... You are keeping pretty much the best motorcycle roads in the country all to yourself!
Had the chance to ride on down to North Carolina to meet up with a group of riding friends that we have known from a Honda Shadow board I used to frequent. Weather forecast looked great, so off we went on Wednesday... but before that had to get my Valk into traveling shape.
I decided late that I needed to change out the rear tire... like 2 days before we were leaving. With a 32nd left to the wear bars thought it would be prudent. Ordered a Cobra to be overnighted from jakewilson.com. Pulled apart the rear end to get ready for the tire's arrival on Tuesday. Pulled the final drive to lube it and found an orange, rusty, and shot pinion cup/driveshaft staring at me! I had lubed it properly with Belray back in March and there was about 9000 miles on the tire. The only thing I can figure is when I came back from Canada in August, we hit a 2 hour deluge of rain outside of Buffalo. Water intrusion into the pinion cup?
Anyway, after a major scramble to find a driveshaft... Eric in Md came through huge for me and overnighted me a perfect condition used one he had. Luckily, USPS got it here quicker than thought, so I was able to get it all buttoned up by 10 pm on Tuesday.
Southbound, Wednesday noon. Rode the e-way down to Abington, VA and stayed at a nice Quality Inns and Suites (ask for a better rate... they will usually find one... I got $30 knocked off). Ate up the street at the Harbor House Seafood and Steak. I just found out this place is a chain in that tri-state area... got a HUGE pile of deep fried seafood for a good price.
Thursday morning we got a look at the Valks... had no idea we rode through swarms of bugs... looked like an insect massacre. Took some time and cleaned'em up... then onward.
Drove southwest towards Bristol and headed over to Holston Lake, TN and a ride on the Snake. This is not my first time on it, but it was JoAnn's (JoJo) first time on it with her trike.
Couldn't wipe the grin off her face for awhile. She did some excellent riding and really carved it through those twisties!
Continued in to Little Switzerland, North Carolina... and took up temporary residence at the Switzerland Inn -
http://www.switzerlandinn.com/ in their Diamondback Lodge there. Had nice rooms for a good price ($69) and even offered covered Valkyrie parking.
On Friday, woke up to this view:
I mean come on! Does it get any better than that.... off to breakfast then on the Valks.
We headed right out of the parking lot, directly on to the Diamondback - North Carolina Route 226A. A very exhilarating ride, then down Rt221 toward Marion to NC80... we met a guy up in West Virginia that told us if we were anywhere near NC80 to make sure we rode it... we were, and we did. Great road.
Then... to make the day even nicer rode up Mt. Mitchell.... wow! I mean it ain't no Rocky Mountain National Park... but very impressive none the less.
A bit of riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway and then back to the hotel for their grand Prime Rib & Seafood buffet... it was $32.50.... but trust me, I ate at least $32.50 worth of food... probably ate my body weight in shrimp!
Up on Saturday... and north on the Blue Ridge Parkway.... some very nice scenery, and surprisingly, the leaves were in much more color than we thought they would be.
Met this Harley rider (not that there's anything wrong with it) on the BRP.... he rides with his dawg all the time... the dawg loves it, but will only wear the goggles when their moving. Funny, the guy riding with the dog guy says that the owner spent 30K on his Harley with upgrades, and nobody even notices it... they want to talk about the dog!
We then went towards Blowing Rock and had lunch at The Woodlands Barbeque and Pickin' Parlor.
Found out quickly why they also call it a Pickin' Parlor:
We shortly started north after that... to get partially home. The plan was to stop somewhere up in West Virginia (Morgantown), but we decided to continue on to home... got in about 11 pm...
All in all..... a grand time! Also, you guys from down that way are hoarding Valkyries as well. I saw no fewer then
9 Valkyries over those three days! Only was able to talk to one guy... he never heard of the VRCC... we fixed that.
Next year we are meeting up in Franklin West Virginia for this get-together. Will be the third time we were involved or planned a ride out of the good old Thompson's Motel... once for Binder & Joe's ride, once in August with a few folks before heading in to Canada, and now for third time in September 2012. I think I should get a seat on Franklin's Chamber of Commerce. I may just be their largest "foreign" investor
