SWEATING ON DOWN SOUTH

SWEATING ON DOWN SOUTH    

CHAMBERSBURG TO DEALS GAP

Listening to  Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me Kieth Urban 

Yep the words just work for this bit.

Rediscovering the Groove.   

I sigh and sit back on the bed. The rain beats down on the window and beats down just as hard on my enthusiasm. I don't have to be out till noon, but it's eleven o'clock, nothing's changing, so I guess I'd better head out. I load the KLR and hit the interstate. It's wall to wall semis...time for a new plan. The next exit signals Shenandoah Parkway...!!@# it let's go. Thirty minutes later I'm paying the lady park ranger (who's immaculately ironed uniform is a work of art!) twenty dollars to use the last part of the Shenandoah Parkway. 

Bargain!

I'm suddenly swinging through perfect sweeping bends, diving into misty valleys and surfacing to fantastic views both east and west. Almost zero traffic...Dean heaven...I'm not really getting far as it's all bends and slow speeds...but what the hell this is more like it. The KLR handles like drunken hippo on roller skates through the the curves but you get used to it. Soon we're getting somewhere near the apexes and the Staintune is barking approval all the way. I zing down a short straight eyeing the next entry when...

Hang on...that's a !@#ing (darn) bear!

I lock the brakes, kill the motor and roll back towards him...or her...anyone know how to sex bears? It's munching on something while keeping an eye on me and as I get the camera organised it watches till just before snap time...and then legs it. !@#$%% ....darn it, who's gonna believe me. As I sit alone in the middle of the road contemplating my luck several cars stop right behind me and sit looking at me...I swear Americans are way too polite, too polite to even go round...aaaaargh. OK I'm off. Ten minutes later I spy another one  woohoo! Kill the engine, hit the go button on the trusty Olympus...waiting waiting...OK now yep too far away...OK I'll hop off and get closer...keep snapping in case it runs away...shit or erm runs after me..it looks kinda cute...um cue everything I've heard or seen on telly about bears...naaah she'll be right. As I faff about the bear just goes about it's business snuffling about in the leaves totally ignoring me. Its about really big dog size and kinda cute. Eventually it bores of it's new stardom and wanders back into the undergrowth. 

Yeeeeh bear photo...sorted!

This was my favourite dad joke for my kids...who am I?
Colonel Light of course!
 ( After famous Adelaide statue of the first Surveyor -General of Adelaide)

I don't care he's behind a post, I don't care how far away it is.
I'm pretty sure it's smiling and it's a Bear...and I saw it...
I'm happy!

Nice

Aaah my head in the clouds again...that's why I'm in this mess...

That's it the Snickers bars, canned fish and bananas
are under lock and key...oh and the beans and franks.

If something beautiful is in abundance...does it become less beautiful?
Sit round and debate that one.

 of

Weeell I guess I'll just cross over the road see what's to eat on the other side....
eeeeah there's a motorbike...and he's doing really big a skid.

Listening to Simple Kind of Man Lynyrd Skynyrd

Possibly one of my favourite songs...for what it's worth...I love it.

Camping on stage and breaking the law on the Blue Ridge.

So it's getting dark. I've blown the budget last night on a flash Comfort Inn as it was bucketing so tonight I gotta camp. I fuel up in Waynesboro (there seems to be wayneswhatevers all over the place in the south) which feels kinda shady so I head out and try the Misty Mountain Campground. It is super humid...super humid ...and I'm sweating my ass off. The camp guy sends me off with a dodgy map and I promptly erect my tent in the wrong place and then have to do it again. The campsite is so boggy he's given me a sort of wooden platform to put my tent on, kinda like being on stage! As cars drive past I'm the entertainment pitching my tiny tent. The humidity dehydrates me...

I'm dying here!

A gentleman named Danny pulls up and we chat motorcycles for a while. He invites me to his cabin later but seriously I'm dead on my feet from humidity. A half hour later a flash XR1000 BMW with the rider in fully kitted safety gear pulls up, and it's Danny. He invites me to dinner at a restaurant just up the road and yep I'm in. I jump on the KLR with just shorts and tee shirt  thinking ah it's just down the road. Danny and I have a great conversation over dinner as he's a self confessed bike addict (he has 13 bikes in his shed...that's addiction). He shouts me dinner (thanks mate) and after dinner he offers to show me a couple of cool roads before we go back to the campsite...erm ok...I'm only wearing next to nothing and riding my still half loaded inebriated hippo and, well, his XR1000 is trick. So of course off we go belting through absolutely stunning roads at the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I'm thrashing the KLR  on roads I've never seen...wearing almost nothing...till it's dark...with a tinted visor...on half wet bitumen...behind one of the best bikes on the road...

...ah stupid but sometimes you really know you're alive! 

Thanks Danny what a hoot!

Sometimes it's like riding flat out through a hedge.

This is Danny. Motorcycle addict and local road expert.

Um...maybe if if rains again I can float down to South America.

The next morning I attack the Blue Ridge Parkway with renewed vigor. It's a lovely road almost totally deserted and the weather is OKish. The Parkway has extremely low speed limits for er good reason... I guess... but after a while I'm a little bored. I ease along a little faster, and faster as I'm sure it'll be safer to make sure no one hits me from behind...or something like that. Around 4.30 It starts to rain and I duck into the Fancy Gap Campground and grab a cabin. I leave it a bit late to duck out for dinner and only a servo is open so I ask for anything they've got that's edible.

 "No prarblem darlin, the deep frarir is still arwn, would yarall lark som chicken and sard of frars and a 20 ounce coke in ower carmbo deeal"

Southern people have a great accent. I love it. Whatever stuff they get accused of otherwise they strike me as some of the politest people I have met. I sit down to a half dozen battered things, some chips with ketchup and more coke than I generally drink in a year. I bolt back to the cabin with my heart on high RPM pumping fatty stuff around and drop by for a beer and chat with English couple Mark and Jane. I had spotted their bikes in the campground earlier and as I'm kinda starved of intelligent conversation I looked forward to a chat.(I don't consider myself that smart and not worth listening to although myself always seems to know what I have done wrong and gives unheeded advice to I...someone call me a psychiatrist) Mark and Jane are spending some time off riding around the U.S. and we spend a pleasant evening solving the problems of the world. It's not hard, it gets solved round kitchen tables and camp fires daily. The next morning I skip the Blue Ridge, hit the interstate and head towards Deals Gap.

The Blue Ridge dives through forests and then out into countryside
kinda like Austria, beautiful. 

Fancy gap Campground. Scene of deep discussion culminating
in...a pleasant evening!

Mark and Jane. Have a great ride folks and nice to meet you.

So I'm belting along minding my own business when something stings me
on the neck. Youch but no probs huh, bees only have one sting right so I keep going.
Seconds later I get stung down on my chest. Aaargh there must be few of them.
As I skid to a stop I get stung twice more, on the stomach and then just next to
 the tackle!Hey ayayayay aaaargh I'm stripping all my gear off beside the road as the next
one gets me on the leg. I'm rolling around on the road verge throwing off my boots so
I can rip my pants off. I get down to my jocks and socks and all I can find is this
little mongrel. Hmm. One bite well fair enough. Two I can forgive that. Three, mate ya
pushin it...but five
YA SQUISHED


Listening to Water of Love Mark Knopfler
It's Sunday night, I'm sitting in the Kickstand doing this blog. I've just ridden some fantastic roads, met some fantastic people and now I'm surrounded with nothing but friendliness and goodwill (and beer). There's a guy on guitar who's bloody good singing this song...
who wouldn't want to remember this... 

The Kickstand Lodge
Well hi Dean welcome, I'm Bobby.
You've stopped by at the best place round here...
I'm standing outside a bizarre veranda pergola sort of thing sweating my ass off. I've been riding the interstates most of the day and I'm over it. All sorts of weird ass motorcycle related paraphernalia hang from every roof beam and support...my eyes are drawn to a zebra skin bra hanging just above Bobbies head. I crash into a seat instantly feeling welcome. At the table sit Mike and Al, also just arrived and long time regular visitors. They are already into their beers and we shoot pleasantries for a while. Seems Deals Gap is just up the road, this is one of the best riding spots in the USA, and there's a complete lunar eclipse here on Monday. I need to regroup and service the bike so I organise a site (anywhere you like!). Yep OK I'm stayin here!

You're on a motorcycle, you're in North Carolina, you're stayin here..OK

The place is run by Bobby and Mo, two fantastic hosts. The place is whatever  star rating you want it to be and the only place worldwide you can receive a "I know Mo" sticker!

Sorted.

This is where you eat, talk about whatever, listen to music, write your blog,

await your turn to play horseshoes, drink, smoke (whatever), make friends,

 do the dishes and well, whatever does it for you...and every one there 

is a motorbike person

....yep sorted.

Deals Gap...318 curves in 11 miles
Al and Mike take me under their wing and show me around. Friday we visit the Wheels Of Time Museum in Maggie Valley and I service the KLR, Saturday I point the stripped down KLR into Deals Gap's 318 curves and get lucky with a really clean run one way with almost no hold ups. The KLR works well and the Gap isn't really that hard if you've spent some time in the Adelaide hills. On the way back I get caught in a procession of custom Harleys and...erm..sorry I yawned...carefully make my way back. On Sunday we set off to the Cherohala Skyline which is a truly superb ride. This area is packed with great roads. I'm not even scratching the surface here, but I'm trying. If you are ever get excited by beautifully radiused and cambered curves and stunning scenery, get your hand on a throttle or foot on a pedal and spend some time here.

Wheels Through Time museum is the one of the best I've been to.

Stocked chock full of unrestored bikes in all sorts of crap condition

with modifications the original owner did at the time. This is proper

museum work not glass boxes of restored better than original 

powder puffs.

If you'reckon you've seen one of these before I reckon you might be full of it!

It's a Spohn bodied Veritas...but you knew that.

This 1915 Indian D1 racer is a beauty and like most things here is a runner.

I'd be a little alarmed if I got one of these between my 
legs every time I turned on the horsepower!

Yep a great way to kick off my stay in the area.


The KLR stripped and readyish...636 curves and 22 miles
and we'll be back!

The Dragon and someone who should know better.

Decal (American for sticker) says it all.

Yeh but ya can't lean it...where's the fun in that?

Cherohala Skyway. I liked it better than Deals Gap.

Having a rest with some other punters near the end of Cherohala Skyway.

Listening to Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd
Well...because I was...and then I saw it...freaky!

Ok, sigh, I'll stay for the eclipse...
WINNER!
...who'd have thought!
I've got a long way to go...got to keep going...can't be hanging around too long, buuut!
I arrived at the kickstand on Thursday night with  no real plans to stay. With my two new mates (buddies?), Al and Mike, we form form a trio and soak up the best  weather and riding treats the area has to offer. Then suddenly it's Sunday. Well, OK, one more day to see this eclipse thing I guess. After a southern breakfast of biscuits and gravy my new friends and I head out to buy some boiled peanuts. Huh? We zip down the 128 till we come to a tumbledown shack that I thought was deserted and head in. The elderly gentleman inside dips us out some dark brown unshelled soggy looking peanuts out of a salty mix of who knows what. We mount up and head back to the Kickstand and get stuck in before the eclipse. Hmm...not sure. Definitely needs beer. What you see, soggy dark brown salt soaked peanuts is, well, what you get ...hmm. An hour or so later the eclipse begins. Now this is a total eclipse with the moon totally blocking the sun and I have to say that this is one of the most surprising things I've ever seen. Imagine, your'e standing in daylight watching with special glasses as the moon slowly covers the sun. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is pumping out of a nearby stereo maxed to eleven.
No big deal... but then suddenly, the temperature starts to drop dramatically, and then it gets dark, real dark, at 2.30 in the afternoon...freaky!
 A couple of minutes later it's like dawn, the sun slowly reappears and everybody is blown away. I wish I could convey how freaky this was, wow!

Destination of the "Southern Boiled Peanut Run"

Five dollars of boiled nuts...and that's an impressive body shirt sir!

These are my two buddies Mike and Al. They  shared their beer,
showed me around and provided southern hospitality at it's best.
We had a real laugh sharing different perspectives and I hope
I can return the favour one day. To you two guys, cheers, safe riding
and all the best for the future.

My camera doesn't really work for this. I took this through the lens of my 

special eclipse glasses.

Dare I say maybe crank up "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden?

Yep barely seconds ago it was a bright summers day...wow!

Reality Check No.5
When I started this blog in Chambersburg I really thought it would be a struggle to find interesting stuff to bang on about this time. It's hard to find perspective without anyone to bounce off. One good turn into the Shenandoah Park and I'm running off at the keyboard again. It seems I might got a bit carried away with what might be not much but I hope it works for you. Cheers Dean 

Next Blog I head south towards the
 U.S. Space and Rocket Centre and beyond. 

Please leave any comments below. They help!