"Andy H." <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Well then...
>
> We had to wimp out a bit, but it was still marginally respectable for a couple of out-of-shape
> 45-year-olds. Saturday started out very rainy in C-ville. In fact, at 9AM it was raining very hard
> and we pretty-much had decided to scratch the whole thing. The Omni Hotel shows New York local
> stations (go figure) and it was tough to get a local report, but it did not look good. However, by
> 10AM the sun was shining and we decided to give it a go. When we got to the Parkway, it was windy
> (must have been gusts to 40 mph past the Visitor Center about 7-8 miles in) and freezing. Given
> our late start and the weather we decided to have our driver drop us at the Visitor Center and we
> started the big downhill. An inauspicious beginning to be sure.
>
> There is one mild uphill between the visitor center and Rockfish Gap, but mostly we rode down the
> side of a mountain. This became far more pronounced as we hit US250 in Rockfish Gap. To make
> matters worse, our directions con- fused us and we missed the turnoff into Afton and wound up
> taking 250 straight down. There is a lot of traffic, not much shoulder, and it's not fun. The
> turnoff was apparently marked "route 6" and we were expecting route
> 151. Also, the landscape is dotted with these little signs that have the number 76, a picture of
> a bicycle, and an arrow, and one of those pointed down there. These signs probable marked a
> bit more than half of our route to C-ville (we picked them back up at the bottom). I did not
> notice where we lost them.
>
> We finally left 250 at 796 and took 690 and 691 through Greenwood,and into Crozet (crow-ZAY). We
> knew how to pronounce it because a friendly resident helped us out along the way with directions,
> information, and advice to eat at the Crozet Country Club, "where everyone is a member." It was
> well located and everybody was very friendly, but I don't think it will be written up in Gourmet
> Magazine anytime soon.
>
> Out of Crozet, it was 810 to White Hall, where we made a mistake that we decided was a positive
> thing. Rather than turning right on 614 (the right way), we went left. This took us into downright
> beautiful country along a briskly running stream. There were three single-lane wood-plank bridges
> that crossed it along the way. After about 5 miles there was a really respectable hill and we
> wound up at a place called the Sugar Hollow Reservoir. This is very worth seeing. I'd recommend
> this detour highly. While there we ran into some local bikers who set us straight and (mostly)
> succeeded in not laughing at us too much.
>
> It was very easy to get back to White Hall, being down hill and all, although it rained on us
> here. This was the only rain of the whole day and it wasn't bad. Then it was 614, 676, 601, Old
> Ivy road, Ivy road, Alderman Road, and McCormick Road into the university. The traffic going into
> C-ville this way is not an issue at all, although our guide book was quite cautionary. We got back
> to the Omni about 4PM.
>
> As for the food, we ate at Miller's on Friday night and the Blue Moon on Saturday. We were quite
> happy with both. Then there was the matter of a thing called a "gusburger" consumed at 10AM on
> Sunday as we were pulling out for home (which is suburban Philadelphia, by the way).
>
> We went to Friday's After 5 for a while and saw some people we believe were the "Stoned Wheat
> Things." We watched the hockey game on Saturday at Orbitz. All in all we had a grand old time and
> I will remember it fondly.
Thanks for the report, Len