May 22

We awoke today on our last day of our adventure with the threat of rain. We watched the qualifying session for MotoGP in LeMans after breakfast. At 9am, when we were about to head out, it began raining. Luckily the showers stopped, we wiped down the bike and hit the road at 9:30am with the goal of six Grand Tour passport stops, avoiding more rain and getting home safely.

Our first Grand Tour stop was the Quiznos in a new shopping center in Farmville, VA. It’s a nice town with a cute historic district, but our itinerary kept us moving today.

Getting from Farmville to Orange, VA saw us taking several narrow and twisty country roads. They were lightly traveled and offered very scenic views of the rolling Virginia countryside.

Around Noon, we were traveling through Gordonsville and needed to find a location for lunch. The Gordonsville Deli looked inviting and busy so we stopped. Rob met a couple that moved here from Minnesota who had previously owned a Goldwing, but sold it to get two bikes (a Honda 1300 VTX for him and a Yamaha 650 for her) so they could each ride.

After lunch we made the short 15 minute hop over to Waugh Harley Davidson in Orange. They were having a “bike fest” with a band, food, and discounted merchandise. It was packed. We got our stamp and headed onward.

We spent most of the afternoon on Routes 522, 15 and 3. Our next location was the Culpeper Visitor’s Center. It appeared to be in an old train depot.

Downtown Culpeper looked like a fun location to shop and eat—definitely a longer visit is in our future.

After getting that passport stamp, we were headed over to Fredericksburg. It was about this time we seriously paid attention to the Wing’s weather radar, watching the large green blob of rain close in on us from the west. The system had been steadily closing in on us and now it was within 10-15 miles.

We stayed dry as we arrived in Fredericksburg at Morton’s BMW. It was a nice store, and a potential customer was eyeing the new S1000RR which Rob said was “wicked fast”. With no new motorcycles in our future, we made our way to the Spotsylvania Visitor’s Center.

Still no rain at this point, we cruised over to the Courtyard Marriott passport stop in historic Fredericksburg. Inside we met a nice couple from Louisa also doing the Grand Tour stops. We chatted for about 20 minutes and traded tips on the stops we’ve each been to so far.

With all of our Grand Tour stops done for the day, we wanted to quickly motor north to escape the rain. It wasn’t meant to be—as we were departing the historic Fredericksburg area, the rain began to fall. A quick look at the weather map on the Wing told us that things were going to get worse fast so we quickly stopped at an Arby’s to put on all the rain gear.

After 2,000 miles of riding over 10 days, we didn’t have significant rain until the last 50 miles of our trip. I guess Mother Nature decided to make up for missed time because she just hammered us all the way home with constant rain (very heavy at times).

So, after a little more than 2,000 miles, we are sad to see our vacation end but happy that it went better than we could have expected. In retrospect, we were smart to schedule some down time off the bike, like the afternoon at the beach and our day at the Space Center.

It’s always fun to talk with folks on our travels. Most just look at us in bewilderment when we tell them we are traveling on our bike. Some understand the fun that can be had by traveling around the USA on two wheels and experiences it brings. All have genuinely wished us well on our travels.

With this trip concluded, we’ll begin planning our big trip for next year. That one promises to be a good one!

May 21

We left on time today at 9am with sunny skies. Although our mileage would be less than 200 miles, we had nine Grand Tour of VA stops to visit. Our first two stops were in Wytheville, the local Harley dealership and the Visitor’s Center. With those easily accomplished, we rode 45 minutes to Independence, VA on US 21, enjoying the scenery along the way.

Fox Creek Leather was our third stop of the morning, a new Grand Tour location just on the outskirts of Independence, VA. The local dog greeted us with enthusiasm.

The store had high quality leather products and smelled great inside! From there we headed over to the Courthouse for the next stamp, and then on to the Blue Ridge Plateau Visitor’s Center. We really enjoyed our visit there last year, as the lady inside again gave us a great lunch recommendation. The center also has nice local artwork and items for sale (shopping for Michele!). Outside we met a couple from Farmville riding a blue Victory Vision, also on the Grand Tour. They were doing the same stops as us but in the opposite direction.

Our recommended lunch destination was in Hillsville at the local diner. It was a true old counter-style diner in the family for three generations, and the local folks and waitress all knew each other by name. Lots of "honey" and "sweetie" said here, much more friendly than northern VA.

Onward, our next stop was the Poor Farmer’s Market. Michele gets a kick out of these country stores with old time candies, local jams and various oddities for sale. We found the Poor Farmer himself and Michele gave a friendly hello.

Back on the road we found more twisties and scenery heading towards Martinsville.

The Martinsville visitor’s center turned out to be a great surprise for Michele, with a lot of local artist items for sale and on display. It's unusual these days finding items not made in China!

We had about 50 more miles to the Virginia International Raceway, our next stop of the day. VIR is in a fairly remote section of Virginia, and you actually have to go into North Carolina to get to the track which is in Virginia. Our last stop of the day would be in South Boston, VA about 20 miles away at Ed’s Honda dealership.

The guys in the store were very friendly and quite the characters. We got a local dinner recommendation at the Village Café about 4 miles away. The Honda guy told us that we might have to get a few pies since it’s hard to choose. He was right--we got coconut since strawberry was already gone by 6:30pm!

We had good riding weather today with mostly cloudy skies and the high about 80 degrees. For our picture of the day at a particularly interesting “Y” in the road, which route do you think we took??

Tomorrow is our final day of our trip. We plan on getting 6 additional stamps and hope to miss the predicted thunderstorms.

May 20

Today was the start of our passport stamp run for the Motorcycle Grand Tour of Virginia on this trip. Today we would collect 6 stamps and ride in five states (we rode in and out of VA three times): North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia.

We said farewell to Robert, Shannon, Ava, Eden, Chloe and Bella and were on the road by 7:30am heading north into VA. We had lunch at one of the stamp locations, Reno’s Steak House, in Wise County. The food and service were excellent. Rob had a buffalo chicken sandwich and Michele had the chicken quesadillas.

Our first stop after lunch was at the Breaks Interstate Park. This park straddles the VA/KY state line. Called the “Grand Canyon of the east” this park is set in a beautiful and rugged area and one Michele and I will look into visiting for a longer stay. The passport information on the location of this stamp was wrong (both address and GPS coordinates), ending up at a country club. We eventually backtracked to the main road and followed the signs instead. After getting our stamp at the visitor's center, we met a nice couple from Texas that were a week into their own Goldwing motorcycle trip and had just stumbled upon the park since venturing into Virginia. This lucky couple had no real agenda or timeframe constraints on their trip--we were jealous! They were quite impressed with the smooth VA roads compared to Texas.

Speaking of roads, the road we took going into the park (KY805 and KY197) and the roads we took exiting the park (VA80 and VA83) were excellent for motorcycling with plenty of twists and turns. VA598, which connects US460 to I77, was also fun surprise. If you visit the Breaks on a motorcycle, we highly recommend that you get off the highway and experience these routes.

We finished our riding at 5pm in Wytheville, VA with plenty of time to get ready for our 6pm reservation at the Wohlfahrt Haus Dinner Theatre (WHDT) showing "Grease". We were staying at the Days Inn right next to the WHDT. Both the food and quality of the entertainment were good and made for a fun evening. Michele and I highly recommend if your travels have you near the WHDT that you should try it out.

Today’s picture of the day is the twisty roads we enjoyed. The GPS image says it best (note the squiggly pink line):

Tomorrow we plan on getting 9 more stamps as we make our way east along the VA/NC state line.

May 19

We were able to get up late this morning since we didn’t have to be over at Smokemont Stables until 11:40am—a bit of a luxury compared to most mornings of our trip with our tight itinerary. The stables were just 3 miles into the park. We had the perfect weather for riding, the expected high to be 73 and sunny.

We got to the stables just fine and had our pre-ride instructions (i.e., no swatting the horse in the butt--they don’t like it, keep them 10 feet apart, don’t let them graze). Another couple from Greenville, SC was also there. Our guide’s name was Justin. Each of us got a horse specially selected for us, the logic of which we haven’t yet figured out. Michele got “Alex” and Rob got “Reuger”.

We made our way leisurely up along the heavily wooded ridge over some rocky paths, smoother gravel paths, and through smaller dirt paths along the river. The views were spectacular. We soon found it was difficult to keep the horses 10 feet apart. Both Alex and Reuger wanted to walk nose to tail. The man in front of Michele had an old lazy horse named Felix. He went his own slow pace oblivious to everyone else. Alex and Reuger got a bit impatient on the hills and wanted to pass him. Alex turned out to be a bit of a handful with a stubborn nature, not listening well to Michele telling him to “Whoa”.

Eventually we reached the waterfall which did not disappoint. It gave us a chance to get off the horses for a stretch, as we all felt a bit bowlegged.

Back on the horses, we made our way back, this time at a slightly faster pace. Alex felt compelled to take his own path, meandering left to right. He was hesitant to step over logs, walk downhill or through mud. He also became a bit naughty, getting close enough to old Felix to nip him in the butt twice! Michele suspects he wanted Felix to move faster so they could get back to their grain snacks sooner. It appeared that everyone else’s horse was behaving well and was calm. Alex took Michele for a stroll into the trees, which she didn’t appreciate! She is convinced he did it on purpose.

We made it back without significant incident at 2:30pm, dismounted, and were happy to feel the cushy seat of the Wing under our bums.

Heading over to Asheville would only take an hour, so we took the scenic route from the beginning (or end depending on which direction your heading) of the Blue Ride Parkway.

It was twistier than the Virginia sections we’ve been on before and really enjoyed it.

We got to our friends, Robert and Shannon’s place, right at 5pm. It was great seeing their girls again after more than a year and a half. They were cute bundles of energy, and their new pups were even moreso! We relaxed with them over spaghetti dinner, which was great to have a homecooked meal after being on the road for a week, and chilled out to watch a few of our favorite TV shows together before heading to bed.

Tomorrow we'll head back into our home state and begin accumulating our stamps for the Motorcycle Grand Tour of Virginia.

May 18

After a good night’s sleep, we had breakfast and were on our way into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The temperatures were cool and the cloud cover a bit low, but no rain within 100 miles of us on the radar.

Traveling along US441 we headed towards Newfound Gap following a stream the entire way.
Within 5 minutes, Michele wanted me to pull over so she could put on her fleece jacket. She already had her heated liner in but needed more layers. With temps in the low 60s it was only going to get cooler as we ascended up the mountain.

Within 12 miles we were entering Tennessee at the Newfound Gap lookout. At 5000 feet the temp was 53F.

We continued along US441 stopping at an overlook that provided scenes like this:

These scenes were typical throughout the park. We made our way to the Sugarland Visitors Center. The center had a nice historical timeline of how the park came to be along with a museum with exhibits of all the various animal and plant species that can be found in the park. Michele liked the “Music of the Mountain” exhibit. She especially liked the part about the “Devils instrument” (the square violin).

By this time it was approaching lunch, so we made our way into Gatlinburg to find food. Nothing in Gatlinburg really appealed to us, and was exceptionally touristy, so we continued on to Pigeon Forge and found a Cracker Barrel.

After lunch we went back into the park and then continued on to Cades Cove. At Cades Cove we drove the scenic loop. What an unexpected treat this turned out to be. The views were spectacular and we saw a few black bears and their cubs.

We stopped by the visitor center at Cades Cove and walked around the “mountain community” the park service had constructed around a mill original to the site.

There were a few signs warning us of snakes and sure enough, Rob spotted a snake at the entrance to one of the buildings. (Michele's note: Rob tends to be a trickster and I thought he was just pulling my leg when he said he saw one under the step. Well, it was very real!) (Rob's note to Michele's note: Michele claims to not be afraid of snakes so I was testing her....if someone squeals and jumps back at the sight of a snake, are they not afraid?). ;-)

We also spotted two birds that were making their nest inside one of the structures.

We back-tracked our way to Sugarland and then to Cherokee via Newfound Gap where we were treated with more spectacular riding.

We arrived back at the hotel at around 6:30pm. We had dinner and retired to the room for the evening.

We only traveled about 150 miles today but the scenery was among the most spectacular we’ve seen on our travels. The Great Smokey Mountain National Park really is quite the treasure.

For today’s “picture of the day” we give you the following. Hint: note the last listing on the sign. We’ll let you add the caption for this one. :-)

Tomorrow we’ll head back to Smokemont in the park for a little horse back riding and then on to Asheville to spend the night with friends.

May 17

It rained most of the night but without severe weather. We ate breakfast at the hotel and just prior to leaving, the rain was starting to move in the area. I figured we had about 20 minutes or so of riding in the rain before finding drier skies. We went ahead and put on our rain gear and were on the road by 8:30am.

It rained heavy for about 5-10 minutes and then we just had intermittent showers throughout the day. Around 10:30, Michele noted that our route was going to take us directly from Georgia to North Carolina completely missing South Carolina. Well, we couldn't resist being so close and not get to experience a little bit of South Carolina. So we hung a right off of US17 and onto SR365 and made our way across the northern section of Lake Hartwell.

We crossed over into South Carolina on the eastern shore of the lake.

We then meandered our way through some very scenic (and twisty) country roads and into the Sumter National Forest.

We crossed back into Georgia.

And then we entered North Carolina.

We rode into Cherokee on Hwy 441 with the low clouds clinging to the sides of the Smokey Mountains (hence their name). Much like our entrance into Yellowstone last year, the rain and ominous clouds provided spectacular scenery as we entered the park.

By 1:30pm we were in the hotel parking lot at Cherokee. Our room was not ready so we made our way into the park and stopped by the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and got our National Parks passport stamps for both the GSMNP and the BRP.

A ranger at the visitor's center told us to stop by the Mingus Mill just up the way. This mill is a turbine mill from the late 1800s. Instead of a water wheel, the mill uses a turbine to power the shafts to grind corn and wheat. It is a working mill for the tourists, and the guide said it can produce 300 pounds an hour, or 6 bushels. He said he has it turned on slow so he doesn't have to bag so much corn meal all day!

We made our way back to the hotel. We had dinner at one of the local restaurants and then went to the new local movie theater to see "Iron Man 2". Tomorrow, we will head into the park and make or way to Sugarland Visitor's Center and then Cades Cove.

Oh. Today's picture of the day? Well even though our hotel is coincidentally next door to a Dairy Queen,

today's picture of the day is the tool to use when you need to trim some trees. Atop the mast is a massive saw blade. Timber!

May 16

Today was a travel day. We departed Melbourne, Florida at around 8:30am and didn’t stop rolling until around noon just across the Florida/Georgia border some 200 miles later. We would make one other stop before rolling into Augusta at 4:30pm.

We traveled a total of about 430 miles today and the weather, although clear, was a tad warm at 90 degrees. We saw plenty of motorcycles traveling south down 95 but didn’t see one traveling north for the 375 miles we were on the interstates today. Hmmm, I wonder if they knew something we didn’t.

We did however see plenty of out-of-state travelers. The 14 traveler states we saw today (not counting Florida and Georgia) included: Virginia (not including us), North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, New Jersey, Arizona, New York, Illinois, and Ontario.

As we skirted around Jacksonville, we crossed a cool looking bridge.

Michele also took a picture of this strange looking structure. Do you know what it is?

But for today’s picture of the day we chose a hot pink classic Ford that we saw on our second stop of the day (I'm sure some of you car guys will know what it is). We were at a Liberty station just off of US25 at the intersection of 2 Chop Road (near Portal, GA). The car sounded pretty good too!

Tomorrow will be a short travel day (about 200 miles) to Cherokee, NC. The weather looks like we’ll be dodging scattered thunderstorms tomorrow but Tuesday and Wednesday are looking good for our Great Smoky Mountain National Park visit.