It's coming up on Memorial Day Weekend. We are trying to decide in what direction to point the Vision. We have several options on the table. Kilgore,Texas to visit my father in law, Savannah,GA., The Beach (as in Gulf Shores), The Blueridge Parkway, The Natchez Trace, we even considered a certified 50CC Ironbutt ride. http://www.ironbutt.com/about/default.cfm?CFID=12765635&CFTOKEN=13735673The 50CC is a coast to coast (CC) ride which must be done in under 50 hours. This is something that's been on my radar for some time but conditions weren't right for it at this time. If we did the 50CC, we would ride through buckets of rain only to reach a destination with a forecast high of 66 in San Diego. It's warmer than that right now in Alabama, in the mornings! It's noteworthy that most successful riders choose the route from Jacksonville,FL to San Diego,CA or vice versa. These 2 destination cities are the most popular (shortest at 2,342 miles) route for this ride. Kilgore was out for the same reasons of weather, there is extreme flooding in Texas and Oklahoma right now with a death toll that is rising with the water daily and even more people missing. My prayers go out to those affected.
We wanted somewhere warm and dry. It came down to the Natchez Trace and the BRP (Blueridge Parkway). Natchez was too close to the precip west of us so the BRP it was. The BRP snakes up the eastern continental divide, riding the backbone of the mountain range. It starts in Cherokee,NC and goes all the way to the Shanadoah Valley in Virginia. Kay had never done the parkway and I had only done a small section of it years ago. Neither of us had ever been to Virginia. After some research I found that Mount Airy,NC wasn't far off the path and neither was The Walton's Museum in Schuyler,VA. Mount Airy is the hometown of Andy Griffith. I love the Andy Griffith Show and this town paid tribute to Andy and the fictional town of Mayberry which is said to be modeled after Mount Airy. I watch this show and long for that simpler,slower time. The world we live in today is so hectic and chaotic.
I love The Walton's for the same reasons. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era. I fantasize about living simply in the early or middle 20th century. I'm an old soul and often dream about escaping the trappings of our current times. That's where the motorcycle comes in. I'm so thankful that Kay and I love and share the same passion for motorcycle travel. It is such a blessing to have our adventures together. Memories and experiences that we share on these travels only strengthens our bond.
We got up Saturday May 23rd and had a casual breakfast on the porch. I had originally planned to go to work maybe a half shift and then we would leave. I'm so glad we didn't. We have to be the slowest packers in the world and part of the reason is because we put off packing until the morning we plan to leave. We didn't leave until 10am, imagine if I had gone to work, it would have blown the entire day! Shots from our front porch breakfast table of Tatanka (The Buffalo) undisturbed pre-ride to packed and ready.
We wanted somewhere warm and dry. It came down to the Natchez Trace and the BRP (Blueridge Parkway). Natchez was too close to the precip west of us so the BRP it was. The BRP snakes up the eastern continental divide, riding the backbone of the mountain range. It starts in Cherokee,NC and goes all the way to the Shanadoah Valley in Virginia. Kay had never done the parkway and I had only done a small section of it years ago. Neither of us had ever been to Virginia. After some research I found that Mount Airy,NC wasn't far off the path and neither was The Walton's Museum in Schuyler,VA. Mount Airy is the hometown of Andy Griffith. I love the Andy Griffith Show and this town paid tribute to Andy and the fictional town of Mayberry which is said to be modeled after Mount Airy. I watch this show and long for that simpler,slower time. The world we live in today is so hectic and chaotic.
I love The Walton's for the same reasons. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era. I fantasize about living simply in the early or middle 20th century. I'm an old soul and often dream about escaping the trappings of our current times. That's where the motorcycle comes in. I'm so thankful that Kay and I love and share the same passion for motorcycle travel. It is such a blessing to have our adventures together. Memories and experiences that we share on these travels only strengthens our bond.
We got up Saturday May 23rd and had a casual breakfast on the porch. I had originally planned to go to work maybe a half shift and then we would leave. I'm so glad we didn't. We have to be the slowest packers in the world and part of the reason is because we put off packing until the morning we plan to leave. We didn't leave until 10am, imagine if I had gone to work, it would have blown the entire day! Shots from our front porch breakfast table of Tatanka (The Buffalo) undisturbed pre-ride to packed and ready.
This is my GPS. It's multi-layer. A sticky note for each day. You just peel off at the end of the day and there's tomorrows route lol.
It was a perfect day, we kept saying that to each other all day long, it was just perfect! We rode as far as Calhoun,GA for lunch at Cracker Barrel. Then continued on hwy 53 to hwy 136. We stopped at this old country store called Bart's . I always want to stop here when we ride by but for whatever reason, I never do. This time I held off on refueling until I got here.
This is my friend Bart.
It's the kind of place that you don't swipe your card at the pump. You go in (willingly) to check it out and you can't go in without buying a glass bottle coke (and I don't drink soft drinks anymore) and look for an empty rocking chair and a checker game in progress. The kind of place where you can't sneak up on anyone be
cause of the wonderfully noisy, creaking wooden slat floor. The kind of place where they tally your bill up with a pencil and pad (really , he added our refreshments and gas on a yellow notepad! no electronic register!) I almost made the grave error of selecting the wrong drink. The storekeeper was really cool , his name is Bart (of course). He is very proud of his store. I had ignorantly reached for the stubby "high fructose corn syrup" bottle cokes from the states. He enlightened me on the benefits of the tall bottle cokes made with real sugar bottled in Mexico. I don't know if it was really that good or if he put the idea in my head but I really enjoyed the fizzy refreshment. Bart is a real salesman. He said someone made the statement to him one time "why don't you build a modern store?" to which he said "you ever seen anybody stop and take pictures of a 'modern store'?" LOL! He told me this building was built in 1890. I told him "I wouldn't change a thing." They had a lot of candy I hadn't seen in years. Things like candy cigarettes that I didn't even think you could sell anymore. He even had the ones you could blow and a powder would come off it to simulate smoking a lit cigarette. When I was a kid , I thought that was a neat trick.
If you have time , stop at Bart's, if you don't have time, you'll feel compelled to take the time. http://roadsidegeorgia.com/places/bartsstore.html
This place is like going back in time which is a theme for me on this trip searching out all things "old timey". I go in here and I recall childhood memories of my great granddaddy Daniel's store.
This place is like going back in time which is a theme for me on this trip searching out all things "old timey". I go in here and I recall childhood memories of my great granddaddy Daniel's store.
Did I mention it was a perfect day?
We rode Hwy 19 on the way to Cherokee, (gateway to the BRP) lots of people enjoying their memorial day weekend rafting.
We made it to Cherokee, walked into a couple of shops but we had a long ride ahead to make it to Rider's Roost Motorcycle Resort so we decided we had better hit the road. It was about 80F at the entrance to the BRP but quickly dropped 15 degrees in just a few miles and would drop all the way to 55F in about 45 minutes of glorious BRP ridge riding! It felt pretty good. I had forgotten just how beautiful this road was. We really enjoyed it. Stopped at a couple of the overlooks. Took some pics , talked to some folks. Did I mention it was a great day?
There were so many cool tunnels!
We hadn't made it as far as I thought we would so we were not going to make it to the motorcycle campground in Ferguson,NC. We were near Asheville so we decided to get off the Parkway and get some supper then we could just get a room (or so I thought). We stopped for gas and I asked the clerk "what's good (to eat) around here?" She told us about her favorite place just down the street. Apollo Flame Bistro.
http://www.apolloflamebistro.net/ . It was amazing! I got spaghetti. I just thought spaghetti was spaghetti. Boy, was I wrong. Great cup of coffee too!
So we leave and point the Vision to the nearest "INN" sign sticking way up in the sky. They were booked. To avoid riding around wasting time, I pulled up one of the many booking internet services on my phone. EVERYTHING FULLY BOOKED! No problem , I'll just look for a local campground on my now dying phone (Kay's is already dead). Plan "A" was to camp anyway. We find the one with the highest review stars. It's up this steep and winding (steep and winding in the ridges, go figure lol) dirt road. We get there and this guy comes out of the office and meets me before I even get stopped good, He says "you don't even have to turn your bike off" and what do I do? I immediately turn off my bike. "Your people are waiting at D-4" and he pointed down the road." I would later regret not pretending to be whomever he thought we were. There was another party expecting some friends on a bike and they had left word at the office to send us, I mean, them on down. He found out we were not with those people and politely tells us they are full, not even room for a 2-person tent. Not only are they full but they had been turning people onto other campgrounds for a week and the other campgrounds called back one by one and told him to stop giving out their #, that they were full too. Wow! Feeling pretty stupid about now. Turns out , he is a biker and he has pity on us. He looks left, he looks right, Leans in and lowers his voice like he is about to share something that could get him killed. He tells us of a free place to camp at a city park. He was very kind. He unlocked the office and turned on the lights, spread out a map and drew on it. He gave us little token LED flashlights with the campground name on it.
Amazingly , we found it. It was a pull off about 10 feet lower than the highway so we are somewhat hidden. The French Broad River ran right beside this place. I thought "this is going to be great!" Listening to the river all night, what a way to go to sleep. We were the only ones there. While we were setting up tent , we could see car lights coming on the highway above and we would put our lights out and wait for them to pass. We got our tent set up and there was this ruckus like a tornado or T-Rex coming closer , building in sound and intensity with every second , then the whole side of the mountain across the river was lit up . It's a train! The tracks run parallel to the river opposite us. We love trains. I thought " the sound of a strong French Broad running and a train, how romantic, unless it runs every 30 minutes lol." We get the air mattress pumped up , get in the tent and that is when Kay shares with me that she is afraid of the dark . Now ,I know what you're thinking, yes, we sleep in the dark every night but it's never pitch black. She is afraid of pitch black , which it is.
I take my pocket knife out and lay it beside me in case I have to draw it and battle some evil in the night. We are the only ones there and both our cell phones are dead.
Then we hear a truck pull up and kill the engine. We can hear these kids whispering as they walk by. My bike is right beside our tent. I'm not really worried (but at attention). They have no way of knowing that I'm 150 lbs. As far as they know this tent contains a 400 lb burly, hairy biker that if poked, will go all "Sons of Anarchy" on them. Ok, I was worried enough to lay my off-brand swiss army-ish knife where I could grab it quickly. But I kept my poker face even though it was too dark to see it and tried to make Kay feel silly for being scared. We could hear every snapping twig. Kay is laying on my shoulder and she whispers "I'm not going to sleep at all". About that time , our air mattress, (like every air mattress I've ever owned) went completely flat. Which wouldn't be that big a deal except we are set up on a rock and slightly down hill. it was a long night. We both rotated like we were sun bathing. Every 15 minutes my back would hurt so I would turn on my side and then when my hip bone began to hurt I would turn on my other side until the other hip bone was at odds with the rock bed then repeat the procedure. No matter what Kay says , she did cat nap, we both did. I heard her snoring and doing that slow zombie exhale she does that really creeps me out. it would be in the upper 40's by morning so we got cold too.
At day break , we get up and break camp for fear of being discovered in the daylight . So, remember how proud I was for finding this place in the dark? I was even more proud that I successfully back tracked to town without one wrong turn and found the Waffle House. We stayed in there a good long time and let our phones charge. After some robust coffee and a hearty breakfast (I'm not sure the word "heart"y is appropriate for Waffle House food , We love Waffle House though) I felt great!
Let me say this, as good as the BRP is south of Asheville, it is even better after Asheville, so beautiful!
we are as high as the clouds in the picture above. It's just breath-taking. We are in line at one of the gift shops on the BRP and the older couple in front of us makes some derogatory remark about "Republicans" and how she and her husband are liberal and support the 'Park System" . The young man behind the counter said what anyone working in the park system would say "we need all the support we can get" he said. This really bothered me. I'm a conservative by nature and when we got to the register, I wanted to say "we are conservative and we support the national park system too." I was getting my wallet out after all and it was lighter than when we entered the shop. We bought a few things. I heard on the news that the parkway brought in more money than other major parks combined , bleeding revenue out into local restaurants and lodging, etc.
I don't like to litter my ride reports with political things. I bought a book one time about a couple taking a trip into Canada on a Vision . It started out so funny and entertaining but all the political jabs at then President George W. began to overshadow the story. It ruined an otherwise good read. I regretted buying the book and never finished it. The writer narrowed his readership by using the book as a platform to vent his personal political views. I could say a lot about our current administration but this is not the venue. the purpose of this is to share experiences for others to ,hopefully enjoy. I do credit the creator with my experiences and creation in my writings and make no apologies about my relationship with Jesus Christ but I don't force people to wade through a lot of politically charged fodder to get through the story. The end of the only political reference you will read in this journal.
Our next destination was Mount Airy, the home town of Andy Griffith. The fictional town of Mayberry is said to be modeled after Mount Airy. I have always loved the Andy Griffith Show. They don't make TV like that anymore. A show about a simpler time when people cared for one another and every episode had a moral lesson. Shows don't have moral lessons anymore. They are a few notable stops in Mount Airy, NC that pay homage to Mayberry and the cast.
I don't like to litter my ride reports with political things. I bought a book one time about a couple taking a trip into Canada on a Vision . It started out so funny and entertaining but all the political jabs at then President George W. began to overshadow the story. It ruined an otherwise good read. I regretted buying the book and never finished it. The writer narrowed his readership by using the book as a platform to vent his personal political views. I could say a lot about our current administration but this is not the venue. the purpose of this is to share experiences for others to ,hopefully enjoy. I do credit the creator with my experiences and creation in my writings and make no apologies about my relationship with Jesus Christ but I don't force people to wade through a lot of politically charged fodder to get through the story. The end of the only political reference you will read in this journal.
Our next destination was Mount Airy, the home town of Andy Griffith. The fictional town of Mayberry is said to be modeled after Mount Airy. I have always loved the Andy Griffith Show. They don't make TV like that anymore. A show about a simpler time when people cared for one another and every episode had a moral lesson. Shows don't have moral lessons anymore. They are a few notable stops in Mount Airy, NC that pay homage to Mayberry and the cast.
the whole thing was neat but a bit of a let down. It would probably be better if we came during the festival.
http://www.surryarts.org/mayberrydays/
We ate at Aunt Bea's to keep the experience authentic. It was pretty good. Aunt Bea's is also where we dumped that corpse of an air mattress we had been lugging around.
Here is where I struggled about what to do next. I told Kay that part of me wanted to high tail it home and be home on Memorial Day to just grill and hang out but we were very close to Virginia which
1. We had never been to and
2. is home to the Walton's Museum.
Another stop I had planned on this themed time travel to early 20th century life. We discussed it and decided we may never be this close again and if I wanted to see it , it was now or never. So we aimed the bike North into Virginia via I-77 to I-81 to make up some time. We landed in Staunton, unbeknownst to me , the home of President Woodrow Wilson. I don't know much about him. I would liked to have remedied that and toured his presidential library but time did not permit. I had never thought about Virginia being so beautiful. I had never thought about Virginia at all. It was even scenic from the interstate. We love old barns , no shortage of those in Virginia. Beautiful rich green rolling hills and timber land. We found a place to stay at a Days Inn. Since we spent $0 on lodging the first night, we thought we'd splurge this night and get a room. Turns out it was only $66 and well worth that. It was clean and the beds were great. We found a Cracker Barrel at the exit just south of us for supper. Then , Good night and tomorrows destination, Schuyler,VA .
The ride east to Schuyler had us cross over the Blueridge Parkway. It was a beautiful ride out. The winding mountain roads covered in a canopy of old growth forest shading most every mile. We saw more deer in Virginia (alive and dead) than any other place on the trip. At one point we stopped for a doe in the road, she was just sniffing the pavement , unshaken by our presence. She finally trotted off into the woods and we continued.
At one point, I pulled into a store parking lot to check my atlas again and make sure I was still on course. This guy comes up to me and asks about the Vision. He loves it. He asked "who makes it?". I told him it was a Victory. They are made in Iowa. I said " the parent company is Polaris." He says," like the snowmobile? I used to have a Polaris snowmobile." So, he stares at it for a few seconds and then says "so, is it Italian or what?" I'm thinking ,"wait, what?!" "no, it's American made." True story, you cannot make this stuff up.
On the way , we saw this old retired post office in Forks of Buffalo (and a great old barn across the street). I stopped for a photo op.
http://www.surryarts.org/mayberrydays/
We ate at Aunt Bea's to keep the experience authentic. It was pretty good. Aunt Bea's is also where we dumped that corpse of an air mattress we had been lugging around.
Here is where I struggled about what to do next. I told Kay that part of me wanted to high tail it home and be home on Memorial Day to just grill and hang out but we were very close to Virginia which
1. We had never been to and
2. is home to the Walton's Museum.
Another stop I had planned on this themed time travel to early 20th century life. We discussed it and decided we may never be this close again and if I wanted to see it , it was now or never. So we aimed the bike North into Virginia via I-77 to I-81 to make up some time. We landed in Staunton, unbeknownst to me , the home of President Woodrow Wilson. I don't know much about him. I would liked to have remedied that and toured his presidential library but time did not permit. I had never thought about Virginia being so beautiful. I had never thought about Virginia at all. It was even scenic from the interstate. We love old barns , no shortage of those in Virginia. Beautiful rich green rolling hills and timber land. We found a place to stay at a Days Inn. Since we spent $0 on lodging the first night, we thought we'd splurge this night and get a room. Turns out it was only $66 and well worth that. It was clean and the beds were great. We found a Cracker Barrel at the exit just south of us for supper. Then , Good night and tomorrows destination, Schuyler,VA .
The ride east to Schuyler had us cross over the Blueridge Parkway. It was a beautiful ride out. The winding mountain roads covered in a canopy of old growth forest shading most every mile. We saw more deer in Virginia (alive and dead) than any other place on the trip. At one point we stopped for a doe in the road, she was just sniffing the pavement , unshaken by our presence. She finally trotted off into the woods and we continued.
At one point, I pulled into a store parking lot to check my atlas again and make sure I was still on course. This guy comes up to me and asks about the Vision. He loves it. He asked "who makes it?". I told him it was a Victory. They are made in Iowa. I said " the parent company is Polaris." He says," like the snowmobile? I used to have a Polaris snowmobile." So, he stares at it for a few seconds and then says "so, is it Italian or what?" I'm thinking ,"wait, what?!" "no, it's American made." True story, you cannot make this stuff up.
On the way , we saw this old retired post office in Forks of Buffalo (and a great old barn across the street). I stopped for a photo op.
I was a little worried that The Walton's Museum would be like "Mayberry" and I'd be a little disappointed . Nothing could be farther from the truth. We spent 2 hours there. The sweet lady greeted us, Leona Roberts (above), founding member and director. She was the local historian and an authority on all things Schuyler and Walton's related.
The museum is housed in a retired school house where Earl Hamner Jr graduated in "19 and 40" . Mrs. Roberts didn't say 1940, she said "19 and 40." Only the older generation speaks like that and I love the way they say things.
Earl Hamner Jr. (born July 10, 1923), is an American television writer and producer (sometimes credited as Earl Hamner), best known for his work in the 1970s and 1980s on the long-running CBS series The Waltons and Falcon Crest. As a novelist, he is best known for Spencer's Mountain, which was inspired by his own childhood and formed the basis for both the film of the same name and the television series The Waltons, for which he provided voiceover narration. Thank you Wikipedia.
The museum was a real treat. Well cared for , more creaking wood floors. They had tons of memorabilia and Ike's store was a great place to buy souvenirs and crafts made by local artists. They took different rooms in the old school house and recreated the rooms from the show. For example, John Boy's room, the Walton living room, kitchen, and The Baldwin sisters living room. They even had a room dedicated to WWI memorabilia. There was a 30 minute video. The Walton's Museum was a perfect way to punctuate this trip. I couldn't have been more pleased with the decision to see it.
The museum is housed in a retired school house where Earl Hamner Jr graduated in "19 and 40" . Mrs. Roberts didn't say 1940, she said "19 and 40." Only the older generation speaks like that and I love the way they say things.
Earl Hamner Jr. (born July 10, 1923), is an American television writer and producer (sometimes credited as Earl Hamner), best known for his work in the 1970s and 1980s on the long-running CBS series The Waltons and Falcon Crest. As a novelist, he is best known for Spencer's Mountain, which was inspired by his own childhood and formed the basis for both the film of the same name and the television series The Waltons, for which he provided voiceover narration. Thank you Wikipedia.
The museum was a real treat. Well cared for , more creaking wood floors. They had tons of memorabilia and Ike's store was a great place to buy souvenirs and crafts made by local artists. They took different rooms in the old school house and recreated the rooms from the show. For example, John Boy's room, the Walton living room, kitchen, and The Baldwin sisters living room. They even had a room dedicated to WWI memorabilia. There was a 30 minute video. The Walton's Museum was a perfect way to punctuate this trip. I couldn't have been more pleased with the decision to see it.
Now, we had to head for home. We hit I-81 south and stopped for lunch in Troutville,VA at a place called Country Cookin. Great food and we met the sweetest little server named Kristen. I told Kay , I'd almost take her home with us . We talked to her for a long time and could have talked much longer. We just really enjoyed her company.
I told Kay when we got out to the parking lot "we gotta drop the hammer now." It would already be late when we got home and I had to work tomorrow. I had just gotten to the point of no going back at the end of the I-81 access ramp , merged over and clunked the Vision into top gear and noticed the traffic ahead was a a dead standstill. Great! We sat there for 2 hours. We were beside this couple from Tennessee on a Goldwing. They didn't talk much but I was able to pull a couple of laughs out of them. He had built-in GPS and I showed him my sticky note GPS lol. Then , while I was coasting with my engine off, I told him that I bet he never thought his Wing would be louder than a V-twin (he left his running virtually the whole time).
It was getting hot , I was getting frustrated. Fortunately, we were at the top of a hill when this started (in Virginia, you are either going uphill or downhill), so I could kill the engine and coast or creep forward in 6 inch intervals, agony! I had been warned by Kevin Cross, a leading authority on Victory motorcycles , to avoid parade duty at all cost. "Parade duty" is when your air cooled bike is running and you are not moving enough for the air to cool it. I know it has an oil cooler (with no fan,so it is essentially useless at a standstill) but I'm trying to keep it simple for my non-riding readers. My bike had over 108,000 miles on it. His advice was in reference to the high mileage. You just shouldn't put an engine with that many miles under that kind of stress. So I was worried I was going to damage my motor if we didn't get in the wind soon. I could see the off ramp, maybe a quarter of a mile away, 45 minutes before I could actually get to it, pure torture! I got over in the emergency shoulder for a minute thinking I could just ride to the off ramp, then I thought "you idiot, emergency vehicles may need to get to someone in trouble." Actually , I think my wife said that to me ( minus the 'you idiot' part lol). Anyway, we promptly got back in line.
It was getting hot , I was getting frustrated. Fortunately, we were at the top of a hill when this started (in Virginia, you are either going uphill or downhill), so I could kill the engine and coast or creep forward in 6 inch intervals, agony! I had been warned by Kevin Cross, a leading authority on Victory motorcycles , to avoid parade duty at all cost. "Parade duty" is when your air cooled bike is running and you are not moving enough for the air to cool it. I know it has an oil cooler (with no fan,so it is essentially useless at a standstill) but I'm trying to keep it simple for my non-riding readers. My bike had over 108,000 miles on it. His advice was in reference to the high mileage. You just shouldn't put an engine with that many miles under that kind of stress. So I was worried I was going to damage my motor if we didn't get in the wind soon. I could see the off ramp, maybe a quarter of a mile away, 45 minutes before I could actually get to it, pure torture! I got over in the emergency shoulder for a minute thinking I could just ride to the off ramp, then I thought "you idiot, emergency vehicles may need to get to someone in trouble." Actually , I think my wife said that to me ( minus the 'you idiot' part lol). Anyway, we promptly got back in line.
I looked this event up after I got home. They were rerouting all north and south bound traffic off I-81 until the next available exit! It caused a 10 miles back up. I didn't think I would ever get out of Roanoke! Finally we did find our way around the incident. apparently, the cause was a high-speed chase involving state police. When they did finally get the guy to stop, he got out with a gun. They repeatedly told him to drop it but ended up shooting him. Last I heard he did not die from his injuries. I shared this with a friend , he said sounded like a "suicide by cop" deal. I think he might be right.
We are rolling now, I have to be careful, deer are not the only thing we saw more of in Virginia. Law enforcement is ever present here so I have to keep my speed at a permissible 5 mph over. We have to cover some ground now but I got to thinking, that's what the Vision does so well. It is a mile-monster on a steady diet of asphalt. Nothing traverses these here United States of America quite like it. I know everyone probably feels that way about their ride and they should. I'm just very proud to pilot (because you don't ride a Vision, you pilot it) this machine, it does so much so well and in class leading comfort. It only took a few miles and I had all but forgotten about the hot traffic jam.
We would make our "last supper" stop in Chilhowie,VA at The Riverfront Cafe. We stood outside , afraid it was going to be expensive. It was a nice (read expensive) looking place. Kay asked the people coming out about their offerings . The nice lady informed us that they had everything and were reasonably priced and went on to say that we had better hurry, they were about the only place open to which I said "well, that settles it." We went in and there was one other couple finishing their meal and leaving. I told the hostess, we didn't want to impose if they were trying to close but they were so nice and did not make us feel like we were an imposition. They had already shut everything down but brought it back up just for us. I ordered what I thought would be the least burdensome on the cook staff , a sandwich. It was delicious! We both had coffee , which they made fresh for us. I really hate to go into a restaurant at closing. I've been on the other side of the counter and it does throw a kink in the closing procedure. They were so gracious about it though. I highly recommend this place if you are in the area. https://plus.google.com/103627976616078849750/about?gl=us&hl=en
We would make our "last supper" stop in Chilhowie,VA at The Riverfront Cafe. We stood outside , afraid it was going to be expensive. It was a nice (read expensive) looking place. Kay asked the people coming out about their offerings . The nice lady informed us that they had everything and were reasonably priced and went on to say that we had better hurry, they were about the only place open to which I said "well, that settles it." We went in and there was one other couple finishing their meal and leaving. I told the hostess, we didn't want to impose if they were trying to close but they were so nice and did not make us feel like we were an imposition. They had already shut everything down but brought it back up just for us. I ordered what I thought would be the least burdensome on the cook staff , a sandwich. It was delicious! We both had coffee , which they made fresh for us. I really hate to go into a restaurant at closing. I've been on the other side of the counter and it does throw a kink in the closing procedure. They were so gracious about it though. I highly recommend this place if you are in the area. https://plus.google.com/103627976616078849750/about?gl=us&hl=en
We walked outside and "the closer" (the guy who does all the dirty work, taking out garbage,etc) was walking back from the dumpster. He complimented us on our bike. He asked us where we were from and when we told him Alabama, he said "aw Lynyrd Skynyrd!" Lynyrd Skynyrd hales from Jacksonville, FL ( I had to look that up, shame on me) so, naturally, he is referring to their Iconic hit "Sweet Home Alabama". He was cool, a little rough around the edges but cool. He expressed that he dreamed of gettign a motorcycle one day. That's one of the things I love about motorcycle travel, meeting all different kinds of people.
We hit the road and with Kay helping me battle intermittent bouts of drowsiness by tickling me or popping me on the helmet, a few hours later , I was crawling in my bed at 1:30 a.m. I got to work at 6 a.m. Tired but so thankful to get to experience another whirlwind adventure with my soulmate.
This trip had only one annoyance for me, my allergies terrorized me the entire trip. the other hardships just added color to an otherwise blan canvas but the allergies, I could do without. It was good and dry, never rained a drop on us. Coming into Alabama, we could see where it had rained our timing was just right.
We rode a total of 1,444 miles.
We spent
$101.58 on gas
$147.76 on food
$66.17 on lodging
$63.03 on fees and souvenirs
$378.54 total trip expense!
That's a world of fun on a shoestring!
I'm going to try and attach a link to a video my wife and daughter produced and surprised me with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi6UPY21amg
We hit the road and with Kay helping me battle intermittent bouts of drowsiness by tickling me or popping me on the helmet, a few hours later , I was crawling in my bed at 1:30 a.m. I got to work at 6 a.m. Tired but so thankful to get to experience another whirlwind adventure with my soulmate.
This trip had only one annoyance for me, my allergies terrorized me the entire trip. the other hardships just added color to an otherwise blan canvas but the allergies, I could do without. It was good and dry, never rained a drop on us. Coming into Alabama, we could see where it had rained our timing was just right.
We rode a total of 1,444 miles.
We spent
$101.58 on gas
$147.76 on food
$66.17 on lodging
$63.03 on fees and souvenirs
$378.54 total trip expense!
That's a world of fun on a shoestring!
I'm going to try and attach a link to a video my wife and daughter produced and surprised me with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi6UPY21amg