Reawakening?

Hello...

Is there anybody out there?

Just nod if you can here me.

Is there anyone at home?

I can't believe it's been two years since I've last updated anything here. I guess it shouldn't surprise me too much given everything that has been going on, but it is still eye opening how quickly time passes.

Our lives are undergoing another drastic shift and we find ourselves trying to pick up the threads where we left them off a couple years ago. Sadly to say, we really haven't been doing much riding. (Or anything else for that matter.). Soon after getting the big red machine in the last post, we took them on a road trip to Maine again to see our dear friends Mike and BRW. We also took the newly opened ferry service between Portland and Yarmouth and spent a week in Nova Scotia. GORGEOUS!! Coastlines were beautiful, rode the Cabot Trail, overloaded the senses with scenery, and even smuggled some single malt back over the boarder from the distillery that makes the only single malt in Canada. After that we kinda parked the bikes. We took a few day trips, but we had so many other responsibilities that the thrill of riding had turned into the agony of preparation.

So....nothing of note has been going on with regards to the bikes. Hopefully that will be changing. We've already made steps forward and used the extended July 4th holiday to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) again!

We had 4 crazy days to ride the 471 mile parkway, plus the distance to get to the top, starting off point. We had done this in the past, in 3 days. This time we were giving ourselves more time. Wheee... :)

Itinerary: Thursday night - Atl to Bristol, TN, the half way point; Friday - Bristol to Waynesboro, VA, the top most city at the start of the BRP; Sat - Mon - completely open to stopping wherever we want.

Of course, nothing goes as planned...

We were waiting for a package to arrive Thursday afternoon that would return our riding pants, as we had sent then in for minor repairs. Of course, they didn't arrive until 7 pm. Traffic, laziness, packing, procrastination, call it what you want we left about 7:30. We had been hoping for 6. Well, we made it about 90 min up the road, stopped for fuel and to check radar. We had been seeing the clouds cover the sky, and they were trading lightning back and forth regularly.

Radar showed a heavy cell coming quickly, so we decided to take the opportunity to have dinner and hope the storm passed quickly.

Oilburner and I agree that it was nice to miss out on the drenching rain that made a lake out of the parking lot at the Huddle House where we had taken refuge. (What do you mean Taco Bell closes at 9 pm on a Thursday?!?!). But we still aren't sure if we would have been hit if we hadn't stopped. We were right at the convergence where the storm was moving NE and we were going NW. We might have dodged it.

The benefits of stopping was the food and laughter. The drawbacks was that the rain was so hard it seemed to have compromised my waterproof buttons because my escort/blinking lights shorted out and could not be turned off. These things run like 6 million candle watt power and were annoying Oilburner something fierce. So annoying, that 4 miles up the road we were pulling over to figure out some solution. He wanted to cut the wires. Ummm..... NO!!! Doesn't he remember how difficult these were to wire up? And besides, they come in handy when you are fogged into some mountain top on the BRP and fear getting hit. I refused to let him cut the wires and we settled on trying to just cover the lights up. We were somewhat successful, with first aid gauze and surgery tape, but I hear they were still pretty visible. Didn't bother me much, not sure why Oilburner was so annoyed. I felt he should have just ridden in front if he didn't want to look at them. ;)

Ultimately, I loved riding until 2 am, after the rain the weather was cool. Cool enough that I enjoyed turning a little heat in Gerbings on. The ride was beautiful on empty roads and the front lights turned the road to daylight.

Bonus was the hotel let us park the bikes directly next to the door and checkout wasn't until noon. SCORE!! Since we only need to ride about 4 hours the next day, there was not rush.

In all, the trip was wonderful. Spent more time on the bikes, both per day and one trip, than we had in 2 years. And boy our butts let us know now it!

We made parkway logistics more difficult then they needed to be on the first day. We didn't rush but didn't lolligag either, and wound up burning through 200 miles on the first day. We got lost trying to find a hotel in Mt. Airy, VA. No, we didn't see Andy Griffiths childhood home. The second day was great, moving in and out of the clouds. My blinky lights came in handy. :) We took it easy, tempted some fish with with warm string cheese. I learned the fine art of finessing a clutch to run in neutral downhill to see my "mileage to empty" actually run backwards. (I tempted the fuel gods, pleading for them to give me enough to make it to the next gas station 30 miles away. I started with 51 miles, rode 35, and still had 41 to go.) There was a stretch there I coasted for 9 miles, gaining 3 miles back on the computer estimate. Clutch fingers were a little tired, but it was fun calling out as the computer gave me time back.

Highlights: Enjoyed feeding the fish. Liked playing with the butterfly on my boot. Rode 1130 miles. Flipped 13K miles on the red machine. Danced with the fuel gods. Found new filters on my camera. Love the north half of the BRP with fields and farms. Love the south half for the curves. Great getting out on the bikes. Pretty flowers. Fell in love with the chocolate lava cake at Chili's. Redneck spelling.

Link to additional pics.

Day 15 - Front Royal, VA to Otter Creek Lodge, VA

Yes, yes. I am sorry for the long silence. Life has been chaotic here. Oilburner and family continue to ask about the remaining days of the trip and I am attempting to get it written down. There are only a couple more days...and the last one is quite boring and will be exceedingly short. :) This, however, is not the last day. hehe (I promise this is the last long post, though.)

(Day 15 - July 27, 2012)

Ahhh....Shenandoah

The day was beautiful. And we weren't going to make very good time if we continued to stop at every overlook. But we can't help ourselves. It is too pretty of a day. Yes it is warm at the base of the mountains, but up here the temp was about 10 degrees cooler and almost perfect.

Overlooks and Vistor's Centers...it's all good. Of course, I snag my booty of books at the Gift Shop, while Oilburner gravitates towards caps and hiking stick pins. (He wants to see if he can attach them to the front forks instead of loading the motorbike up with stickers.)

We even took a little time to watch a new Ranger begin her presentation on the Black Bear.

Time marches on and so must our wheels. Shenandoah is 100 miles of scenic beauty. Yes, it seems alot like the Blue Ridge Parkway. But one of the books I picked up was the history of the land before the park was created. I looked on the area with an eye towards life here when people were making their livings off the land.

Reaching the south end of Shenandoah we jumped into the nearest city for lunch. Subway has been a mainstay for us on this trip. But my eyes spot an A&W. If I have ever been to one of these then I was too young to remember. And today Root Beer just sounded sssoooo good.

It was...EXCELLENT!!

Since I was taking forever to suit up, I sent Oilburner across the way to pick up a couple 5 hour energy drinks. When I finally pulled up to the door I had to laugh at the sign posted up. English classes are overrated anyways. :)

Oilburner and I are of a mind to spend time on the Blue Ridge Parkway again. We aren't in a rush this time. Or so we thought...

We can't agree on a place to stop for the evening. He was thinking Boone, TN. I'm pretty sure I will not be able to do the distance. We may have ridden the Parkway in two days last time. I'm just not up to that pace this time around. I was thinking Roanoke, VA might be good.

The decision is taken out of our hands.

We knew there was a chance for showers in this area. We just kept seeing the blue skies and not giving it much thought. I mean, we've ridden in the rain before. So what?

Let me tell you...big "what"... I'm a water baby. I love swimming or lounging or floating or lurking or kayaking in the water. I'll stay in water so long the depth of the wrinkles in my fingers and toes can be measured in millimeters. I'll walk in the rain, sing in the rain, dance in the rain. A rain storm doesn't perturb me.

We had stopped for a break, and not able to get any cellular connection on the iPad, we couldn't check the location of the storm. A text message had come into my phone from a friend watching our track, telling us the storm was near. The clouds were starting to cover the blue. And we decided not to put on the rain suits just yet. As we are preparing to leave we wave to two motorcyclists rolling by. They are important...

When we take a turn a couple miles up the road that finally brings us out onto the west slopes of the parkway, giving us our first look west in a long while, my heart plummets into my stomach and begins to burrow into my intestines.

There should be a beautiful view of the rolling hills across the wide valley 1500 feet below us. Instead we are looking at a massive rolling wall of the darkest grey imagineable. The part that impressed me the most was that it was below us! We actually observed the clouds shift and roll over the land toward us. Picture the billowing puffs of the leading edge of a sandstorm. It was like that, only black. It was rolling towards us and it was coming fast!!

I pulled into a turnout hoping Oilburner's camera was handy. (Mine was in the top box.) The 20 seconds it took him to fumble in his jacket convinced me that I didn't want to be sitting here when that wall engulfed us. I told him to forget the picture and took off. Yeah. We should have put the rain gear on. Minutes down the road the sprinkles started and the clouds could be seen rolling through the gaps. The next turn out was an exposed western overlook. Oilburner was able to get into his gear. I managed to get into my jacket and just said forget the pants. The rain was coming down hard and I wanted to get away from the exposure. I knew it wasn't an option to walk away from the bikes. Where could we have taken shelter from the lightning? I had known of two different people who were recently killed by lightning striking the tree they had taken shelter under (yes, away from the bike).

A turn down the road convinced me there was no "right" decision. Too much rain had gotten into my helmet and I couldn't see. The rain was coming down so hard I couldn't see. The wind was whipping the trees into a frenzy and leaves were whirling around like a tornado and I couldn't see. When branches started littering the road is when I started to seriously thinking about ditching the bikes to crawl down the mountain a little way.

Within 5 minutes the brute force died down and the rain stopped. Now we just had to avoid the downed trees and crazy drivers. Thankfully there weren't too many drivers. There were quite a few downed trees, though.

Another 5 minutes down the road and the Lodge at Otters appears. Hmmm...fate? Oilburner makes an executive decision to stay if they have a room. I don't disagree. Oilburner discovers that the couple that had passed us earlier had just checked in. They had gotten the brunt of the storm too and not faired as well. Hubby, in the lead, barely missed getting hit by a tree, by riding through the crown as it fell. Wife managed to hit the tree and fall off her bike. She was close to stopping, so no real damage. Thank goodness.

By the time Oilburner checked us in all of the clouds had cleared out and drifted away. It was almost making me regret our decision to stop. What's done is done and we are going to make the most of this and enjoy the evening.

The lodge is...interesting... It's from the 50's era and still lives there. Televisions do not exist, cellular coverage is non-existent, no phones, no radio's. (Please don't take that as a complaint, since I loved it.) I even think the air conditioner is original. There is even a bathroom tile with a slot for used razor blades! I grew up with medicine cabinets with razor slots, but I have never seen a tile. Surprisingly the beds are new and quite comfortable.

The heater works well to begin drying our gear. We're using every conceiveable space and Oilburner manages to optimize space. Gloves are draped over the lampshades. Boots are upended and wedged between the table and window directly above the heater. My jacket and pants are hung on the curtain rod above the heater, with the curtains pulled around them to trap the heat in a pocket. Since Oilburner managed to don his rain gear his armor wasn't too wet.

The room was harboring a few dead spiders and a severely musty smell. The smell was a well known issue since there was a "damp collector" and multiple air freshners in the room. The food at the restaurant was "so-so." The $29.95 AYCE (All-You-Can-Eat) Seafood bar was definitely not to my liking, in either taste or cost, but was definitely the freshest thing on the menu.

The evening lighting was spectacular and I was up for a walk around the lake, until the mosquitos decided that I made a great dining opportunity. We took shelter in the room and talked, looked at maps, and read the night away. The evening was blessedly uneventful and very restive.

More images can be seen by clicking here.

Ack!!

Plans were laid.  Routes were uploaded to the Garmin's.  Reservations at a cute little B&B procured.

We were going to do Cherohala Skyway and The Dragon the "proper" way.  In the past we have always rushed through the miles and the day to make it round trip home again.  This time we were going to slow the day down, stop and smell the spring flowers, run Cherohala one day, stay at a little bed and breakfast centrally located, run the Dragon the next, and actually hit a new road through Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  A road that we have wanted to do for years and haven't been able to.

It just wasn't meant to be...

A not-so-little landslide on the Dragon.  No one was hurt, but it will be closing the most sought after road in the area for a couple of weeks.

This isn't a heartbreak for us.  After all, we have ridden this a couple times.  It's just that it was the shortest route to get us around and over to the Smokies and headed back home in the proper sequence.  Now we have to navigate the Smokies south to north...then find an easy way to head south again.

It went from something like this:

View Larger Map

To maybe something like this:


View Larger Map

Or maybe we will wile away the day and ride through Cades Cove:


View Larger Map

I don't know.  If we spent our time in Cades Cove, we just might have to head back and hit the last few miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway again.  Wow.  Life would be rough.  :)

I hope that your weekend will allow for some good riding plans that pan out.

Again: Can the Blue Ridge Parkway be Ridden in an Extended Weekend?

Adventures of Day One

Adventures of Day Two

Day Three dawned after another wonderful night in a hotel room with air conditioning and a comfy bed with sheets.  Oh yeah and a running shower.  I didn't have any difficulty sleeping after my cocktails and dinner last night.  I woke up refreshed and ready to climb onto my mighty steed and get moving.  Oilburner was ready, but I still chuckled at his groans of soreness.

Forecasts were predicting chances of rain today.  We didn't take that seriously for the morning hours that had a very low percentage.  We were more concerned with the evening hours when the percentage was nearing 70% at home.  So we left the hotel with a light heart and light clothing under the armor.  We quickly became aware of the error of our ways since the ridge road we were on was shrouded in a cold, damp fog.

Why is it "fog" when you are in it, but someone looking up from the valley would say the mountain was shrouded with clouds?  No need to answer, I looked it up and it has something to do with how it was formed (four types of fog formation) and proximity to ground.

Either way, we stopped and climbed into warmer gear.

Our biggest dilemma for today was defining what it meant to "ride the BRP".  We had ridden a large portion from the bottom up last year.  did we just need to ride what we hadn't ridden to say we have "ridden" it?  or did we need to ride the entire BRP in one shot to claim that victory?

Technically speaking we only needed to ride a handful of miles now to reach the spot where we had turned around last year.  We could do that and then do whatever we wanted.  But we were a mere 180 or so miles (290 km) from the end.  At yesterday's average we should be able to do that in 4 hours.  (Then home would be another 2 1/2.)  Or...we could just stay on the Parkway however long we felt like it and get off when we wanted.

Funny.  We were both still on our high from the twisties yesterday and really wanted to say we had ridden the entire BRP on this trip.

We will not go into my stubborn insistence that I don't really feel like we can say we rode the entire BRP this time.  I mean there is an 18 mile (29 km) section that was closed for renovations that our tires have not touched before.  Can we, in all good conscience, say we have "ridden" it?  I think it might be a different in definition.  Legally we were not allowed to ride this section.  Which is very different from choosing not to ride it on our own accord.

I took "riding the BRP" seriously and would always backtrack us to the location we exited from.  And my strict nature still wonders about the 20 to 50 foot (6 to 15 meters) difference of where my tire turned to leave versus where it was when we re-entered.  Yes.  Sometimes I can be very exacting.  hehe.

The bragging rights won out and we thrilled at the prospect of riding the entire BRP in two days.  As I asked last year: Can the BRP be ridden in an extended weekend?

Why yes.  Yes it can.  IF you don't dawdle with all that sightseeing stuff and are willing to ride a teensy bit faster than the posted speed limit to make up for all the times you are stuck behind someone going far below it.

We had a few slow drivers.  But generally the Parkway was quite empty since it was mid-week.  What really slowed us down was the fog.  We encountered some wispy fog that just blew across our path. 

And we encountered thick, pea soup type of fog that reduced visibility to 20 feet (6 meters).

The temperature plummeted from 68F (20C) to 53F (12C).  We had shrugged into the warm gear already, and now it was time to wriggle into the rain gear.  This was thick, dense fog that was producing some good rain or clingy water droplets.

Strange how our eyes have a more difficult time penetrating the fog, identifying objects, seeing, than the cameras do.  The pictures don't do justice to how much [human] visibility was impaired.  We had been crawling along with our flashers on.  This was my first time in fog.  What an interesting experience.  I discovered that I had a tendency to hover near the center line simply because I could not see the right edge well.  (The BRP doesn't paint a white line on the edge of the road.)  We can also attest to the light reflecting quality of the newly painted center stripe on a section that was recently repaved.  Much easier to see!

After squinting to see I remembered we had amber lenses and we had to stop yet again to install them.  Hopefully someday I will figure out to do these all at the same time.  I can also attest to the beneficial difference an amber lens makes for visibility in fog.  I was able to make out more looming objects in the fog than before.

We rounded a mountain into an unexpectedly clear zone allowing a glimpse to an adjacent peak still shrouded in fog, with a dense field flowing down into the valley.  I stopped at the next overlook to see if we could capture it.

It was breathtaking to see the blue sky, wisps of fog swirl around, dense banks down the mountain that were bright white as the sun reflected off them, but gray ones up the peak that the sun wasn't reaching.  This unexpected reprieve led us to find a comfortable spot on the bikes and close our eyes for a few minutes.

What can I say?  The remainder of the trip was perfect.  Aside from a few people that refused to let us pass, it gave us the chance to slow down and look around.  Otherwise it was a perfect trip carving some twisties.  In our ever ongoing discussions of riding technique through the helmet communications Oilburner reminded me of another "form" of connecting with the bike for better turning.  It had been on my mind the day before, but I wasn't sure how to go about implementing moving my tush across the seat into a lean.  He gave me a pointer of not "moving" but at least "shifting" the weight to that cheek a little.  WOW!  Huge difference that made me feel a more solid connection with the bike.  I was able to lean and turn into the curve without any handlebar input.  Then, if I felt I was coming in a little hot and fast I still had full use of the handlebars to push down and steer a little more into it.  It instantly transformed how I felt with the bike through curves.  Much more solid and stable.

Talking about it over lunch I was very aware of the thought processes behind this that could lead someone into trouble.  While I had much more confidence in the turns and was taking them at speeds I had only dreamed about before, I was completely conscious of the fact that I didn't have the experience to recover from a road obstacle at those speeds.  So don't think that I am getting a swelled head and will be running the Dragon at 60 mph or anything.  I will fold this new knowledge slowly into my arsenal and practice, practice, practice.

And Yes, we did ride the entire Blue Ridge Parkway.  :)

More images available on Flickr.