Concord

Hagerstown, MD to Concord, NC. Today’s plan was straight down I-81 to I-77 and we stuck pretty much to it. Boy is this corridor busy during the week.

We stopped in Lexington, VA to take a leg stretch. We used to have someone to visit when we came to town, but now that the Lewis clan has pretty much scattered, we were left to our own devices. So we decided to do the Sally Lewis Loop Walk, about 2 miles around the outside, then through the middle of the campuses of VMI and W&L.

Couldn’t hardly stand the traffic I-81 any longer when a warning sign let us know the right lane was closed at mile marker 127. We ducked off the Interstate at Exit 132, following US11 into Christianburg before turning south on VA8 to pick up another stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway. With today’s 34 mile segment it meant that we had driven a total of 220 miles out of the possible 469.

I-77 was just as busy as 81 and once you got about 40 miles north of Charlotte the road surface started to reflect the heavy usage by becoming very rough and potholed. Making us very happy to get on a secondary road east to make it to our overnight stop destination. we probably could have made it all the way home tonight, but decided to stop here in Concord, so that when we get up early tomorrow morning, we can ride home with the top down.