Sunday

We'll be heading to Philly today. We'll be staying with our friend Joya. There will not be any internet available while we're there. More updates when we're able. Thanks for reading!!!!

Update...we have a connection after all! We'll post after the dinner festivities at Joya's house are over.

Virginia Beach!

We're here. More after dinner....

8:40 pm. Okay; dinner is finished. In my best "stream of consciousnesss" style:

Today we drove from Wilmington, NC to Virginia Beach, VA by way of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore a total of 355 miles. We toured where Orville and Wilbur first flew and had other adventures.

Like. for instance, when I drove right up to the bech so Chris could take pictures of the breaking surf--and absolutely BURIED the bike in the soft sand. Great. It was almost in up to the axles. It took me 10 minutes of swearing and digging to uncover enough so that I could drive it out. I am capable of blinding flashes of stupidity and that was one of my brightest. I should have known better, but at least we were able to keep the local towing operators out of the equation. Oh, and I managed to get us lost trying to find the hotel in Virginia Beach. All in all, not one of my better efforts.

There is a lot of cotton in North Carolina and we got to see a whole bunch of it today--all ready to harvest. Another thing: this was the flattest country we had toured during this trip and although it made the riding easy, there wasn't that feeling of awe that we experienced in the mountains. You get what you pay for...

Have we mentioned the tailgating yet? These people in the Carolinas have made it an art form. I was taught to leave one car length for each 10 mph. Down here it's one foot per 10 mph. Either that or I'm just getting old.

There is a 5.5 mile bridge that we crossed to reach the Outer Banks. It's no Lake Ponchartrain Causeway, but it imressed me. Chris got some pictures which I'll try to get her to post tonight.

Trip notes for Tuesday through Friday

I've "dug up" one more photo from Savannah. [Pun explanation follows]

We took a ghost tour on Tuesday night and heard many of the local ghost stories that are popular in Savannah. One in particular concerned a misfit named Rene Ashe who lived in the mid-1700's. He was a giant (well over 7.5 ft. tall and 550 lbs.) and was imprisoned in his own house by his parents. They were forced to because young Rene chased, threatened, attacked, and terrified the other children in the town. He also had a habit of capturing and torturing small animals. The family was ordered to either control him or leave the community. They built a 16-foot tall wall around the property and the townspeople guarded the wall--two men at a time. The imprisonment lasted from the time he was 15 until his death eight years later.

On the last night of Rene's life the guards left their posts to help fight a fire in the town. When they got back they found that Rene had escaped. His escape coincided with the murder of a young girl that very night. Her neck was broken. The townspeople captured and hung Rene that same night. The parents were not granted permission to bury Rene in the town cemetary so they buried him on their own property within the walls. Parts of the original wall still stand; 16 feet tall with broken glass mortared into the top.

Why did I make you read all his? Because the ghost tour goes by the wall and we took a picture of it. The tour guide mentioned that this is the most haunted part of the city and that many times cameras don't function properly there; too many restless spirits. You guessed it. Look at the picture. It's the only one that came out with streaks and spheres of light; the rest of our photos are perfect. Sleep well...

For anyone who cares: Mileage for Monday (Roswell, GA to Hilton Head, SC): 332. Mileage in the rental car Tuesday through Thursday: 460. Mileage today (to Wilmington, NC): 299.

--George

Day 8 - Wednesday

Wednesday was our day to head north-way north. We drove up to Charleston, it's a 2.5 hour drive from Hilton Head. Not much time compared to what we've been doing but still a hike. We decided to do one of those tour things here too, only this time did it on a boat. The tour sailed us around Charleston's harbor. We went past Fort Sumter (the small island in two of the pictures), where the second shot of the Civil War was fired. We also sailed under the Revenal Bridge. It opened only 12 weeks ago. Kim-I thought you'd enjoy these photos! The towers are over 660 feet tall!!! The road is over 180 feet above the water. The lst photo we took as we drove over the bridge on our way to Wilmington, earlier today.
CTD

Per JD's request

John, this ones for you! Go to: http://charlestonnudies.blogspot.com

Day something, also known as Tuesday

Well we're here-Hilton Head Island. If you like golf this is the place for you! Of course, I don't play golf, but I drive a mean cart! George on the other hand is a great golfer, but he didn't bring his clubs. I know, I was being selfish, I refused to carry them on my lap. So we decided to give George's butt a break & rent a car to see the sights. Our favorite sight ended up being Savannah. Great city, very much like New Orleans, but cleaner.
We took one of those tour bus things around the city. Proved to be very informative. Did you know you can't dig anywhere in the "historic" section of Savannah & not find human remains? So, if you feel like knocking off... ahh, never mind.
We also took a "Walk the Haunted Streets of Savannah" tour that night. That was lots of fun! Didn't run into any spirits, unless beer counts? All in all, another great day. A place we want to revisit. Photos to come...
CTD

Above photos:
The two pictures of the church are of the First African Baptist Church. It was built by slaves during their free time and finished in 1858. I'm serious about the "free time" part. The plantation managers only allowed them to leave the plantations to work on it after each day's work was completed. That meant they only worked on it between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am. It was a station on the Underground Railroad. A remarkable story; it was the first black church in North America.

The statue (and I'm sorry that it is so dark in the picture) is called, "The Waving Girl" and it's really striking in person. She was named Florence Martus and she stood on that spot for 44 years and waved a "hello" to each ship entering Savannah Harbor and a "goodbye" to each outgoing one. Apparently her one true love was a sailor who died at sea when she was a young lady and this was her way of memorializing him. She died in 1843. Up north we wouldn't be building statues of people like this. Up north we'd just remember her as "Crazy Florence."

The others are of me on something called a "Factor's Walk." The wagonloads of cotton were drawn under these toward the warehouses along the river. Cotton brokers (called "Factors") stood on these and bid on the goods as they paraded under them.

--George

FLASH!!! Missing Vacationers Found:

Alright, we're sorry for not updating. Remember when I said that the wireless was available poolside? Well it was. Once. That morning. Never again. Nothing. No signal. No ability to update this. You were all worried, right? You weren't worried enough to call. Right? We love you anyway.

We've left Hilton Head and are now in Wilmington, NC. I'll update the mileage stats and other stuff after dinner. Chris can fill you all in on where we have been hiding for the last 3 days.

--George

Day 6 Monday

We're in Hilton Head after a day of highway riding. It's beautiful here, but there is a downside: The high-speed internet is only available poolside. We'll tough it out. Now, where is my sunblock? Here are a few photos from tthe last couple of days. The photo of the mountains demonstrates why they're called The Smokies. The photo of the river shows something we don't see in ecologically-concerned Massachusetts: Crushed cars lining the river to prevent erosion!

--George

Day 5-Sunday

We left Gatlinburg & headed for the Smokey's. Our goal today is to stop at Killer Creek Harley & stay somewhere in Georgia. We got to the store 30 minutes before closing, did a little shopping, traded dip-dots & got directions. Well, we got different directions, from different people, to go to the same place, so we decided to call it a night & got a place in Roswell, GA. We did find out that Savannah is either 2 or 4.5 hours from here. We'll find out on Monday...

--Chris

Chris and I talked and realized that Kate's Cove would be a parking lot on a beautiful Sunday so we made the decision to head out of the mountains and noodle our way to the coast. Rather than find a freeway and bomb all day we decided that we'd see some sights of rural Carolina and Georgia and stop whenever we'd had enough. To make a long story short we ended up on a highway along the Chattahoochie River that was a favorite with the local sport-bikers. We got to see a lot of daredevil, knee-scraping, tire-scrubbing Georgia riders...and a couple of busy Georgia Highway patrol officers. "You're in a heap of trouble now, boy."

Sunday's mileage: 235.

Day 4 Pictures

Here are a few from Saturday. The pic of us is from Glassmine Falls on the Blue Ridge PArkway. It could be subtitled, "I hope the camera doesn't blow off the mountain..." (self-timer concern; it was balanced on top of a fence post on the edge of quite a little drop. Saturday's mileage: 217.

Saturday Night Posts

We didn't do one because the Internet service in the hotel didn't work, at least outside the lobby... So I'm sitting in the lobby leaving this quick update. We are in Gatlinburg, TN and had a really great day yesterday. We rode down to Cherokee, NC, which is the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and then through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park to get to Gatlinburg. The temperature was around 70 except when we were at the top of the mountains.

Gatlinburg is a great little town; if you can't find something to amuse you here you aren't trying hard enough. Chris is still sleeping. When she wakes up I may try to talk her into staying around here for another day! Lee Cox almost demanded that we see Kate's Cove, which is just outside of Gatlinburg...and we didn't get here in time to see it yesterday. If we head for Hilton Head and expect to make it today we'll have to ride pretty hard and will miss this opportunity.

By the way, Lee is responsible for us getting this far. He is the HD technician who replaced the triple trees for us, and without that work we wouldn't have been able to travel nearly as far each day...especially on roads like these. With a standard front end I would have had to wrestle the bike around each corner which would have cut the distance traveled each day substantially. I suppose that over the course of this trip we'll save enough money on hotels, Advil, and chiropractors that the front end will have paid for itself!

Time to get coffee. Pictures will have to wait for a while.

--George

Day 3 Pictures

Day 3 Notes

I almost feel that posting these pictures is a mistake because they really don't reflect what we actually see. There are many stopping-places that they call "Overlooks" and each one lets you view about 180 degrees of scenery. The camera only captures about 45 degrees. In many places along the Parkway if you look to the right you see the Shenandoah Vally with the Alleghany Mountains in the distance; if you look left you see the Piedmont (in Virginia) or the Blue Ridge Mountains. Chris especially liked looking over the edge as we drove along. There were many "expletives deleted" muttered into the intercom. Hey, whether you fall 50 feet or 2000, it's going to hurt! Mileage yesterday: 317.

Day 3-Friday

Well, I noticed a childhood memory, my uni-brow, I NEED TWEEZERS!!!! There's another reason why wearing helmet is a good thing. Ok, enough about me.

We started the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile marker "0" in Rock Fish, VA , again more breathtaking views. Lots of bikes out yesterday. It's been fun talking & meeting people. Everytime we stop a couple of people come over, check out the bike & ask questions.

Another beauiful day riding, but, as in life, all good things must end. Around 4:30 (@ 230 miles)we get off the parkway in Sparta, NC, about 60 miles north of Boone, our final destination for the day. It's getting dark but mainly we'll need gas soon, so getting off to head towards a town makes sense. Well, as the Talking Heads say "Stop Making Sense!" The roads we choose look like good routes on the map, well...
Lets just say after many tiny, narrow, dark curvy roads and the banjos stop playing, we get on the "expressway", which runs north & south at the same time! We got on 421North/221South.

BTW-thanks for reading & all of your comments. Note to JD, "those" pictures are on a different blog!