We started off in Clarksville, Indiana....just across the river from Louisville, Kentucky.  The last day of our trip.  The weather in Clarksville was a little foggy with light rain.  Nothing major, but rain gear was required.  We took I-65 all they way up, through Indianapolis.  We stopped a few times for gas, and besides taking some time to reflect on the trip, the only thing that really stood out was the WIND on I-65.  It was freakin' WINDY!   Even Brian on his bike that outweighs mine by 600 pounds said he was getting blown around a bit.  There were a couple of time when we passed trucks that I felt like I was going to get blown off the road.  It was a little unnerving.

Outside of the wind at points, the rest of the ride was just reeling in miles and keeping gas in the tank.  I did finally have the opportunity to justify carrying my tool kit with me, however.  Not anything the bike per se, but with the tubes that I mounted on the side of my top box (the action packer).  One of the nuts had come off the bolt, so it was hanging by one bolt while I cruised down the highway.  Luckily, the way they were designed, the bolt was somewhat captive by the screw on top, and the nut and washer simply fell inside the box.  So it was just a matter of putting the nut back on and tightening it (and the other 3 while I was at it).  Quick fix.

After a week of packing stuff and fighting with the space limitations, I came to a realization today.  What I discovered was that I can always fit "one more thing" into my tank bag or action packer (top box).  Especially the action packer....you just need to press harder, and not get concerned if the side looks like it may burst at the top....just put the locks on and roll!

After stopping for lunch in Merriville, Indiana, Brian and I decided we'd get back up on crazy I-65 and took it to 80.  He warned me about the crazy drivers on I-65, and he wasn't kidding.  That was a free-for-all.  From there he got off at LaGrange Road and I contiued on to 355.  Traffic was okay until I got onto 355.  From there on, I just turned the music up on my bluetooth headset, twisted the throttle and put the hammer down all the way home.  Since I was wondering how much gas I had left and didn't want to have to switch to reserve after the engine died at speed, I reached down and switched to reserve before I needed to.  If I ran out of gas, I was really out of gas in the tank.  But I still had my two 30 ounce MSR fuel bottles in the tubes on my top box.  Riding at higher speeds on my bike really affects the gas mileage.  The 70mpg that I was getting in the mountains was a distant memory.  Hammering along at 70mph at sea level was giving me more like mid 40's and I was going to need about 100 miles to get home.  With 96 miles on the tank, I pulled into the gas stations a couple miles from my house.  Surprisingly, it only took 1.6 gallons to fill up.  I got better mileage than expected.  We were taking it pretty easy the last leg before Brian and I parted ways at LaGrange road.  When I got home, I unloaded the amazing amount of stuff that I was able to fit on my little "dirtbike".  I was happy to see that my large folded map of Cherohala Skyway was still in good shape, which is amazing considering how I continually jammed stuff in that thing on the way home today, and really all week long.  I lubed my chain, and in doing so I noticed some links that were a bit kinked.  Probably time for a new chain.  But the bike kept it all together for me.  It was an amazing trip with a good friend.  Brian and I always have fun together...even when things get tense we can always laugh about it later.  It helps that we're both young at heart.  Before we left Clarksville this morning, Brian was already talking about our next trip.  Who knows.....

2,036.7

Home.  2,036.7 miles.  I'll post the final update tonight.

Merriville - lunchtime

Stopped in Merriville for lunch.   Not long after this, Brian and I will part ways...where 80 and 355 come together.   It's been a great trip.  Final blog entry tonight.   Out for now.

Last leg...

Well, it's the last day of our long journey.   We just walked over the the same Denny's where we met the interesting truck driver on our first night.  He's not here today though.   Pretty sure he's a regular as the waitress asked us last time if he was bothering us. 

After we eat, we'll do a final packing of the bikes, check oil, lube my chain, and hit I-65. 

It's a little foggy now...not bad.   Light rain, and reasonable sounding weather.  Rain suits again, but passing on the water logged "waterproof" gloves.  I have a theory about why they got wet....I think I should have put my rain suit sleeves OVER the gloves, instead of inside.  Next time, I'll test that theory.

Food is here.....more later.

Here's the scoop

The plan today was to just hammer out miles.  400 to be specific.  One for each cc of my motorcycle.  Haha.  If this bike gets me home tomorrow, I'll have done over 2,000 miles on it in a week.  Many of them interstate.  It's done it all though.  Back roads, gravel roads, up and down mountains for 4 days. 

 Today our ride started out in Marion, North Carolina.  Almost immediately we hopped on I40 and headed towards Asheville, which was about 40 miles from where we started.   We headed up into Pisgah National Forest and into thick fog.  Dejavu' from yesterday, at higher speeds.  Luckily that didn't last too long...maybe 5 miles.  Then we rolled through Asheville and followed I40 through the mountains and up towards Knoxville. 

 We stopped for gas in Knoxville and I had thought about taking off my rain gear, connecting my phone to my bluetooth headset for some music, putting my sunglasses on, and taking a layer of clothing off.  I didn't do any of those things when we stopped.  Haha.  On the road again, and another gas stop in Williamsburg, Kentucky.  We gassed up, grabbed some junk food to hold us until we could get to Clarksville and have a large lunch/dinner.  At this point, I told Brian I was thinking of taking my rain gear off.  I pulled a thermal shirt off, and checked the radar.  As we were doing this a guy in a pickup truck started talking to Brian.  A few minutes later Brian walked over and said, "That guy is with the local fire department and he said some nasty weather is on the way.  If we put the hammer down he thinks we might make it to Lexington.   So much for ditching the rain gear.  

So we jump back on I75 and I led the way so Brian would know how fast I felt I could go without blowing my bike up.  Typically, I try to hold it to 72mph indicated, which is really 65mph actual.   But I wanted to beat this weather, so I wicked up that throttle and held 77-80mph indicated for 70 miles.  Just as we got started up, I realized (or thought that I realized) that I hadn't closed the cuffs on my rainsuit very tightly.  Damn it!   I thought to myself, "Oh well, not worth losing time" and hammered on.  Then something hit the shield of my helmet.  I thought it was a bug.  Normally I wouldn't pay much attention, but it was right in the center of my shield.  So I wiped at it with my glove, but it didn't wipe off.  Then it MOVED....it was on the INSIDE of my shield.  And it was a spider.  Just great...I have a damn spider INSIDE my helmet and I'm hammering down the road at 70mph.   The cuffs being loose I could take, but not a damn spider in my helmet.  So I tried to get Brian's attention to pull over, and finally did.  We pulled over and I told him that I had to tighten my cuffs and I had a spider in my helmet.  After I got my helmet off, I realized that my cuffs WERE in fact tightened, so that was a false alarm.  As far as the spider, I never found it....for all I know it's still living in my helmet.  What could I do?  I strapped it back on and got ready to pull back on the highway.  We got back on, after almost getting squashed by a semi in our lane.  That would've been just great.  After the spider and semi fiasco, we hammered for 70 miles and got back on the road.  I told Brian I was going to back off a bit because my mileage sucked when we held it that high.

It started raining around Richmond, about 15 miles after our gas stop.  Riding behind Brian, I see him put his turn signal on to exit the highway.  

We pulled over and I asked him "What's up?"

He said, "I can't SEE"

I replied, "But OTHER than that, everything's ok" and stated laughing.

He didn't laugh, and said, "I don't know how you do it"

I admitted, "Dude, I can't see shit either....I'm just using the force"  Haha.

So we wiped our visors down (mine inside and out!), dried my glasses, and we were back on the road.   I was really struggling with fogging on the inside of my shield....but didn't want to open my shield and let it get wet inside and get my glasses wet.

Back on the road again, we soldiered on again for 20 miles or so and Brian pulled off at a rest stop.  

The rain was really heavy.  We jockeyed around the parking area (going the wrong way to get where we wanted to be, and me riding a stretch through the grass to point my bike the way I wanted it).  Brian said I almost ran him over, but he was standing right where I wanted to go and it wasn't that close.  I was trying not to crack up, thinking about something that happened yesterday (and other days, but I just noticed the pattern yesterday) that makes me crack up every time I think about it. 

 Here's what happened...and I can't believe I forgot to mention this.  We were taking an alternate way back from the Blue Ridge Parkway and I was following my GPS directions, even though Brian "knew" the way back.  Instead of following the signs that Brian thought we should be following, the GPS routed me a different way, as it had done in error on other days.   This especially pisses Brian off when the GPS gives bad directions.   So when it happened yesterday, Brian looked at me at a stop light and said, "Why are we going THIS way?"

I replied, "I don't know, the GPS told me to"

Then Brian didn't even say a word, he just gritted his teeth and shook his head back and forth.

(I'm cracking up as I write this)   This has become what I call "Brian's GPS face".

So today while we were riding in the driving rain, trying to stay focused and alert, I thought of Brian's GPS face and started cracking up.  It breaks up the tension.   But I digress...

So we pulled of at the rest stop, and went inside to use the restroom and try our shields and glasses off.  This is probably as good a time as any to talk about rain gear.  My jacket and pants worked well, but even when it's working well, it doesn't take much for some rain to drip down off the helmet and go down your back or front.  So stuff still gets a little wet.  

Our "waterproof" gloves on the other hand are anything BUT "waterproof".  My gloves are freakin' SOAKED.  I have no idea how they call them waterproof.   I held them up to the hand dryer at the rest stop and water was bubbling out the seams.  Nice.  But that's not the best part.  The best part is when you pull them off and the damn fingers come out and you have to fight with them for 10 minutes to get the finger linings back into the fingers of the gloves.  SUPER frustrating.  After this stop, we stopped just one more time to get gas before making the final 40 mile push through Louisville and into Clarksvilled, IN.

I got my "rain mode" figured out.....how to keep my shield fog free and still keep almost all of the water out.  It's kind of nice when you can SEE where you're going while riding in the rain!   As we got into Louisville, the traffic STOPPED.  For the first time in the past week, I felt like I was at home.....in sucky traffic.  We were in stop and go traffic for several miles before Brian pulled off in downtown Louisville.  I thought to myself, "I'm pretty sure he didn't MEAN to go this way".  We pulled over and he told me that he couldn't get over without cutting a bunch of people off (I was ok with cutting them off, personally).  So here we were in 5:30 traffic in downtown Louisville.  I suggested to Brian that I'd use my GPS to find directions to the hotel that avoided tollways and highways.  I did.....and we were only a little over 6 miles from the hotel.  After turning left in front of some cars going straight (oops....wrong lane....thought we were in one of the 2 left turn lanes!), we followed a frontage road and made it to the hotel.

This is the same hotel that we stayed in on the first night.  It's ok....nothing fancy for sure.  Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we walked over to the Bob Evans that's about 3/4 of a mile from the hotel and had one good meal.  

When we got back to the hotel, there was some dude in NRA garb at the front desk.  We figured he was here for the NRA convention, so we struck up a conversation with him.  Sure enough, he was a "gun guy".  Instant "good guy" status.  We talked about the NRA convention for a minute or two, but then went on to talk about motorcycles.  He was a "bike guy" too.  He's actually owned 2 DRZ's like mine.  He raved about them and put them on par with the BMW's that he owned.  We chatted at the front desk with him for probably close to a half hour.  He told us about a trip to Alaska that he did.  Interesting guy.  Chip was his name.  

Sorry about the lack of photos/videos today folks....there just aren't any.  We just worked all day to get here.  1,658 miles on my trip odometer so far.....tomorrow is the final day of the trip.  We're planning on leaving a little later....after the morning rain ends.  With any luck, we won't have to ride in the rain again tomorrow.   Until then....signing off.....

Made it to Clarksville

Over 400 miles....the first 30 in mountain fog, the next 170 in the mountains, 90 easy miles, then the final 110 in driving rain.  Finally getting something to eat.  Full story later tonight.

1,500 down

1,500 miles logged now.  Wow.  Just stopped for gas somewhere....about 70 miles past Knoxville.

Getting ready for the long haul

We're leaving North Carolina to embark on our 400-mile journey back to the Louisville Kentucky area some of it in the rain and all through the mountains in the beginning.  Full update later tonight .

The Fog....

We planned on riding the Blue Ridge Parkway today and stopping at many of the overlooks and at Grandfather mountain.  We rode the parkway, but because the fog was so dense in most areas, it didn't make sense to take dozens of pictures of the fog.  The rides that we had done prior to this, without the fog and rain, helped to prepare us for this ride.  It was very challenging.  There were times that the fog was so thick that we couldn't see each other on the bikes.  And often times if they didn't have a painted yellow double center line, you would have a difficult time knowing where the road was.  They had signs all over saying, "don't drive the parkway in the fog" and such.  Too late....last day here, and we thought this would be our best day, but the weather really put a damper on it.  We still rode the bulk of the parkway that we had planned to ride, but took a more direct (safer and faster) route back home.

Our first stop was for gas, then we were going to follow the GPS directions that I made up for us weeks ago.  The thing was, since it was raining, I didn't want to have my phone mounted on my handlebars in the rain, so I tossed it in the pocket of my rain jacket.  There are two problems with this.  First of all, I can't SEE the screen to show me about upcoming turns, or twists and curves in the road, so it's like everything is happening at the last minute.  And the second problem with this method is that I couldn't charge my phone while riding.  With GPS directions going, there's no way the battery would last all day.

We started off fine, but then the GPS told me to turn right, then just after that, told me to make a U-turn.  Okaaaaayyy, what's up with THAT?  So we stopped in a parking lot while I tried to figure it out.  Got back on the road and expected to hear some GPS voice directions going down the road, but never do.  After pulling over again, and Brian and I both trying to make sense of what it's telling us and agree upon a route (which turned out to be the exact opposite direction as originally planned), I let Brian lead and followed him into the area where we could get on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Wet, curvy roads leds us in.  We took it slow and safe, finally reaching the sign that indicated we were about to enter the Blue Ridge Parkway.  A few miles after we started, we pulled over at one of the parking areas and saw some signs.  One was to let us know that we were right at the Eastern continental divide.  In this picture you can see the Blue Ridge Parkway going overhead.

Here's the parking area,  This is also the area where Brian decided he needed to take a leak.  He told me to "watch for cars".  Now, we'd been on the road for a half hour and hadn't seen a SINGLE other idiot on the roads besides us and he tells me to "watch for cars".  I laughed and told him "Just piss and let's go".  Not 15 seconds after he peed, a ranger drove by!   We were both cracking up.  What are the chances?   Oh well.  I decided it was a good time for a pee break too....so it was my turn.  The bikes waited patiently:

You'll notice the big yellow waterproof duffel missing in the photo of my bike.  Why?  Since we finally stayed at the same hotel two nights in a row, I didn't have to bring it along with us as we could leave stuff in the room.  That turned out to be mostly good....made it much easier to get off and on my bike, but there were times when I missed having it as a backrest.  Oh well.....tradeoffs.

There was quite a steep hill to climb to get up on the Parkway, with a stop sign that I already decided I was blowing off because of the angle of the ground there and the height of my seat, there was a good chance of another tipover if I tried to stop there.  There was virtually NO traffic all day.  If we saw a dozen other vehicles on the 83 mile stretch of the Parkway that we were on, that would be about it.  And I'd say we also saw a dozen other motorcyclists....all in rain gear and put putting along like us.  Couldn't DO anything other than that.

We rode about 30 miles and saw the Museum of North Carolina Minerals in Spruce Pine, NC.  We both could use a break so we decided to stop in there.  The first thing we noticed was the "no guns" sign on the door.  For a minute I thought I was back in the state of Ill-Annoys, but didn't want to break the law out of state, so we walked back to the bikes and disarmed.  We only stayed for a few minutes, and then we were back on the parkway.  This was one huge piece of quartz, though:

Our next stop was in Linville Falls.....looking for gas.  We never found any so just got back on course and ended up at the Linville Falls trail system.  Bathroom break, get off the bikes, and get some water.  That was the intended reason for stopping.  But looking at the map, they actually has some pretty good trails.  We didn't want to spend a lot of time there but did hike one trail.

The first thing you'll notice is THIS picture.  What ARE these?

I'll tell you what they are NOT.....Hiking boots.  They are motocross boots that go up to my knees.  But surprisingly, they did fairly well as hiking boots, besides not allowing much ankle flex.  

Here's the waterfall that we found on the trail:

While we were hiking, I finally spotted my first bear.  We heard that the black bears were really large in North Carolina, and here we have some proof.  It's difficult to see in the first photo through the trees, but in the following 2 photos the bear becomes more evident:

There it is!!

Hahahaha....hey, if I can't have a little fun at Brian's expense, HE can type this damn blog up every night.  But the bridge across may look solid, but that thing is rickety and shaky....Brian jumped on it while I was crossing and the whole thing started swaying.   Hahaha.

After leaving this little rest area, we planned to ride up to see if we could see the Linn Cove Viaduct.  Here's what it's supposed to look like.

And here's what it looked like today.  Obviously these were taken from below.

   

After speaking with the lady at the visitors center, we found out that the closest gas station was about 12 miles away in a little town called Blowing Rock.  We followed the directions that she gave us into Blowing Rock, NC.  As I was filling up, a local guy pulling a trailer was waiting for my gas pump to fill up with diesel.  While he was waiting, I asked him if he was from the area, and he said that he was.  I asked him where was a good place to eat nearby, and recommended a little place called The Woodlands Barbecue.  We drove a couple miles down the road and found the place.  Now, I don't know if this happens because we are generally starving by the time we eat, but this was a really good barbecue place.  I liked the T-shirts they were selling, too, so I bought one.

After eating, we decided to take the quicker way home, rather than slug it out in the fog of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It was a little over 50 miles back to the hotel, and we did it in about an hour.  Some really nice, sweeping turns coming down from 4,000 feet.  Tomorrow, we leave for home, likely in the rain.  Good thing it's only 400 miles tomorrow.  Ugh!

Blue Ridge Parkway today..

Just woke up and for our last real day down here, we'll be riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway.   Since we're staying at the same hotel tonight,  I don't have to carry all of my stuff on the bike, which is nice.   Time for breakfast and to get ready to go...

DuPont Forest & Downtown Asheville

This morning we left the hotel and rode an easy 30 miles to DuPont State Forest.  It was a real nice ride, nothing too crazy road-wise.  We sorted out the bikes.  One of my concerns when planning for the trip was when we walked away from the bikes, whatever we left wasn't really secure.  One of the methods I planned to employ was covering the bike.  That helps for sure.  I also packed most of my valuables in a backpack that goes inside my dry duffel.  That and my tank bag hold all of my most valuable items.  So I took those two things with me when we left for the hike.  I put the dry duffel on the seat, and ran a lock through the handle of the dry duffel, which now contained my motocross boots and my jacket.  When seat space isn't an issue, that duffel can hold a LOT!  I also put the cover and alarm on the bike.  I felt pretty secure with that, especially since I would be carrying my packpack and tank bag.  Here's how the bike looked before I put the cover on it:

We stopped in the visitor's office and there was a nice old lady working there who grew up in Glen Ellyn.  We chatted for a bit and then I asked her if I could leave my backpack, tank bag, and jacket there with her while we hiked.  She said that I could, and that was really awesome because hiking around while I carried all that crap would have been BRUTAL.

We hiked a few miles, visiting both Triple Falls and High Falls.  We met and talked to several people along the path.  Everyone was nice.  We also found this little dude warming himself on the rocks:

The Rhododendron bushes were in bloom also:

Here are some photos, followed by videos of Triple Falls:

We also hiked up to High Falls.  Here's a couple of pictures/video of High Falls:

And while we were at DuPont, we met a family from the Chicago area and they were taking pictures that mimicked one of the scenes from the Hunger Games movie, which was partially shot at the DuPont Forest.  Brian and I thought it would be pretty funny to re-enact the same scene..  This is an extremely gay photo....Hahahaha.....but pretty funny.

We packed up and left DuPont, with our rain suits on as we weren't sure if it was going rain or not.  The rain gear is HOT, so that part really sucks, but you just never know when it's going to start raining in the mountains up here.  It was a 40 mile ride to downtown Asheville, where Brian wanted to hang out for a bit and see a craft brewery called "Wicked Weed".   

With some of the strange directions that the GPS had given me (especially when it told me to ride essentially right up the side of the mountain yesterday!), I decide to ignore it a bit and just follow the road that I thought took us right back downtown.  Well, I got us off track by a few miles, but really not too bad.  Haha.  We rolled into downtown Ashville, and quickly realized that it was all metered parking.....which we found a spot that we shared that was a few doors down from "Wicked Weed".  Here's Brian standing outside, and a couple of pictures from inside.  The food was great, and Bian said the beer was quite good, too.

Our waitress:

After eating at the Wicked Weed, we walked around downtown Asheville.  It's a real hippie scene.  Lots of people wandering in the streets.  Everyone's tattood, and I'm not sure what the hell some of these vendors are selling.....like this dude:

We walked around downtown a bit, before leaving around 5pm and hit some traffic.  The ride to our next hotel in Marion was about 40 miles and was a great stretch of road.  It was the first time we opted NOT to put our rain gear on "just in case", because it's so freakin' HOT.  So naturally, we got about 20 miles into our ride and it felt CERTAIN that it was going to rain.  I put the hammer down and rode most of the way back at 65-70mph.  We beat the rain, checked in, and the nice girl at the front desk let us leave the bikes right out front under the shelter.  We showered, and then walked 2 miles to a Mexican restaurant.  It was a long walk (along the highway) after a long day of riding and walking.   It felt like it might rain, but we risked it.  The place was good!  When we were getting up to leave, we noticed that it was POURING outside!  We talked to one of the girls working there and she said that there is indeed a taxi service in Marion.  Who knew?   It was a $7 fare, so with a $3 tip it cost us each $5 to not have to walk back a mile and a half in the rain.

That's basically the story of the day.   Tomorrow we're on to Blue Ridge Parkway for our last real day down here.....

Saw DuPont Forest & rode back to Asheville

We hiked several miles at the DuPont State Forest and saw lots of cool stuff.  We rode back to downtown Asheville where we're going to hang out a good portion of the day.  I will be posting lots of pictures,  videos, and stories later tonight...

Plans modified, but we made it to Asheville

Last night and this morning brought heavy rains to the Sapphire / Cashiers area.  We saw this in the weather forecast yesterday and decided we'd modify our plans if need be.  Much of the route that I planned for today was ridden by us yesterday coming into Sapphire/Cashiers, and it was REAL technical.  We both decided that we didn't really need to do this again, ESPECIALLY in the rain.  This morning we solidified our plan to just visit the best parts of the originally planned route.  To me, that was the two waterfalls.  In fairness, I only knew about one of them but learned about another one just a mile further than the one that I knew about.  So we planned to ride to the two waterfalls, which were "only" 15 miles from the hotel, then turn around and ride about 70 miles to the next hotel (the first 15 would be the opposite of the next 15 - out and back from the hotel, as Asheville was in the opposite direction than the waterfalls.

It was raining pretty hard when we went down for breakfast, so we checked the radar and opted to wait until 11am checkout time before being forced to leave.  It turned out to be a good decision.  We did get rained on, but nothing heavy.  The worst parts were the multiple layers of clothing that we put on expecting cooler weather, which caused us to sweat profusely, and the wet mountain roads.  These roads had sections as technical as the dragon, only WET.  It was tense.  I took it slow and safe.  As safe as possible anyway.  Fifteen miles sounds like nothing, but trust me, fifteen miles on these roads is like a 45 minute roller-coaster ride.  My first goal was to make it to our destinations alive.  We did that.  We met some other cyclists there...two guys on Harley's and a husband and wife on a Harley.  When the one guy saw what I rode down from Chicago on, he looked at me and said, "You're a better man than me".  Hahaha.   Here are some pictures and a video of the two waterfalls that we stopped at.  The smaller on is Bridal Veil falls.  The large one is called Dry Falls.  Watch the video to hear how deafening the Dry Falls are.

Here's the video:

Leaving dry falls to ride the 70 miles to Asheville, we turned back onto the road, with my cell phone in my pocket connected via Bluetooth to my headset barking out directions to me.  Let's just say the GPS directions are not always right.  This time it had me turn left onto a small road, then turn right up what initially looked like a road but it went STRAIGHT UP!  Once I comitted to the turn, I could not just turn around....I had to ride it out.  I rode up this VERY steep hill, thinking about Brian behind me and hoping he didn't follow me. Once I got to a point where I could stop, I was STUCK, at the top of this insanely steep hill.  I had to figure out a way to turn around without falling down.  My bike is so damn TALL with the wider seat, I have very little contact with the ground with my feet.  I'm on tip toes every time we stop.  If we stop on anything but completely level ground, I have to be very aware of how I'm going to put my feet down to stay upright.  With all my gear loaded, the bike is pretty top heavy.  That's how I fell over on it in Bridgeton.  There was no stopping it once it started to go down.  I could NOT afford to have that happen on this steep hill.  I didn't see Brian anywhere, which I was happy for him, but could have used his help to help me turn around.   I was SURE that I was going to fall!  But I slowly allowed my bike to roll backwards, until I felt the back tire hit something solid and stop.  This was good.  I had JUST enough room to go forward and try to turn around.  This was SUPER sketchy, and then coming down this steep, wet, rocky road (it wasn't truly paved), I saw Brian there waiting for me.  He told me later that he didn't know if he'd see me again. Hahaha.  It's easy to laugh about it now, but it was a TENSE moment.  Unbelievable.  I completely ignored the GPS after that and stayed on 64 all the way back to the hotel and beyond, which I knew was correct.  For the record, the GPS DID try to route me incorrectly several times.  Frustrating.

The ride to the hotel was rather white knuckled on wet roads through the mountains.  There were some turns that were marked "15mph" and that was NO JOKE.  Some of them were so long and twisted around so much, it's difficult to believe  that they didn't change our direction.  A single mile on these roads is challenging.  Complete concentration is required.  More than once a truck came into my lane around a curve.  At one point on our way out to the falls, a truck carrying what must have been garbage going the other way had a bunch of it fall out, into my lane.  A pair of pants, a can, and some other garbage.  Had I been there a few seconds earlier, it could have been ugly.  I know I've said it several times on this blog, but riding through those mountains is no joke.  It's been fun, but I have to admit that when we finally hit some straighter roads like what I'm used to, it felt relieving to just open the throttle and cruise comfortably at 65mph for a while.  When we stopped for gas about 13 miles from the hotel,  I had 70 miles on my trip meter for the tank of gas, and put in a little less than 1 gallon.  I'm not good at math, but know that 70÷1=70.  So the last TWO times I gassed up,  I got 70 miles per gallon.   Pretty unbelievable.

We got checked into the hotel in Asheville, then walked about a half mile to a restaurant called Stone Ridge Tavern.  They had GREAT burgers,and Brian tried a few local beers that he said were great.  Later we walked over to an outdoor mall where they had a field and stream store (kind of like a Cabelas), and some other outlet shops.  We also got a $1 ice cream from the McDonalds in the area and walked through the outdoor mall a bit before coming home.  Brian and I found our next vehicles parked there.

We also found something that you NEVER see in the Chicago area:

And just now got back to the room.  Here's the view out our window:

Now we have to figure out what the weather will be like tomorrow.  The only real plans that I have are to visit the DuPont State Forest.  Hopefully the weather cooperates.  After tonight, we spend the next two nights at the same hotel, which will be a nice change from packing up every day.

Made it to Asheville

We made it to Asheville.  Ride the mountains in the rain...no fun!  Full update after we eat something

Almost forgot

I almost forgot to post this photo of Brian eating yesterday.   But, I didn't.   :)

Plan modifications

Well, it's raining pretty hard here,  with thunderstorms in the forecast.   After riding the roads coming in yesterday,  that were part of our ride route today,  we are going to modify our plans today.  First of all, we already rode a good portion of the route yesterday coming in.  There is really only one waterfall that I'd like to see, and as luck would have it, it's only 15 miles from the hotel.  From there, Asheville would be about 70 miles.  Not a bad day if we can pull it off.   Then we mostly bum around Asheville all day tomorrow as well.  We're deciding what to do here...we may wait until 11 am checkout time to see if the weather clears a bit.  Otherwise, we're rolling anyway....

Cherohala.....for real....

Today's report:

We left our hotel in Andrews, North Carolina to ride 63 miles to the start of the Cherohala Skyway in Tellico Plains, TN.  One thing I learned is that you cannot get anywhere out here without riding some long sweeping, and tighter turns, both uphill and downhill.  You really have to pay attention and make sure you choose the correct line through each turn.  It take a LOT more attention than tooling along on the roads that I'm used to back in Chicago.  The ride was going fine, when my phone started beeping through my bluetooth headset, telling me the battery was almost dead.  What the heck?  I had it plugged into my lighter adapter charger!  When I looked at the plug going into the phone, it was all bent to hell.  I still have NO idea how that happened.  Who knows.  So I had a spare USB cable and tried that.  Still nothing.  I thought I probably broke the port on the phone.  We were pulled over by some abandoned building  on the side of the road.  Brian walked over and started getting all demanding, like he does.  AFTER he told me that he knew how to get to the start of the Cherohala Skyway when I knew he rode past where we were supposed to turn.  He told me to try the original Samsung cable, which I had with me.  I didn't expect it to work either, but it DID.  So after all his bitching, Brian actually saved the day and we were back on course.  Here's a picture of the stop:

After this brief interruption, we were back on course to the Cherohala.  We stopped at the visitor center and talked to some other bikers and got a map from the nice old lady working there.  As it turns out, we completely ignored the map and rode right past one of the things we wanted to see, Bald River Falls.  We saw ONE sign, that said "Bald River Falls - 6 miles" then never saw any mention of it again.  So we rode right past.  Oh well.  There's LOTS of stuff to see out here, and just keeping the rubber side down takes most of your concentration.....we weren't riding on a tour bus!  

Compared to the Tail of the Dragon, I MUCH preferred the Cherohala Skyway.  Not many crazies, much nicer scenic overlooks, and the road wasn't as demanding as the dragon.  Don't get me wrong, it was PLENTY demanding, but the Dragon was just ridiculous.  One small mistake and you could eat it at the Dragon.  The altitude of the Cherohala Skyway is MUCH higher than the dragon, too.  The highest point was 5,390 feet, and at that point the leaves were JUST starting to bud.  We didn't get as many pictures or stop as many places as we probably should have.  But we really had a good time.  I especially enjoyed the second half - the last 20 miles or so.  I started to get into a rhythm with the turns, and was all by myself.  I had pulled away from Brian and on a Monday afternoon, there just wasn't much traffic.  I'd sometimes ride a mile without seeing another vehicle.  Very eerie, and very cool.  This was my favorite ride so far.  Here's a few pictures from the visitor center before heading out on the Skyway.  We got gas there too.....I rode 63 miles and put exactly ONE gallon in.  Wow!

Here are a few pictures from out on the Skyway.  Keep in mind that we RODE this thing...didn't stop much.  It was breathtaking (esp at 5,400 feet) and I'm sorry to report that I didn't get all the pictures that I'd hoped to show you guys.    Here are some of the pictures that I did get:

After the Cherohala Skyway, we stopped at a little local restaurant named "Lynn's", where the waitresses all have heavy southern accents and everyone is "hun" and when you order a pulled pork sandwich it comes with "taters".  The pulled pork sandwich was one of the best I've ever had...they toasted the bun inside and it has some type of different flavoring which I can't describe, but it was awesome.  We also ordered the sweet tea- I had 3 glasses...have to stay hydrated.  And the peach cobbler was fantastic, too.   After lunch we gassed up....I was shocked to see that I got 70 (yes that's not a typo) miles per gallon on the Cherohala Skyway.  Going up and down the mountains resulted in the best mileage I've seen from the bike.  Go figure!

Leaving Robbinsville, NC and the Cherohala behind, we had a 77 mile ride to the next hotel in Sapphire Valley / Cashiers, NC.  77 miles of what was almost as challenging as the dragon in spots.  One thing I can promise....by the time we leave this area to come home, I will NOT say, "Man, I wish we could have done more turns in the mountains".  Haha.  It's greuling.  After Cherohala, I just wanted to ride on a straight, level road to the hotel.  That was NOT going to happen.  The last 25 miles or so was a real challenge.  I was at the end of my concentration level.....we were both relieved to finally arrive at our hotel.  We parked the bikes and vowed not to get on them again until tomorrow morning.  Here's some pictures from the hotel.

 Tomorrow's ride, if it's not storming, will be 90 miles with a start and end at the hotel, which is nice.  After the ride, we head to Asheville, NC 53 miles.  We're waiting to see what kind of weather we get tomorrow....we've been lucky so far, but tomorrow may end that 3 day streak.