Blue Ridge Beemers

I wasn't too impressed. The food was so-so and the service was a bit spotty. It's definitely a nice location, though.

Coffee was good, but the ham was too salty (salted ham apparently needs to be rinsed, this wasn't). Pancakes were pretty heavy. Home fries looked good to me but Louise thought they should be sliced not diced. The orange garnish on my plate was completely dried out.

I think the management changed since our last visit. The waitress for our table had trouble keeping the orders straight, but we all got something. Definiely a place for location and not food.

After breakfast we discussed going back to The Hut in Helvetia. There is a lunch buffet on Sunday that's pretty popular, so Saturday might be a better time to visit -- it's a small place. How about something like the third Saturday in September? We could depart from Waynessboro.

Chuck

Chuck wrote:...we discussed going back to The Hut in Helvetia.

That sounds good. I bet I could get Louise to go along again for that ride.

Meanwhile, we can also do a first Sunday breakfast at the Sherando rally. I talked to the rallymaster about it and he said no prob. I thought that would be convenient for the rallygoers and interesting for the non-rallygoers. A local cancer awareness chapter cooks breakfast on-site for donations.

September First Sunday Breakfast at the Sherando Lake Rally sounds good. We wouldn't want to take business away from the Bosom Buddies.

For the trip to Helvetia, I suggest meeting for breakfast at 8:00 AM at Lynn's in Waynesboro. We should be ready for lunch by the time we get to Helvetia. BTW-- here's the link to the village web site for those not familiar with Helvetia:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/6192/

Chuck

Louise opines, "Otter Creek Diner: friendly service but slow. Pancakes and
FToast had an alarmingly high syrup absorbency rate. Hash browns were
good, surprisingly so given their pedestrian appearance; I was only
commenting that I wish more places served shredded HBs instead of chunky
HBs. And the coffee was mediocre, not in a nasty way but a strangely
tasteless way. The omelets and scrambled eggs that I saw on other plates
looked good. And the chairs had that strange left hook when you scootched
in."

The chair thing being that many of our chairs had one rubber foot on the front left, so when you slid forward the chair twisted sideways. Over and over. It was a bit annoying after a while.

I'm not much of a restaurant critic, but clearly they were not fully staffed -- even the counter service was closed. While the service was slow, at least they were friendly. I thought the food was satisfactory and reasonably priced. The location was great. Good to see everybody who came. Anton - thanks for the great ride following breakfast!

Overall it worked out well for Jay and me - once we got around those cars near the power station we had most of 501 to ourselves - but if y'all didn't get around, that must have sucked. That is such a nice stretch from there until it straightens out a few miles before BV.

Did Loftus (Buell guy) bail? I didn't see anything on the TVR site about the weekend so I assume everything was OK. We really should *always* have "the talk" before rides. Only after all that slower traffic came through (without anyone stopping with tales of, "yer buddy rode into the bushes back there...") did we figure that he had turned back. We were setting a pretty fast pace. Really need the talk.

Louise and I took it a bit easier going up the narrow part of 56, due to the gravel, and then had a remarkably clear ride to Rockfish Gap. That whole 501/60/56 loop is a hoot. 60 is much better west to east than the other way, and 56 is better east to west.

I stopped by Otter Creek on the morning of the 11th. I had only 20 minutes to spare needing a quick turn, to be at Humpback Rocks by 11 AM. Sat at the bar and received exelempery service. The problem is checking out. There were two people waiting, don't know how long it took them, but I just dropped the check and a ten spot on the counter and blasted out of there.

J.D. wrote:I had only 20 minutes to spare needing a quick turn, to be at Humpback Rocks by 11 AM.

So what happened to you? We saw you go by, northbound, a mile or two north of the meeting point.

I did a fly-by. Missing man formation.