Two part entry for today.

I learned about this mystical ride in the Appalachians many years ago and ever since wanted to do it.  Tail of the Dragon.  Cool name, cool pictures on the web site.  Today was the day!

The ride (from the south) begins at a store named Deal’s Gap.  There were dozens of motorcycles and not a few cars.  I parked and watched.  Every few minutes a car or bike would go screaming up the road.  With me all by my lonesome, it was more than a little intimidating.  I piddled around for a while, including a look-see in the store, where there were dozens of t-shirts styles.  I figured buying one now would be tempting fate, so it was an easy decision to wait until I reached the north end to buy anything.

I eventually summoned up the nerve to get going.  When it appeared that no one else was preparing to  begin, I took off.  Suffice to say I made it.  Even better, I never had to pull over and let someone pass me.  Indeed, I had one car had pull over!  I drove past the end for several miles looking for a store to purchase a memento, only to realize there were no stores.  So I turned around and did it again.  This time I needed two Harleys to pull over!  Heaven.  I bought a t-shirt (with a Goldwing image on it) and a sticker.

My evaluation of the ride is that it is everything they say it is.  It’s not extremely difficult, unless (of course) you want to go fast.  Any experienced rider can do it.  There are no side roads or driveways.  They are numerous turnouts for slower traffic.  It’s twisty in both dimensions: left and right AND up and down.  You’ve certainly got to pay attention to the road.  I’ve had short rides that were much more difficult and long rides that were more visually appealing.  But the Tail of the Dragon lives up to it’s name.

I recorded my ride on GoPro and it’s very nice.  I just can’t upload it yet. The store posts photographers along the way, but I haven’t bought one of their pictures.

The “Tree of Shame” or “Tree of Pain”. Take your pick.

Visited the North Carolina Transportation Museum.  Mostly trains, though there are small exhibits of bikes and cars.  It’s sort of a work in progress.  Some of the trains are in beautiful condition, others look like they just came from the junkyard.  There are a lot of people actually working on the trains, which is nice. It’s a wonderful place for train fans.  There is a real train ride offered, but in a bout of realism, today the train was late.  So I skipped it.

Though my route was on I40, several times I moved over to a parallel US70. Valdese and Black Mountain were nice towns.  Marion had lots of long traffic lights.  I’m staying in Maggie’s Valley, a one street resort area.  It’s probably much more beautiful after the leaves grow out.  It’s been an unusual spring; trees are still bare.

I’ve had uploading issues, so these aren’t all the pictures I wanted.

This absolutely does not look like a police car!

The recipe for coffee on the Mail car. I don’t think Starbucks offers this version.

Just so everyone knows, I’ve turned on Comments.

I’m in a town called Apex, outside Raleigh, visiting my sister.  Yesterday we attended a Durham Bulls baseball game.  Their ballpark is remarkable.  Thoroughly professional organization.  Sadly no Bulls player hit a homer, so the Bull didn’t blow smoke out of his nose.

Today we visited the NC Museum of History.  Very well done.  It has a variety of displays that holds the interest.  It was Free!

Team Powersports in Garner did a great job with the service maintenance of my bike, charging me surprisingly little.

Tomorrow I’ll visit the NC Transportation Museum, then approach the Great Smoky Mountains.  Hills!!  Curves!!  Saturday I’ll ride the legendary Tail of the Dragon road.

Sorry, no pictures.

No, my wanderlust has not slacked off.  But I am ready to depart the populated East.  (Linus from Peanuts: “I love society!  It’s the people I can’t stand!”)

The map below illustrates a possible route. Deviations are expected! I still have thoughts of using ferries from the Anchorage area, getting off at various ports.  I’ve been taking many days off to see significant cities so far.  This will probably not be the case so much, so forward progress should (must) improve. There is much to see in the Pacific Northwest, but I may need to cover them during subsequent short(!) rides from San Diego.

BY ROBERT FROST

Pictures from yesterday are included.

A short day.  I left the campground (after taking a picture of a nice sunrise) at 7:54.  At 7:56, raindrops.  Decided to skip Georgetown and move on.  Nothing fun about sightseeing while wearing rain gear.  There were a few dry times when I could take Marker Pics, but mostly it was driving in the rain with Gene Kelly singing in my head.  I left the bike at Team Powersports in Garner, NC for both the 12,000 and 16,000 mile service.  (I asked for, but didn’t get the 12,000 mile work done in Pensacola.)  It’s got 15,000 miles on it.  I’m planning to have the 20,000 service and tires replaced in Edmonton.  Honda’s own GPS system had Powersports at the wrong address!  A $30,000 bike and $5 navigation system.

Discovered my new Sears boots are not waterproof.  Otherwise, it was a pretty harmless drive.  I’m at my sister’s house for three nights.  I may have trouble sleeping without hearing muffled voices in the next room.

Historical Marker “beside” of the road. Sort of.

Caption Contest.

There is a city of Marion. He’s a pretty famous guy around here.

I’m tenting, so no pictures are available yet. I didn’t take many anyway

It took a long drive to reach Beaufort. A bridge was closed and detour signs were deceptive. In any case, though the town has beautiful mansions and lots of history, frankly I wish I’d passed on it. To get to the historic section I had to negotiate the single commercial road. Savannah’s mansions were better. And the history isn’t heartwarming. Beaufort was, by its own admission, the central hotbed for secession.

I went right through Charleston, having been there before. My goal was to hit Georgetown and then get a cheap hotel in Myrtle Beach. But I stopped at Buck Hall Recreation Area for the view and immediately changed plans. My tent is feet from the Intercoastal Waterway. Nearly empty campgrounds.

So it was a short day.

Oh. Historical markers. South Carolina kindly puts up signs advising that a marker is approaching, but seems to have taken down the markers!  This happened four out of five times. The one that was there was 50 feet from the road and had a fence encircling it. Very weird.

Ironically, I spent twenty years supporting Parris Island Marine Corps Air Station, but never visited and never really knew where it was. I know now.

It might rain tomorrow.

Continuing the theme of The Road Less Traveled, I avoided the I95 and drove Route 17.  This is ironic because in my youth, when the I95 was still under construction, we’d be redirected to the 17, a two lane parking lot.  But now everyone uses the 95, so the 17 is an empty road.  It was a very pleasant drive and it only added minutes.  Got me much closer to America.

Seeing a sign for the Midway Museum brought me pause.  In my mind it’s an aircraft carrier in San Diego.  But Georgia has a fairly famous town named Midway and it has a museum.  Unfortunately closed on Sundays.

Just north of Brunswick I stopped at the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation, which was established in the early 1800s to grow rice.  The 1851 house was not the beauty that exists in Savannah, mostly because the owners had a home in Savannah for the summer social season.  (As is becoming a normal occurrence, a caretaker saw my Goldwing and spoke lovingly of the 25 years he owned one. Old age forced him to sell it.  Ominous.)   The museum has a well designed display room illustrating how rice was grown and the plight of the slaves doing the work.  The grounds has lots of room to just walk around.  Peaceful.  Just up the road is the town of Riceboro.  No rice though.

Huge bridge for 17 just south of Brunswick.  Steep.  People jogging up it, in (of course) a very strong wind.  Thousands of cars, so it’s obviously a port for imports.  One grass field had hundreds of Smartcars.

Almost got rear ended by a Greyhound bus going way way over the speed limit as I was slowing down to stop at a historical marker.

Savannah is beautiful.  The official historical site is over 2 square miles.  Intimidating, so I did the hop on hop off thing for once.  Savannah almost certainly doesn’t have more history than many other cities, but it certainly has preserved and documented that history.  Markers everywhere.  Home to many movies, such as Forest Gump.  (The Baywatch movie is actually being filmed at a nearby beach, so there is talk of where the actors are staying.  That it’s being filmed on the east coast would be a bit of a buzz-kill if I was planning to see it.)  Home to the Girl Scouts.  Center of the world for cotton.  Ghosts; lots of ghosts.  Second largest St. Patricks Day parade (Huh?).  Just an impressive list.

Drove past two paper mills.  They make skunks smell like fine perfume.  How anyone lives nearby is a mystery to me.

One of the steepest bridges I’ve ever crossed.

Midway Museum

City Hall dome. 23 caret gold. 23?

Girl Scouts founded here.

What makes this inscription fascinating is that I have a $2 bill issued by this company in 1861.

Amazing coincidence!

Interesting what one finds by just looking around.

I’m not sure why they built this way, but it had something to do with cotton storage. The stones in the walls and pavement came from ship’s ballast, unloaded when replaced by cotton.

GoPro shot

GoPro shot

A pleasing leisurely drive today.  From Orlando on I4 to I95.  Then a short jog eastward to Route A1A, which stays mostly right on the coastline. Beautiful views.  In St. Augustine I visited a Distillery and Winery.  Neither offer much serious competition to Kentucky or California.

I stopped by a friend and coworker’s house.  He hasn’t retired yet.  Happily, we talked about our private activities and future plans, NOT about work.  Next week he’ll attend an annual conference that I would normally attend also.  I’ll miss being around friends and enemies.  Not.

I had no idea the coastlines had these towers in WW2.

The coastline had many houses that looked out of place.

When this picture was taken it was both a very windy and cool. I doubt these boards ever got wet.

Fort Matanzas, south of St. Augustine.

This is a beautiful lighthouse in St Augustine. The museum is very well organized.

The caretaker’s house.

Castillo de San Marcos from the lighthouse.

The Visitors Center was excellent.  They have the space shuttle Atlanta displayed in a very imaginative position.  Everything else was great as well.  But I was there for the launch of the Space X Falcon 9 Dragon.  It went off on time without a hitch, and then successfully landed the stage 1 on a barge!  The first time it’s worked.  I obviously didn’t see the landing, but the launch was everything I could hope for.  Another bucket list item scratched off.

Bad news; my navigation system crashed.  I’m going to have to navigate without it for an indeterminate time.  Also crashed is my odometer and other electronic features.  I’ve called service centers and they are stumped, which is not a good sign. But I’ll survive.  I’ve got a good idea where I’m going.

I don’t mind saying I’ll be happy to see Florida in the rear view mirror tomorrow.  I’ve had some great times, but the driving and drivers suck.

This Gemini is the same type of missile I took a picture of at the Titan Missile Museum.

Launch control for Apollo.

Another Saturn 5 on its side. I don’t know why, but the one in Houston seemed bigger.

Apollo 14

This time I took the long way around Orlando.  Ended up at Ocala National Forest, which is just a forest.  But the ride was okay.

The town of Eustis is very nice.  Clearly enlightened town management.  Beautiful lakeside park.

Went up the Citrus Tower, built in 1956 in the center of what was then the citrus growing capital of the world.  Two major freezes in the 1980s killed the local industry, forcing it to move south.  Now the tower is in the middle of housing.  But it was still a nice view.

I learned that the first citrus bottling plant was opened in a city called “Howey-in-the-Hills”, which wins the award for weirdest named town on the entire ride.  The founder, William Howey, was quite the guy.  A predecessor of Trump.

Again, not the most remarkable of days, but better than yesterday.  Tomorrow is the payoff, weather and technology permitting.  I’ve already bought a ticket to the Space Center.  $50!

1960s.

Now.

Not True!