Wednesday - Cherokee Shopping & Blue Ridge Exploration

Only a half a year late I figured I'd fill in the last entry I wrote while in NC:

Wednesday rolled around and we were done riding with the pack. Slightly achey and just overall feeling lazy. We took a short ride into town to check out the shops of Cherokee. Which left me in turn slightly dismayed at the image of the natives reflected in the shops. I was so dissapointed, there was nothing in these shops filled with fleamarket finds; crappy jewlery from china, crappy everything. Everything I can find up here at the Raynham Taunton flea could be found at these shop.

I was looking for something authentic and cultural to Cherokee. Stepped in a store, looked around and stepped out. Felt as though it was a waste of time. Did the strip, headed over to the end of big cove road to the "fun spot" area. Checked a few shops there to find the same thing. Then lunch at the Indian Princess restaurant. Yuck! :-/ yeah it was a crappy start to a day. So we headed back to camp way way HOT, tired, and a bit grumpy to grab the truck for some air conditioning.

After picking up the truck, we decided to explore further down Big Cove Road.




~ Another Day, Another Adventure ;-)

Tuesday - Highest Point of the Blue Ridge Parkway

Tuesday started out as normal as any day. We fended for our own breakfast in the morning. Then headed on down the mountain to ride to Bridal falls down by Franklin NC. Everyone checked their messages and Kathy had one from one of the ladies in the HOG group. They had plans on riding the blue ridge parkway, then going over to Maggie Valley to the Wheels Through Time Museum. So we all tagged along.

It was nice, there were a lot less people this time and we snuck on up front and flew through those awsome curves on the parkway. Our destination on the blue ridge parkway was it's highest point in the 600 n something mile long road. Through twists and turns we made it to a beautiful overlook.
[photos to come]
After picking a handful of juicy wild strawberries the group got on our way to our next stop in Maggie Valley. Maggie Valley was just so beautiful, the scenery unfolded as we coasted down the mountain. It reminded me of hills going down into valley towns in Germany. The museum was closed so we headed to a custom bike shop that a few of them had met the owner of a year prior. Beautiful shop, small and a great layout.

We said hellos and we were off on our third leg of the day. To Bridal Falls, via 74 through Cashiers. With a pit stop in Cashiers at a smokehouse for some grub. On the way there we ran into a drenching rain storm, but after being so hot it felt good to get cooled off. Not even ten minutes down the mountains the sun was hot as hell, and our clothes dry. That's how the weather is out here, you just can never tell what these clouds will do.

With the rain behind us we motored on. My foot particularly bugging me this day, I had taken probably a couple too many tylonals on an empty stomach to ease the pain. Well it caught up with me :-( I got off the bike pretty dizzy and light headed. At this point we were in Cashiers, stopping for some good BBQ at Carolina Smokehouse.

So I got some chopped pork, and not knowing how hot their hot sauce was I got both, hot and mild. Well the waitress didn't tell me which was which, they both had some bite. I slathered some of which I thought was the mild onto my sandwich and dippin my fries in it. I didn't think it was hot at all until my eyes glazed over, and i started feeling really funny. Alex asked if I was ok cause I was turning red. I started feeling faint, and my throat was swelling. Alex grabbed my two sauces, yup I had been gulpin down that hot sauce like it was water not realizing I couldn't handle the pepper in it. A few fries and the bun top and a glass of sweet tea and I was good to go. Duh! Now that was a PI moment (public idiot).

From the Carolina Smokehouse we headed back up north through Highlands and Franklin where we headed up the winding bootleggers route 28 where moonshiners risked their lives during prohibition. I can't believe this is where hot rods and NASCAR stemmed from, I would love run the cutlass up these roads.

Ending the ride at rt 74 I was beat. The rest of the group went back to Robbinsville, and the four of us headed back to camp dead tired.


~ Another Day, Another Adventure ;-)

Monday - Tail of The Dragon Day

... The hound dog stopped howling

Yesterday (tues) we got up fairly early, went to some local hole in the wall breakfast place for some pancakes. Heard a great story from a very loud local who started his story off with "Every time I see one of you biker types..." aw geeze... 'ere we go. He continued to tell us how three years ago he was watching an armored car at a local bank load money into the truck, they were loading for almost three quarters of an hour, when some biker guys came up from South Ca Ro Line Uh, and (cause of the bad gas they've got up here and the thinner oxygen bikes run sorta shitty) one of them there bikes bike fired. The officer in turn, thinking it was a gunshot pulled his gun on the man telling the story. There had to be a lot of money there for the officer to be that jumpy.
True Story.

We finished breakfast and headed southwest to Robbinsville, then North on 129 to Deals Gap, and the Tail of the Dragon. Nice windy roads there, but the closer you get to Deals Gap the steeper, and twistier, and narrower the road got. We come around one corner to find a Dam that looked ancient, almost other worldly, as if you lived in Riven or Myst. With huge aquaduct piping water up and over mountain tops. I've got a photo of one of these dams I'll upload later.

We get to Deals Gap, the start of the hairiest 11 miles of roadway in the US. 318? Turns in 11 miles. Unfourtuneately, 9.5 miles up there was a landslide and the road is gone. So you can't continue through to the Foothills Parkway. After the hair raising ride to Deals Gap, I decided I had no desire to do the tail and turn around to come back down. Something else was bothering me, and my intuition told me to say down. It almost demanded it, something didn't feel right, and Kathy got the same feeling, so the two of us waited as the boys went up.

While waiting we people watched, a chic on a ricer came back down with two guys, she was full of piss n vinagar... Bad attitude, miserable, and BITCHY. Kathy pointed her out to me while the chic was getting gas in front of where we sat. Something about the girl struct me enough to say "riding with an attiude like that is going to get herself killed, she is in no shape to take on that road (meaning the tail), something's going to happen." She went on in side, a few moments later I went in to use the bathroom. I went in the bathroom, passed by her at the sink, and just had a strange feeling about her. I did my thing, came on out, few minutes later the boys arrived back. Kathy and I pointed the chic out to Alex, as she suited up and headed back up the tail with the two guys. Kathy and Al take off, alex and I sat around to people watch. About 10 min later a bike that had just gone up, came back down and stated "that was a waste, accident had the road blocked off about a mile up" he went up about 10 min later to come right back down. The road was still blocked, then another bike came down, they ran inside the store to report the accident. When I had asked the couple about it the lady said it was really serious, a chic on a sports bike hit a full dresser head on, both riders were strewn across the road and it didn't look good.

With lack of internet service, I haven't been able to find any info about the accident. But I'm sure you know what my gut is saying...

Here is a pic of a tree decorated with bike parts that didn't do well on the tail of the dragon:




Alex returning the Tail:



We left the Tail down 28, passing another dam/hydro electric building, to fit the Riven theme. Then wi pit stopped at the newer looking Fontana Dam. Took pictures at the bottom, then the top. Just massive. We shot on back to camp, hurting and exhausted.

There goes the hound again, and time for me to get some sleep.

~ Another Day, Another Adventure ;-)

Sunday Day Three

This is the day we do stuff with the rest of the Harley Group. We started up the blue ridge parkway, may be twenty of us. Slow, very slow, annoyingly slow. Those of you who know me know that I am not good in groups. Mix that with annoying, slow bikers that are just in my opinion ignorant. It was more about how many miles you can get in in a day than enjoying the beautiful scenery. The Blue Ridge was lovly, following along a river where people swam an tubed. It was father's day and even though there was traffic, I don't think the traffic was as bad as the Harley guy leading the group blamed our slowness on. We were creating the traffic.

We kept with the group until we hit the Foothills of TN. That's were we left them and headed on off ahead of them. The foothills parkway was beautiful, a scenic route along the top of a mountain ridge. Vista of mountains to the left, and right. We glided on through, around the curves, up and down the hills. The Foothills Parkway landed us in Fontana, at the end of the Dragons Tail. Following 74 then to 360 we headed to the Chalohala Skyway. As we stopped for gas and some water we rested at a gas station. Figuring we were a good ways ahead of the group, we thought it was them who would need to wait for us at robbinsville. As were having out water I spotted the group, turning the corner onto 360, passing us.

It didn't take us long to get back on the road behind them but some how we never could get caught up with them. Great cruising through farmlands and banking sweeping turns. After 360 we hopped onto the Choholl Skyway, although, Honestly, I don't really remember the first half of the skyway. With the intolerable pain in my foot, I was pretty much blacked out there on the back of the bike. Gritting and bearing it, I recognized something was wrong when I tried to tell Alex to stop at the next overlook. I couldn't speak loud enough for me to here, let alone Alex through our intercoms over the buzz of the motor. The second time I was loud enough to get him to here me. Another mile or so and we were pulling over. I got down, stumbled a bit, everything felt like a blur, dizzy, weak. Went to the wall and sat down, helmet and all. When I finally got out of that black out, I realized what had happened. Altitude sickness, I had it once before in my life with pretty much the same symptoms. We were at about 4200 ft above sea level, and we had risen to that point pretty fast, I hadn't had time to acclimate. I was good to go after a bit of a rest.

It was a long day and I was tired, and in Mucho pain with my foot. The pain I've been having has been really bad, not sure what exactly it is, but I think it is stemming from my arch. No matter what I do, no matter how much pain killers I take, it still feels like someone is jamming a skewer into the bone next to my pinky toe. It really put me in such a miserable mood. No matter which position my foot is in, it hurts. I wish I could figure out how to get rid of it.

So we finish of the chohalla skyway in Robbinsville, and start heAding our way back to camp, sure as the sun is bright that Kathy and Al had beat us back to the came we gave up our chase after them. We stopped to rest at a gas station, i'm not going to say which one, but there are really nothing else around these parts. :-/ So we stop, drinking some water, and we joked saying, wouldn't it be funny if they went by? Sure enough, not two minutes later, two Harleys rumble up over the hill, it was them. Threw the rest of our waters away, helmets on in a flash, and we were off to chase them once again! It took us a bit but we caught them when they pulled over a few miles up the road. We then back as a group motored on back to camp together.

Couple of burgers over the camp fire, and a few marshmallows later, watching the fireflys in the thick woods behind our site, Alex and I started joking about Puckwudgies. It wasn't too much longer until we started seeing some strange lights a few feet up what seems to be some sort of a game trail leading up the steep ridge behind the house. This light was similar to the fireflys except they were a pure white (think led) and it would blink consecutively 4 or 5 times. I'm sure it was just a bug, but it was uncanny that it would only do it after Alex or Al mentioned "puckwudgie" this went on for at least an hour. You really got the feeling you wanted to check it out, but I knew better. ;-) The boys went into the camper for a bit, and the lights stopped. Was it just a camp fire story coincidence?

To add a bit more to this story, the next morning I was sitting under the ez up tent on the picnick table, now mind you, the whole table is covered by the tent... A partially chewed, unripe nut of some sort bounces off the table right next to me, and off the connected bench hitting the ground next to my feet. Something had thrown it, there was no possible way, with the tent covering the table, could it had fallen off the tree and bounced off the table next to me.

Remember, we are on the Cherokee Indian reservation. Outside our door of the trailer (we are in the back part of the trailer against these woods) there is a beautiful birch tree, this morning I could make out two native Americans in the bark, I'm hoping the I will get better lighting in the morning to photograph them.

There is just something out here, and it knows that I believe. While writing this I am being left with an uncomfortable feeling. It's Tuesday the 22, at 11:37, a hound dog of some sort is off in the distance howling at something. Rain drops from the storm earlier continue to fall from the trees. The mist is lingering in the trees mixed with campfire smoke, and all is quiet except for this dog. I have the feeling that I shouldn't be looking out the screen door, and everyone else is asleep.


~ Another Day, Another Adventure ;-)

Location:Tues Night @ Camp

Day Three - Arrival

FINALLY REACHING OUR CAMPSITE -
Well we arrived pretty much safe n sound. Pretty much... We got off of 74 in the Smokys at about 7:30, just about 30 miles from the campground, the ride was nice n sunny. Al & Kathy following us on the bikes when it just started to pour. Like a light switch went off, total down pour! Needless to say they got drenched, we pulled over to give them shelter. By the time we got going we had 45 minutes to find the campsite for check in before they closed at 9:00.

We made it by 8:57, just made it. Now the road there is 10 miles of really, I mean really tight twists and turns, in the dark with a camper and no shoulder to the road. Eek! Made it safely to the campground, leaving the other two in town, somewhere, to wait out the rain.

We set up the camper, un hooked and started to wonder why the other two hadn't showed up yet. We hopped in the truck and raced down the extremely windy Big Cove Road (google map it ;-) ) So... 9 miles down just about to town Al comes flying past, without Kathy in tow. We turn the truck around on this tiny road to give chase, but by the time we turned we had already lost him. We're flying down this narrow windy road (did you google it yet?) and a grand marqui comes up behind us... So we're flyin around these turns in a truck that feels too big for the road, on comming traffic, the whole works, And Just Before the turn for the road the camp ground is on Al Passes Us AGAIN (mile #9) ! We turn around AGAIN, the COP turns around... And we give a slow 35 mph chase back the 9 miles to town with the cop following. At the end of the road, and the entrance to the tow is a Best Western, where we found Kathy and Al. Talk about a night that wouldn't end. We were lucky though the cop probably figured it out and just drove past staring out of the window at the 4 of us. The 4 of us road back up the mountain to end the night safely.

And so the adventures begin ;-)

BLOGGING UPDATES -
So here's an update on my blogging status. I'll try to keep it updated as much as I can, the closest signal that I can get on my phone is 10.5 miles away, down the mountain in town. So please don't worry if I haven't posted. I'll try to update before we go back to camp each night, and when we come down in the morning.

FIRST DAY IN THE MOUNTAINS -
We made an effort to sleep in today, got up at 9, showered and went exploring. It seems that this bike week is a big thing around here, and the Cherokee Indians are banking on it. Commercialized Indian this and that everywhere. Our campground is actually on an the Cherokee Indian reservation, street signs are I both Cherokee and English. The town itself reminds me of Plymouth, and how it commercializes the pilgrims, pirates, and the cape. You get the idea. I'm hoping on finding some true native American culture here.

Of course we've already found a dirt road, which I practically cryed on our decent in fear. Lol, I need to get over this. We were perfecty safe, but it seems as I get older, my fears have been taking control. Must let my insanity prevail ;-) after a few times I'll be fine.

We stopped at the visitor center and got some maps, and got caught in a mountain rain storm. From what the locals say, it rains every day, the clouds hand in the mountains, get pushed around by the wind until they drop their moisture. Yes it's HOT here, and yes it's HUMID. yucky and sticky, so the rain is a blessing, but the wind isn't.

Walmart is just as FUCKED as back home, maybe a bit worse. Southern hospitality is non existant, they are all Walmart "defects"

On a happier note, a butterfly let me get this picture of it. Ok, headin on back up da mountain to cook some grub over an open fire. Night Yall!

Dammit I forgot my cowboy hat, I woulda fit right in :-(

Over n Out!


~ Another Day, Another Adventure ;-)

Location:Sylva NC - cause it has signal

Underway - Day 2 - morning

Good morning my happy blog followers. Here's my update on our journey early this morning.

We stopped at the rest stop on mile marker 157 on rt 81 in Pennsylvania at three this morning, with intentions of napping until dawn. Well dawn broke but we didn't. Actually I didn't get any sleep. The trailer parking there was full and being a good 42' parking spots are hard to come by. We managed to pull off of the on ramp back to the highway, on the highway side of the road. With every tractor trailer that roared past the camper shook, and I kept having visions of one running off the road and into us. I actually jumped up a few times hearing them hit the rumble strip fersher we were gonnerz.

We got a wake-up text at 5am from the other half of the group who stopped 164 miles ahead of us. I hit the alarm and went back to a hoping I'll sleep stage, now FREEZING cause I didn't want to break out the down comforter just yet. An hour and half later I opened my eye to the bright sun and beautiful fog hovering in the hills.

As soon as I sat up I knew it was going to be a suckie morning. Nauseas and dizzy :-/ It held it's yucky grip for an hour or so, but has subsided a little bit. I haven't been feeling well all week but figured it's just from nerves and anxiety. I'm now realizing I'm pretty dehydrated, and I don't think popping handfuls of gummi bears helped las night. Could also be a migrain that could have been triggered last nigt fro
driving in the dark with all the bright reflectors flashing by mixed with aspertaime (which gets me every time) So crackers and water for me today.

Nothing else to report really. Passed few army convoys but that's about it. Oh and before you bitch about Massachusetts' highways... Pennsylvania's suck more!

Reporting from mile marker 310 on 81s in Virginia! Only 150 miles behind schedule.


~ Another Day, Another Adventure ;-)

Location:Virginia

Underway - First Break

Four hours in (00:00) we've stopped for a pee break at a rest stop in Fishkill. Normally I skip things like this, but I need to give you my full experience.

Pulling into the rest stop you realize it's a popular one with truckers. They line both sides of the entrance which seems to continue on. Talk about tunnel vision. Not to mention it's a tight squeeze too. Just a weird feeling over all.

Now after a bit of a walk I was enlightened by the graffiti in the bathroom stall, there wasn't much of anything but Yankee/Red Sox Suck banter, and one comment that made me think "really?"
"whoa whoa, what's with the harsh language"
Really, if your that concerned about the word Sucks, you should be more worried you'd get caught graffiting government property. Hurry up and finish taking a shit!

Just my thoughts... More to come, stay tuned people!


~ Another Day, Another Adventure ;-)

Location:Fishkill NY

Underway

Under way for just about an hour now. And we just seen our first odd event. A guy trimming hedges at 10pm in the dark. O K

Well I did try to post when we left, but a half hour's worth of typing jus dissapeared. Not cool so I'm trying it again.

We got underway just as the sun dropped behind the horizon. Slate blue clouds hovered over head as the last slither of gold melted away.

We're in Connecticut now, rt 2 westbound. The moon is peaking through a light wispof clouds and a few stars here and there.

Not much more to report.


~ Another Day, Another Adventure ;-)

Location:Connecticut - rt 2

Less than 24 hrs til we set sail

It's Thursday morning, a bit after midnight. Spend the day pretty much trying to get things in order.

I'm skipping the usual baggage one may take on a trip and am resorting to one set of rubbermaid drawers, and a few rubbermaid tubs. The drawers are great and organized with my toiletries in one drawer, shirts in another, and a sock/underwear drawer. Just tape the drawers while traveling and viola, no need to live out of bags in a camper. Makes a great table next to the air mattereses too for the phone and a light.

To keep clutter down I've strategically purchased tubs that nest within each other when the larger one is empty. Putting pillows, and blankets in the big one till we get there. Once the air beds in place and all made up the small tub holding my pants, sweatshirts and other clothing that didn't fit into the drawers will nestle nicely in the un-used larger tub.

It's all a matter of making the "garage" space of the Trailer/camper a useable living quarters. On the South Dakota trip it was a mess, and annoying, every time you needed something you had to fish through a bag, stuff was everywhere. And we were using chairs for places to put our stuff. Nope not this time.

I'm trying my hardest to pack light, and am feeling guilty that no matter how I try I'm not accomplishing that goal. 2 of everything adds up. And the uncertainty of the weather doesn't help. Are there any professional packers out there.

Help! ... And good night


~ Another Day, Another Adventure ;-)

Location:Home (still)

Leaving in 36:00 Hours aprox

This IS just a test of the emergency vacation system, this is just a test.


~ Another Day, Another Adventure ;-)

Location:Home Right Now