2020 A year to forget!

 Well, it has been a tough year for everyone.  At least on a motorcycle we are socially distanced.  That hasn't solved the problem of where to eat or who will let me use their bathrooms.  It has gotten better.  In April I did an overnight meal run to the beach, Calabash and Emerald Isle, and while I could walk through a drive thru for a meal, they wouldn't let me use the restroom.  So then I would have to drive around to find a gas station that allowed the use of the restrooms.  Calabash did have some restaurants open and I sat on the dock on a stool watching the boat traffic and enjoyed the best fried shrimp I had ever had.  Emerald Isle was easier for my overnight since I stayed at a friends condo and we picked up food and ate at his place.  While there were few people around in Calabash the crowd at Emerald Isle was in mid-summer party mode.  We stopped for ice cream and there were no less than 25 kids all packed around the door, no masks and the weed was prevalent.  This was a very uncomfortable feeling.

Roll this forward 3 months and I needed to get out of the house.  So off to Meadows of Dan, VA for a camping weekend at Willville Bike Campground.  I was surprised to see that most people wore masks in western VA and around the campsites people stayed a good distance from each other.  The nightly campfire only drew 10 people that were spread out a good distance and it was a great relief to get away for 2 nights and enjoy waking up in the fresh air of the mountains after listening to the winds and animal noises in the night.

I was lucky that Will, of Willville, had invited local musicians to come play for the evening.  They were locals that hadn't played together much but they put on a great evening of music.  

Will runs a very good campground for bikers, cars are not allowed.  Every morning, on the porch, a large pot of coffee awaits the early risers.  There are rocking chairs and a picnic table.  Great stories are told with very little fact to get in the way, but they are all about bikes, trips, mishaps and the weather.  There seems to be an unwritten rule that no-one talks about politics, sex, or religion.  All kinds of bikes roll in and very different people but we all get along well.

Considering the weather we have had in the east this was 3 days of perfect weather, it's been hard to find this year.