Day 18 - Tues


This morning we got another quick coffee in us & then got the bikes loaded so we could be on the road by 7:30 am. The Blue Ridge was just up the street again from the hotel, so didn’t take us long to get going . We could see for the first 10 miles and then we got right back into the fog again. (we are thinking – not again – like the day before) This went on for some time before we actually could see anything again. We made our first stop at Otter Peak Visitor Center to see what they had inside. We got to chatting to the 2 rangers inside for a bit and 1 of them was also a rider. I had made mention about seeing all the deer in the open fields. He says to the other ranger – Guess what? This guy has seen some deer and they both start laughing. OK – I just realized I was the butt of the joke.
Little do they know, we don’t see things like that back home, so it is a totally different situation for us. They just walk out the front door of the place & you can see them all over the place. We chat a few more minutes. End up buying a patch from them & head out the door. We decided to have a smoke when 1 ranger comes out and says to us, why don’t you go over to the restaurant and have a coffee and relax with your smoke. OK so we are now looking all around us and all we see is trees and road . We were dumbfounded as we had no idea of any place around. (seeing as we rode in fog all day yesterday and most of the morning we could have passed a million places and never seen a thing.)
He tells us, it is just 100 meters down the road . OK . So we head over & sure enough it is right in front of us. Who Knew. We go inside and decide to have a late breakfast. It is a very nice place with good food and the prices were very reasonable. The view from the restaurant is floor to ceiling windows looking out onto a small lake. In front of the place is an apple tree with a young buck having his or her breakfast as well. Everyone in the place is watching this. Now with our bellies full we head outside for a smoke and to get back on the road. I saw a few bikes coming down this road from out of the trees. One pulls up beside us and we start chatting for a few mins. I was curious as to where they were coming from. The guy says that there is a hotel behind the trees. (OK dork moment #2 for the day. LOL ) As we our getting ready to leave, the sun pops out. Couldn’t have happened at a better time. So we are riding along again and with in a few miles we are back in the fog and rain. (this really sucks) It is raining, but not to hard. Over the next couple of hours we get rained on 3 or 4 times. As we are nearing the end of the Blue Ridge the sun decides to pop out again. (we hope it will stay this time )

A couple of Pics along the way





Now this one should read – You have finally finished it



We have now finally completed the Blue Ridge Parkway. So now it is onto
Skyline Dr – (Shenandoah National Park)



We get to the gates & they want a 10 dollar fee. I had heard from another rider that,
that is what they charge to ride the park. So it wasn’t a big surprise. (just wondered why they charge and a lot of the others don’t - not a biggie) We are riding along and some nice twists and turns so have to make a stop to get video camera going. Now we get riding again and are enjoying the ride and scenery when we come to some stopped cars in the roadway. I had to make a decision quick on weather to stop or go around them. As I am passing them, I see a car further down on the other side of the road flashing its lights.
I couldn’t figure this out. I start scanning the area and then I see it. There is 3 black bears on the side of the road and looked like they were waiting to cross. I hit the kill switch and rolled towards them. So here I am thinking I am going to get all this on video. Great!
Well once they cross the road I pull up a bit further down and wait for D to come up to where I am. Did you get some pics of that . What are you talking about. He had not seen this going on at all. So I tell him about it and let him know I got it all on video. He says to me that I may not have. ( D tells me I have moisture where the lens is ) Now I am not a happy camper. (these cameras with the full back on - are supposed to be fully water proof - well we know better now.) (when we checked the next day the footage was a bit blurry but u could just make them out)
Anyways D goes back up the road and gets his camera out and zooms in on one of the bears. We did get some shots, but by this time they were partly hidden.



I take the camera apart and get moisture out and set up another battery and card just in case. So off we go again and make some stops at different look out areas and get some nice footage and still shots.








So down the road again we decide to stop in at a visitor center. This is the first thing we saw when we parked the bikes. (sorry about pic – something happened to color)



We go inside and look around to see what else we can spend our money on.
There is a couple of others in there so we are thinking that maybe one of them owns that bike with the fishing rod on it. I think we ended up buying a couple of patches and then head out side. We took a break here for awhile and had some snacks and water. The guy that owned the bike came out and we started to chat with him. They are 2 Fire Fighters from NY City on there way down to Miami for some fishing. (now that’s the life )
D loves to fish as well so he was very curious as to how this guy had mounted it.
They ended up chatting for awhile. The strange thing for me was he had it mounted and at full length and not taken apart to make is much smaller. (he still had the hook on it)
Once they are finished talking we are back on the road again. After awhile we do run into another black bear and this time we do get on video and a few still shots.
We only hit some heavy fog along this part of the mountains for about 10 mins . After that it was sunny again. The day was turning out OK considering what we had started the day with. We finally get to the end of the mountains and are both smiling as it was a great ride through the park. We stop for a pic and quick smoke before we have to get back on the – what do we call them – Boring Roads.





We left Shenandoah National Park and headed towards Altoona. We stopped for fuel and some snacks or dinner.
By this time it was almost 8pm and the hotel was only 6 clicks away. We started talking to the locals there, only to find out they are expecting flash flooding over night and rain most of the next day. We heard this from some guys radio. So I look at D and it is now decision time. Do we chance riding home now and see if we miss it all, or stay, and chance we have to ride all day in the rain. . Once we had decided to ride all the way home after a long days ride, we decided to cut dinner out and have quick snacks. . (this consisted of Twinkies & Twix chocolate bars and bottled water.) ( OH Boy -Yummy )
So off again, on 99 to the 219. It is now dark out & can’t see a thing. We only see the odd car or truck every once in awhile. We don’t hit any rain falling, but we do seem to hit roads that are very wet at times and then later on dry. It is like this all of the way to Buffalo. So we must have gotten lucky tonight and missed the storms in front of us. We get into Buffalo around 2am and find fuel before we cross over. We also had to stop at duty free for half an hour. With this all done we head to the border crossing. We show our passports and pay our fee in about 2 mins and we are back in our country. We pull over a few feet from the check point and put away our passports and lock everything up. We get on our bikes to leave and it starts to downpour. We were planning to stop part way home at a Timmy’s and download all the video to the laptop from today. With the rain coming down so hard there was no way I was stopping till I got in my front door. We could hardly see in front of us, it was that bad. The last couple of hours was not a nice ride. We pulled in around 5am that morning. It was a very long day as we had started around 7:30 in the morning and finished up at 5am. When I think of it, we had a couple of days like that .



Ride Report Summary


First big adventure is over. We started out with 2 ½ weeks to get this all done,
but lost 5 days to break downs and did this in just over 13 days.
We sure had one Hell of a ride.

Did we get to do everything we wanted?
Of course not. We had to cut a few corners to make it all work.

Would we do this again?
Hell yes. - In A Heart Beat. – Wouldn’t even have to think about it.

How many can say they went across the country, on a bike and through almost half the States in the States in one trip? We can.

We saw beautiful country as we rode along and met tons of great people & heard their stories and adventures, which made our trip even more enjoyable.

Things I would change?
Make sure I have more horse power under me and a heavier bike.
Also make sure we have paper to write on & to make sure we did our ride report
every day so we don’t forget stuff from the day before.
To take more time to enjoy the roads that we travel.

The Weather
For the most part we missed tons of storms. Got sprinkled on a few times,
got soaked a few times. So overall we lucked out .

Cameras
Still camera – over 1000 pics
Go Pro – 90 gig (still have to edit it)

Cost of trip?

Was just over $2300. for all expenses
For Darek it was a bit more as he had the repairs.

As to my riding partner?

Darek navigated the whole trip. Only turned the wrong way 3 times & got it corrected
within a few hundred feet. Twice was at night when harder to see.
(not a bad feat for doing over 12000 Kilometers)
He kept me laughing most of the trip. (just the way he is)
He is not only a great rider but a great friend. I would not have
any hesitation in doing another long trip like this with him.