Cedars of Lebanon State Park/Forest

The gravel roads and trails are not generally marked, so its hard to know if you're following the rules. I did get off on one of the trails. The pics don't show the deep ruts and holes. I decided I'd not go that rough today.

Great roads and riding which is well described by others:


Triple J Ride thru KY WV VA

Triple J According to Uncle Phil

FriendSToc the destination

FriendSToc

I had to leave early to get to my aunt's funeral, so some of the riding I missed. Those rides were for friendship and fun. The ride back starting before daybreak from West Liberty KY, was a time for solitude and pondering the generations. All rides are good though they may be different.

And a short lunch trip to my "stomping grounds"

Bear Creek Pike is where my mother and her brothers and sisters were raised and most have lived their lives. The funeral was for one of my mother's sisters just down the road in Columbia, TN.

Motorcycle Mecca's of a sort. I rode "Dragon" in the 1970s on my CL350. It was just a road then and rarely used by anybody but locals. It was fantastic ... then. Now, well, its an experience but not one that needs repeating more than every decade or so.

Anyway, job hunting paused a bit and two perfect riding days presented themselves. It had been a long time since I had ridden these two roads. Also, Faye had never ridden these roads, so the perfect two day ride popped into existence.

I stayed on two lane about 99% of the time. Heading out: 266 to 96 to 70 to 127 to 68 to the Cherohala. We stayed in a nice local hotel in Robbinsville NC.

On the way back, 143 to 28 to 129 (Dragon) to 411 to 360 to 39 to 310 to 411 to 30 to 70S to 145 to 96 to 266 to home.

The Cherohala was pretty clear and a fun, scenic ride. The Dragon, ruined by its popularity, was OK. Pretty much every other road was more fun.

I did a little back tracking to find Bald River Falls off the Cherohala. A very nice, scenic side trip. Good paved road. If you have tackle and a license you could do some trout fishing.

Cherohala and Dragon

550 mi

Amazing

Picnic lunch at Lock 2 park. Hardly anybody knows where it is. I could have carried a dozen lunches in the Givis.

Leave it to me to remember this was where Faye and I went on our first date. On my brand new CB550F no less. That was the last brand new bike until the VStrom. I'm not sure what to think about that, but I was never long without a bike.

Talked some to the gentleman who rode up on the 3 wheel bicycle. He says he's over being embarrassed about it.

He got blown out of Florida by Hurricane Andrew and has been dodging tornadoes in Tennessee. He owns some property in Wisconsin and I learned that the MS river starts at Lake I<eye>taska.

Pics

I'm fond of gravel

You really learn how to drive when you drive it day in and out.You do get tired of dust and mud. I guess it is inevitable that tarmac rules, but I miss the old way. The Strom eats gravel roads. The engine works beautifully. You can idle down low or accelerate right up to full wheel spin: always fully in control.

I can't remember that last time I didn't run heat. WooHoo! Can't really see the little blue flowers in the pics.

Gone Ridin' -- Chris Issak

Every spring Faye and I take an anniversary trip, usually in March but sometimes earlier or later.

This year we decided on a motorcycle ride to Key West Florida. We went a little later than usual because of the weather.

I traveled some roads that I had not been on since Paul and I drove his green Torino (with bouncy recaps on the front) to Key West just after Christmas 1972.

Day 1: I24 to I75 to Macon GA. What can you say? Interstate droning and busting Atlanta. All went well. Got through Atlanta alive. We ended this day in Macon as planned.

Day 2: More droning. I75 to Wildwood FL. The only rain of the trip...a frog strangler just before Wildwood.

Day 3: I was looking forward to something off the interstate. I was hoping that hwy 41 would be a nice four lane through the coutryside just outside the heavily populated coast. No such luck. The western coast of FL is nice, but there is lots of traffic ... everywhere. I finally decided we'd have to get back on I75 to make some time.

Finally we got back to 41 and it turned almost due east toward Miami through the everglades. After 20 miles or so we finally arrived in the open, uncluttered countryside I was looking for. Once in the everglades the traffic diminished considerably. Like most roads we were on it was straight and in decent condition. There were some rough spots, but the Strom ate up the bumps.

It was a long haul through the everglades and this was our highest mile and longest ride time day. Finally we got to 997 and headed south to Florida City. This is part of Dade County, but an agricultural area. Lots of farming...nothing like Miami. We found a "coupon" hotel and planned for the next day.

Day 4: Everglades National Park. You are talking about 60 mi or so one way. It is actually quite relaxing to know this vast area is mostly untouched by human activity. Of course, some of that activity takes water away and that may eventually kill the everglade. Agricultural watering is an example of how water is used. 20 or more pumper truck will drive into a field and shoot water 50 feet in the air. A really inefficient use of water.

On the way back to the hotel I saw a sign advertising air boat rides. Being a machinery nut I like the idea of a 500 cu in Cadillac engine spinning an aircraft prop just a few feet behind me. We scooted over muck and grass all the while sounding like a crop duster. Fun.

Day 5: We take hwy 997 on down to hwy 1 and go to the keys. This was pretty nostalgic for me as a lot of the old road that Paul and I drove is still there. There is no road in the world like Hwy 1 out to Key West. Not really because of the road as it is pretty ordinary tarmac. It is where you go and what you see.

When you get within about 30 mi of Key West the variety of green in the water and around the islands is astonishing.

For lunch we ate at an Irish pub in Key West. I had an Irish breakfast which was fantastic and Faye had a traditional Irish lunch of cabbage, cheese and mashed potatoes (I forgot the name of the dish, but it was quite good). It was a little crowed around the southernmost point marker, but we got a few pictures without standing in a line. I haven't liked lines since standing in endless lines for class cards (old keypunch cards) at UTK in the 70s.

Didn't have any coupon luck so we stayed at a moderately pricey place on Marathon. A really nice place. Worth the money I guess.

Day 6: Then, it seemed, we had done and seen everything we'd come for, so it was time head for home. The weather was really cranking up in the midwest, so that needed a little planning. From Marathon we headed toward the coast back to 997 and then on to hwy 27.

We stopped in Florida City for gas. There I saw the coolest motorcycle rider I've ever seen. He rode up on an older Harley with factory bags. I don't know Harley models. He was an tall, lean, black man who was dressed as what would be described these days as "office casual". His neat goatee had a sprinkling of gray. He had sytle and calm. Excellent. I made a point of saying hello. I wish my camera hadn't been packed away; I really wish I had a picture of him and his bike.

27 runs straight into the middle of Florida. There are lots of everglades to go through. Not much traffic and in one stretch there was about 50 mi between gas stations. It's a good road, though, 65 mph speed limit, little traffic and few stoplights.

We spent the night in Sebring; nice town. I went out to the raceway but there wasn't anything going on.

Day 7: A big front was on the way, one of those late spring Canadian expresses. Bad weather forcast deep into the south. To avoid that, we angled west toward Tallahassee. We holed up there a couple of days. Not as big a town as I thought, but not bad. We rode down through. Second day we ran down to the coast throught the Appalachicola National Forest. More pines than I've ever seen. A good 50 miles of nothing else. Saw bear signs but not bears.

We went out to St. George Island. Pretty cool. The sound was brown from runoff from all the rain in the area. All the rivers were out of the banks. There was an interesting lighthouse. We then ran the coast easterly back toward Tallahassee. Remote and really out there.

Day 9: Well, its all business now. It was pretty cool overnight, and day temps only in the 50s. Actually, I don't think it got that high. The idea was to make at least 200 miles and get a little north of Montgomery. The route wasn't bad really. It was just cool and windy. We rode through two pretty large dust storms and the gusting winds made me work to the high profile Strom on track. I decided to buy a fork brace to try to improve dealing with crosswind.

We did it, but it was the toughest day of the trip. We stayed in Prattville.

Day 10: It was below freezing that night. We had already decided to relax until check out time to let things thaw out. Worked out great. Although a slab day, I65 home was not bad. The weather was good and it was nice to get home.

The very next day the sky was filled with tornadoes.

Key West Batch 1

Key West Batch 2

Key West Batch 3

2619 mi

What a beautiful day to ride. Finished the taxes, sent out some resume's that nobody looks at and then went ridin'.

Last year I found Orme TN on the old Virago. I didn't find Orme mountain road and didn't check the old CCC road (the Virago really isn't all that great on gravel/dirt).

Today, I finished the deal on the Strom. Orme mountain road doesn't have a sign; that's why I missed it before. OMR is a rough, steep, occasionally maintained road. I'd hate to take a car down it. The Strom doesn't care. It soaked up some massive holes. One very steep section has fresh tarmac. Other sections are vary from gravel to old tarmac.

The CCC road doesn't go all the way through like google map shows, but I rode until the no trespass signs stopped me. At least on the east end fairly ordinary single lane gravel road.

 

http://www.artvilla.com/andy/photos/031709.wmv

The trip came up suddenly. Free time for me through unemployment and Phil due to bad economy short week. There was a BB plan for April, but why wait?

I had to watch the weather because I'm not fully heated. Below 30 deg F is not possible.

Day 1:

Out before daybreak headed to Dallas. Kinda cold, a little wet, but no problems. Interstate droning. Phil being "Uncle Phil" because always has the stuff you need, loaned me heated gloves and a double controller. All good to Dallas where we were going to stay with Phil's riding friend Ken. In Dallas, traffic split us up. A learning experience. Shoulda had all the numbers in the phone and shoulda had the address.

Phone work from a McDonald's didn't yield anything, so I stayed in a Relax Inn next to the McDonald's. Later got connected back by phone.

Day 2:

It got hot. Must have been in the 90's. Also very windy. I think in the 60-70 mph range. Phil, a 250lb former Marine sitting on 700 lbs of motorcycle and gear nearly got blown over at a stop light in Carlsbad. That gust broke one of his windshield mounts. From Carlsbad to Carlsbad Caverns the wind was ferocious. I leaned hard into the wind even though the road was straight. There was constant dust this day due to the wind. I experienced the mixed aromas of sulfur irrigating water and crude oil.

We arrived on time and with plenty of gas at the Guadalupe Mountain National Park campground where the other ST guys were going to be. Unfortunately, they left because of the wind and headed to for Davis. So, with the sun setting, we took off for Fort Davis. We rode briskly while there was light. The 20 miles we rode east on I-10 was the only time with a tailwind. Calm and fast. Speed limit is 80 in West Texas and we going 85-90ish.

Then on 181 down to Fort Davis I decided to slow down to save fuel. In a few minutes Phil decided to slow down because of cows, elk, deer and Javelina.

We managed to find the place and set up the tents in the dark. No moon. The sky was brilliant.

Day 3:

I got to see the camp area at first light. A little canyon. Really nice place. It had been pretty cool overnight, but the UP loaned  0 degree sleeping bag worked great.

Went up see the telescope near Ft. Davis. The facility engineer is an ST rider. Facinatin stuff. Afterwords, Phil and I did the "loop" around Ft Davis: 17 to 166 to 118. Fun road and like most in Texas fast.

Day 4: We came to ride and were out before anyone else. We rode to Presidio and then 170 to Big Bend. Apparently 170 is always "closed" due to construction. We followed the Border Patrol 4 wheel drive truck down the detour. Not a road that the ST likes, but Phil didn't have any trouble. The Strom was not bothered at all by the gravel, dirt, and wash boarding.

Then we rode all the blacktop in Big Bend. Like everything else in Texas: vast. We got back to the campground about dark. This was to be the last "fun" riding.

Day 5: Thank goodness for that top notch sleeping bag because it was 21 deg. in the morning. Some of the campers had bailed and gone to a local hotel. I stayed warm, but it was obviously cold when I took my typical night trot to the john.

So, we packed up, wired up, and headed for Dallas. There was some interesting riding up to Pecos on 17. Once on the interstate though the only memorable thing is the windmills and their giant blades. 80 posted plus 5 is basically what we did for about 100 mi where the posted changed to 75.

In Dallas I stayed tight so we wouldn't get separated. Dallas drivers are always moving into gaps, so I didn't give them a gap. Also, Phil could not see much of anything in his rearviews because of the gear packed on the bike. I, on the other hand, could see rearward very well with the Aprilia Tuono mirrors. So, as soon as Phil signaled a lane change I moved if it was clear. As soon as I moved, he could see me in his mirrors. Thus we sliced and diced Dallas and arrived at Ken's in good order. In a good bed I slept like lumber.

Day 6: The plan was to make it home this day. However, a serious winter storm had struck through Arkansas and Tennessee. It was very cold with about 7 inches of snow on the ground when we hit Memphis. This is after a hard, cold crosswind since Little Rock. While eating at Cracker Barrel just east of Memphis I conferred with home about the weather. Low of 18. I was at my limit at 30. So, Phil, needing to get back to work, wired up his "head to toe" gear in the parking lot and I got a room at the Relax Inn just down the road.

Day 7: I waited for the temperature. By 9:30 I had the rear tire aired up (stupid leaking Chinese tire plug) and all the gear packed. Then I took off. A short ride day. I got to see all the snow in the daylight which was nice. It was pretty cool but not miserable.. I got home about 1 pm.

3127.6 mi

http://www.artvilla.com/andy/photos/BigBend1.wmv

http://www.artvilla.com/andy/photos/BigBend2.wmv