I've been on a few long trips during the past couple of years since I started riding again. I finally talked Ceil into going with me. So this was her first long trip ever as a rider, she was passenger many years ago on a Honda 750 for a long trip.
We left home at 7:45 am on Thursday, October 12. It was about 30 degrees. We took back roads to avoid the Indianapolis rush hour. About 20 miles away we stopped at a Starbucks to get coffee. We both decided that extra layers were in order so we added UnderArmour. We pressed on another 50 miles and stopped again for coffee and to warm up a bit. We made it to Madison, IN where we stopped to have lunch with a friend who recently moved there. We spent too much time chatting around the lunch table. Anyway we made it into Manchester, KY that evening. It never got into the 50's that day and it was overcast all day. The temperature in the evening when we stopped was down to the middle 30's.
On Friday morning we awoke to about 1/4 inch of frost on the bikes.
But the sun was shining and it was much more comfortable riding, still cold but not so bad.
I made a wrong turn there so we missed a short part of 421 between there and Harlan, KY where we got back on 421. Bristol, TN was our next big city to travel through. In Bristol I stopped in front of her at a weirdly marked yield sign and she dropped her bike on the right side when she stopped too quickly. About an hour later, after moving the passenger peg forward to the drivers position and taping the turn signal up so it would not break the wires, we were on the way again. five minutes down the road I pulled off to check my two way radio and I dropped my bike on the left side. No damage done just an injured ego and oil in the breather which makes the bike look like it's leaking.
Not too far from there we entered the Cherokee National forest and 22 miles of wonderful twisties. From there through Shady Valley to Mountain City are several switchbacks that are surpassed only by the tail of the Dragon on US 129. In spite of our intimidation brought on from dropping our bikes we made it through there at a fairly good pace and onto Boone, NC. It was getting a bit late and we had another 60 miles or so of travel on the Blue Ridge Parkway to make it to our motel in Spruce Pine, NC. The BRP was dramatic place to be during sunset. The road was mostly desolate after dark and we travelled rather slowly. The cold air is very penetrating at higher speeds. none the less we made it to our motel by 8:30 that evening and we were not nearly so cold as the night before. There was a Pizza Hut nearby so we walked out for dinner.
Saturday morning I went to the Auto parts store where I found some SS washers that made it able to bolt the turn signal back onto Ceil's bike and all was back to near normal. The sun was bright and the temperature was in the mid 40's when we finally left there. The BRP was much more crowded, but we were certainly not the only motorcyclists on it.
Mount Mitchell, NC came along at just the right time for lunch. The Restaurant there is the highest altitude of any restaurant east of the Mississippi. The local Trout was totally awesome for lunch. There was a rather nice gathering of Ural sidecar setups in the parking lot when we left there. On the ride down 128 back to the BRP we noticed the water dripping out the side of the mountain was frozen into big icicles. That convinced us that we should take a shortcut when we made it to Asheville.
We picked up I-40 in Asheville and made it into Lake Junaluska, NC by 4 pm. It was nice to stop early. There we met up with a group of people associated with the Motorcycles of Charlotte dealership. It was mostly BMW riders, but there was also a good turnout of Triumphs and one Ducati. Ceil helped out preparing the Lasagna for dinner and I helped out unloading the drinks and other things from the truck. The evening at the LagoaLinda Inn was definitely a highlight of our trip. I think having plans for some kind of a destination makes the long days of riding in the cold seem much more worthwhile.
On Sunday there was once again frost on the bikes. A couple of the group had weak batteries so it was while before everyone was ready to go. The predictions of rain coming on Monday made us decide to cut our trip short by a day and head home via more highly traveled roads. We got back on I-40 to Newport, TN where we picked up US 25E/25. That turned out to be an extremely scenic route of nice sweeping turns. Both on the Interstate and on 25. We found a place to stay in Renfro Valley, KY. A truck stop/restaurant next door to our hotel had really good food too. The temperatures on Sunday were much warmer. Our evening there was very comfortable.
Monday morning was still in the mid 40's when we left Renfro Valley. It was overcast all day and we rode through a couple of very short sprinkles. We travelled I-75 to I-74. The riding on the Interstate highway was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I've always tried to keep off the Interstates as much as possible, because I don't like the wind from the semi trailers. We were about a mile from home when I finally noticed cars with their windshield wipers running, so we made it home about 20 minutes before the hard cold rains started.
We learned that Good Quality electric gear will be well worth the investment for early spring and fall trips to the mountains. In spite of the little problems we had Ceil is ready to start planning another trip. We think upstate New York would be a nice place to visit in the Spring.
So now we need to find some little gathering of bikers to be a destination. Any Ideas? We've pretty much ruled out Laconia, and Americade since those events are much larger than anything that attracts us.
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[ This message was edited by: denny on 2006-10-22 23:39 ]
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