Does it ALWAYS have to end at a DQ??........

[Stanley Steamer]

A ride that is........ ........I left home at about 10am yesterday and rode North to do some roads in Western, NC.....Hwy's 107, 281, 215, 276,28, and the Blue Ridge Parkway......I had a low battery in the camera, so I didn't take the time to take many pics....snagged a few though.....








A couple of those roads were new to me and I had them to myself for the most part.....I was able to let the Fat Lady EAT up some road!!.....I had a few pucker episodes where my underwear got sucked up pretty deep in the "Netherlands".....had I run off the road, I'd probably have never been found..... .....I was having so much fun, that I passed up a few great pic opportunities.....just gives me a reason to do that ride again.....

The weather was very nice up in the Mtns....and I let old BashfulBob down......as I was getting off of the BRP onto Hwy 276....3 really pretty young ladies(early 20's?) were almost at the intersection there on the side of the road, and one of them stuck her thumb out..... ... .....I guess she wanted to ride with me, but since I couldn't fit ALL 3 of them on the bike and was having so much fun in the "ride zone", I had to pass them by.......I felt guilty and ALMOST did a U-turn to go back and at least get my pic with them, but I had to save my battery for a few other pics later....(Where's a Wal-mart when you need one up there?)......

Anyways,.....I continued on my way exploring these new side roads.....a few had brand new pavement.....some had that dreaded "chip and seal" crap.....but the twisty factor was HIGH!!.....I jumped back up on the BRP to head South to Maggie Valley for the night.....took a couple more pics....there were some wildflowers in bloom on the hill behind me in this pic..




I had to make the obligatory stop at the highest point on the BRP sign and whipped my tripod out to get this one...the Sun was at just the right angle as it was getting late in the day...



After this pic, it was time to head to Maggie Valley to find a room for the night....I passed a wrecked Gold Wing and he was picking up pieces of plastic out of the ditch...his riding partner was gone to get a truck and trailer and a few other folks in cars had also stopped to make sure he was ok.....I guess he was going to miss the GW Rally up in Fletcher, NC.....the one Joe was talking about the other day.....

I got into MV just before dark thirty and rode up and down the strip a couple of times until I saw a vacancy sign at a motel I had stayed at before.....all the GW'rs pretty much had MV booked up....I ended up in a "suite" with a full kitchen/dining room for around $85........I could have fit most of the PINKS in there with me....wish they HAD been with me....

It was one of those small motels with only a dozen rooms where you can park right at the door.....guy that owned the place sent me to a great place for supper....the eye candy in there wasn't bad either!!.....

After supper, I went back to the room and saw where my next door "neighbors" had come in...one fellow was on a '98 Valk standard.....he only had about 12,000 miles on it....guy in his 30's maybe with kids and said he didn't get to ride it much....said he'd ckd out the VRCC back a few years ago and had bought the 2 Brothers pipes on it from someone down in LA.....real nice guys....his Dad was on a GW 1500 and they were from KY....they left out about 5am this morning to try and beat the rain......

I headed out about 8am and jumped back on the BRP headed towards Cherokee for breakfast....gassed up and headed down to Hwy 28 off of Hwy 74....into Franklin....the roads were clear and I was able to open up the old girl again.....stopped at the Wal-mart down there for a couple of new batteries for the camera and headed down hwy 64 to Highlands.....took a few pics at the waterfalls going up the hill.....





Bridal Veil Falls.....wasn't a whole lot of water coming over it today....but better than nothing....



From Highlands, I headed back off the Mtn on Hwy 106....and crossed into the Great State of GA at high noon.....


I stopped at a really nice RV park at the bottom of the Mtn where they have these little "Cedar" cabins for sale.....$125,000-150,000 for a 2 bedroom one, plus $110/month maint. fees.....that's CRAZY!!!.. ..you could buy a doubled wide mobile home for $40,000....the land and all the utilities for a lot less than that.....oh well, I may still just rent one for a couple of nights during leaf season and take the Wife there....



I stopped in Tiger for my favorite chili burger.....then ended up at a DQ and hour later for dessert..... ......




From there, it was a leisurely 50 miles back home......I had about 500 miles on the odometer/GPS for this little spin.....loved every minute of it.....it just doesn't get much better than that unless the Swedish Bikini Team had of been with me......

[R J]

You are supposed to be riding a Gold Wing to stop at a DQ.....

[Jess from VA]

Nice report Stan. 

Man, the heat has been back in spades up in VA.  I'm waiting for a little cooler weather.

[Thunderbolt]

only one I know of looks better than yours.  Mine.....  Good job with the narration and pics.  We are heading up to Maggie Valley on Oct. 9th for 5 days.  There is a Walmart near where.....what is the road to Hot Springs.............209?

[hubcapsc]

Hey Stanley...

Those are good roads... Where'd you stay in Maggie Valley? I guess you're brakes started working
fine?

-Mike

[hubcapsc]

Nice report Stan. 

Man, the heat has been back in spades up in VA.  I'm waiting for a little cooler weather.

Supposed to drop 15-20 degrees here tomorrow, and start raining... I put up 8 sheets
of tin on the barn today, more sheets to go, but the "inside" part of the barn is dry now...

-Mike

[Stanley Steamer]

You are supposed to be riding a Gold Wing to stop at a DQ.....

I think my Valk had "relations" with the GW parked next to it last night......the windshield was magically clean this morning!!.....

[Stanley Steamer]

Nice report Stan. 

Man, the heat has been back in spades up in VA.  I'm waiting for a little cooler weather.

The heat was bad here after I got down off the Mountains.....sure was nice on the BRP though.....

[Stanley Steamer]

only one I know of looks better than yours.  Mine.....  Good job with the narration and pics.  We are heading up to Maggie Valley on Oct. 9th for 5 days.  There is a Walmart near where.....what is the road to Hot Springs.............209?

I'm not sure about that road......but Hwy 215(Parkway Rd) just East of Lake Toxiway? off of Hwy 64 had brand new pavement almost all the way to the BRP....I just had to dodge some of the "stone" that they used on the shoulders of the road where cars had thrown it into the curves in a few place.....

[Stanley Steamer]

Hey Stanley...

Those are good roads... Where'd you stay in Maggie Valley? I guess you're brakes started working
fine?

-Mike

Yep....the rear brakes worked great....I use engine "braking" a lot too, so I wasn't too hard on them....I did get a smell of burnt brakes on the BRP and was wondering if they were sticking, but it was right where I went over Hwy 74 and it was probably from the big trucks crossing there.....

I stayed at the Cardinal Inn in MV.....

A new road I tried was Hwy 281.....I turned onto it from Hwy 107 and it came all the way back over and down to Hwy 64 by Lake Toxaway.....about halfway there, the road went over this huge "canyon"...may have been a power station dam under the bridge there?....wish I had of stopped for a pic or two...

[Stanley Steamer]

I thought about calling this the "Dead Skunk, squirrel, and Dog Ride"......I passed at least 4 dead skunks.....about that many squirrels with accompanying crows "cleaning" them up.....and 2-3 dogs that had been run over.....

There were 3 different cases of folks coming over to look at the Old Green Dragon at stops....the last time it happened was when a man and his son were riding bicycles and whipped over to look at her at a dinner stop....he said a buddy had a Valk and he knew a little bit about her....was telling his son what a nice bike I had....

I had to jump on a divided hwy for a few miles and there was a big cloud of smoke in the median....it was so thick, I just figured a car was on fire in the middle of it.....the wind blew some of it away and it was just a 10ft diameter spot on fire....not sure if a car had pulled over there and the CC set the grass on fire, or if something hot landed there from someone passing by??.....as dry as it's been lately, fires are NOT good in this part of the Country.....

[hubcapsc]

A new road I tried was Hwy 281.....I turned onto it from Hwy 107 and it came all the way back over and down to Hwy 64 by Lake Toxaway.....about halfway there, the road went over this huge "canyon"...may have been a power station dam under the bridge there?....wish I had of stopped for a pic or two...

I took some pictures on 281, but not of where you're talking about...



-Mike

[Stanley Steamer]

A new road I tried was Hwy 281.....I turned onto it from Hwy 107 and it came all the way back over and down to Hwy 64 by Lake Toxaway.....about halfway there, the road went over this huge "canyon"...may have been a power station dam under the bridge there?....wish I had of stopped for a pic or two...

I took some pictures on 281, but not of where you're talking about...



-Mike

I was a little leery of a few spots on that road....with some loose gravel pinging off my exhausts.....but I was able to open her up on some of it!!.....

[highcountry]

Great photo essay!  Thanks for taking us along.

[Jess from VA]

Nice report Stan. 

Man, the heat has been back in spades up in VA.  I'm waiting for a little cooler weather.

Supposed to drop 15-20 degrees here tomorrow, and start raining... I put up 8 sheets
of tin on the barn today, more sheets to go, but the "inside" part of the barn is dry now...

-Mike

Good deal.... got to hate a leaky barn.

Me, I have cleaned nearly 50 gallons of acorns off my roof/landscape/yard.  Lousy bumper crop this year.  We need rain BAD...  only 30% chance of precip here tomorrow .

[hubcapsc]

I was a little leery of a few spots on that road....with some loose gravel pinging off my exhausts.....but I was able to open her up on some of it!!.....

Here's what 281 looked like the first time I went down it.


Maybe there should be an archive of pictures of Valkyrie riders, after I've taken them down a
dirt road 



-Mike

[Stanley Steamer]

I was a little leery of a few spots on that road....with some loose gravel pinging off my exhausts.....but I was able to open her up on some of it!!.....

Here's what 281 looked like the first time I went down it.


Maybe there should be an archive of pictures of Valkyrie riders, after I've taken them down a
dirt road  



-Mike

When I was making my route up with my several year old Mapsource program....it showed "dotted" lines on 281 on the Lake Toxaway end....on my Old Garmin 2610, that usually meant a gravel road section....I was pleasantly surprised when it was at least the chip and tar stuff.....

[Stanley Steamer]

I've been known to take a gravel road.....or two.....these pics are of Thumper and me at Cheaha a couple of years ago.....we had split off from the group after the Talladega track ride and were going back up the Mountain.....the GPS picked the "shortest" route..... .....

The road turned to gravel and I asked Paul if he wanted to keep going?.....sure....let's see what happens.....it got steeper as we went.. of course......but we eventually broke out onto a paved road near the top of the Mountain..... .....This was Thumper's first Valk....an I/S that later got toasted.....