Ross and I left Upstate SC on Saturday morning. I'd plotted a "west
of Asheville" route that took us through Hot Springs NC, through Reb's
home town of Greeneville TN and landed us in Wise county VA. for the
night. No pictures, we hit many wet roads and lots of rain too, all
my pictures are of water drops on the camera's case...
In Virginia even the gas pumps are scenic...
I haven't seen any Mail Pouch ads for a while... a lot of barns
up 219 in West Virginia have had their chewing tobacco ads changed
over to "Save Face - don't chew" ads...
When we got to Ground Zero I found my roomie, Earl43p... we were
across the hall from Smokin' Joe and Reb so we went over there to
see this year's granny panties... they were augmented by hand cuffs
in the fridge this year (?) ...
On Monday we followed Reb to a still-in-use covered bridge. It is a
little off the beaten path. There's graffiti on it, but it seems
in good shape otherwise.
Down the Road Reb and Joe put on a tech session for us (you guys
are the best!)...
The next day a smaller group followed Reb to the 555 (triple nickle).
It was kind of like this:
We ate lunch at a cool pub in this little town with brick streets...
That's Ronnie and Sandra in the picture with the bikes, they both
ride Valkyries. They'll be coming to the Fall Color Ride I think. I was
behind Sandra a lot on the 555, I could almost keep up...
On Wednesday about a bazillion of us went 25 miles down the road
for a train ride. Valkyrie riders on a train...
They fed us BBQ sandwiches along the way...
Don't threaten Carl with a good time...
You could see a nearby road out one side of the train some of
the time, but for the most part we were in the middle of nowhere...
Here's a 19 second video that gives a good idea of the ride...
https://hubcapsc.com/inzane2021/train_spin.movWhen we got to the end the train can't turn around to come back. Instead
they do this maneuver where the engine hops on a side track and goes
to the other end of the train...
https://hubcapsc.com/inzane2021/train_engine_pass.mov <--- 21 seconds
hubcapsc.com doesn't support streaming. Can everyone see mov files?
I think of them as Apple oriented. I could make mp4 files or... ?
When we got back, I rode around in town and on the campus. I got
lost immediately. Lots of brick roads, old buildings and construction.
I kind of figured out where the area where the restaurants I'd heard
about were located. That night some of us went back over there to eat,
and found numerous other tables filled with Valkyrie riders. Went back
a couple of times for breakfast, too... Ross and I started to walk
over there (20 minutes) and got picked up by Stanley Steamer in his
pickup truck...
Me and Ross and Smokin' Joe and Rodney left together on Friday.
We rode out of town on 33 and hit a road, 7, that tracked the Ohio
river. I had us turning off of 7 to run through the woods a while
and avoid a city that was ahead. 7 ended up being closed. I ignored
the detour sign, hoping my turn-off would show up first, but we
had to turn around. My "avoid the city" roads were good, but at
the other end we had to endure the other end of the city... I failed
to make the proper choice at a trafficky construction-clogged intersection
near a bridge that we needed, and we had to get turned around. Ross almost
got smushed by a transfer truck, but we all made it. Trying to follow
the blue line on the BFGPS through stuff like that is much harder, and
probably more dangerous, than trying to follow it through the woods...
We went towards Pikeville and used hiway 23 through there a lot.
It is a great rolling four lane hiway, filled with awesome sweepers
for miles. Long stretches with not much traffic. The speed limit is
55 the whole way :-( ... rolling through there at 75 sure is fun (I hear).
Along the way we came to an odd-ball rock building that looked like
it belonged at Disney Land. It was a very busy gas stop and there was
this giant Gibson in the front...
We split up in Wise VA and Ross and I headed to Abingdon VA. I'd
looked up the motels there and the one I'd focused on turned out
great! The Alpine Motel. It is an old park-at-your-door motel that
has recently been refurbished. This is way better than a three story
modern hotel on the side of the Interstate :-) ...
The rooms are big and sparse and freshly painted, new beds
and stuff. No 20 year old smelly carpet. Easy for them to clean
I guess and easy for guests to see that they look clean... this
is a great area to ride and if the motel owners tolerate evening
laughing and gathering in the parking lot, it seems like a good
meet-up place...
"The Snake" down to Shady Valley is right out Abingdon's back door,
so we got gas and headed down to the Shady Valley Store...
Riding 421 into and out of Shady Valley is the perfect start
to a day...
We headed from there towards Boone NC and down to Rutherfordton and
never got off the bikes until we split up in Greenville County SC.
A lot of fun was had. More than that, over and over members of this
group stood up to help out when help was needed at this InZane...
-Mike
