Kim and I have been married for 13 years.
So we decided that another trip to NC was in order.
However, since vacation and funding are both on the endangered species list, we decided to just do a long weekend (3.5 day trip) and camp for 2 of the 3 nights. If any of you were watching the weather like we were last week, things were looking more than a little ominous. And, it's been 13 years... cue theme music from twilight zone
Prelude: I spent a goodly chunk of last week getting the bikes ready. Both the FJ and the Bandit needed tires, the Bandit and I were wrestling with who was smarter...me or plastic and metal. I eventually prevailed and the headlights WERE upgraded.
In the process of putting everything back together, I made sure that the chains were at the perfect tension...while on the centerstand...and unloaded. You see where this is going? Ugh. The underlying theme behind this trip is this odd mechanical sounding noise coming from both the bikes. It wasn't horrible and we both use earplugs / tunes so it didn't even present until the middle of day 2. Mental note: when tightening the chain, leave some room for the weight of the bike and the load to compress the suspension and tighten the chain. This has been a public service announcement.
Day 1: Friday, August 28th was not a nice weather day here in MD. Radar showed the better part of the Shenandoah Valley covered in green and our destination of Roanoke covered in dark green. We expected to get pummeled by rain. There were hurricanes and tropical storms all around after all. How could we avoid it? There were flash flood warnings for our immediate area with predictions of extremely high rates of rainfall. Sweet. But, fear not for our heros are hard core. :cool: We had reserved the right to make this a truck camping trip if we saw fit but we had invested so much time and money into getting the bikes ready and packed, that we decided that we were riding even if it meant 3 days in the rain. Wouldn't be the first time.
We were scheduled to leave after Kim got home from work. She was supposed to leave early but got caught up and we ended up getting on the road around 5:30 or so. While we were putting the final touches on our preparations, the sky unleashed a torrent upon the earth. We just smiled at each other knowing what was to come...
We kiss the dogs goodbye and head out to the garage. We roll out of the garage and it's not really raining at the moment but it's ugly and obviously very wet. There are what appear to be storm clouds all around so we await the inevitable. Stop one is in Winchester for gas and dinner at the Sheetz then we simply endure 81 down to the next gas stop then on to Roanoke. In the approximately 236 miles to Roanoke, we hit rain exactly ZERO times.
We got a room at a Hampton, which I suspect was purchased by Hampton as opposed to having started life as a Hampton if you know what I mean. However, we were pleasantly surprised by the price and the room.
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loginYes. This is a shower and a tub w/ a shower. Cool.
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loginWe slept pretty hard.
Day 2:
We tolerated a continental breakfast and got on the road ... at some point. Here's the thing about this trip that's different from others... We had no plans. For many of you, this might be a normal thing. Kim is not one of those people. Her middle name could easily be "itinerary". Ask anyone who has been on a trip with us and they will joke about the itinerary and the time lines that need to be adhered to in order to make pre-determined destinations. While joking, they are secretly very grateful that she makes all those plans, makes reservations, handles check-in etc. So this little foray into the great unknown was a pretty substantial departure from character. So we headed out whenever and made our way over the the Parkway.
The view from the hotel room:
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loginThe weather was about perfect. This would become a theme for the trip. I can't tell you how perfect but it was sunny and I was neither hot nor cold. That makes it perfect. We jumped on the Parkway at Roanoke and began our trip south. Once again, we had no real destination but knew that there were several good camping options in 300s mile markers. In addition to winging it, we decided that this trip would be about the road and not the ride. Bear with me... We're usually all about "riding" the Parkway and usually our pace indicates that. There usually isn't time to look at anything other than the next turn or the shadows where a park ranger might be sitting. On this trip, however, we wanted to change things up a little and see the sights and slow down. There is a LOT of really nice scenery along this road.
After a whopping 30 miles, we stopped at Smartview which is a very nice picnic area. We'd only ever stopped at the parking area right on the road and had never gone back into the actual picnic area. Very nice. I recommend it.
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loginOur next stop was at Fancy Gap, or more specifically Hillsville to check out the Log Home models that are right off the exit. Humpf. Apparently, those guys went out of business as two of the three models were only framed inside. The one that was finished was pretty nice though and currently being used by some board of tourism or something. That was a bust but we got a good idea for our kitchen in our virtual log home. Then we headed over to some mom n pop Mountainside Restaurant for lunch. There was a buffet...it was $8.79 or something. Awesome fried chicken, something in gravy, sausage and veggies in some red sauce, mashed taters, fried fish chunks etc... and of course, sweet tea. Yum-O. Oh, and we were off the median age by several to many decades. And they were singing bluegrass gospel in the back room. Banjos and all.
We got back on the Parkway, put the needle on 55 (which is prolly like 48 or so) and just watched stuff go by, sniffed the sniffs, waved at the cows, noticed all the property for sale
and just rode happy...like really happy. It was probably low 70s and sunny for the better part of the day. Awesome! I could go on for a LONG TIME about how perfect this day was with almost no traffic, new tires, comfy bikes, cool temps, freshly paved and dry road, etc. but it's tough to convey that if you've not done it. I sympathize with those who "do" the parkway in a day or just to click it off the list.
I think we got gas in Boone
since the detour put us there anyway then continued on to start looking for a place to camp. We had never stopped at Linville Falls campground (mm 316 ish) so we decided to give it a try. Meh. It is similar to other campgrounds in that there is good parking, nicely laid out sites etc. but this one was kinda lacking for us. Not enough privacy, too much open grass (inviting children to frolic) and sites that were too exposed to each other. I don't recommend it unless you can't make it farther down the road. We headed down to Crabtree Meadows (mm 340) and were very happy with it so we grabbed a nice private site and set up shop.
Many people camp on motorcycles and I've seen countless threads about good tents that will fit in a topcase or whatever. Let it be known that we have nice backpacking gear. When hiking into the Grand Canyon, I want gear that is light and compact and I will sacrifice some comfort for that. However, since we were on two big motorcycles both w/ E41 side cases and one w/ a V46 and the other an E52 topcase, we decided that there was room to carry the "other" camping gear...
Yeah, this is how we roll.
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loginWe opted to go w/ sleeping bags instead of a comforter and sheets.
Oh, but notice the pillows. :sleepy: The philosophy is that I would much rather take the time to pack and carry the good stuff than to risk not getting a good night's sleep when on the motorcycles. Too risky to be tired while riding. There is a downside... We have a little blower thing we use to blow up the queen size air mattress. It plugs into a standard 12v power plug. Kim has a bmw plug and I have a coax both for our Gerbings. I knew this and brought my handy little Aerostitch micro air compressor but hoped to not have to use it. So I asked the guy at a nearby sight if I could use his power for 2 minutes and he said sure. Of course because someone was watching, we both forgot the "process" we have developed over the years for blowing up the air mattress with this thing and looked like total idiots and ended up having to do it over. We are SO cool. :cool:
I guess when you do all the camera duty, you get to decide what bike will be in the pictures.
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loginWhat we didn't bring, however, was food. This was intentional as we opted to carry more bedroom and less kitchen. So after we set up, we headed into Little Switzerland for dinner. We usually stop for lunch at the sandwich side. This time we went into the dining room and had a monster dinner. Kim got the prime rib and I got a rack o ribs. Portions were bordering on ridiculous and since we were NOT about to have leftovers with us in bear territory, we were selective about the portions we ate. As we were donning the stitches to leave, the couple beside us struck up a conversation. I mentioned we were down for our 13th anniversary. He said "tomorrow is our 47th anniversary". OK. You win.
The lady, who must have been 75+ asked about the stitch. She had yet to see the helmet...
Her: "What's with the outfit?"
Me: "It's for protection"
Her: "What are you protecting yourself from, bears?"
Me: "The road"
Her: *boggle*
Husband: "They're on cycles."
Her: "Ooooooh"
So cute. We went outside and it was raining...sort of. It was spitting very lightly and gray and dark...cuz it was mostly dark out. By the time we got geared up and on the road, the rain stopped. Awesome. Back at the tent, we had plans for reading our books by LED headlamp. Didn't happen. We slept hard.
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