Taking the USA by Strom

[Tydive]

Today was a long riding day on some wonderful roads. I started off heading up and back on the Dragon.

I even stopped briefly to take a picture.

Fully loaded on the Tail of the Dragon.

I then headed down 28 to 143 for an out and back down the Cherohala skyway, because it's totally worth it and about 50 miles each way.

The rest of the ride was new roads, I took 28 down almost to the Georgia border.

There was quite a bit of traffic so I pulled out to take a couple shots and find a gap in the cagers.

I stopped at Bridal Veil Falls for a picture.

In Highlands I decided to take Horse Cove and Whiteside Cove over to 107. These are really great tight roads divided by a dirt road. Totally fun.

I then headed up 215 and ended up in Waynesville.

I got a motel and then stopped at the Tipping Point Brewing in Waynesville and had the best meal so far in North Carolina. Great beer too.

 

[Tydive]

Today was a small riding day, but it made up in quality what it lacked in quantity.

First I headed to the Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum.

Lots of great bikes, many more pics can be found here.

Here are some of my favorites. A 1908 Apache

Hill climbing HD.

A 1914 Elk.

Some details on this cool bike.

1914 the Fletcher Flyer.

The only example of a 1916 Traub, hand built motorcycle that still runs.

Cool early Indian Moped.

After the tour I headed up "The Rattler" Hwy 209. Great road, with lots of off camber turns and unfortunately lots of construction. It should be awesome next summer. Then worked my way south some some fun side roads and a bit of Interstate.

Tomorrow I will do some exploring down south and then meet up with a friend in Asheville. I'm really enjoying NC, it's a very friendly state and the weather is a lot less humid and hot.

 

[1962siia]

This trip seems to be getting more epic by the day! I'm seriously jealous!!

 

[Tydive]

So, I've been busy. Hung out in Asheville for the weekend to avoid traffic and visit a friend. Then I headed down the Blue Ridge to Maggie Valley, spent the night camping and then had a wonderful breakfast at Joey's Pancake House. A quick trip back up the Blue Ridge to Asheville then too many miles of Interstate.

I got as far as Durham but hit stop and go traffic and 100 degree temps. Found a motel just as a massive thunderstorm caught up with me. The next day I headed out to Kitty Hawk and the Outer Banks.

I went to check out the Wright Brothers Memorial.

Very cool to see the place where the Kitty Hawk first flew.

Replica of KH.

I headed down to camp near the beach. I decided not to swim, mainly because they had several shark attacks in the area recently...

Nice sunset too.

 

[Cincinnatus]

I hope that if you camped on the sandy beach you used large wooden tent stakes as beach sand won't hold metal stakes. And DAMHIKT.

 

[Tydive]

The next day I headed up to fredericksburg to get an Airhawk pad for the bike. I've been missing my sheepskin.

The next morning I headed up to D.C. To play tourist in the Capital.

Hanging at the White House.

That's one big memorial.

Statue of Martin Luthor at the Church of the President.

Then I went to the sculpture garden for the Friday Jazz. Really packed.

The next day I hit the Smithsonian Air and Space and Natural History Museums.

The Apollo 11 command capsule with the Spirit of St. Louis in the background.

The X-1, too damn cool.

The original Kitty Hawk.

An original Wright Brothers bike.

A 1906 Curtis motorcycle, it set an unofficial land speed record of 137 mph in 1907! Curtis made aircraft engines, and put one in this bike.

WW I fighter.

Really cool rocks.

Fun was had. Tomorrow I will tour some of the art museums.

 

[1962siia]

Can you tell us more about that wwI fighter? That thing looks very cool.

 

[Tydive]

I hope that if you camped on the sandy beach you used large wooden tent stakes as beach sand won't hold metal stakes. And DAMHIKT.

Yeah, no worries. I was in a campground and had some grass to help hold the stakes.

Can you tell us more about that wwI fighter? That thing looks very cool.

Not much, rear propeller so no need to sync the machinegun, very small and maneuverable craft.

Adding some pics from Sunday.
My favorite sculpture from the American Art Museum. Just loved the sense of motion and hunting focus on the cat.

A dagger from India 1621. Made from meteoric iron for the local ruler. Story is they saw the meteor fall and harvested the iron then made this really beautiful knife. Story stays it is incredibly sharp.

 

[Tydive]

Motorcycle yoga.

I had a wonderful visit with my (distant) cousin Jim and his wife in Front Royal VA. Great hospitality and we went riding around beautiful VA and WV.

First days ride.

Second days ride.

Tomorrow I am heading over to WV to explore.

 

[Tydive]

So, I had a great time visiting but it was time to head out to West Virginia to hit some roads that I found on Road Runner magazine.

I went down Skyline in Shenandoah NP, where there was the ubiquitous construction.

Riding Skyline
[Youtube]DF1Hwdg6SNo[/youtube]

It was a pretty epic ride out to Snowshoe

Some great roads, here is a bit of one.
[Youtube]1xLbWU5I-64[/youtube]

If you are enjoying the thread, please rate it.

 

[SFMCjohn]

If you are enjoying the thread, please rate it.

Hi Tydive,

I'm enjoying the thread ... Love the maps ...

How do we rate threads here on BARF? Or is it a YouTube thing? arty
Guess I knew how to rate ADVrider.com threads before they
"upgraded" the software ...

Interested to see where you head next ... have fun!

see you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

 

[Tydive]

Thanks John!

At the top of the thread under reply in the same row as thread tools is a drop down box that says Rate thread...

 

[SFMCjohn]

Thanks John!

At the top of the thread under reply in the same row as thread tools is a drop down box that says Rate thread...

Five stars! arty

Thanks for schooling me about rating
BARF threads ... geez, I'm an old Luddite ...

PS: when does the thread rating begin to appear? Couldn't find one
thread with a star rating displayed ...
(edit: OK, found one with
stars displayed ... not impressed ... )

PPS: love how you'll dive into the heart of a city or make time to
see a museum on your epic Moto trips ... I should try to follow your example ...

 

[Tydive]

West Virginia is a lovely place to ride, really beautiful roads and views. On the second day I continued the RoadRunner route and did a fun loop ending in Webster Springs.

The next day I decided to hit the road and make my way up to Niagara falls. It was a long day on the road with lots of Interstate.

I had intended to stay just one night at the KOA, but decided to make it two nights so I could spend more time at the falls and explore Canada a bit.

I was stopped at the boarder and my gear was searched, nothing to find so no worries. Then made my way to the falls, there was parking for $20cdn, but it was only $10 for motorcycles. Oddly no motorcycle parking so I took a regular spot right across from the falls.

Top of the falls.

Full falls

Large boat, huge falls.

View from patio dining above the falls.

Then I headed back down to Buffalo for some wings, because ya gotta have the local flavor. Yep, they rocked.

That night a massive thunderstorm swept just north of the campground. Really impressive lightning and happily I only got hit by the edges of the storm.

This morning I slept in to let the sun dry off the tent, then packed up and headed to a Suzuki dealer to get an oil change. Just hit a bit over 10k miles so far on this trip

In the afternoon I headed up to check out lake Ontario hoping to swim and play on a beach, but it turns out the parks I checked out didn't have sand... Plus heavy clouds were threatening most of the day. So tonight I am in a Motel in Webster NY to dry off and rest up.

It turns out that New York roads are just as crappy as California roads, if not worse.

Tomorrow I am going to start heading towards Montreal in a roundabout manner. After doing a bit of research I found out that this weekend Montreal is having the Heavy Montreal festival , I am a fan of metal and think it would be a blast to check it out. arty

 

[Tydive]

So, I've been without good WIFI for awhile, so here is a big update.

In Webster my phone died after 4 years, so I got a new phone and headed down towards Oneonta NY. I got stuck in a hail / thunderstorm so stopped for the night in Syracuse. The ride down to Oneonta was pretty farm country.

I got lost several times, so here is the Spot track.

On the way down I found a really cool place. For lots of pics check this link.

This is an electric car with 50 mile range.

Tons of really cool cars.

They have motorcycles too! Check out this prototype, only 1 of 2 known to exist.

Roadrunner supersport.

Oh yeah...

So cool.

Art Deco bike.

 

[Tydive]

The next day I headed up to Canada and a place they call Thousand Islands. Which was pretty nice, but I didn't spend much time there as I wanted to get to Montreal for the music festival.

Camping at the KOA at Ivy Key. I was happy not to get rained on as it would have been a mud puddle.

If you guys like videos let me know, I've got a few.

Next day off to Montreal.

I was planning to camp but found a hotel close to the metro that cost less than camping... It was a really crappy hotel, but I could walk to the metro and take one hop to the music festival. It was also one block from the local "Castro", so the entertainment was good.

Saturday and Sunday I rocked out from 1pm till closing around 10:30, some great bands and lots of fun to be had.

Yes, this band is called B.A.R.F. and they did rock hard.

Faith No More

Rocking was had all day long.

What's left of the Ramones still rocks hard.

The wrestling show was ongoing and very entertaining.

Hanging on the hill

Lamb of God view from the hill.

Slipknot

 

[Outta Control]

Keep it coming Ty. I am so Jellin!

 

[Tydive]

Ok, I've got WIFI again so here is an update as I shelter from the thunderstorms here in Custer South Dakota.

Monday I headed out from Montreal back towards Toronto, I got most of the way before a heavy storm and traffic had me finding shelter.

Then I headed back to the US, camping out in Elkheart at at KOA.

The next day saw me on the road early to get up to Milwaukee to visit the Harley Davidson Museum, then continuing on to Anamosa Iowa.

One of these things isn't like the others, my gear also stood out just a bit.

HD serial #1, a 1903 HD.

Lots of cool old HD's

Board trackers

Evel Knievel bike where it belongs, mid air.

Wall of engines.

There were quite a few cool specialty bikes too.

The LiveWire HD electric bike.

Hill climb statue out back of the museum.

About a hundred more pics at this link.

 

[Tydive]

The next morning I was at the National Motorcycle Museum as they opened and hung out for a few hours. Really great collection, 186 pics here.

Here are some of my favorites.

Steam powered motorcycle.

More Evel bike fun, plus I really enjoyed all the extra's and memorabilia.

OMFG

An embarrassment of early teens bikes.

The only known Whitley.

I love this Pierce

Too many bikes, here is a typical lineup.

Steam bike.

And they had a few LSR bikes too.

Seriously, check out the link. Too many cool bikes.

After that I hit the road toward South Dakota and another KOA.

 

[Tydive]

In the morning I headed over to the local Suzuki dealer to get my chain tightened. Then headed west again. It was very hot, mid 90's most of the day spiking up to 99 a few times.

There were many signs along the way, but the one that got me to pull over was for Pioneer Auto Show. Yup, lots of cars and more motorcycles. arty

An original General Lee from the TV series.

A wooden car, hand built and very cool.

A HD owned by the King.

Sweet T-Bird.

Quite a few more pics here.

I called it around 5:30 because I found a campground with a pool.