Current mood:

working

2-wheel goodness


Friday, July 6th: Tried to get my bike inspected at lunch time. Went to 2 different shops, both turned me away no charge because of my rear turn signals. I was less than happy. Went back to work and finished out the day before going home to pack. Ended up doing dinner with friends. Finished packing and got to bed around midnight or a little after...

Saturday, July 7th: Took my bike up to the Tire Barn in Tunkhannock and got it inspected, no problem. Went to Randi's dad's and waited. Randi was there, also loaded up and ready to go. We were waiting for Ben. Finally fuel up at the Lukoil and head out. On the road at 10a. Took all 2-lane roads, no highways. Started out rt29 to Mooretown Rd to 118. 118 took us to Bloomsburg where we got on rt11. Stopped in Danville, PA at Burger King to grab a drink. Stopped for gas somewhere. Continue down rt11 toward Gettysburg. Gettysburg sucked. Took damn near 2 hours to get through there because of tourist traffic. Kept moving. Finally broke the PA line and got into Maryland, West Virginia and finally Virginia. Headed for Skyline Drive. When we realized it was $10each to ride Skyline Drive, we turned back and paralleled it on another road. What a mistake!! We could see the road on the top of the mountain pretty much the whole way. Suckage. We finally see the end of Skyline Drive and the beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway. BRP is free, so we hop on. We follow the BRP all the way down to 66 (I think) that takes us into Harrisonburg, VA, our destination for the night. Arrival at the Harrisonburg Super 8 at 930p. 11.5hrs and 360mi.

Sunday, July 8th: Got up and left the hotel at 930a to hit Waffle House before we got on the road. On the road at 10a again, headed back up 66 to the BRP. Took the BRP all the way to Fancy Gap, VA (just short of the VA/NC border) and hopped on 52 to head SouthEast toward Concord. Eventually picked up 601 and then 29. Nice roads, beautiful scenery. While on 601, we were headed for Mocksville to grab a bite to eat when we saw what we thought was a little pile of leaves in the road. We all swerved to miss it and as we were passing, we realized it was a kitten. Turned back and Randi stripped off the gloves and picked the poor thing up and got it away from the road. One of the neighbors came out and Randi thought it belonged to him, so he was about to give this guy the business when he said "It belongs at that house, there." and pointed to the house we were parked in front of. "That guy has about 30 cats in there and doesn't take care of any of them." Randi looks around the place, but there doesn't seem to be anyone home. Leaves the kitten under the carport and we get moving again. Got to Mocksville, ate at a KFC. Got back on the road and kept riding. Accidentally saw Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte because Randi missed a turn going to his in-laws. Finally got there, again at 930p. Another day at 11.5hrs and 360mi.

Monday, July 9th: Woke up and got showered up and chilled for a while. Randi was playing nice with the in-laws and his wife and kid were there, too. They were getting ready to leave to do stuff before his wife had to be to the airport, so we looked up a hotel in Robbinsville, NC and booked a room for 2 nights. This allowed us to ride out, hit the hotel and drop off all of our stuff, have a full day of riding at the Tail of the Dragon and that area in Western NC without luggage and then back to the hotel to relax. This worked out great. We rode out Monday afternoon and checked in and relaxed. Should have ridden around a bit, but it started to rain not long after we pulled in. Got pizza from the gas station on the corner and settled in for the night. Short riding day at about 4hrs and 240mi.

Tuesday, July 10th: Ben's birthday and our day at the Dragon. Got on the road around 11 and headed north on 129. Stopped at the Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort to look at the shirts and stuff in there, then headed up the dragon. It was amazing. 318 turns in 11 miles. Great stretch of road. We headed on up 129 past the end of the dragon and ate at The Homeplace before heading out to take the Cherohala Skyway loop. Stopped at some gas station and fueled up before our ride over the skyway. It sucked. We saw about the first 15-20miles of the skyway then got poured on the rest of the way. The rain was so heavy and the fog was so thick that we couldn't see anything. We lost Ben and I finally got Randi to stop. I believe the words were "Dude, I haven't seen Ben for about 4 miles. I don't know if you need to take out your earplugs or what, but I've been trying to flag you down for 2 miles now." We followed Ben's slow ass the rest of the way out from there. Finally got out of the rain and fog and could pick it up a little. Decided we were heading back to the Deal's Gap resort to look at shirts and stuff and see if it would clear up and dry out enough to ride the tail of the dragon again. Sat around and shot the shit for a while and then decided to give it another go out and back. There were still some wet spots, but not enough to not trust your tires. Had a blast riding out and back and then headed back to Robbinsville for a bite to eat and then back to the hotel. Relaxed and talked a bit. If the weather was nice when we got up Wednesday, we were going to book the hotel for another night and ride the dragon and skyway again sans luggage. No idea how many hours we were on the bikes this day, but racked up 200mi in the rainy mess.

Wednesday, July 11th: Woke up to cloudy skies and forecasts of rain all day. We packed up all our gear and loaded up on the bikes to head out. It started raining. Randi and I pulled away and thought Ben was right behind us. We got a couple miles up the road before realizing he wasn't there. Randi pulled over and asked where he was and I said "I thought he pulled out right behind us at the hotel." We waited a minute and I said "I thought we were going to turn left at the light and head back the way we came. Maybe Ben went that way?" So we headed back toward town and pulled into a gas station. Figured if he was going to come through there, we'd see him. A Harley guy that was at the hotel said "Your buddy turned left at the light here, seemed pissed." So we made the turn and headed out. I figured he thought he was behind us and trying to catch up, so he'd be flying. We took our time in the rain and were on the lookout for him at all the gas stations and crossroads, but no dice. All of a sudden I see a bike come up behind me. We stop at the end of 143 and he says "Didn't you guys see me at the gas station jumping up and down? I was inside trying to call Randi's Cell and heard you coming and ran outside to try to flag you down." Randi said "Nope, and we were looking pretty hard to see if you stopped anywhere." We continue on our journey. We find our way out to 74 and head for the south end of the BRP. Get on at the south end and head north. The rain breaks and we make a stop for gas. We discuss our plans and Randi looks up hotels in Roanoke on his phone. We find a place in Dalesville (Daleville? something like that) and spend the night in the Econolodge there. It was by far the nicest room we'd had for the whole trip, but there was no one open to deliver pizza. We were hungry. Zipped through the grass median to the gas station across the street and grabbed some foodstuffs. Don't know if VA has a helmet law, but if they do, we didn't abide by it. TSK TSK. So we end our trek for the day there. 12.5hrs and 450mi.

Thursday, July 12th: Slow day. Slept in a little and didn't leave until 1030a. Gassed up at the Sunoco and headed to Bojangle's for breakfast. Good breakfast food there. Excellent. Got on 81 for a bit to get to Skyline Drive. Me knew we missed a lot up there on the way down, so we wanted to ride it on the way back. The road was basically just like the BRP but had less signs/exits/overlooks. It cost $10 for a motorcycle pass because the road goes through the Shenandoah National Forest. There were warning signs for deer, bear and other wildlife, but we figured we wouldn't see much. I don't think we were even a mile in when we saw the first deer. Saw quite a few deer. A bit later, some motorcyclists coming the other way were waving to us to slow down, so we figured there was a ranger ahead. We were wrong. There was a black bear momma (about 350lb) and her cub on the side of the road. They were so cute!! Continued along and saw a couple more deer. Heard Randi blow his horn and then he pointed to the right where there was a stone wall. I'm thinking "What the hell is he beeping about?" and then I see the Turkey sitting just on the other side of the stone wall. Poor thing looked starved! Came up on some light construction and got behind some traffic. When we got around the construction, traffic came to a halt and we weren't sure why. I was the only one in the group that saw the 3 bears going off through the woods to the right of us. Saw a few more deer on the way down. Got off Skyline Drive and headed to Hagerstown, MD for the night. Found a Days Inn. I swear, this place looked nice. As we were walking down the hall to the room, I hit a soft spot in the floor and thought I was going through. We get in the room and none of the doors line up properly. You couldn't latch the bathroom door at all and you had to really push the main door to the room to get it to close. Seems like the place has settled a lot recently. Weird. Ordered pizza and mozzarella sticks from Rocky's Pizza. Good stuff. 8hrs and 275mi.

Friday, July 13th: Another slow day. Left the hotel at about 1030a and hit up McDonald's for breakfast. Forgot that those ass-clowns only serve breakfast until 10a, so we had to get lunch-type food. Suckage. Oh well. Got on the road with a lunch destination of Harrisburg, PA after a quick stop at Dale's Drum Shop. Drooled over an awesome DW drum kit until I realized it was a $2500 kit. Ouch. Headed from there over to Applebee's for a late lunch/early dinner. Good stuff. From there we headed out 322 west to catch 11 north. Followed 11 north all the way up to Kingston and then 309 north home (309/29 for Ben and Randi). I got home at about 645. 8.25hrs and 275mi.

Total mileage for the trip was 2160. Just shy of what I was aiming for (I only had 2714 at the beginning of the trip and wanted to double my mileage).


Overall it was awesome. I'm sure there are a lot of details I missed, but I didn't take my camera or a laptop with me for journalling purposes. Didn't want the laptop to get ruined and knew if I took the camera, I'd need to offload pics at some point because the POS only takes a 256mb SD card. Oh well. Ben and Randi will send me their pics and I'll make up a gallery and upload it at some point. I have a few (41 is a few, right?) camera phone pics, but I'm sure Ben's pictures will be much better than those. I'll add the link here once I get that taken care of...

-JB