke breaks home, my bum is only used to that 30 minute commute.

Full after action. Weather was not a factor, it was beautiful. Met up with Nick, Walter and Cale at the Q-stop. We waited until about 1145 for Scott and his bro-in-law to show... finally left out. Hit Thornton Gap first (a blast as usual). Stopped at Outlanders in Luray for a butt, dip and smoke break. Cale was gushing about shooting the gap "Dad gum, in that one curve I keep just leaning it over and over and was wondering when it was going to stop!" Saw a couple of cherry vintage bikes some guys were riding. Left Outlanders and headed over the mountain for Ft. Valley. This is the section where we round some sand in a pretty tight curve. I hit it first and did a supermoto kind of rear wheel power slide, didn't have time or the state of mind (worried about what I left in my shorts) to try and warn anyone, looked in my mirror and saw Nick hit it (AMAZING SAVE DUDE!). Everyone made it safely however. Continued on, leaves are just starting to think about changing and at one point we went through a stand of trees that were dropping their leaves as we rode through (was like riding in brief snow shower... it was surreal and very cool). Rumbled through the George Washington National Forest, Passage Creek was cool, saw one beautiful young lady in a bikini playing in the creek (wonder if any of you other guys saw her?). Cut over off Ft. Valley to Front Royal on Mountain Rd, back over the Shenandoah River to 340 and stopped at the 7-11 (the one just before the entrance to Skyline Drive) for another butt, smoke and dip break. Headed on down 522 to Flint Hill for our lunch at a very proper English Pub at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains (Griffin Tavern... which was proudly flying both the Union Jack and the Stars and Stipes, kinda fitting for a Bonneville America stop) and brew stop. Got there and saw what had to have been UKBACONs (Scott's) and his bro-in-laws bikes... what a nice suprise! Folks, you have got to see Scotts bike in person. It is SWEETTTTT!!!! Got inside and met them and also ran into some of my other good friends and riding buddies. We ate, cooled off with some good English brew (I love sitting down in there and they bring me a Boddingtons without asking). Got to talking about the bikes so we all head outside to hear Scotts bike with his homemade pipes... judas h. priest that thing sounds like a top fuel funny car!). Someone said your neighbors must love you, Scott said and a I quote "F^*K the neighbors! My kinda guy!). His brother in law was also running a nicely tricked out Black BA with epco pipes which was also raucous when cracking the throttle. Walter also has a very nice sounding bike with his Sceptres. Well this got my other buddies cranking up thier bikes (two HDs and a Sucker Punch Sallies all with gutted drag pipes). Enjoyed the concert for a bit and went back inside to finish lunch. We all decided to run together for a piece after lunch so we all headed out and fired up. Gathered up at the front of the parking lot and everyone started cracking it open (Bet it raised the dead in the cemetary) and launched onto the road. Folks this sounded AWESOME! Headed back out to 211 towards Sperryville and the buds on the HDs cracked it open out in front... not to be outdone Scott and his bro cracked those tricked out BAs into a british steel frenzy and ran them down! I was so proud! We all stopped for gas and decided it was getting late so we split up and headed back to town. Waved off each guy as we split off our separate ways. While riding on back to my house lone wolf at this point I reflected back on the day and the people and couldn't have imagined it going any better (with the exception of having more of yall with us). All in all a GREAT Day to be alive and riding with great folks on awesome british steel. Can't wait to do it again.

By the way, Gene you have got to bring the MD/Clinton crowd down again for the fall leaves run on Skyline Drive. We've got some VA boys now that will round out the symphony (until I heard Scotts bike I thought that Casey had the loudest BA I had ever heard) quite well.

Thank you all for a memorable day!

Well put Don! Just wanted to add our little morning adventure to the mix. Mike and I left with plenty of time to make it to the Q-stop but in my excitement for this ride I ignored the fundementals of map reading(Ya know, north south, east, west)and boiled it down to a left turn that i thought we had to make. Well we made a few of these left turns and none of them took us where we needed to be. As it turns out I drove us passed the only right turn we needed to make! We ended up at the Q-Stop about an hour and fifteen minutes late, and of course did not see and Triumphs around so we decided to try and find them.

So we took off down 211 in search of our pack. I had remembered Don mentioning a smoke break in Luray so thats where we went. Now keep in mind we really have know idea where we are going but I figured I could get us back to a familiar road if we got to lost etc. etc. We rumbled through downtown Luray and got a few looks from the locals but saw no Triumphs. Now it was our mission to find Griffin Tavern. So back on to 211 this time towards 340N. I had taken the time to look at the website for Griffin Tavern and looked at the map trying to plot the ride that Don had instore for us and remembered that it was in, around, or next to 340 in relation to 522. So up 340 we went, all the way to Front Royal, saw a sign for 522 and we had another directional decision to make north or south, luckly we went south. In a few miles we saw a sign that said Flint Hill xx miles ahead, and I knew we were on the path to salvation! Keep in mind this entire ride wrong turns and all was trough some beutiful country and wouldn't change a thing! Soon we came upon Griffin Tavern, passed it and made our 9th or 10th u-turn of the day and rumbled into the parking lot. To our dismay no Triumphs. We decided to go in anyway and take a load off, drink a Black & Tan and get some food. I asked the cutie behind the bar if any bikers had been through there, and to my suprise she said just one guy on a harley. I told her of our adventure and that the guy we were supposed to meet may be a regular of Griffin and that he like Boddingtons. She knew just who I was talking about and said she hadn't seen Don with a group of guys so we started perkin up a bit. We ordered our drinks and food and just about that time I heard some bikes pull in. I quickly ran out to check and see if it was our pack that we were in search of, but no it was Don's buddies on there Harleys. A few minutes later more bikes. I didn't run out and check this time but how cool it was to see them boys walk through the door! We found them! Thanks for all the kind words on my bike (its a Speedmaster btw, JK). I let her rip for everyone and so on, Don pretty much told the rest of the story.


And yes when we left Griffins, I couldn't let the Harleys have all the fun, and I had to show them that a Triumph is just as bad if not badder than all $100K of Harleys they had on the road. What fun. I was pullin on 'em, then passed 'em. YEEEEEEEEE HAAWW!!