Blue Ridge Mountain Motorcycle Trip

Wednesday, 9-28-93

Today I will leave for Cincinnati to see my friends Joe and Beckie Wicks, and then meet Bill Hawkins in the morning, for a five-day motorcycle trip through the Blue Ridge Mountains. After a week of nothing but rain, the day begins bright and sunny. Since I was in Indianapolis all day yesterday, I've had most of my stuff packed for several days. After loading it on to the bike, I'm not happy with the way it feels. I take off my chair, which I know I will miss, and also remove some of the things I might not really need. It's about 9:30 by the time I finally leave, a little later than I had planned. The ride to Cincinnati is pleasant and uneventful. After passing Washington, I'm following a couple on a Goldwing, with a stuffed bear sitting on the back rack. At Loogootee I stop at Hardees and have a cup of coffee and a biscuit. At Bedford I stop for gas, and see the Goldwing pass by. At Seymour I stop at Hardees again, and order Cole slaw mashed potatoes, and a biscuit. When I ask if the gravy is made with meat sauce, the black girl behind the counter says, "You're a vegetarian, aren't you?" She says she would like to stop eating meat, but doesn't think she could. I encourage her to cut down gradually. I leave and ride on, and arrive in Cincinnati about 2:30, later than I had told Joe and Beckie I would be there. They are out in the driveway, and have just returned from a doctor's visit, so it works out well. Emily, who is 5, comes out and is very excited to see me. She is looking forward to a motorcycle ride, but is a little scared when we try to get her on the bike. Beckie rides around the block with me, to show her it's all right, then I take Emily for a ride. After once around the block, she wants to go again and again. Then we go in a visit awhile. Jesse, a fifth-grader, is at school at some sort of function, and when it's time to get her, I follow Joe on the bike, and give her a ride home. She's quite surprised and pleased by this. We spend much of the night taping music for me to take back. Joe and I go pick up Chinese food for supper, and a little later, go to the record store that carries all the hard to find albums that are fun to look through. I sleep on my sleeping bag on the floor.

Thursday, 9-30-93

Joe has to leave for work at 6 (5 my time) so I don't really see him in the morning. I get up about 6:30, and Bill finally calls about 8. We agree to meet on the Interstate, right after I275 feeds into I75 South. Beckie, Emily, and Jesse wave goodbye to me as I ride down the street, and head out of town.

The Intersection where I am to meet Bill isn't as simple as it sounded. There is lots of construction work, and several entrances to the Interstate all at once. I pass where I think he should have been, but there's nowhere to stop, so I figure he's up ahead, and soon I see him waving at me from the side of the road. We chat for only a moment, then head on out. We ride an hour or so, and then stop at a rest stop to use the bathroom. It's beautiful, sunny and fairly warm. Later we eat lunch at an unusual Wendys; one that's sort of built into a truck stop. Later on the Interstate we're passed by a couple of nice Harleys, and we both remark later how we could still hear their loud pipes long after they were past us. We go through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, both busy traffic and tourist traps. We ask directions for the campground at Smoky Mountain National Park, but get lost twice before finally arriving. Bill is convinced that the first guy who gave us directions, a National Park person, purposely led us astray because we were bikers. We do get a nice campsite, get the tents up, and ride back to Gatlinburg in the dark to eat. The restaurant we choose looks OK, but the food turns out to be pretty bad. Bill is friendly to the waitress, and she ends up talking too much. Anyway, we ride back, and have nice campfire, which always makes the end of the day especially nice. The night is cool, but my new sleeping bag keeps me toasty warm.

Friday, 10-1-93

We rise the next morning about 7:30. I'm awake sooner, but it's nice to just lay in the sleeping bag when the air is so cool. We get up, ride back into town, and eat breakfast at another restaurant. I have oatmeal and toast, and then order a biscuit when I'm still hungry, which the waitress doesn't charge me for. On the way back, we stop for a 1.3-mile hike, straight up, to Laurel Falls. It's worth the walk, as it's a beautiful spot near the top of the mountain, where the falls begins from inside a cave We stay there quite a while, and several other people come and go. By the time we go back and break camp, it's about noon. We ride several miles up and around the curvy hills, and stop again at Clingman's Dome, the highest point of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The views are so spectacular, they can hardly be described. We linger quite a while, and take quite a few pictures. The weather is warm and beautiful. We leave, and are heading down the hills. Our destination (I think), is Cherokee, another tourist town on the other side of the mountains, but with two miles to go, Bill takes an abrupt turn that puts us on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is an amazing highway that we will ride off and on for the next few days. It's like a park along a highway, with no billboards, electric lines, gas stations etc. However, after riding quite a way, I'm starting to worry about gas. When we finally come to an intersection with a regular highway, we get off and follow it until we arrive at Maggie Valley, which turns out, to my surprise, to be in North Carolina. We gas up, and eat at a great little restaurant. It's late afternoon, and we missed lunch, so we both chow down really good. We ride on a ways, and find a private campground called Hidden Cove, near Marion, NC. The woman who waits on us looks anorexic, and acts like she might be high on something. They actually have a couple spots that are just for motorcycles, because they're not easy to get to. We ride back around a rough road, through a shallow stream, and then up a rocky hill to a campsite we decide to take. We look it over, and there's no spot that's level, so we decide to go on down to the next site, which looks to be more level. To get there, I have to turn sharply to the right and go up, then down. I keep trying to go easy, but after a couple attempts, the bike leans over to the right and is gone. Luckily, neither the bike nor me is hurt, but I'm depressed the rest of the night. We get camp set up, and then we shower, call home, and get a great fire going. We sit around until quite late, watching the fire and talking. I stay warm again, but I don't sleep well, as I keep waking up frequently all night.

Saturday, 10-1-93

The next morning Bill is up at 6:40, early for him. He is ready to leave first, so I try to hurry so we can get going. We warm up the bikes, as we're both a little apprehensive about riding out of this rough area, but we both make it OK. It's another real nice day, but cool. We stop shortly in the first small town we pass through, and have breakfast at Burger Heaven. I have grits, coffee, hash rounds, and a biscuit. To my surprise, these items come in little Styrofoam containers. We ride on awhile, and stop in Eltsin at an Amoco to gas up and have a snack. Then we get back on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Although the mountains aren't quite as steep here, the riding is better and the scenery is just as majestic. The only difficulty is keeping your eyes on the road and not on the breathtaking views. There are literally scenic overlooks as frequently as every quarter mile in many places. The temperature rises, and the riding is fantastic. Bill is more daring than me on these hills and curves, and leaves me behind a couple of times. Late afternoon we stop at Peaks of Otter campground, intending to go on to the next campground, but are told we might not get a spot, so we decide to stay here. We get a nice spot, with soft sand under the tents. Our neighbors are an older couple with a huge, friendly dog. They're a little stand-offish at first, but later bring their dog over and talk to us quite a while. We walk around the lake to the Inn to eat, and have to wait about 45 minutes. The inn is nice and the food very good, we both enjoy it and eat a lot. When we leave, it's dark, and we have to walk back through the woods in the dark, but make it OK. Because it's already dark, and we're not sure where to get wood, we decide not to have a fire tonight. We sit around and talk awhile, then turn in early and I listen to the radio for awhile. Tonight or tomorrow is the one time rain is predicted. A hard wind blows all night, the kind that usually predicts rain, but it never does rain.

Sunday, 10-3-93

I slept well last night, and had several dreams. We're up about 6:20, and surprisingly, no rain, and the sky is blue. We're packed and away early, and we stop at the Otter Creek Inn, about 25 miles up the road, for breakfast. We almost don't stop, as the line is out the door, but we realize they are just opening, so we go in and take a seat at the counter. We both have buckwheat cakes, which are good and filling. We get off onto Highway 81, which we take to Winchester, where we gas up, and have coffee and a muffin. After this, we soon get onto Highway 50, which takes us back west and towards home. This is the same Highway 50 that goes through Vincennes. We stop at Mt. Storm at a little gas station where we gas up and Bill talks to the local yokels about hunting etc. They tell us the best place to eat is the VFW up the road. We don't really want to eat at the VFW in a little town in West Virginia, but when we get there we see it's actually a regular restaurant operated by the VFW. We stop, and the food is quite good- they even have a decent salad bar. Riding on, we go through a small town having an apple festival, and traffic is thick. We ride on to Grafton, and then Clarksburg, where we gas up again and check the map. We decide to shoot for Parkersburg, which is where Bill originally felt we should be if we want to make it home tomorrow. It's about 4 o'clock, and will take about an hour and a half to get to Parkersburg. We decide to stop at a campground if we see one, although nothing is showing on the map. We finally do see a sign for one, but by then it's almost dark, and it's 9 miles down the road. We decide to just ride on and get a motel. We arrive in Parkersburg, and stop at the first motel we see, a Best Western. The guy working the desk actually gives us a small piece of plywood to put under our kickstands. Bill buys a paper and spends quite a while reading. We both shower, and then we go into town to a nice Italian restaurant, Columbos (owned by a former boxer), and have a nice, leisurely meal. After getting back, we turn in soon, as we're both pretty tired.

Monday, 10-4-93

We wake up about 6:20 on this our last day. We pack up, ride into town and have breakfast at Shoneys, where we both have the breakfast bar. It's kind of cloudy, but to the west, where we are headed, the sky is blue. As soon as we leave Parkersburg we cross the bridge into Ohio, and the sky clears. We're still on Highway 50, but it's also 32 here, and we will follow 32 all the way to Cincinnati. I've been leading, and around Jackson I notice Bill is no longer behind me. I stop and wait several minutes, and he doesn't appear so I head back. Shortly I see him, so I cross over and take the lead again. I was about to stop for gas anyway, so I pull over in Jackson. I discover Bill stopped because his duffel bag had come loose- he lost his pillow, and the sleeping bag was half out when a motorist got his attention. We have coffee and talk to a young guy who has done some touring, and is familiar with the Blue Ridge Parkway. Then an old guy who used to ride a Harley talks to us a while. It's about 9:30 as we leave and hit the road again. Before long I see a sign for 135 miles to Cincinnati. I figure I can get close to I275 before I need gas again. However, right before we get there, my warning light has come on, and then I have to switch to reserve, so I stop at the first station I see. Bill and I will be splitting up after getting on I275, so we agree to stop and eat somewhere in Kentucky, right before we split up. We do, and eat at an Arbys, where I have a baked potato. We ride about 10-15 miles before my exit onto Highway 50, where I wave goodbye, and Bill guns his engine in farewell. The ride home goes well, I stop in Versailles and Bedford for gas, and arrive home at 4:00. It's been a great trip. The bike ran great all the way, and the riding and scenery were fantastic. The weather could not have been better, no rain, and clear, sunny skies every day.