TLWH - Day 14 - The Tail of the Dragon

Tuesday, July 7th

Today we left Hot Springs, North Carolina and continued down along the NC-TN border.  This brought us through the Smoky Mountains to the famous "Tail of the Dragon"

The day started out on some fun back country roads.  So often we stop for gas at small country stores like this.  They are usually interested to hear our story and we get to learn a bit about them.  It's also fun to use the old mechanical pumps again.

This couple had a story.  Their store had burned to the ground a few years earlier.  All they were able to save was their bible:

Shortly after we got to cut up into the forest for some even smaller roads and some fun slippery mud

This brought us into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  This is part of the Cascades and I learned that it is "Smoky" only because of the weather.  In some areas, it rains more than 80" per year and the warm weather combines to make the blue smoke which is the evaporation and humidity.

The park was beautiful and I coud see why this is the most visited park in the US.  We took the scenic loop and ran into our biggest obstacle yet: 

Just as Hank and I were discussing riding up on the side to get past this, I noticed a Ranger was close enough to hear what we were saying.  He was standing up on the embankment watching.  I asked if we could just push our bikes up along the side but he was unyielding... we stayed in traffic for almost 45 minutes trying to keep our bikes from overheating.  Eventually, we got up to the cause of all this:

That's a Black Bear.  It's clear that the bears and dear in the park have become very domesticated.  We latter past a dear resting by the side of the road just a few feet from the cars.  Not at all like the bear and dear we have seen earlier.  As we entered into a less traveled area of the park, we were treated to a fun dirt road and our own Black Bear cub.  It's a bit like thoses Big Foot videos you've seen but I think you'll agree that this is, in fact, a Black Bear cub!:

That dirt road eventually led us to the "Tail of the Dragon"  OK, maybe we're just a dirt bikers at heart, but this was just another windy section of pavement to us.  Maybe it would be different if we had the right bikes for this but we were going to have fun either way.

 

Our hotel for the night was Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort.  This is the place to stay if you are going to ride the dragon's tail.  It was pretty cool talking to the people there and checking out the bikes.  The "Tree of Shame and a Lot of Pain" sparked our imagine trying to imagine how some of that stuff got there.

We'll be leaving North Carolina on day 15 and heading directly west through Tennessee.  It's a long 250 mile day which will bring us to Lynchburg Tennessee.  

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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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The Long Way Home - Day 12 - It's Alive!

We said goodbye to Allen today and left Warm Springs, Virginia wearing full rain gear.  The sky looked very threatening today but it was not raining when we left. If we completed our goal today of 250 miles, we would end up in Marion, Virginia.

Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts have been our favorite so far and recently New Jersey beat out New York but every day since has been a real contender for the crown.  We have been continually amazed at the fast forests and huge areas of farmland in Virginia and West Virginia.  The roads we travel are varied.  They range from small back highways that are just large enough to have lines painted down the middle to roads that used to be there years earlier, but now are almost completely reclaimed by the forest!

There was a road here once.  Now it's just a game trail but still passable.  Here's a quick video of this trail:

 

The draw of this abandoned field was too great.  Who needs a road?

  The rain was on and off all day.  We were prepared so it didn't really bother us and it made for some really neat contrast between the downpour and the sunshine.  

This is the view from our lunch stop!  We were inside for this one and our bikes got a little cleaner.

Then it would clear for a while.

After we would break out of the forest, there was farmland forever.

These are Hay Rollups.  Made with real hay.  Cows love em.

We saw these two old cars.  The green one is a Nash.  Very cool- and it's for sale ($4400)!

It's Alive!  The forests of Virginia and West Virginia are alive.  OK - we've all see wildlife but this has really impressed us as something different.  After spending some time here, you realize that there is life everywhere.  Here's our encounters from the last two days:

1. Ground Hog: This guy was lumbering along the edge of the road and finally disappeared into the bushes as I pulled up.

2.  Owl:  Saw the same owl three times because it would fly ahead and land near the road ahead of us. 3.  Hawks:  Flushed out three big hawks from the trees near the road.

4.  Deer: These are everywhere.  We have seen as many fawns as adults.  Hank must be wearing some sort of pheromone because he has almost gotten run into twice!  The first time it missed his front wheel by only a few feet.  The next time it jumped off the bank and almost T-boned him but it turned at the last second and ran along side him for a bit before turning back to the forest.

5.  Fox:  There was the group of pups the other day, and today there was just a single pup that I chased down the road a bit.

6.  Black Bear:  We feel so lucky to have seen two black bear!  The first time was amazing: It jumped down off the bank on our right and with two big leaps, cleared the road and down a 15 foot almost vertical cliff on the left.  We saw him briefly on the forest floor below before he was gone.  I had no idea that a bear could move that fast.  He looked like a dear but his big feet were throwing up dirt as he pushed off.  Wow.

I tried to get pictures but I'm just not fast enough.  This fawn was supposed to be following his mom and sibling but his curiosity got the best of him and he stopped to check us out.

We pulled into Marion, Virginia at 7:30 pm after being on the road for 12 hours.  Exhausted but feeling good about the day.

Tomorrow we head south-west through Tennessee and North Carolina.  We stop for the night in Hot Springs, North Carolina.

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The Long Way Home - Day 11 - 4th of July!!

As promised, our two friends, Allen and Kieth from North Carolina, showed up Friday night with their KTM 990s.  Kieth will continue up to New York on the 4th but Allen will ride south with us for a day.    

During the day on Friday, I rode out to Baltimore to visit with my brother.  On the way, I snapped some photos of some of the towns.  This picture is pretty typical of the houses in the more populated areas.  They all have front porches.  Out west we have all gravitated to the back porch but out here, all the houses have front porches and people use them.  We frequently pass through towns and people are waving to us from their porch.  It's a really neat neighborhood feel.

This house won my unofficial "best 4th of July decoration" contest.  There were many that were done up this well, but I chose this one because the color of the house and car contributed to the overall.

I'm going to interject a quick plug for our new friend Abhi at the Knight's Inn in Knoxville.  We stayed there for two nights and the place was really well run, clean, and well priced.  Thanks Abhi!

The ride started in Maryland, just north of the Potomac River.  We crossed into Virginia and eventually entered West Virginia.  We have not seen any signs or markings as we move from state to state.  I only knew I had entered West Virginia when the sound-track in my head switched to John Denver's "Country Roads" ("take me home, country roads, to the place, I belong, West Virginia...")  I'm not sure if that's corny or eerie.

Allen did a great job getting that huge KTM down all the trails we had for the day.  This river crossing presented a challenge but no mishaps:

Hank decided to put his rain gear to the test!

The countryside and forests were amazing.

You can see that Allen's bike dwarfs our bikes, but we have really grown to appreciate the lighter, smaller displacement bikes we have.  They are very quiet, so we figure we see a lot more of the wildlife, they are lighter so they are easier to handle in the slippery mud and narrow trails. and they really halp us maintain the back roads attitude that we were after because they are not much fun at highway speeds!

We got a chance to visit with this turtle that was crossing the road.

We decided it was best to move him to the side.  He looked a lot like a rock and there was the occasional car.

By the end of the day, we had covered 260 miles (our longest day yet).  We rolled into Warm Springs Virginia around 7:30 so we unloaded, got cleaned up, and headed into neighbor Hot Springs for a bite to eat.  After dinner we followed the locals to the golf course where we were treated to a live band and fireworks thanks to the Omni Hotel.  The Omi looks amazing and the fireworks show was one of the best I've ever seen.

Sunday's ride will take us down to Marion, Virginia.  Allen will be heading back to North Carolina.  Thunderstorms are in the forecast for Sunday.... again!!  It's also another long day with just over 250 miles to cover.

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TLWH - Day 9 - Deer, and Fox, and Snakes..Oh-my!

Day 9 puts us at just over 1600 miles!  The day started in Jonestown, Pennsylvania and ended in Knoxville, Maryland.

The day went down without a hitch and covered more wonderful back roads, farm roads, gravel roads and dirt roads.  

We encountered some of the local wildlife today.  We saw quite a few of these deer in the last few days.

Today, Hank had one of them dart out in front of him and he only missed it by inches.  This was on a fast dirt road so we are thankful that he avoided this disaster.  

A group of 8 to 10 baby foxes were on the road and scattered hilariously in all directions.  A few seconds later some of them reemerged to cross the road to join the others.  I wish I had the camera out in time.

We also got to meet this snake.  I'm not sure what type it is,

We wondered if decorating our handlebars with him would gain us some respect with the Harley riders.  It didn't look like he was going to be able to hold on so we sent him on his way.

The preparation for the fourth of July started early in this area of the country.  We've been seeing flags everywhere from the back dirt roads of Maine to Maryland (so far).  This is an example where someone took the initiative to put these flags along a guard rail on a very remote section of road.  The patriotism is contagious and we are trying to come up with a way to do our part.  We will have to figure out something for Saturday, July 4th.

This is a typical example of the towns that we have been passing through.  

Visitors: We're expecting a visit from two of our good friends from North Carolina on Friday evening.  Kieth and Allen have frequently traveled west to join the group that I ride with out there. They are coming up to Maryland to visit.  Kieth has to continue on to NY, but Allen will ride with us a bit to give us some local knowledge of the area.  We are excited to have our first ride along!

Unfortunately, I did not plan our ride on the Fourth of July very well.  It's our longest ride yet at 250 miles!  We will have to leave early if we want to get in in time for the fireworks.  On top of that, thunderstorms are predicted so it will be a challenging day.

Friday is a day off for Hank.  I'm riding out to Baltimore to visit with my brother and because thunderstorms are on the forecast, I encouraged Hank to take the day off.  We will resume the updates on Saturday night.  

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