Lachernet

Well, first off there’s no GPS track recording of today’s trip. I spent the morning in the hotel parking lot troubleshooting my USB charger mounted on the bike with no success. Since leaving the GPS tracking on would drain the iPhone in a matter of a couple hours, I had to leave it off.

The morning was a mix of sun and clouds, and not too hot. The forecast was for rain in the afternoon, so I opted to where the mesh jacket, since the rain gear fits over that one better. I loaded up and headed south on route 1.

About 15 minutes into the trip, while waiting at a red light, a woman pulled up beside me and asked for directions. Hmmm, out of state plates, duffle bag strapped to the back of the bike, yeah.. you would think people would get the hint. Oh well.

Rode through St Augustine, and then Route 1 opened up a bit until I reached Daytona. I made a pit stop at the big Harley dealer there. They claim to be the biggest in the world.

Then it was onto I-95. There’s not much to say about 95 of course. Long, straight, and yet another time I was thankful for the cruise control on the bike.

After a couple hours, I decided to break up the monotony of 95 and got off at Cocoa Beech. Rode down A1A for awhile, right along side the beach and went by Patrick AFB. Who wouldn’t want to be stationed there, I thought.

It was getting to be time for lunch. I left A1A, crossed over some bridges to make it back to route 1, and found a nice little diner with a view of the river.

Afterwards, I made my way south on Route 1 some more, and then cut back over to 95. The further south I got, the more clouds I could see. About 2 1/2 hours from Ft Lauderdale yet, I knew I was going to get wet before the trip was through. Pulled off to put the iPhone away, put my rain jacket on, switched to the clear visor and got my water proof gloves on. The rain gear is hot, and it’s always a debate of do I want to be soaked from rain, or soaked from my own sweat.

No more then 30 minutes after putting my gear on, the sky opened up, and I was glad I had made the choice to gear up. Luckily being a saturday, the traffic was not that bad as I got closer to Palm Beech and Ft Lauderdale. After about 2 hours of rain, I finally arrived.

Five days and over 1,800 miles later, I reached my destination. In one trip, I went from riding the crest of the Blue Ridge mountains, to riding along side the Atlantic Ocean. From being in the middle of nowhere going for miles without seeing another vehicle, to navigating 4 lane interstates. Now it’s time for some rest and relaxation before starting the next part of my journey, where I will go as far south as possible to Key West.

Until next time…

Not much to say about today. Just a long, straight ride from South Carolina, through Georgia and finally crossed into Florida. Georgia was very flat, and lots of trees, with a few small towns scattered along the way. The “Sunshine State” greeted me with a big rainstorm that soaked my leathers (I don’t need to put rain gear on, I thought, I’m almost there) and may have put my bike mounted iPhone charger out of commission. I’ll try and diagnose that issue tomorrow after I reach Ft Lauderdale.

Wow, this was a long, full day of riding. According to the GPS tracker, it was 8 hours spent on the move, about 340 miles. I left this morning at 8am, and reached my stopping point around 7, so an 11 hour day in total. And what a day it was.

Leaving my overnight stop in Unicoi TN, I was treated to this view. I call it, Misty Mountains in the Morning.

After that, I spent about 2.5 hours or so on the highway making my way south through TN. Riding 81 makes me glad I have a bike with cruise control. I was making my way south in search of The Dragon.

US 129 is a highway that runs from Knoxville, TN into North Carolina. In fact, when I got on it at Knoxville, it was just like any other US highway you’d find in the country. Traffic lights here and there, shopping centers, etc .. but the closer you got to the TN/NC border, the more sparse the road became, and you started to see signs warning you of dangerous switch back curves ahead. The Dragon was near.

The Tail of the Dragon, as it’s called, is the 11 mile stretch of US 129 between TN and NC, with over 300 curves. It’s a top destination for motorcycles and sports cars in the area to test their limits. And of course, Harley-Davidson is quick to capitalize on this tourist area by placing a dealership outpost in the area, that I had to stop at.

Requisite t-shirt purchased, it was time to move on and face the famous dragon.

Discovery Channel recently called it “The Deadliest Road in America”, and a “road paved in blood”… now, sensational statements like that make for good TV, but it’s not “that” bad.

It is a very twisty road, that demands your complete attention, no time for sight seeing here. And I suppose, if you ride like a fool paying no mind to your own safety, or the safety of others, then you could be it’s next victim. But if you respect the road, enjoy moving your bike around the curves, without trying to set a lap record, and looking out for other fools on the road that do not share this view, you will be fine.

But the road was fun. There were hardly any straight sections, and I was very conservative on my entry speeds into the curves for a few reasons. 1: most of the curves are blind, and you can’t see through them, 2: HD touring bikes tend to scrape floorboards when leaned over far enough, and while I’ve often scraped when practicing handling in a closed course setting, if it happens out on the road, that tells me that I’ve pushed the bike as far a I can and I did not leave myself any buffer if I need to avoid and emergency situation, and 3: I wanted that buffer incase I ran into any fools coming the other way who were trying to set lap records.

All in all, it was a blast, and the traffic was not too bad. At the end of the 300+ curves (no, I was not counting), you come to Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort.

It’s like a mini bike rally there. Many folks who come through the area to ride the Dragon, and other area roads often make this home base.

I stopped by the Tree of Shame. A tree full of bike parts from those who the Dragon has bitten.

It would get no parts from me that day, I made it through un-scathed, and now have my trophy to show it.

While there, I decide to have lunch there. I had their standard “Dragon Burger”. It’s funny, dragon meat tastes alot like beef.

Well, when I’ve had enough of the Dragon experience, I continued my journey. Now of course, it’s not like all the area roads straighten out when you move on, I enjoyed a very twisty ride on Rt 28 on my way to the Smokey Mountain Expressway. Fact is, all the roads in this area are a great ride.

Eventually, I made my way to Cherokee North Carolina, a reservation home to the Cherokee people. It’s also a big tourist trap, full of road side attractions and slow moving traffic. And it was hot. Still wearing full leathers, I made a pit stop of stock back up on water. Shortly though, I found my way back to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I spent most of yesterday riding the Parkway southbound. Now, I was going to ride a bit of it north bound. Within ten minutes of climbing the parkway, I felt the temperatures dropping. A welcome relieve.

This bottom part of the Parkway was even more twisty then the sections I rode the day before, and I went through several tunnels. Funny thing about Harley Davidson motorcycles and tunnels, they seem to automatically rev their engines a bit higher whenever they are in a tunnel… weird .

As before, pictures cannot capture the sheer size of what you see up here.

For part of this ride, you are actually riding on the crest of a ridge, with beautiful views on both sides of you simultaneously. It was truly amazing.

Between the views, and the ride itself, I’m glad I got back on the parkway for a bit before making my way south again.

Speaking of heading south, when I did leave the parkway to head south, Rt 215 was the road I chose. In someways I think it was just as curvy and twisty as the Dragon, switching back and forth as you make your way down the mountain side.

Eventually, while riding in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, I say this sign which told me I was at least making progress.

Continuing on this twisty road, I finally entered civilization, and made my way to my overnight stop in Anderson SC.

This was a very intense, and long day of riding. Even as I write this, it’s hard to believe that those misty mountains I saw this morning were even the same day as today. Riding the Dragon, more of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and beautiful twisting roads through North and South Carolina, this was a great day on the bike.

My mountain journey is over however, as tomorrow, I head south on US Rt 1 towards Florida.

Thanks for following along. Here is the link to the gps trail. Map

Time for Day 2 of the trip. Gas’ed up the bike and grab some snacks for the road before leaving Roanoke. Headed south to make my way to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The biggest difference between Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway is that you can go a little faster on the parkway. The speed limit is 45. It’s a beautiful ride. The scenery along the road is just as good as the scenery at the overlooks. It’s impossible to capture it all on camera (I suppose if you had one rigged to the bike or helmet, you could).

The road gets more and more twisty the further south you get, with plenty of elevation changes. According to the GPS , I topped out at over 4,000 ft above sea level today. And again, the views from the overlooks are spectacular, it is amazing how far and wide you can see.

After about 100 miles of the Parkway, I turned off to visit the town of Blowing Rock NC, home to a tourist attraction of the same name. It’s basically a cliff facing west overlooking a huge valley. They built a little overlook that takes you straight out. Even though the overlook is concrete, you can still feel it moving a bit from the wind.

After a late lunch in town, I got back on the parkway for a bit where I saw the most amazing mountain view of the trip so far. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to stop and take pictures as all the overlooks in the area were closed due to road construction. I’m talking about the Lin Cove Viaduct. It’s a bridge that goes around Grand Father Mountain in NC, but it is so high up, and you are so far out from the ground, that the view is wonderful. The only other way to describe it is vast.

Then, it was time to depart the parkway for today, and head further west into Tennessee to stay at a family members house for the night.

A bit shorter then yesterday, both in time and distance. 236 miles with 6 hours of bike time. But tomorrow will be another long one, and it starts with search for dragons!

Until then, here are some pics from today’s trip.

Parkway overlooks

Blowing Rock

GPS map of today’s trip map

Here is a link to view my day 1 track as recorded by my gps app. Map

Day 2 starts now, off to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Rode a total of 320+ miles today, 7.5 hours on bike time.

Today’s highlight was Skyline Drive in Virginia. Rode all 100+ miles of it, took about 4 hours with stops. Lots of elevation changes and the road is twisty enough to be interesting, but not so much that it takes any real effort to navigate. They also have a 35 mph speed limit in effect the whole way through as well. I saw two bears along the side of the road, which was a first for me.

Skyline Drive has a bunch of overlooks that give you amazing views of the mountains and valleys. My pictures do not do it justice. The sheer vastness of what you are looking at is impossible to capture with a camera. For the most part, the skies were a mix of sun and clouds, with the clouds getting pretty dark from time to time. About the last 30 minutes or so of the trip, the rain came pouring down. But it was not so much to justify putting the rain gear on, the leather riding gear I was wearing did a good enough job of keeping me dry.

After Skyline Drive, I stopped at Shenandoah Harley-Davidson to add to my t-shirt collection, and then headed south on 81 for about another hour and a half to my overnight stop.

Here are some pictures, again, they just do not capture the sheer size of what you see up there.

That’s all for today, I’ll post more pics at the end of my trip. Tomorrow’s agenda includes the Blue Ridge Parkway into North Carolina. Check back for more updates.

Woke up to a soaking rain this morning, but luckily it quit about 10 minutes before I was ready to leave. After my goodbyes to the family, I was off. The skies were still very gloomy, but the further I rode, the more the cloud cover lightened up. Got a little bit of sprinkles in MD, but only enough to mist the visor, no need to suit up in rain gear.

Crossed the Susquehanna near Harpers Ferry

Now it’s time for a lunch break at Front Royal VA, then onto Skyline drive.

About 24 hours until departure. The bike is pretty much packed and ready to go, and the forecast for the way down is looking pretty good with the exception of Tuesday, might get wet on my first day.

Keep checking back daily for pictures, daily trip summary and progress reports.

What started out as something on my “to do someday” list is about to become a reality. Ever since I started riding (a short 4 years ago), I dreamed of motorcycle touring. I took my little 600cc Honda Shadow out for 6 to 8 hour day trips quite often. Once I upgraded to my Road King, the desire for touring became even stronger, and I started talking about “someday” riding down to visit my friend in south Florida.

And now I’m three weeks away from making this a reality. 13 Days of “Man-cation” as I like to call it. A 3,300 mile road trip that will take me down Skyline Drive, parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a side trip to tackle the Tail of the Dragon, then continuing through Georgia and Florida, with my ultimate destination being Key West FL. The return trip includes a scenic route via ferry to Cape Hatteras and Nags Head NC, over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, and finally back home.

Here’s and over view of what’s in store.

As I’ve been planning for and thinking about this trip, I’ve enjoyed living vicariously through the blog postings of other motorcycle tourers, and armed with my iPhone, plan to chronicle my trip as it happens.

While not as ambitious as a four corners or cross country ride, I feel this will still be an awesome trip given the constraints I have to work within, and can not wait!

Keep checking back for updates. Trip departure date is May 15th.