We’re going to start this route near where our Appalachia ride routes intersect near Franklin, WV. Not doing the MOA regional road tour? The Mid-Atlantic BDR intersects this route just a few miles outside of Franklin. And you can pick this route up off of Skyline Drive if you’re traveling along the Blue Ridge Parkway after you enter Shenandoah National Park from the south end.
Coming out of Franklin, WV, this route goes up and over a pass on US 33 to the border of Virginia and West Virginia. This is a fun stretch of road. Watch out for wild life though. Not only deer, but black bears as well.
When approaching Harrisonburg, VA, we suggest catching CR 726 (Erickson Ave) which turns into VA 280 (Stone Spring Road) and follow it back to US 33 on the east side of town. Downtown Harrisonburg is nice and has a number of places to visit and eat if you continue following Market Street all the way through. But going through downtown will take you through a lot of stop signs and traffic lights. So if speedy travel is what you desire, take the by-pass around Harrisonburg.
Once past Harrisonburg, US 33 takes you up to Shenandoah National Park and intersects with Skyline Drive. If you want to visit the national park and get your NPS Passport booked stamp, head north on Skyline Drive to the Big Meadows area and the visitor center right off Skyline Drive on the west side. At Big Meadows, you can look for the lodge which has an indoor restaurant with an overlook of the Shenandoah valley.
Continuing past the intersection for Skyline Drive at Shenandoah National Park, US 33 takes you to Ruckersville. At the intersection of US 33 and US 29 is Jack’s Shop Kitchen. A worthy location of stopping for a meal, including breakfast.
In Barboursville, look for the Barboursville Ruins. This site is the preserved remains of a brick mansion designed by Thomas Jefferson. The site is now part of the nearby vineyard & winery.
Just a bit further down the road on US 33 is the Barbeque Exchange in Gordonsville, VA. Renowned for serving Virginia style BBQ. They also have a slew of Virginia styled southern sides to go with your choice of meat.
Continue following US 33 from Gordonsville to Louisa, VA. Here’s where we get off of US 33 as US 33 will continue to take us into Richmond. However, the rally is not in Richmond, but the sleepy little town of Doswell to the north. So we want to avoid Richmond and not end up in traffic or worse, having to take I-95. So, in Louisa we’ll take VA 208 east.
When you get to Mineral, VA on VA 208, we’ll take VA 618. But if you haven’t had lunch or dinner by the time you get to Mineral, be sure to checkout the Mineral Restaurant. When you get to the end of VA 618, take VA 608 north towards Beaverdam.
The Beaverdam area is kind of old and historic all the way back to the colonial period. In fact one of the great revolutionaries who famously said, “Give me liberty or give me death”, had his home in the area. If this is of interest to you, find Patrick Henry's Scotchtown for a visit.
Once you get through Beaverdam and a few more turns on different roads, VA 684 will take you into Doswell and down to the I-95 on/off ramp area and past Kings Dominion amusement park and to The Meadow Event Park where the rally is held.
Using Ride with GPS
Ride with GPS is a great way for the MOA to share and distribute maps, GPS routes, and turn-by-turn instructions. As with any great service, some best practices in the form of tips and tricks are in order.
- Each route in Ride with GPS is equivalent to a track in the world of Garmin GPS’s and BaseCamp. So for all the routes, make sure you get the entire collection of routes in Ride with GPS.
- Ride with GPS allows you to download many different GPS files types including GPX for the BMW Navigator series and other Garmin products
- When downloading GPX files, only download the ‘GPX Track’ version
- The ‘GPX Route’ version will leave you at the mercy of the settings on your Garmin GPS, and will take you off the planned route and maybe to unexpected places and road conditions
- Once you have the ‘GPX Track’ version loaded on your device and want turn-by-turn navigation, convert the ‘track’ on your Garmin GPS to a ‘trip’
- If you don’t have a dedicated GPS device and use your phone for navigation, Ride with GPS also has a number of file formats to work with various navigation apps for phones
- Ride with GPS also has its own phone app that will also help guide you
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