Touring Blog

I drove the bike to work and left at quitting time on Tuesday the 3rd. We spent two great days on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Thursday was a short ride to Mount Mitchell and back. Saturday was a trip from H’ville to Boone N.C. for lunch/dinner. For the return we rode up Hwy 421 and took Hwy 67 to Johnson City TN. We then caught the “new” part of I-26 back into N.C. This part of I-26 is nice. The traffic is light and not a lot of on/off ramps. The area it is in is somewhat remote.

I rode up to Hendersonville again on Friday to meet some family members for a Mother’s Day gathering. I took Hwy 176, a nice road and it gets really interesting above Tryon N.C. Saturday was spent on the Blue Ridge Parkway (with a slight detour down 276 to the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Campground and back up to the Parkway).

At The Bookstore

Pisgah Forest

Somewhere along the parkway

I rode the BRP starting from Pisgah Forest to Little Switzerland and then on up to the Lynn Cove Viaduct. Then I headed for Hendersonville back down the parkway.

Wagener is one of the many small towns in S.C. that time and progress have passed by. This is not a bad thing. It leaves the town as it was, for the most part, fifty years ago. Small towns are fun to ride through and stop in. For me finding that “local” restaurant that serves good simple food,

Well Alan C. and I headed that way via Batesburg-Leesville, two small towns very close to one another, hence the hyphenated name. Well they prefer to be called by their own name but, I remember when there was only one phone book for both and it was labeled, “Batesburg-Leesville”.

We went through Batesburg-Leesville on to Wagener and back to Batesburg-Leesville to stop in at the Triumph dealer there. They were closed for the holidays and so we headed back to Alan’s house. It was a short 100 mile trip but, it was enjoyable to get out and ride.

Well the wife and I rode two-up to test out the rider-pillion feature of the Starcom intercom. One word, WOW! She could hear me and I her even at interstate speeds and slightly beyond… In fact I had to tell her to not talk so loud (talking loud with the Autocom system is a necessity).

Great performance at a fair price. Hey! We all want things cheaper.

Well we got back from our trip to Monticello and Louisville KY at 2000 hours today.. That is 8:00 pm if you do not know the 24 hour time format. My wife has relatives in both places and we went visiting.

The route taken was I-26 to Hendersonville N.C. (to make time) and spend the night. Vickie had worked half day and did not feel like doing the entire trip Friday night. We left H’ville 0830 Saturday morning, headed for Monticello KY. We took I-26 to Asheville and picked up N.C. 19 to U.S. 70 and rode 70 to Newport TN to avoid the I-40 road construction between Asheville and Knoxville TN. We picked up I-40 in Newport TN. to I-75 in Knoxville. We then got off the interstate (I HATE THE INTERSTATE!) and took…