Day 52. Sick Day!

Monday, September 29th

I have felt lucky so far that neither of us got sick on this trip. However, our lucky streak ended yesterday and today. Poor Tom had a dreadful day yesterday, getting more and more congested, sneezing and sniffling with aches and chills. Apparently it is no fun sneezing into a full face motorcycle helmet! Thankfully he slept well last night as only Tom can - over 14 hours - and felt much better today. I have felt sub-par all day today but am hoping I have fought off whatever it is and will feel OK tomorrow. It did rain this morning so we were happy to be tucked up here and not riding off anywhere 100's of miles away. So we had a nice lazy day here in Floyd. The rain stopped in the afternoon so we ambled around this nice little town. Floyd is known for it's mountain music which happens mainly on the weekends and certainly not on a Monday - too bad really as I'm sure we would have enjoyed it.

Scenes around town:

We had a great cup of coffee here:

But did not partake of the canned Possum!

A taste never forgotten? I don't think so!

Day 51. To Floyd, VA along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Sunday, September 28th.

Once again we have changed our plans due to the weather forecast. Originally we planned to stay 2 nights at the campground and avoid traveling on the Blue Ridge Parkway on Sunday when, by all accounts, the traffic can be busy. But, rain is forecast for Monday and Tom has developed a nasty cold so we thought it best to beat feet to our next destination and avoid having to travel in the rain with a sick Tom! So, after some great coffee and delicious juice drink courtesy of Terry, we sadly left our friends with promises to meet on our (and theirs) next road trip. In no time we were back on the parkway which was very quiet with little traffic, I assume this was because it was a bit of a cloudy day.

We were treated to beautiful roads and incredible scenery:

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All American Road. The parkway runs for 469 miles through Virginia and North Carolina, mostly along the Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. Construction started in 1935 during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt and took 52 years to complete. No commercial traffic is allowed and there are no major intersections making it a perfect road for touring by all kinds of traffic. We were able to exit to a small town called Blowing Rock, where we had lunch at the Blowing Rock Market; voted the number one gas station in USA. A brilliant stop with a fantastic lunch, a gourmet market and we filled up with Gas - one stop shopping - my kind of place! 
We continued along the Parkway until we came to Floyd, VA, our stop for the night. We checked into the very comfortable Floyd Hotel, who happily were able to accommodate us for the extra night.

Trip Mileage: 242.   Moving time: 6 hours.

Day 50. To Lake Powhatan Campsite, NC.

Saturday, September 27th.

We left the incredibly comfortable Tellico Lodge fairly early as we had a lot of riding to do. I have to say that the Lodge is doing everything right, especially for touring bikers and we would love to return. There are so many great motorcycle roads out here we could easily spend a week just riding. But we had places to go and people to meet so off we went.

First up was the Cherohala Skyway. This is another of those iconic motorcycle roads and it did not disappoint. We barely saw another vehicle on the road as it was fairly early. There were a number of pick-up trucks in the overlooks and we noticed that many of them had dogs in kennels in the back. Turns out they were coon hunting.

The Cherohala Skyway is so named as it runs through the Cherokee National Forest and then the Natahala National Forest. It also runs through the Cherokee Nation.

This truly is a "Skyway". We ascended to over 5,000 feet and were above the clouds - spectacular!

As the clouds burned off the views were revealed:

Cherokee legend has it that these mountains were created when a great buzzard was looking for dry land. The ground here was so soft that each time he came down to land his wings created the gouges and furrows we see today.

After coming down from the Skyway, we had a quick lunch in the town of Cherokee and then headed to Maggie Valley. Here we stopped at Wheels Through Time, which bills itself as the "Museum That Runs". What an incredible place - we could easily have spent a whole day there. It is full of stuff like this:

The museum houses over 300 rare and historic classic motorcycles. Even more amazing is that many of them run having been carefully by Dale Walksler the owner / curator of the museum. He was delighting us all by jumping on various ancient machines, starting them up and riding them around the grounds. After just a few short hours we had to make tracks again. This time heading onto the Blue Ridge Parkway:

Once again we were treated to amazing views at every turn. I am running out of superlatives to describe it! After about 60 miles on the parkway we exited and headed just a few miles down the road to the Lake Powhatan Campground. This may seem like an odd destination for inveterate non-campers like us. However, we have two very dear friends who are Camp Hosts for the Summer at the campground. When we arrived at their "campsite" we were relieved to see a large and luxurious 5th wheel RV - no tents for us! We first met Terry and Barb in 2007 in our previous life as sailboat cruisers. We travelled to the Bahamas together and had many a great adventure with them. Thankfully we have kept in touch over the years even though we have long since sold our sailboat (now replaced by Harleys!). We had a great time with them both. Beers were opened almost before our kickstands were down and so no reproducible photos were obtained!

Trip mileage: 186.

Day 49. To Tellico Plains, TN

Ooops - well behind in posts again. I will do my best to catch up.

Friday, September 26th.

Today we rode along the Tennessee Valley and into the foothills of the Appalachians at the Eastern edge of Tennessee. The ride was fantastic - I swear there is not a bad motorcycle road in this State. We were making tracks today and didn't take many photos.

We finally stopped at a Sonic for coffee! These drive-ins are all over the place out here. I assume the climate is more conducive to such places where people seem quite content to sit in their vehicles to order and consume their drinks and food. They do not seem to exist in Maine - too cold in the winter?

Watts Bar Dam - part of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Quite impressive to see this hydro-electric dam, complete with lock, across the Tennessee River.

We got talking to an interesting old guy in the parking lot. He was eyeing our license plates and was very interested in our journey. It turns out he collects license plates and has a complete collection from all over the country. In fact he was on his way to a license plate collectors convention - who knew there was such a thing! He wistfully told us, as he gazed at our plates, that he doesn't have a motorcycle plate from Maine. Unfortunately, we couldn't help him!

After more lovely scenic riding, we arrived in Tellico Plains and made a beeline for Tellico Grains, a wonderful bakery doing amazing sandwiches. After our delicious lunch and excellent coffee we found our way to the Tellico Lodge. This was a little tricky as, for the first time, our GPS steered us wrong - directing us down a dead end street. We finally got out of that tangle and back onto the main road where we soon found the lodge. This was an amazing, biker friendly, place with log cabins built around the property. We were able to use a hose to wash the bikes and then park them in a secure "bikes only" garage - perfect!

Our cabin

 Bikers garage - apparently new this year

 It would seem that graffiti is encouraged as Sharpies were provided!

Trip mileage: 199 miles.    Moving average: 47mph.     Travel time: 4:12

End of Week 7.

Sadly, we are coming to the end of our amazing adventure although we keep reminding ourselves we still have some fun ahead!

So far we have ridden through 27 States (7 in the last 5 days) and visited 13 different National Parks. What incredible sights we have seen. We have spoken with all kinds of people, all of whom have been friendly and we always enjoy such interactions. Everywhere we have stayed has welcomed us warmly and we have had clean comfortable lodging all around the country. We have eaten all kinds of food and have done our best to stick with the local dishes as far as possible - we have both gained weight!

Total mileage to date: 9688.2.
Total miles to go: approx 2,000. (Will depend on the weather as we get closer to home - we may make a run for it or, if the weather is fine, stretch it out as much as possible).

Day 48. The Natchez Trace Parkway

Just a bit of a sluggish start to the day after the Blues last night! But, once again we were greeted with  clear blue sunny skies. We left Clarksdale wishing we had more time to explore and soak up some more Blues. We headed East to Tupelo and here picked up the Natchez Trace Parkway. Until I began researching scenic roads and byways I had never heard of this route. It is actually a very historic byway. It originated as an animal track, made by the migration of Bison from the salt licks in Tennessee to the grassy plains of the Mississippi Delta. The constant migration created a depressed track (referred to as a "Trace" by the French). The track was then used by Native Indians to move up and down the countryside to trade with other tribes. The whole area around the Trace is very rich in history and it was fascinating to spend time at the visitor center learning all about it. It was saved from disappearing altogether when the route was developed as a scenic byway therefore making sure it will be preserved. It was a very peaceful drive as no commercial traffic is allowed.

We stopped for lunch on the banks of the Tennessee River in Alabama,

We ended up cruising leisurely along the parkway into Tennessee and exited to head East a little more until we finally stopped in the town of Fayetteville. We made good progress today, having breakfast in Mississippi, lunch in Alabama and supper in Tennessee!

Trip: 295 miles.   Moving Average: 49mph.  Moving time: 6hrs.

Day 47. Mississippi Blues!

Wednesday, September 24th

So, somehow today we ended up in Mississippi! This was a planned stop but I'm not quite sure how this ended up being on the way home to Maine.

First let me back track to the morning. We had an amazing cooked breakfast of Blueberry pancakes, bacon and eggs at the Hootie Creek House. Then we set off for the Talimena Scenic Byway. This is a national parkway (and the reason we came to Talihena) and runs into Arkansas. We were the only ones up and out so early and we saw one other bike and one car on the whole route. Just stunning views from the various overlooks and a fun twisty road ascending and descending the hills.

After ending up in Mena, at the other end of the Parkway, we continued across Arkansas. Eventually we crossed the Mississippi River, remarking to each other how long it seemed since we had crossed it East to West. No photos this time though as we missed the turn off for the overlook! Then we headed South into the Mississippi Delta. I was delighted and amazed to see cotton fields all around and had to stop and look.

As mentioned before this route is obviously not getting us any closer to home. So, to explain - when we were planning our routes, Tom happened to notice that Clarksdale, MS was within a 500 mile radius of a possible route home. Therefore we made the detour to this town, the birthplace of the Blues. We were staying in The Clark House, a grand old mansion built by the man whom the town was named after.

We dropped off our bags, showered and changed and headed out to hear some true Mississippi Blues!

 Good times indeed!

Trip:351.   Moving Av: 48mph.    Moving time: 7hrs 17mins

Day 46. To Talihena, OK

Tuesday, September 22nd.
Another bluebird sky day on tap as we set off early again. We headed South before turning East and crossed the remainder of the Texas Panhandle. We chose our route today to avoid the dreaded Interstate 40 and by pure chance ended up on some fine riding roads.

We crossed into Oklahoma:

As we progressed East, we watched the countryside change from open, flat, dry, farmland almost devoid of trees to a more green, lush landscape. At one point Tom described it as bucolic!
This was true small town America where the gas stations have bottles for feeding baby cows on the shelves:

After 373 miles we arrived in Talihena, OK and the Hootie Creek House Bed & Breakfast. 

This place got great reviews on Trip Advisor and quite rightly so. This was one of the only Hotels in town and had been closed for many years and was on the verge of being condemned. The current owners, Essex and Caroline, swooped in and spent over two years renovating the building before moving in themselves and opening the B&B. It truly was a wonderful place and once again we felt lucky to be able to stay there. We popped across the street to the Diner for supper - Fried Catfish and Hush Puppies - Yum!

Trip: 373.   Moving Av: 54mph.   Moving time: 7hrs

Day 45. Following the Mother Road

Monday, September 22nd.

The skies were cloudy when we woke up and we were fairly certain we would be in for some rain today. The rain gear was put on before we left and, as always, it did a good job of warding off the rain! We continued our quest to follow Route 66 and it was much easier today, with more of the original route in place.

After crossing into Texas we immediately came to Glenrio - a true Ghost Town.
The old motel, the sign used to say "First in Texas":

 Cafe:

Gas station:

We travelled further, for the most part paralleling I 40, the road that killed all the little towns we were riding through, we saw dozens of derelict gas stations and motels. A little depressing when we thought about all the broken dreams that these sights represented.
We hit the midpoint of Route 66:

And headed towards Amarillo but first a quick detour led us to this:

 Cadillac Ranch!

Then we headed into Amarillo for lunch. Plenty of signposts to follow:

As we were parking the bikes a friendly man stopped to chat. He recommended Smokin' Joe's for Lunch and it did not disappoint , plenty of Route 66 ambience:

After a satisfying lunch, back on the road until we reached our destination for the night, Shamrock, Texas. They have a really neat, restored Conoco Station, which now serves as a welcome center:

All in all a very satisfying and fun day!