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Awesome! Glad you got to see Barbers. It is a place of dreams!

Whiskerfish wrote:Awesome! Glad you got to see Barbers. It is a place of dreams!

Yeah, you would need several days in that place, just dreaming.....

Barbers was cool! I have nothing more interesting than what KG reported from that other than all the cool sidecar pictures I took for my Grandma.

We had such a beautiful time in Alabama. It was really needed family and rest time. My Aunt made us a really nice dinner and we got the chance to see a couple of fantastic viewpoints nearby. And of course my Uncle knew all the great roads nearby as he used to ride his nice sports car all around the area and used to be a biker himself, and still is at heart. He was a great supervisor to the bike cleaning with KG. Very helpful when we forgot to wash off the soap and even did a last minute chrome polish for us! Looking forward to returning to the south to spend time with them again!

DAY 18

After another night in a comfortable bed and great hospitality it was hard to leave the Uncles house, but after much delay we did anyway!

First we went 100 miles to Atlanta for excellent Ethopian lunch with Amandas old friend, and then after another 100 miles at sunset we reached a nice camp ground at Blue Ridge Lake.

Starting from tomorrow it seems there will be only nice motorcycle roads all the way up to NYC!

mr west wrote:I want to clearify that the main objective of this trip is not to visit Chinese Buffets. I think our priorities are something like this:

1) Move the bike to NYC latest Sept 22
2) catch as many motorcycle roads as possible on the way there
3) stay at nice campsites on the way
4) get good value for money meals that are not too unhealthy....

Now no 4 for some reason mostly means chinese buffet. If you take it easy on the fried stuff and the desserts, its not so bad for you. Now concidering its all you can eat for 8 or 9 dollars its hard to beat! But after today we felt its gonna be enough for a while. It seems they all get the food from the same wholesale dealer or something? Feeling a bit fed up. Going to look for other food now...

Sounds reasonable. I've heard of trips with objectives of camping for free and eating ice cream every night.

That’s some gnarly wheel chair !

Gord

RAT wrote:That’s some gnarly wheel chair !

I am soo getting one of those when I get to that point!

You have a buffet racer. Nice trip. Wishes for good weather back to NY.

It’s an Action Track! It’s really amazing. All terrain and operates with a joy stick. There is some organization that occasionally hands them out to veterans. I got to take a ride on it through the woods and it really is cool!

DAY 19

We woke up on that nice lake and I didn’t get pictures but the bottom of the lake was red silt with some black sand. Really pretty. I swam out a bit in the morning and shortly after I got out, the guy who had camped next to us got in to float on their inflatable bed. It didn’t exactly work.

We got going pretty late, around noon. We stopped for breakfast at a Waffle House close by so we basically got on the road at 1:30 which is super late if you’re about to get into mountain roads and are trying for 200 miles before sundown.

Nice riding though! We made it to Cherohala Hwy. Really good curves and views! From there on to the legendary Tail of the Dragon. I had been considering actually getting a bike for a bit but the Tail of the Dragon seemed like a lot of hard work and terrifying. There were signs up that said “Next 11 miles, high motorcycle crash rate.” KG drove really safe and nicely through it and it was fun, like a ride at a theme park really, but not somewhere I’d want to drive myself.

All the roads up here are some of the best. Views and curves for miles. One thing I didn’t expect at all was that there would be no service or amenities after the Tail of the Dragon for quite awhile and it was about time for sunset. We camped at the first campsite out of it which was very nice and on a stream. Thankfully we had some date bars that my mom mailed to us to eat for dinner!

ericheath wrote:You have a buffet racer.

Hahaha I guess thats what it has come too....

It seems that now once we're on roads with more bikers, our old wing gets a lot of attention. Everyone is curious about it, or they just want to tell us that they had one before, and a few minutes after the intitial questions "what year is that", "where are you heading" and "where did you start", you find out that almost everyone has a Swedish connection too. Over all Its very nice, feels like people really are cheering us on, this trip.

We met a group of french canadians on some modern adventure type bikes. After asking the initial questions one guy went: "...You are going from LA to NYC.... ON THAT???!!!!"

When did it became controversial to tour on a Goldwing?

Yeah, the Tail of the Dragon was fun. I was afraid there would be too many bikes and crazy sport bikes coming around blind corners in the wrong lane, but there was not much traffic at all. Mostly Harleys and trikes. After passing a trike with a granpa that earlier had asked about the wing, (and told me he'd been to Stockholm 1975), we were alone in our direction the whole way.

I would love to do this stretch on my other bike and without luggage, but we had much fun anyway.

The miles take time on the mountain roads!

Great ride to follow, followed your last as well. Don't let the pundits dampen your trip with the you're doing the trip "on that". Bike is mechanically sound, goes from point A to B just like anything else, and you get wet just as much. Easier to fix your bike and you have a great network of support. Try getting a newer bike fixed on the road. More bells and whistles is not always the answer to a good trip. We've gotten into a mindset that if it isn't new, or relatively new, can't tour on it because it may break down. Takes the fun out of an adventure.

Keep riding and enjoy. When this one is finished look forward to your next adventure, something like the The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, till next time.

Cheers

mr west wrote:
We met a group of french canadians on some modern adventure type bikes. After asking the initial questions one guy went: "...You are going from LA to NYC.... ON THAT???!!!!"

meh..Canadians..what do they know eh!

5speed wrote:

mr west wrote:
We met a group of french canadians on some modern adventure type bikes. After asking the initial questions one guy went: "...You are going from LA to NYC.... ON THAT???!!!!"

meh..Canadians..what do they know eh!

Hmmmm.... my wife is Canadian. She knows everything.......

Thanks for the reassurance everybody! It is funny how many people also take the time to tell us the history of our bike and the Vetter fairings. I didn’t know anything about bikes til we got this one 3 years ago. I feel like thanks to this forum, 10,000 or so miles as a passenger, Barbers and listening to my uncle and KG talk about bikes, I’ve learned an awful lot about our bike! And most people that come up to us tell us stuff we already know which feels nice. I don’t dare correct them but KG always does.