Deals Gap

I took Woody's advice and headed over to Deals Gap after finishing the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had heard of it before, but was never really sure where it was or even what exactly it was.

Well, let me tell you: this road is no fucking joke.

Deals Gap is Route 129 crossing the border between North Carolina and Tennessee by Fontana Dam. It is, quite simply, the most technically challenging road you will likely ever find, anywhere. Deals Gap is (ready for this?) 318 turns in the course of a mere 11 miles.

If you just said "HOLYFUCKINGSHIT!" you are not alone. This road makes Highway 1 along the Pacific Coast look straight. It is so bad that it made someone lose their lunch all over the highway at the end (I'll spare you the gory details, but this made Linda Blair's famous scene in The Exorcist look like a case of the hiccups).

Well, I rode that bad beast known as the Dragon and survived. Granted, most of it was done at less than 40 mph, but I never ran off the road (although I'd be lying if I said I didn't come thisclose a few times), and my underwear survived without incident. I've even got my sticker to prove it, Bee-yatch!

Yeah! Ride on!

The Blue Ridge Parkway, Part III

The Blue Ridge Parkway just gets better and better the further south you ride. This is pretty close to the end and not long after I ran into Woody and the couple on the vintage BMW.

I can't stress enough what a great ride the BRP is. I've gotten really frustrated with riding in the NYC area over the last couple of years, since there are so few cool roads. Even reasonably good roads like the Saw Mill Parkway are clogged with shitheads driving Lincoln Aggravators blabbing away (illegally) on their cellphones (which the cops do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about, even though it probably claims as many lives every year as DWIs). Even when I try to visit my family on LI, I find it to be a real chore because the traffic is soooooo Hellish and it usually takes me over an hour to do the 40 or so miles, even when splitting lanes for most of it.

Anyway, this has been a real treat. I'm going to miss the BRP, but I know that lots of other amazing roads await. If you ever get a chance, ride the Blue Ridge Parkway yourself.

Coolest Road Sign

OK, we now have a new Coolest Road Sign. The last one I posted was pretty dope, but this is just too much!

Gettin' High on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Fancy Meeting You Here...

On Friday, I stopped at a turnoff on the BRP that another rider had already stopped at. His name was Woody and he was riding north from Georgia. We hung out for a little while and talked about our rides, the trips we were on, and bikes, bikes, bikes.

Anyway, I was stopped at the Mt. Pisgah convenience store on Memorial Day and was enjoying a lunch of a Milky Way bar and a Vanilla Starbucks Frappucino (sugar rules!) when I heard the unmistakable sound of a BMW behind me followed by "Hey, you ain't made it to Alaska yet!" Lo and behold, my new buddy Woody just happened to stop at the same store for a little sugar fix as well. We talked for a few minutes, and then a couple rode up on a nice vintage BMW (behind my bike in the photo).

The four of us chatted for a little while and I got the picture above when they started talking about the latest $20k BMW K1200 LT touring whale. Woody's bike, the BMW R1200 RT, is a really nice looking bike and plenty functional, but without being the total whale the LT is. I'd take his bike over the LT any day.

We said our good-byes and I headed west on the BRP. A couple of miles later, I was stopped at another turnoff and Woody came riding up again. He retrieved a map from his trunk and came over to me and told me that I should reconsider the route I was taking. He explained that the legendary Deals Gap was just a short detour away (more on that later) and that I should really consider riding it. He also gave me a recommendation for a place to stay, the Iron Horse Lodge, but it was a little too early to quit riding when I got there.

Anyway, this just demonstrates that there is a fantastic camaraderie among bikers. Some of the coolest people I've ever met I only got to know because of our shared passion for bikes, and my life would be less rich if I hadn't ever met them. Also, contrary to popular myth, bikers tend to be like Woody - bright, cool, and always willing to lend a hand.

Woody, wherever you are, thanks again. I hope you're enjoying a great road somewhere.

Chillin' in the Mountains with a Fried Laptop

I've spent the last couple of days chillin' here in Hendersonville, NC with my old buddy Eric and his wife Marian, who have made me feel right at home with their southern hospitality. Eric and I were like brothers in high school, but we don't get to see each other too often anymore. Since he's moved to NC, we're lucky to see each other every year or two, usually when I'm on a motorcycle trip through the area.

As much as the time spent with Eric and Marian was nice, it was extended a bit beyond my original plan because of a fried laptop. I woke up Sunday morning thinking I'd do a short post and then pack up and hit the rest of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Upon firing up my laptop, however, my browser and desktop got totally highjacked because of two Trojan horses that made their way into my system (I am - admittedly - an asshole for not keeping my internet protection software up to date. Not a good thing when you're using all sorts of random wireless networks). I spent the next few hours furiously trying to clean them out and restore my system to health, but to no avail. I finally gave up and went to Staples for the latest security suite by Norton, which I installed and ran on my poor, sick laptop.

Anyway, eight hours after I first fired it up, it was sort of working ok again (although I no longer have a "desktop" to speak of - when I go into my Control Panel I don't even have settings for a desktop anymore). Thank God I backed everything up before I left! However, I basically lost a whole day to this bullshit.

Let me say two things here: one, always, always, always keep your security software on and up to date. After working on random networks with laptops for about eight years, I never had a problem until now, but I was just lucky. Two, there is a very special place in Hell for the fuckers who create these viruses and other assorted malware. If I ever, ever meet someone who does this sort of thing, I will make Donald Rumsfeld look like Mr. Rogers and Abu Ghraib will look like a petting zoo. I will make a special trip to Home Depot just for devices to torture the fucker with and it will be sloooooow.

Thanks - just needed to get that out of my system...

Anyway, today I'm headed back up to the BRP to ride the last piece from Asheville, NC to the Great Smoky Mts. National Park. After that, I'm headed back to I-40 and will likely end up somewhere around Knoxville, TN. From there I'm headed to the Blues and BBQ capital of the South, Memphis, TN.

See you on the road!

The Blue Ridge Parkway, Part II

Day 4: Another fantastic day of riding on the BRP. I really can't get enough of the roads or the views.

The ride down to Asheville, NC turned out to be a bit longer than I expected. Of course, it didn't help that I was taking every cool looking turn-off I came to...

Obligatory food post: I stopped at a little roadside restaurant just north of Fields of Dan, VA (that's actually the name of the town - cool if your name is Dan, right?). I took a look at the menu to see if they had anything interesting before deciding on the place, and they had the following listed:

We're Famous For This!
Two corn cakes with melted cheese and 4 oz. of BBQ pork topped with slaw and BBQ sauce.

Now, when I saw "corn cakes," I had to assume they meant something like cornbread. Wrong. These were PANCAKES! When my order arrived, I thought they were kidding me. "Hey, let's fuck with the guy with the NY license plates," I figured they were thinking. Nope, that's just what you get - a pancake topped with melted cheese and (a lot more than 4 oz of) BBQ pork, covered over with another pancake. Thankfully, the slaw was on the side to reduce the challenge to my Yankee palate. Still, I really didn't know whether to reach for the BBQ sauce or the syrup until I tasted it (I reached for the BBQ sauce). Overall, it was pretty good, even if the BBQ pork was a little less spectacular than the previous day's. I guess sometimes you just gotta roll with what ends up on your plate when you're on the road!

There were a couple of sections of the BRP that were still closed from the hurricanes that swept through last year, so I left the BRP for Route 221 at Linville Falls, NC. On the map, you see a nice straight shot down to I-40 which you can then take into Asheville, NC. The reality, however, was far different. Route 221 was probably the most hairpin road I have ever driven on, with a few sections that you couldn't possibly do more than 20 mph on without an up-to-date will. So instead of making it to Asheville before dusk, I ended up rolling into town for gas around 9:00 PM. After that, it was a fairly short ride down to Hendersonville, NC to meet up with another old bandmate, Eric, and his wife Marion. However, riding the interstate in the dark down here on a bike is not really for the faint of heart - speed limits are really "suggestions," and you have a hard time deciding if the insect that just hit your windscreen was really smaller than the semi trying to pass you in the right hand lane at about 95 mph.

These are the kinds of roads you have for some 469 miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway. To be fair, this photo doesn't really do the curves justice. If you want to break in a new bike, this is the place to do it!

On the Blue Ridge Parkway

On the Blue Ridge Parkway

On the Blue Ridge Parkway

This has got to be one of the best road signs I've ever seen. I can personally testify that this corner warranted it! I didn't end up like the guy on the sign, thankfully.

The Blue Ridge Parkway

Day 3: I left Sam's today and headed over to I-64 to take me to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I-64 was, well, an interstate (fast traffic, no real surprises, which I guess is the point), and I got over to the BRP a little after lunchtime.

I pulled into the info area in Waynesboro, VA, where everyone exhibited their legendary southern hospitality. The woman who helped me out with info on the area was very grandmotherly and sweet and seemed to genuinely like helping out biker freaks like me. When I asked about good places for lunch, she recommended that I check out the Blue Ridge Pig, a local BBQ joint that is popular with bikers. She even clarified that by saying that it not only had great BBQ, but the road there and back was only about 8 miles and was lots of fun on a bike.

SOLD!

Anyway, it turned out to be a so-so road (especially in the shadow of the BRP) and closer to 15 miles each way. The BBQ, however, was AMAZING (note: I live for good BBQ on the road. Expect to read many, many reviews of my BBQ adventures here), and was served out of a little, tiny "shack" on the end of a more upscale strip mall. The BBQ pork was nice and smoky and was cooked to that stage where it wasn't totally falling apart, but also wasn't too chewy - just right. The beans, however, were really what stood out. They were made with some sort of mustard sauce that had some green pepper in it and had just a tiny amount of kick. The slaw was great, too, with lots of black pepper. No sweet tea (is North Carolina the furthest north they serve that?) but a great meal nonetheless.

While there, I met a couple of other guys riding the BRP. One had a Yamaha FJR 1300 and the other had a generic Japanese cruiser - a Honda Shadow, I think (I hate to use a term like "generic" when describing someone's ride, but that's really what those metric cruisers are, and most guys don't go too crazy customizing them. Harleys are plenty generic, too, but the people who ride them do usually exhibit some creativity with their credit cards and the Harley accessory catalogue). They were raving about the ride north on the BRP and were contemplating whether or not to continue north on the BRP's sister, Skyline Drive. I told them that when I had taken it a couple of years earlier, it was worth the $10 for the bike pass, but they seemed more concerned that their time-stamped passes would lead to speeding tickets at the northern end of the ride. I'm still a little baffled about this, since law enforcement agencies really don't have their shit together, after all. Anyway, I hope they did take Skyline Drive, since it was a truly great ride when I did it in 2003.

With a full belly, I hit the BRP and immediately had to see what the DL could do on a REAL road. WOW! She really was pretty quick, and her suspension and brakes helped to keep the holyshitI'mgonnadie moments to a minimum. Even when I did overextend her a bit, she was very responsive to my easing her back in a bit and making my chances of reaching retirement age slightly more realistic. By the time I reached Roanoke, VA around dusk, she had made me a believer. I'm also glad that I didn't spring for the 1000 cc version, since I NEVER would have been able to use the extra power without seriously jeopardizing my license (although I suppose that if you only go 40 mph over the BRP speed limit of 45 - which of course I wouldn't do, being the MSF posterchild and all - you do that anyway!).

Scorecard: not a single trailered bike all day! Insect sacrifices to the windscreen: 1000+ (estimated by the looks of it). Miles so far: 630.

Underway

Day 2: I finally got on the road yesterday! The ride down to Richmond wasn't bad. Lots of traffic getting out of NYC (natch), and quite a bit around the DC area as well. The rain pretty much stayed away except for an hour or less in south Jersey. The DL kept most of it off me, anyway - if I duck behind the windshield I can stay almost totally dry when moving.

I spent the evening with my old friend and onetime bandmate Sam and his partner Meg last night in Richmond. We went out to eat at the Positive Vibe Cafe, a training restaurant that provides a facility for people with disabilities to learn food service skills to help them to secure employment. I love the idea, frankly, and the food was pretty damn good! One little issue: they called their French Onion Soup "Caramelized Onion Soup," which I can only guess was to avoid offending the Red State constituency. Maybe I'm wrong - the place was pretty crunchy (with a name like that, how could it not be?). Still, the French are not beloved down here.

Today I'm off to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I've ridden part of it in the past, and it was amazing. Definitely one of the best riding roads I've encountered, so today should be a blast. Even better, NO RAIN in the forecast!

Scorecard: Harley-Davidsons seen being trailered instead of ridden: 2. Japanese bikes seen being trailered instead of ridden: 3. BMWs seen being trailered instead of ridden: yeah, right - as if!

Ride On!

Wreck Beach, Vancouver, BC

Rain, rain, go away...

Day 1: ...and it just keeps on raining. To hell with it - I'm leaving today anyway.

I just found this cool pic from about five years ago - thought I'd share it. Even on the days with the worst weather, you can still see some great stuff that makes it worth getting on the road anyway. The day was rainy and cold, but I went down to Wreck Beach in Vancouver because the ride through that part of town was supposed to be nice and it is a huge countercultural landmark. It certainly wasn't a beach day, but the ride and the beach were both still amazing. I was lucky to have brought some B&W film which worked great with this view.

Well, rain or shine, the trip begins today. Yee-haw!

Delay isn't just an asshole from Texas

Ugh - my start has been delayed due to weather. Normally I would have ridden through weather like this, but I really hate starting a trip in the rain. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better weather.

Until then...

We Ride At Dawn

Well, ok, maybe I'll be riding more like noon or so. I have a few last minute errands to run in the morning, but then the immortal path called I-95 beckons.

I feel like I could take another week or month to prepare for this trip and I'd still find things that "need" to be done before I leave. Having an "open-ended" window for travel can be a double-edged sword that way, I suppose. I'm starting to get restless, though, and want to put all the logistical bullshit behind me and just RIDE.

Anyway, tomorrow my new baby will finally be put to the test once and for all. Let's see if the guys at MotorCyclist were right when they said "Good luck finding something this one can't do." I sure as hell aim to try - 15k+ miles stand between me and the next time I see the Brooklyn Bridge 8 weeks from now.

I promise pics soon. I've got the new camera all figured out (ok, sorta), and now that my new baby has got all her extra goodies bolted on, she's ready as well.

Well, all my love to those I'll be away from when I'm on the road, and I can't wait to meet those of you whose paths I'll be crossing shortly.

Ride on!

Getting ready

Well, I should be getting on the road any day now. I'm just waiting for the last of my gear to arrive and to get my shots. T-minus x days...

The roadlust is starting to build. I'm also having a really hard time properly breaking in the new bike - do the manufacturers understand what it is like to ride a brand-spankin'-new motorcycle that you can't go into the top half of the rev range on for 500 miles?!? That's like hosting a keg party and handing out Dixie cups to your guests. Or something like that...

Anyway, more soon. I promise to put pictures of my new baby up ASAP.