Spent a couple of fine days in Asheville, NC which is a most pleasant place in the Smoky Mountains adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Klaus and I stopped here but with the benefit of a bit more time the charm of Asheville becomes seductive. Fabulous food at Curate, Taste and Admiral and excellent coffee at the Dripolator topped off with art galleries and a good independent book store make it all pretty hard to beat!
After taking the bike into the BMW (and Harley?!) dealer in Louisville to get serviced and have a spa week, I jumped on the big metal bird and joined Jen in Savannah for a one week driving tour . We enjoyed our taste of the south and included dipping a toe in the Atlantic and touring Fort Pulaski and of course the coffee. Savannah has great old homes and architecture of the south and has a nice slow laid back feel. Apparently in August it is stifling but this time of year just about perfect!
Kentucky is beautiful at least the part of it that I saw. Rolling hills, manicured pastures and nice curvy roads once I left the freeway east of Lexington and on into Louisville. Here the bike will go into get serviced and I will fly out tomorrow to spend the week with Jen ending up back here next week.
My only question about Kentucky, is what is with the black barns? As I was riding through the country I initially thought someone had decided to paint their barn black to be different. Turns out that is normal. The fences are also usually black. Black barns everywhere.
Who would’ve thought.
I didn’t find any good coffee places to post. I am sure there is one somewhere, only I didn’t find it. This note was posted on the cash register of one I tried. Enough said…
It took a couple of days of thawing to get around to writing this update. Tuesday started out great with a ride up through Shenandoah National Park. Continuing the fine tradition of the Blue Ridge parkway only with the leaves being a bit earlier in spring, a 35 mph speed limit and a fresh blustery wind (foreshadowing….).
I dropped off the parkway and decided to make for Morgantown for no other reason than Jen thought it would a good place to see and it afforded me the chance to ride through the backroads of West Virginia. I let the GPS guide me on a setting for the “shortest” route rather than the more usual “fastest” which usually means mostly freeway.
Turned out to be a long afternoon. It got progressively colder, I later found out to 41 F or 5 C, with a strong wind. The roads degraded steadily as I moved west until the surface was worse than gravel in many places, broken loose pavement and deep, rim bending, potholes. When I finally got to Morgantown, it was closed, as in no room at any hotel. After some searching and phone help from Jen, we found a place in Uniontown, PA which is 35 miles north. I was very happy to see that hotel!
Yesterday, I woke up to snow on the bike. After letting the day get a bit warmer I launched myself on a freeway ride to Charleston, WV. A forgettable and very cold day.
Days like these happen on any long trip and it wasn’t like it was dangerous or anything, only arduous. Sadly, I have a colored view of West Virginia. I will have to give it another try on a warm day and see if it can change my mind.
A new tie for best all time motorcycle road! Over 460 miles of curvy roads, mostly good surfaces, closed to commercial traffic, no services and at least at this time of year almost deserted! The first day I rode the southern half with Klaus, we had a bit of weekend traffic but that didn’t detract from the day. Yesterday Klaus headed south and I did the north section alone and almost NO traffic. The people who built this road must’ve ridden motorbikes.
In West Jefferson, NC, Bohemia is your coffee stop…
Part of the reason for coming to the east coast, besides the chicken fried philly cheese steak, is to ride the road called the “tail of the dragon”. We stopped in deals gap at the bottom of the dragon and took the requisite photos of the tree of shame, decorated with lots of crashed motorcycle bits collected from the dragon, my favorite being the tricycle wheel. The road is awesome with 318 curves in 11 miles. The speed limit is 30mph but locals said you wouldn’t get ticketed until about 50mph. A fact borne out when we were followed by the highway patrol for a few miles. Very civilized.
A roaster in Helen, GA. Sadly no cappuccino, but good coffee none the less..
