i just got back from 8 days of motorbike heaven. i'll preface this with the fact that i haven't taken this much time off from the cafe in...oh...i never have.
i have a couple of friends that do a version of this ride every year. since i have my own bike now, they asked me to come along. btw...you can check them out at
www.blue-dunes.com. they rode around the world, like the long way home, but without the support vehicles and stuff and in the other direction.
fri may 4: matt rides down from winooski vt and stays at my house,120 miles south in bennington vt.
sat may 5: we leave from bennington and ride to hamburg pa to meet henning and barry. we get to front royal va around 8p. find a hotel, food and drink.
sun may 6: head out on skyline drive to blue ridge parkway. absolutley beautiful. lots of park ranger cop types on skyline (matt gets a ticket). off the parkway in roanoke va. we find food and hotel. not much going on in roanoke. we get a couple of 6 pks and watch matt wrench on his bike in the parking lot.
mon may 7: back on the parkway...more beautiful riding. find tucker (?) motel restaurant (should have stayed there on sun nite) have great breakfast and continue riding. i have a scary non-contact experience with a deer. we head to asheville. find hotel food and drink. asheville is much fun.
tues may 8: head to deals gap. ride the tail of the dragon. my first peg scraping!!!back to asheville...repeat previous nite's activities.
wed may 9: boring highway riding to greensboro to stay at a friend of barry's. find billy's house food drink. i defiled my vegetarian ways with pork bbq (only a little bit) and oysters...
thurs may 10: buy a new helmet on the road...nc bmw. scorpion helmet exo700. more comfy than the hjc at highway speed (80-90mph...these are hooligan boys that i was with) road to swan quarter then the ferry to ocracoke on the outer banks. again hotel, food and drink.
fri may 11: travel up the outer banks, rt 12. end up in viginia beach...hotel food and drink. a little body surfing at midnite. then a few more drinks...
sat may 12: ok....i woke up with a headache. laid around for a bit. plan to ride nasty highway all the way home. a couple snafoos with the gps (i like maps) and were running late. about 8p we ( only matt and i are left) run into a bit of rain with about 180 miles to go. get a hotel in newberg, food and drink.
sun may 13: up and headed north. split up in saratoga after lunch and was home about 3p.
great trip, much fun.
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