Arlington National Cemetary

To walk these beautiful grounds is breath taking.

But to realize the countless lives lost or compromised to defend this country is very sobering.

I walked the roads with Cooper and there were head stones spread out for acres and acres.

I hope those men and women were honored as much in their lives for their sacrifices as they are now as they lay in rest here.

Entering Virginia

We planned our trip to VA...

Then rode and rode and rode till we got there.

When we saw this sign, we were at a traffic light.

Yeah... I held up traffic a bit so I could get these pictures to show to you.  

Stop/Rest

Cooper and I went for a pee walk.

He needs to get off the seat of the bike for a while.

Weird, but the guys get off their bikes and sit some more.

Cooper and I just wanted to walk.

The Blueridge Parkway Video

One of the best places that isn't too far from home that is fun to ride is the Blueridge Parkway.

Cooper and I have ridden the parkway twice before this, but Warren never had until this day.  Watch this and see why we like it so much.

Blueridge Parkway - Stopped For A Walk

While we were riding the Blueridge Parkway we stopped a couple times for a walk or to pee or just to look at the scenery.  One time we even had to stop because Dave got stung by a bee and needed to tend to the sting.

Dave survived his bee sting
enough to be a goof ball

One of the times we stopped to pee we noticed there was a nice place to walk...

there was a bridge where the scenery was BEAUTIFUL!

And further on down a path there was an old lock where the boats could come in and out.  It was really cool to see.

Blueridge Parkway - Stopped To Take Picture

Here's a stop on the Blueridge Parkway where we tried to see how far we could see...

I see clouds...

Yup... Lots and Lots of clouds...

And we were above most of them.  Kinda cool, Huh?

Nice Roads On The Blueridge Parkway

Here are some random pictures of the Blueridge Parkway.

I JUST MISSED getting Cooper in this picture.
He was in the mirror.
See the white fuzz?

Cooper spent a lot of time on his feet smelling all the odors in the air.  I can't help but wonder what he smells in a place as pure as this.

Shady's

I loved this place.  It was an old time store.

I went inside.  It had wood plank floors.  Old time coolers for sodas.  A wood counter top where they sell fresh baked cookies and brownies.

And to top off the whole thing there was this WONDERFUL sign over a wooden bench where anyone could sit for a while and 'gossip'.  So you KNOW Cooper and I sat for a spell.

Storm Chasing

This encounter was at one of our stops.

This dog was so cute.

Her name is Blizzard.

It was so much fun to watch these two.

They circled each other about a hundred times,

then Cooper would follow Blizzard for a while.

I thought it was great to name this "Storm Chasing"...

Because Cooper is chasing Blizzard.

Writing

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know I journal all the time when we go on vacations.

I've been doing this since our cross country summer trip of 2011 when we did 11,000 miles in 61 days.

This isn't that extensive a trip but it's worthy of writing about every night.

Cooper is my inspiration.  

Pit Stop

Sometimes you just have to take time looking at the route and finding out how far to go before you're going to stop for the night.

Cooper just likes the chance to see someone besides the back of me.  I guess the back of my bike can get kind of boring to a social boy like Cooper.

First Stop At A Store

I think this was one of our first stops when we were on our way to VA.  We stopped for drinks and a pee stop.

Cooper had a lot of energy on this stop.

He even got to get on Dave's bike... Which has not happened before and may never happen again.