CROOKED OAK MOTORCYCLE RESORT in Hillsville, VA

       In the Carroll County area and looking for us from Interstate 77?
            You could stay at any of the hotels at the US 58 interchange (Hillsville - Galax) ... or you could head east on US 58, through
            Hillsville to Rt 680 (Crooked Oak Road) to The Crooked Oak Motorcycle Resort. Its only 12 miles from the Interstate
           and you will travel on freshly paved, twisty roadway through some of the most scenic countryside (off The Blue Ridge
           Parkway) you could ask for.

            Get off of Interstate 77 (Exit 14 to US 58 at Hillsville & Galax) and travel east on US 58 through the town of Hillsville.
            After crossing Rt 52 in the center of Hillsville, the roadway becomes a 2 lane country road.

Coming from the Blue Ridge Parkway at Orchard Gap

After about 7 miles look for The Crooked Oak Restaurant on your right.
The next right, marked Rt 680, is CROOKED OAK ROAD . See the green sign for GLADESBORO.

Coming from I-77 traveling along US 58 East

            Turn right onto Crooked Oak Road and go straight (Rt 680 turns to right) 1.3 miles.
            See the resort on your left. Take the second driveway opposite the mailbox.
                                                                                                                                                                                         Click to expand map from I-77


        HOWEVER... there is a small catch...the resort isn't really there yet. The site is, but right now it is just tranquil, cleared,
           rolling hills surrounded by woodland and bordered on the south side by Pine Creek. But, hopefully ready by mid spring 2008,
           cabins and tent sites will be available for the motorcyclist who prefers to be with his own kind instead of just finding a room with
           a bed at some chain hotel. Give us until Spring 2009 and The C. O. M. R. will become a premiere stop for
            motorcyclists touring the Carrol County Virginia area.

          THE PROPOSED ACCOMMODATIONS

             The plan is to have 9 air-conditioned cabins like the one pictured. There will be 3 different floor plans of the 12X18 inside living space as described below.
             There will also be nice, roomy tent sites, all named after some of the many major & minor motorcycle rallies, perhaps one you may be en route to.


             ONE ROOM CABINS                                                                             Cabins, available in 3 different floor plans

Cabins, available in 3 different floor plans

             On a budget? Our one room floor plan will sleep 2 in a double bed and 2
             more in stacked bunk beds.
             Choose from 'The Rolling Thunder' , 'The Americade'
             or 'The Thunder in The Valley'

          TWO ROOM CABINS
              Have a slightly larger group?  Our two room cabins will be divided into two
             9X12 rooms sleeping 2 in a double bed in the front room and 4 more in
              stacked bunk beds in the back room.
              Choose from 'The Myrtle Beach Spring',
           'The Myrtle Beach Fall' or 'Biketoberfest'

          CABINS WITH FULL BATH
             Want the comforts of home?  We will also have 3 cabins with full baths
             (one will be ADA compliant) and will sleep 4 with 2 in a double bed and 2
             more in stacked bunk beds. No waiting to shower in the bath house in
             the morning. Get that quick start with the convenience of an in cabin bath
             complete with shower.
             Choose from 'The Daytona' , 'The Laconia' or 'The Sturgis'

             Each cabin will have a gas grill and a porch in the front complete with chairs or a hanging swing to just sit back in and enjoy the evening
             air before turning in for a restful night's sleep. Rise early and catch one of our beautiful daily sunrises almost any morning. Have your camera ready .


             'THE COMPLEX'
           Two buildings like the one pictured to the right will be positioned facing each other. Each one will be 12X24 inside and each will have an 8X24 roof
             covered deck outside as shown. Between the two roof covered decks, there will be a third deck with a pergola style covering. The combined
             buildings will contain the amenities below.

           THE BATH HOUSE
           One of the buildings will contain three full bath rooms, each with its own              The Bath House and Lounge buildings

              private entrance. They will be unisex bath rooms, complete with showers,
              to better facilitate the expected imbalance between men & women. One
              bath room will be 'ADA compliant'.

           THE LOUNGE
           The other building will have an 12X24 indoor lounge with comfortable
             seating, a pool table and vending machines. Regardless of the weather,
             it will be a nice convenient place to gather with other touring motorcyclists.

          THE PAVILION
              'The Green' (our remembrance of 'The Green' back in Morristown, NJ,
              starting place for most Sunday motorcycle rides), outside the lounge
              will be a 24X24 covered deck (described above) with tables and chairs.
              Indoors or out, share the day's rides with each other. You can plot out the
             next day's itinerary.   Available Wi-Fi will accommodate your e-mail and
              Internet surfing needs and there be an area to charge up your  laptops and cell phones.  There will be several horse shoe pits for friendly one on
             one or pairs matches up on the nearby highlands. So during the off-your-bike part of your tour, relax and rejuvenate for the next day's tour segment.

              THE LAUNDRY
               Been on the road for awhile? Use the laundry area in the bath house for cleaning your clothes. And nearby, there will be an area for cleaning
              your bike too.


           TENT SITES
              For those who like to 'rough it', we will have spacious tent sites. Located in both open field areas and in more secluded spaces along the
              Pine Creek and nearby woods, there will be one you will like. Some will have tent platforms while others will be basic. Just pack your tent and
              gear on your bike and we will have a fireplace (designed for cooking) and a picnic table at every site waiting for your camping enjoyment.


              SCENERY
              While out on the road, the scenery of southwest Virginia is some of the best you'll find anywhere. After all, they don't call the Blue Ridge
              Parkway ' America's Favorite Drive' for nothing. We're only 3 miles from the parkway and there is plenty of open countryside and natural beauty
              between here and there.   The grounds here are bordered on the south side by the tranquil babbling Pine Creek.  Pine trees (and some
              oaks) surround the majority of the remaining boundaries with cattle grazing on a hillside rising up in the background.  After a day of riding,
              its a nice place to just sit back, relax and take it all in.

Click thumbnails to enlarge

           SO, THINK ABOUT IT...
              Why would you ever choose to go to a dull, boring, unimpressive chain hotel?   The 'oh no bikers...' look you get from the receptionist at the main desk
              upon your arrival all suited up in your leathers will be enough to tell you that they will try to tolerate your presence ...right up to the blessed moment you
             leave in the morning. The Crooked Oak Motorcycle Resort will be loaded with your kind of people. Bikers!!  Bikers just like you on the road
             and enjoying southwest Virginia and all the fine roads, sights and scenery it has to offer the touring motorcyclist.

              Enjoy Nature's backyard by day... come relax in ours by night
            We hope you will enjoy a stay at the Crooked Oak Motorcycle Resort when you're in the Carroll County Virginia area and we're all together
              to accommodate you and your group. And we hope you ride out with fond memories of your stay that will bring you back again.  Til then,
                                                         Ride safe !!!

                                            Lots more facts and information about the Blue Ridge Parkway



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        THE DREAM

                Ever since we motorcycle-toured the Blue Ridge Parkway with friends back in June 2004, a dream to eventually move from New Jersey to southwest
               Virginia had been brewing.  A decent but unappreciated, bill paying job with benefits made living in NJ comfortable enough to tolerate, but few days
               went by without a peek at biz.com or elsewhere on the Internet for businesses or franchises for sale.

                We bike-camped for four days at Philpot Lake around Rocky Mount back in June 2005 and found the greater Roanoke area appealing. Over the
               Columbus Day weekend later that year, we took 'Bitch', our 2000 Honda Valkyrie Interstate, to Colonial Williamsburg and checked out Jamestown,
               Norfolk and Virginia Beach. We rode across the Chesapeake Bay Bidge Tunnel and traveled up the 'Eastern Shore' on our way back to Jersey. Two
               years went by after that and southwest Virginia was still something in my future. Faint perhaps, but out there.

                The turning point took place in May 2007 after returning from Rolling Thunder in Washington, DC. I was informed that I would be part of a nationwide
               lay off and would be unemployed come June 30th. While disturbing, it would be the push needed to start positioning ourselves to make the dream
                come true. A house and a condo were immediately put on the market and a more realistic focus took hold.

                But the dream did not include any employment for either of us. We just saw the opportunity to 'get out of New Jersey'.  The idea of starting over in a
               different line of work evolved from JoAnn asking me the classic question... 'Well, what do you like to do?'  to which my answer was...'I like motorcycling
               and camping.' Without even a slight pause,  her reply was quick and simple... 'Build a motorcycle campground'. It was an epiphany.

                The first task was to find the site, and then some place to live at least temporarily. Armed with info found on the Internet for an available site that
               sounded like what we were looking for, we set out in my SUV for Meadows of Dan, Va. Upon actually seeing the overgrown and completely useless
               property, and with nothing to live in, depression set in.

                Aimlessly cruising west from Meadows of Dan on US 58, we needed to stop for gas.  We did so at Nester's General Store in Laurel Fork. After
               filling up, I went into the store to pay for the gas, a step completely unheard of in full service NJ. Meanwhile, JoAnn was sitting on a picnic table
               outside having a cigarette.  A grey Trooper rolled in and the driver hopped out and went into the store. The fellow in the passenger seat rolled down
                his window and called to JoAnn, "Y'all from around here?", to which JoAnn replied, "No, we're from New Jersey."   The elderly man responded,
               "Well y'all should be from around here". JoAnn got up and walked over to the vehicle and explained why we were in the area and he informed her
               that his son had a property, with a completely renovated home on it, that he had just listed that very morning.  When I came out of the store,
               I walked over to JoAnn and heard some of the conversation. When the man's son got back into the truck, we decided to follow them home and
                take a look at the place.

                Our first impression was 'wow, this place is awesome', which was instantly followed by a New Jersey mindset driven snapping back to reality, 'but we
               could never afford it'. We had no idea what he was asking for it because he refused to offer info he felt the realtor should handle on his behalf. But we
               were shown around the perimeter of the property and throughout the country style house. I didn't sleep real well that night as my mind was too
               busy working with visions of a campground on the property we saw that afternoon.

                The next day we stopped in at a realtor office in Meadows of Dan to see what other real estate was available in the area. After checking the two sites
               he told us about, we drove into the town of Floyd, Va., the county seat of Floyd County.  We had lunch at the same Hardees we found by chance and
               ate at the night before after our first cruise down the Blue Ridge Parkway since the 2004 bike tour. JoAnn needed to get a few things from the
               pharmacy that she had forgotten to pack and I decided to call the realtor on my cell phone from my car.

                I told the realtor that we had seen her sign out in front of a house on Crooked Oak Rd and could she tell me about it. She went on to explain everything
               I already knew about the property but added one thing... the asking price. Coming from New Jersey and knowing the outrageous prices for real estate
               there, I made her repeat the price two more times before I made an appointment to meet her at the house at 3:00 that afternoon. With my mind still
               blown away at the price she gave me, I went into the pharmacy to tell JoAnn. Suddenly the dream had taken on the very scarey status of possibly
               becoming a reality.

                We had a couple hours to kill but we had no problem wasting some of the time because my car would not start in the pharmacy parking lot. The
               battery decided to die.  Fortnately, directly across the street, there was a NAPA dealer who quickly set us up with a new battery.  He told us he came
               from Syracuse, NY some 25 years ago and he is still called a Yankee by his friends down here. Coming from NJ, he told us to be prepared for the
                same kind of recognition if we did eventually move into the area. My other concern at the time was the puzzling fact that both the owner the day
               before and the realtor during our phone conversation, had stated that the property was less than three miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway which
               would be very convenient for our future campers. Of course, neither of us knew much about the area we were in, but we had spent the previous night
               in Meadows of Dan (at Milepost 177) in a motel literally next to an entrance to the BRP. Nester's General Store was about five miles
                west of there and the ride to the house was at least another five miles west down Rt 58 before the turn onto Crooked Oak Rd. I also remembered the
                owner mentioning something about an unmarked exit off the BRP at Milepost 194 or 195.

                Now, real men don't ask for directions, JoAnn didn't either and we didn't have a map. We drove from Floyd to Hillsville on Rt 221 and then twenty miles
               or so east on US 58 (knowingly passing the north end of Crooked Oak Road) to Meadows of Dan, found the entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway near
               the motel and headed south to Milepost 194. By sense of direction and a timely call from the realtor confirming our appoinment before she left her
                office, we found our way (from the south end of Crooked Oak Road) to the house on time. Yes, the house really is less than three miles from the BRP.

                Upon our arrival, the realtor once again did her sales pitch and said that the price was for the house and first acre.   The other 7.2 acres were optional
               and on a 'make an offer' basis. We knew what the going price was per acre for overgrown, useless land, so we used that as a guide for a bid.
                The owner and his wife agreed to our offer and we signed the contract. That was Wednesday June 13th. We put down a deposit the next day and then
               drove back to New Jersey several days sooner than we had planned.

                All summer long, we emptied our respective homes, threw out stuff and boxed up what we wanted to move. We rented a 28 foot U-Pak trailer, got
               some help loading it and watched it leave on Monday  September 10th.  We each drove down in our SUVs, JoAnn's loaded with Bernie, a English
               springer spaniel and Elvis, a cockatiel, that Wednesday and we stayed at one of those hotel chains at the I-77 & US 58 Interchange...dressed normally,
                that night.

                The next morning, Thursday September 13th, we closed on the property and spent the rest of first day in awe, just gazing at and roaming around our
               new home. That night was spent lying on a hardwood floor in sleeping bags and watching one of the two TVs we had packed, one in each SUV.
               Friday morning, we woke up to a rainy day and could only unload our bed, fortunately the last thing loaded, when the trailer arrived and was parked
               in the driveway.  Over the course of the weekend, the two of us emptied the almost full trailer alone and started putting our house together.   Within
               the first few weeks, we had a large shed delivered and setup behind the house for lesser used items, a new tractor and the eventual housing of 'Bitch'
                upon her arrival after touring the eastern half of the USA with 30 other bikes in a semi tractor trailer.   The dream had been promoted to a major life
                commitment.

                After waiting almost 2 weeks for the bike to arrive from NJ, we finally got started enjoying touring the great unknowns of southwest Virginia and
                North Carolina. We had traveled 50 miles south into North Carolina by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway in early October, but the return trip of a 60
                mile BRP ride north into Roanoke wasn't successfully completed. That day,  Sunday October 21st, our better than 70,000 mile touring career
               on 'Bitch' ended when we were T-boned by a Jeep pulling out of a side street into our lane of Rt 221 in Floyd just past the pharmacy and the
                NAPA dealer while heading home.

                We were both hospitalized, myself for a week and JoAnn for almost 3 weeks. We both suffered multiple right femur fractures and have steel rods
               to trip off metal detectors from now on.  JoAnn also fractured her hip and both bones in her lower leg (one still fractured and unset) and I fractured
               two ribs on my right side.  Five weeks later, I returned to Roanoke Memorial Hospital where I had two ligaments transplanted in my right knee to
               replace two of the three torn while smashed between the bumper of the Jeep and the bike's gas tank (the ACL was left to mend itself).  But, there
               was at least one silver lining in the cloud. JoAnn had her last cigarette outside of an Arby's in Roanoke less than an hour before the crash.

                We are both currently at home recuperating. We are no longer in the braces we each had, but are still unable to put weight on our right legs.
                We each go to physical therapy several times a week and hope to be back on our feet before Spring.  Though our spirits may be down a bit, we
                will not let the dream die.  Perhaps there will be a delay getting things built and ready to go, but we will succeed. The necessary legal planning
               is being done outside while we lie here and watch TV.

                Thanks to members of both of our families who took turns seeing us through the first nine weeks of our recovery until we could do pretty much
                everything on our own.  And thank yous go out to the many friends in New Jersey who came down to see us. One couple came down towing
               a trailer and took 'Bitch', totalled but salvaged, back to his bike shop in Morristown, NJ where he will rebuild her.


         PLANNING & CONSTRUCTION

             SOIL EVALUATION FOR SEPTIC FIELD

THE WELL DRILLING AND TESTING

                                                                                                 Click thumbnails to enlarge

                                                Stop back often and watch us grow. We'll let you know when we're ready for your stay.

                                                          Scott & JoAnn, your hosts                  Scott@crookedoakmcresort.com