What a great ride. Solo trip out of Raleigh. I hit a major storm cell within the first 2 hours and pulled SB1 under the awning of a convenience store to keep out of the hail! The people there were really nice and let me use the hand dryer in the bathroom as long as I wanted... Crazy. After the storm passed I headed out to Asheville and got a pretty decent room for real cheap at the Best Western about 2 miles from the BRP. The next day was spent r...
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What a great ride.
Solo trip out of Raleigh. I hit a major storm cell within the first 2 hours and pulled SB1 under the awning of a convenience store to keep out of the hail! The people there were really nice and let me use the hand dryer in the bathroom as long as I wanted... Crazy.
After the storm passed I headed out to Asheville and got a pretty decent room for real cheap at the
Best Western about 2 miles from the BRP. The next day was spent riding the parkway through it's highest point, cutting through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (smelled like brakes) and then stopping to take a swim in the middle branch of the Pigeon River in the back yard of a friend's house (Thanks Keith!). Absolutely beautiful weather and scenery all day long. After a nice relaxing visit I took a wrong turn and eventually worked my way southwest towards Memphis along the south edge of TN.
All the hotels were booked that night everywhere I stopped so I called the OL to get on the tubes of the Internets to find me a room. She found an 8 bed suite with a whirlpool at a discount price along my route just in time to avoid two more storms colliding in my path.
Next day I rode a great 65 mph hwy with little traffic all the way to Memphis. I checked in to a motel I had booked in advance and had asked when booking about parking security. The desk person told me there were cameras in the garage and to park along with the other bikes that were there for a rally. Rally? ok.
Woke up the next morning to find someone had tampered with my fork lock. Luckily I had used the disk lock as a back up. Got on the bike, took a left out of the parking spot, left out of the garage, right into a parking lot to meet up with a friend and... BAM! I was down right in front of a LEO taking a statement from some poor guy who's chopper was stolen and underinsured. Turns out he was parked close to me. The thieves tried to steal my bike too but didn't because of the disk lock. Makes you think the worst of people... They broke my fork lock in the process which made it impossible to turn right. Ouch. At least I had my bike, unlike the other guy. Turns out the hotel had cameras but no tapes to record on. WTF?
A call to HOG and my bike got a tow to the local dealer for repair. Progessive insurance and HOG covered everything. Nice.
The way home I went south through Mississippi. Boring (no offense). I stopped in Hotlanta to hang out with some old friends and then caught a couch in Athens for a couple nights of bands and beers. Next stop: home.
What a great ride.
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