Before leaving St. George, Missouri, my Sirius weather map showed red ahead, indicating intense stormy weather, which was a first for me.  I put on my rain pants and boot covers and prepared my raincoat.  I immediately learned that the boot covers (which I hadn’t worn before) are slippery.  I stopped and took them off.  Better to have wet feet than dropped bike.  I drove further and saw lightning, so I again stopped and put on the raincoat.  I mention that the temp was over 80.  I felt I was in a sauna.

As soon as I entered the red zone I learned that Sirius isn’t joking around.  The road was unsafe for cars!!  I immediately pulled off the highway in search of shelter.  I very quickly (providence?) found an inexpensive hotel (with, of all things, an indoor pool!).  I was thinking to look for a bar or restaurant to wait it out (it was only 2PM), but the weather services had a storm warning in place until 7.  So I checked in.  Long day tomorrow.

I’m again having photo upload problems.  I’ll post my visitation stories when I get the upload issue hammered out.

During the week at home I replaced our TV, couch, and chair.  (Following intense consultation of course.)  Visited Disneyland to see friends. Attended the final Sharks-Kings hockey game, in a suite no less.  Reduced the quantity of wine in the house.  Drove a car!

On my return trip to St. Louis I left my No. 1 ball cap in Denver.  I think I’ll replace it with a Canada cap.

Returning to the St. Louis parking garage the driver pulled up to where he thought my card said the bike was at. Spot 408. Empty. I look left and right; no bike in sight.  Panic begins.  Then the driver says “Oh, 418!” He moves up, past a monster F-350.  There it is.  A bit of unwanted excitement.  I’ve got a half-cover, but it continues to appear useless.  The bike’s got a layer of dust under the cover.

Rams gear is going cheap at St. Louis’s airport (picture).

Not sure of my course tomorrow.  There are storms brewing in the midwest, but it’s a big area and the national weather media generalizes (sensationalizes) a lot. I want to visit the city, go west to Jefferson City, then north to Hannibal, MO.  But I might just go north if storms truly threaten.  The way that I wander is the way that I choose.

Fort Negley in Nashville is not much of a fort and was never attacked, but it does have excellent interpretive signs to describe its history.  Peaceful.  There were supposed to be homeless people occupying the grounds, but I didn’t see any.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is all one could expect.  Even some live performers.  I didn’t take pictures.  There were just too many things that were picture worthy.  I learned that “Country-Western” became the popular descriptive not for the music, but for the visual image.  When westerns hit the big screen, the singing cowboys of the times didn’t like it being described as “hillbilly” music.  I am in no way a country music aficionado, but even I spent 2 1/2 hours in the Museum.

Driving to Paducah I again took a turn off the highway and crossed the “Land Between the Lakes” Recreation Area.  They have elk and bison visiting ranges.  Motorcycles not allowed; I didn’t ask if it was the noise or concerns of safety.  In any case, what I did see of the park was quite pretty.  Interesting history (floods, dams, eminent domain removals, etc.).

On Monday I travel to St. Louis and catch a flight home for a week.  This blog will continue on Tuesday, April 26th.

Note the sign over the gate.

Land between the Lakes

Land between the Lakes

I’m suddenly having picture import problems.

Seen: Blue Ridge Parkway, folks whitewater rafting, Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, and Stone River Battlefield.  Missionary Ridge was interesting in that the Ridge now has upper class houses, historical markers, narrow road, NO PARKING OR STOPPING (“Video Surveilled”).  Weird.  Stone River was excellent, though I visited after hours and only saw a fraction of the displays.

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.