3rd Annual ADV Eastern Airhead Rally

On October 17 - 19, 2008 the third annual ADV Eastern Airhead Rally was held in Tellico Plains, TN. This is traditionally my last big outing of the year. From now until March I will just do what I call maintenance rides. These are short 20 to 30 mile rides just to keep the batteries charged and the oils moved around. Also the next few months will be spent planning my my Ocracoke Island to San Diego cross county trip. I may make a few posts to let you know how the planning is going, but until March posts will be far and few between.
This past weekend, however, was a fitting end to a great riding season! I arrived late Friday night, in the rain, and Boojum still had some brats, chili, and Schlitz (that's right, Schlitz!) left over. After getting my tent up in the dark and standing around the campfire for a while I hit the sleeping bag for a good night's sleep. The next morning was foggy but it soon burned off and the rest of the day was beautiful! I rode to TWO in Suches, GA for lunch. This was the first time I had been at TWO in a couple of years and there were a lot of "Harley Posers" there. After lunch I ran the cooler run and returned to Tellico Plains. I won a "Ride the Dragon" board game as a door prize in the evening. Sort of appropriate for a third grade teacher. After the usual frivolity of the evening campfire, including Kayla the beer drinking bird dog, I hit the sack and during the night the temperature plummeted.
I awoke in the morning to a frozen rain fly and a motorcycle covered in frost! This photo is not that great, but the lens was fogging up in the cold. If I remember right the campground was at about 1800 feet and I was going to ride over the Cherohala Skyway which would take me up over 5300 feet. That meant I was in for a cold ride home! Oh well, so be it. This is what I do. The ride home was cold, but the skies were blue and the fall colors were out.
Keep check back during the course of the winter. I will try to make at least one post per month just to keep the site active. Meanwhile, if any one has any recommendations for my cross county trip, shoot me an email! Have a great winter!!

Blue Ridge Madness at Buzzard Brent's

This weekend there was an airhead rally at High Country Motorcycle Camp in Ferguson, NC. This is Turkey Tom's campground for all you old timers. We have started calling it Buzzard Brent's in honor of the "new" owner. Actually Brent has owned the place for a couple of years now. While Friday's weather was on the iffy side, the rest of the weekend was fantastic. Beautiful blue skies and the forest was showing off all of its fall colors. I have included a couple of pictures, but the camera could not do justice to the color. It was a great time!
Next Friday I will be heading off to the ADV Rider Fall Airhead rally in Tellico Plains, TN. So far the weather seems promising. Check back next weekend and find out how it was!!

NO GAS in Western North Carolina

I have not posted anything to the blog in the last two weeks because there has been no gas in Western North Carolina since Hurricane Ike hit Galveston, Texas. The airhead is dry and the hexhead has about 100 miles of gas left in the tank. Hopefully the situation will resolve itself in the next couple of weeks and I can get back on the road. Plans are to attend the Blue Ridge Madness event at High Country Motorcycle Camp in Ferguson, NC October 10-12, 2008 and then the ADV Rider Old Skool event in Tellico Plains, TN the next weekend. I have been doing a lot of photography in and around Asheville the last couple of weeks. Please take a look at the Asheville gallery on my SmugMug site and let me know what you think of my photos! Check back in a couple of weeks to see if we have gotten fuel. I would really like to get in a couple of weekends of riding before winter sets in!

Just a Relaxing Weekend in Western North Carolina

This past weekend I camped at Blue Ridge Motorcycle Campground in Cruso, NC. It always relaxing to camp in the shadow of Cold Mountain. On Saturday I rode to Mt. Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi. Due to closures on the Blue Ridge Parkway the restaurant on Mt. Mitchell has been having some hard times, so the Western North Carolina contingent of the ADV Riders decided to have lunch there. We had a good lunch after riding from the relative heat below to cool fog on Mt. Mitchell. I rode my airhead RT but several others rode the dirt to get there.
Even though it is the middle of September the riding season feels as though it is coming to an end. That's funny since I ride year round here. But I am not camping every weekend and time is taken up with school and other things that just need to get done. Keep an eye or subscribe to my blog, though. I will soon begin planning my next big trip. I will ride from Asheville to Ocracoke Island on the Atlantic and then to San Diego! Coast to Coast with mountains, prairies, and deserts in between! Hmmm! Deserts in June and July?!? I'm already starting to think of the trip to Alaska as the "good ol' days"!!
I aslo want to remind you of my SmugMug site. I will be posting photographs throughout the winter. Last weekend, for example, I photographed people at the Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival. If you know anything about Asheville, you know this is worth a look!

RoK On Rally - Newport, TN

This rally put on by the Riders of Knoxville is one of my favorite events of the year! It is a laid back affair and has become a Labor Day Weekend tradition with me. I left for the rally immediately after school on Friday. This year the weather was beautiful. On Saturday I just rode around East Tennessee and discovered the Harrisburg Covered Bridge near Sevierville. I also discovered a part of the Foothills Parkway I had never ridden. After spending the evening watching other riders win door prizes we watched Easy Rider for about the millionth time. Next weekend I plan on camping at the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Campground in Cruso, NC. I plan on riding the airhead to this event. Check back to see if anything interesting happens!

Dan'l Boone Rally in Boone, NC

First of all I have to apologize for not posting last week. I camped at Blue Ridge Motorcycle Campground in Cruso, NC and had a great ride to Tennessee on Saturday. I rode through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Townsend, TN. The only problem was that I did not check the camera batteries before I left and I have no photos to show you. Oh well, that would be an excuse to do it again, right?
This past weekend, August 15 - 17, I spent at the Dan'l Boone Rally in Boone, NC. This is a nice little rally and about 275 people were in attendance. I rode 421, the Snake, to Shady Valley, TN and returned via Elizabethton, TN. Great roads and great weather! The rally is held at the Boone KOA, the highest KOA east of the Rockies. Here are some photos from around the rally site.

Horizons Unlimited Travellers Meeting

I spent this past weekend (July 16 - 20) at the Horizons Unlimited Travellers Meeting in Stecoah, North Carolina. Horizons Unlimited is an organization dedicated to long distance and international motorcycle travel. Several presentations were given on Latin American travel. There was on on South Africa and I gave two presentations, one on how tho make a travel DVD and the other on my trip to Alaska. All in all the weekend was very informative and inspirational. If you don't hit the road on your bike after attending one of these meetings there is something wrong with you!

Day 27 - 328.1 Miles

I left Clarksville, Tennessee about 7:00AM. I rode through Nashville and Maryville. We lived in Maryville for 18 years before moving to Asheville. I took the “back way” through Newport, TN and Hot Springs, NC. It was strange to be riding on my home roads after almost one month on the road. I arrived home safely and I am already planning my trip for next year. Stay tuned for Koast to Koast with Kurt – 2009!!!!

Day 26 - 484.1 Miles

When I started today I though it would be relatively uneventful. I knew that I would not be able to make it home today, so I broke away from the main highway and decided to take The Great River Road by the Mississippi. I had seen Alton Brown do this on his Food Network show “Feasting on Asphalt”. I had forgotten about the flooding. There was detour after detour routing me around the road. That was not my only problem. I had forgotten that today was the 4th of July. I was in the middle of America in small towns in Missouri. Every Main Street was having a parade! I called my wife because I thought this was hilarious. She said I could join the parade on my bike. At one point I had the Mississippi River to my left, water covered roads ahead of me and 4th of July patriotism on my right. What could I do. I decide to watch a parade. I was talking to a policeman about a possible route around the detours when I mentioned joining the parade on my bike. He said I should! I asked “Didn’t you see Easy Rider. The cops arrested them for that!” He thought that was funny! I decided that it was time to make some time, so I went back to the slab. I finished the day (with just a little rain) in Clarksville, Tennessee. Believe it or not, one thing I am looking forward to is changing oil in the bike. I last changed oil in Anchorage. I have been working this oil hard. I am looking forward to washing this bike and giving it some tender loving care. It has done everything I have asked of it and more. Tomorrow…home!

Day 25 - 432.2

Today was a good day. The weather was almost perfect. The highlight of today was riding through Marceline, MO, the boyhood home of Walt Disney. Did find one thing interesting while in South Dakota. While watching TV there were commercials trying to get people to stay in South Dakota. It was telling them that they had good jobs, better apartments, and a better way of life. As I left South Dakota there was a billboard that said “DON’T LEAVE SOUTH DAKOTA”. It made me wonder what is going on there. It certainly did not speak well of the state to tourists passing through.