Here's a nice day trip: Take Route 42 south from Harrisonburg, right on US-250. Follow US-250 west into West Virginia. At Thornwood, turn right on Route 28. Follow 28 north to Seneca Rocks, where Route 55 joins 28. Follow 55 to Petersburg and then Moorefield. After Moorefield 55 turns into a four-lane expressway. If you hit this at the right time, there will be virtually no traffic and you might have an opportunity to test out the 150-mph claim. Or, once you're on the expressway, watch for a left turn onto Old Route 55, which is twisty and lots of fun to drive -- and virtually no traffic. Follow 55 to Wardensville, where you can then take a right on Route 259 (south) and follow it to Broadway and route 42 back to Harrisonburg. Or at Wardensville, follow 55 on to Strasburg and take I-81 back to Harrisonburg.

If you do this on a weekend, I strongly suggest hitting the US-250 segment early in the morning (before 9 or 10 am). US-250 west snakes up and down three mountains, and there's not a lot of room to pass, so the earlier the better to avoid any other traffic.

We did most of this route on last year's "Mountain Run Cross Up."