Chan writes:

This morning, Marc hit the road for a day of solo riding.  He planned to wander into Virginia, and then be in Louisville, KY 2 nights hence.

After he got off, Mom and I messed around for most of the morning, then saddled up the trike for an hour’s run into Greenville, NC, to visit my cousins Ken and Betsy.  This was my first time driving the trike on twisty roads, and I found that it did fine, especially when I kept the air suspension pumped up over 70 PSI, which kept the rear end from wallowing.

We had lunch at a Chick-Fil-A, and hit a Wal-Mart to look for a seat cover for Mom.  Her only complaint with the trike was it’s uncomfortable seat, so we bought her a cushion and stacked it on top of my beaded cover to see if that would help.  We arrived at Ken and Besty’s about 2:15, and several neighbors came over to check out the trike.  It attracts a crowd wherever it goes.

Cousin Ken

Guy Next Door
   

Everybody wants a ride!

 Ken showed me his setup for filtering waste vegetable oil to run in his diesel truck.  He filters waste fryer oil from local restaurants, adds a little gasoline, kerosene, and a few other things, then mixes it one to one with pump diesel.  The resulting mix runs fine in his Dodge truck, and cuts his fuel cost by about 40%.  He has an auxiliary tank installed in the bed, and is prepping for a camping trip to Glacier National Park in Montana.  With the extra tankage, he will be able to make the trip one-way without refueling; then he will fix up another batch of veg on the far end, running his mix all the way back.  I found it all fascinating.

 

With their son Will, we all went to downtown Greenville, where they showed us around town and took us to Ken’s office.  Around five, Mom and I headed back to the condo, where we cleaned up leftovers for dinner, and packed a bit for our morning departure.

Mom and Cousin Betsy

 

 Marc writes:

19 June (370 miles)

This was the day of back roads, and I was looking forward to it.  Leaving Sapphire, NC my destination was Marion, VA -- Hungry Mother State Park.  My wife had been there several times and recommended it as a place to stop.  She's from Abingdon VA.  In planning the trip, I had Burkes Garden as a "daylight" waypoint and Hungry Mother put me just south of that area.  Plus I had Hwy 16 as a pre-Burkes activity.  Fun.

 

I hadn't been long in departing the Sapphire condo when I found my first road closure of the day.  Detours!  281 north of Hwy 64 was closed, just after the Lake Toxaway post office.  I stopped in there to ask about the detour and mailed a postcard to Connie and the kids.  281 was detoured onto Slick Fisher Rd (twisty!) and came out at 281 where it was dirt and tight.  I stopped to take a pic of one of the switchbacks on Slick Fisher.  Wow.  281 was not a "raw" dirt road, but rather a gravel-packed surface put down in preparation for paving.  I like the options that open up with going dirt and hope to do more.  I felt a bit more at ease knowing the Zumo was keeping track of my whereabouts.  It's hard to remember using maps.

I met who I assumed was a volunteer fire-person at Lake Taxonomy post office.  I'd struck up a conversation with her in the parking lot.  She seemed nice.  When I told her of my route she said, "Don't Go There!!!".  Great, a confidence building moment:  New bike, by myself, detours, potential twisty dirt, and locals making me scared.   She seemed very concerned that I was planning to take 281 up to Charley's Creek Rd.  I appreciated her advice but still planned to press on.  After all, I'd been doing this type of riding since.....well, yesterday.
I caught Charley's Creek Rd off of 281, took that over to Hwy 215 (Parkway Rd), and up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The parkway is such a nice road.  You can have a good ride without extreme speeds and, of course, the scenery is spectacular.  Traffic was light.  Just east of Asheville the parkway was closed, I believe due to some unauthorized land movements.  Detour!  Right, just follow the signs.  No Good.  The detour was not satisfactory as it sent you on I-40 for too many miles.  I could feel the twisty highways passing me by.  Time to stop for lunch and some time with the Zumo.  Stopped at Black Mountain, NC and almost dropping the bike at a gas station.  Definitely not impressive to the ladies.  The bike, she is tall.

Since the BRP was closed just after Asheville, NC-2178 and 197 up into Burnsville would not be an option.  Pity, they looked really good on the map, and 197 still had a twisty dirt section.  Those roads will have to wait as the BRP closure will be in effect until 2009.  So, it was I-40 to Old Fort.  Hwy 70, then north on 80.  80 is a nice road and gets very, very twisty up towards the parkway.  Some of the sharpest curves I've ever seen.  By the way, it's always nice to see the "WARNING, HWY xx NOT SUITABLE FOR TRUCKS.  STEEP WINDING ROAD, SWITCHBACKS, AND SHARP CURVES.  TAKE ALTERNATE ROUTE".  It beckons.

Next stop was the park at Mt. Mitchell.  I hadn't been there in many years and heard that blight came through some time back and took out all the old evergreens.  The road up was well-maintained and full of views.  There are hotel rooms near the top and a new concessions and gift shop at the summit.  Tallest point east of Rockies.  Did I mention it was cold, really cold at elevation -- almost 6,600 feet.

Back down to the parkway and over to 80 north to Micaville, then over to Burnsville.  I needed to visit the Nu Wray Inn.  Fond memories of our family visiting this "hotel".  Antique furniture, old oil paintings, stairs, and Victorian decor.  Kind of a scary place for a kid, though.  Those people in the paintings always seemed to stare at me.  I remember running past them going to our hotel room.  Meals were boarding-house style, and very, very tasty.  At the time, I had a crush on one of the servers and would blush when she asked me if I wanted milk to drink.  She's probably dead now -- jeeesh, I'm old.  The area behind the hotel used to be woods (it's a shopping center now).  Earle (my brother) and I used to explore back there (after Mr. Wray asked us to).  You see, we were rough-housing in the lobby and he'd had all he could take.  The Wray's are not the owners anymore.
North on 197 out of Burnsville, the next stop was Aunt Bert's place. (Bert Ramsey was married to John Ramsey, my grandfather's (Jacob Ramsey) brother).  Her driveway is off of Ridge Road, an unmarked gravel road (now gated).  Time to leave the bike at the road.  It would be OK, ... , right?  About 300 yards down the drive was her place.  Nice.   Summertime visits to Aunt Bert's were always fun.  I'd hope that everyone has a place like this in their childhood memories.  Lots of things to explore, a farm dog named "Lady", and a scary cock that always threatened to "spur" me.  Not to worry, I had Lady by my side.  She was a cool dog, trained as a farm hand -- she handled cattle, rounded swine, and guarded the chickens.  Her pen was beside the chicken house.

Aunt Bert cooked on a wood stove and there was no running water.  At the bottom of the hill in front of the house was a spring.  On the front porch was a cable/wheel by which you'd lower a 2.5g bucket to the spring and retrieve the water.  A community ladle was used for drinking.  The wheel was cool, although I remember it being taller.  There was an outhouse out back, and bed-pans for the evening visits to the loo.  Beds were feather and covered in hand-made quilts.  A grandfather clock chimed the hour and snapped the passing seconds.  This place was rich, and I was glad to see it again.

I missed stopping at the church cemetery, where John and Bert are buried.  I'll have to make a point to stop on my next visit.

Moving on and up, I rode up 197.  Unfortunately, I missed the turn at 226 to Bakersville (pronounced BAKE-ers-vul), which would lead up to a nicely formed 143.  I did find a nice road (NC-1330) or Hughes Gap Rd, which had a brief section of dirt.  I liked this road.  It dumped into 143 just south of Roan.  I caught 19 after Roan Mountain, followed by 194 over to Banner Elk.

194 after Elk Park and 421 up to Zionville.  I think there's a motorcycle camp there somewhere.  Then 67 up to Hwy 88.  88 towards Mt. Rogers.  Nice roads were popping up one after the other.  I enjoyed it.

I'll need to caution myself, though.  At this point in the trip, I was simply following the directions of the Zumo with little regard for keeping track of where I was.  I was a bit intoxicated by the continuous supply of twisties and, at many points, did not even know what state I was in.  Not entirely a bad thing, I guess.  Kind of like a warm toilet seat -- It's nice, but you wonder.

On through Mt. Rogers.  I'd been here several times with Connie's dad (Dick Cuskey).  Their family hikes the AT here often.  (In fact, Connie's sister Cindy was married on the AT.)  I felt the day getting old quick so did not take the western section of Hwy 58.  Time to cut north and get to camp.  I wasn't sure that Hungry Mother had sites so needed to leave time to arrange alternate lodging.

Arrived at Marion, VA.  I'd been by Marion on I-81 tons, but never stopped.  Lots of trips from DC to Abingdon during my college years.  I sped through Marion with my fuel light flashing (hollow bar).  Both my bike and I were hungry, but I wanted to establish camp before dark.  Hungry Mother is about 5 miles north, but it seemed like more.  I was tired.

No tent sites.  Great.  A spot in one of the two "full-service" loops was mine.  I always like to tent camp next to a 40 foot RV.  Really gives that feeling of the outdoors.  Luckily, a family reunion was happening in Loop B -- mostly tent campers.  The alpha male saw me ride in and suggested a site near them -- it turns out he suspected I'd be leaving the next day and wanted my help in "holding" sites near them.  They had more folks arriving the next day and wanted to be sure sites were available nearby.  Sure thing.

Boy, the looks you get from campers when you ride into a non motorcycle-only camp.  I guess there's not a lot going on and folks tend to notice things that are a bit out of the ordinary (or extraordinary, in my case).  Some of the "regulars" (camp hosts) were off in the distance watching me set up.  Looking.  Talking.  Pointing.  Shrugging.  It was amusing.  When they saw my chair and laptop come out, they couldn't take it anymore and came over to see the load-in up close.  They were impressed.  They shouldn't have been.  It's basically backpacking via motorcycle.  Same concern about volume, a bit less concern with weight.

I was hungry, but did not want to ride back into Marion to eat.  To be more precise, I didn't want to get back on the bike at that point.  Time to put the homemade Pepsi can stove to work.  I boiled water for a double portion of oat meal, along with a Special K bar.  It did fine and it wasn’t' long before I was ready for bed.

CRAP!  I forgot my pillow.  Not to worry, I had some laundry to use.  My camp was small, but complete.  I looked forward to tomorrow and Burkes Garden.  It was unusually cold that night.

 

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