The Long Way Home – Day 13 – Other Riders on the TAT!

Today we left Virginia and entered Tennessee.  We crossed back and forth over the North Carolina-Tennessee border and ended up in Hot Springs, North Carolina.  Total mileage: 184 

Up to this point, we have been traveling on back roads for 13 days and we have not seen another motorcycle on any of the dirt roads.  13 days, over 2000 miles and we have never seen another dirt bike??  Up through New Jersey, our tracks have been my own design but just south of New Jersey, we joined up with gpsKevin’s New York to Los Angeles Trans-America Trail (TAT).  Well, over the last two days we have been seeing either two or three sets of tracks.  During check-in at our hotel last night in Marion, Virginia we had someone ask if we were riding that TAT.  Mike and John have been riding the NY-LA TAT to benefit Easter Seals.  Check out their website at havensroad.com.  Great couple of guys and their film crew is fantastic also.  They document each day and dedicate that day to an Easter Seals kid.

Latter in the day we had stopped for lunch and a group of bikers stopped in also.  We got to talking and they asked if we were riding the TAT.  Wow, we get asked that twice in one day?  Turns out that they have been looking at gpsKevin’s tracks and planning on riding their bikes (bicycles!) on the TAT while carrying all their camping gear.  'Makes our trip from Maine to CA on motorcycles and staying in hotels seem relatively easy!

Flowers, Butterflies, and Ponies: What trek through the forest wouldn’t be complete without these things?  Seriously, this was another great day of beautiful scenery.

These butterflies were gathering in groups.  Sometimes 20 or more. 

Horses, donkey (or burros?), and yes: ponies (or miniature horses?)

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that these are hibiscus plants.  They were covering the entire forest in some places.  

OK.  Enough of the flowers... here's the cool car photo of the day:

The farms that started showing up in Vermont are still continuing in North Carolina and Tennessee.

We rolled into Hot Springs, North Carolina around 7pm.  Our hotel for the night was the Iron Horse Station.  This is a restored boarding house from the early 1800s.  The whole hotel is very well done and the food was excellent.  Here’s a picture of the hallway where I typed the last TLWH update.  Our room was a tiny room with bunk beds – just the type of unique stuff that makes the trip more fun.

Those the original floors and tin ceilings

Tomorrow we continue along the North Carolina-Tennessee border and end up in Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort.  This is along a famous stretch of road for road bikers called "The Tail of the Dragon"

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Where are they now?