Bob Verhasselt

We had planned to get to the Barber Festival about 5 years ago but life has a funny way of happening around the best laid plans!

The first postponement was for Eric’s wedding to Christine in 2017. A momentous family event was more than enough reason to delay our travel south till the following year…Eric and Christine’s first child was due on October 12th 2018 so that put the whammy on attending that year…2019, Owen’s first birthday and the associated birthday party ended an attempted attendance… 2020 Eric and Christine’s 2nd child was due on October 10th of that year so my traveling partner was once again tied to more pressing parental duties, and let’s not forget the small detail that the Festival was canceled that year due to COVID!…On to2021, Owen and Joel’s combined birthday party stopped our attendance plans for last year dead in their tracks, but did clear the schedule for 2022!  Hooray! 

Finally a clear window of opportunity! 2022 is on!

Eric and I have excellent motorcycles to make the trip, Sport Touring rides with prime service records and great riding manners. We have taken short trips together before (500 miles round trip) but never anything as far as a week long, 1000 miles one way and entirely across a time zone! With fresh tires on both his Aprila Camponard and my Triumph Trophy SE our travel plans were sealed.

I left New Jersey on Tuesday morning Oct 4th and spent the evening at Eric’s central Pennsylvania home overnight for our Wednesday morning departure for points south. We travel together often as Eric races a Spec E46 BMW at Summit Point W VA, so we have a good handle on travel time and such. Our first point of interest was to be the northern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Waynesboro VA. I recommend very highly the Blue Ridge Parkway as I have traveled it before in many automobiles but this trip was my first via motorcycle. It is an engaging scenic, beautiful ride. Eric’s Italian bike was a bit fuel thirsty compared to my Triumph, so in the area of Buena Vista VA it was time for a fuel stop. Down off the parkway we went on what turned out to be one of the most epic roads of the trip. Descending into town on US 60 (Lexington Turnpike) was breathtaking, fast smooth and dropping through Virginia’s early fall foliage more than made up for our detour off the Parkway. A local fuel stop in town took a few minutes to complete, then it happened… Eric suggested we take another seemingly challenging route back up to the Parkway. His map skills are excellent and with the use of modern on-screen GPS apps the new route looked very interesting.

Interesting and challenging turned out to be slightly understated. On the long 6% paved grade up past the local High School, I mentioned to Eric, on our head, set that I hoped the road didn’t turn to gravel as our 700 lb plus rider motorcycles weren’t the best choice for off road traveling. Boy, was I about to be proved wrong! The road instantly turned to cinder with steep drop offs on both sides. So much so that the suddenly narrowed trail did not leave much of an option for turning around so onward was the only option.

Coming from a salty language background allowed me the freedom to express my dissatisfaction with the increasingly challenging trail conditions with a tirade of non stop F-bombs. So much so that SENA will revoke and deny any knowledge of those communications! (Trail description) The path forward took about 45 minutes entirely in 1st gear on full water cooled fan engaged ecstasy!  As we approached the summit I realized that we were now approximately 100 feet above the Parkway and the GPS had the track veering away from our target and going higher up the mountain. Drat!

The Rescue.

Realizing that we now needed to descend to the parkway we had better do a little trail walking to come up with a solution to our predicament. As we stopped on the trail, a fork in the road was visible. I had visions of goats waving their cloven hooves at us warning us of our poor trail choices but through the heavy woods, a trail down to the Parkway became visible. We rode down a steep grade to see the path may be blocked by a gate but thankfully the National Forest Service had left it open. Here is the view of that beautiful open gate!  FU goats!

The rest of the trip was not nearly as hair raising and was filled with the camaraderie that only attending a motorcycle rally can offer. I can say the Barber Vintage Festival is a destination that every motorcyclist should have on their bucket list. Put it off for those important family functions but not for too long. The goats are watching.

*Bob’s garage is a wonderland of projects and history. Take your own tour!