Starting to Make the Long Road Home

Having been in Maggie Valley for a few hours, it was time to leave this morning. Today's breakfast was at the local diner, Country Vittle. Majority of SEVROC attendees had already left for home when we decided to leave. We found a gas station and then left town at around 10am.

Leaving the Applecover Inn.

Jim took us through some North Carolina back roads which are nothing like what we have at home. They proved to be quite challenging for novices like Heather and me but nothing we couldn't handle. We kept the ride short since we have 5 more days to get to Combermere plus the weather was beginning to turn for the worse. Fortunately, we stayed dry, aside from a couple of sprinkles, for a third consecutive day.

At the intersection of NC-208 and NC-209.

We arrived in Johnson City at the Hampton Inn at 1pm. We chose that hotel because Heather wanted a hotel with a pool. But, as luck would have it, the hotel's pool was out of commission for a few days. The receptionist directed us to Doubletree and when we got there we got another surprise. Their pool was out of commission, too! What are the odds?! However, the receptionist at the Doubletree was kind enough to offer us their welcome cookies. As we walked outside, we changed our minds again and agreed to stay at the Doubletree despite the setback.

After checking-in, we waited for the rain to come. It took a couple of hours but it came at a rapid pace. At 5:30 we left for supper to a sportsbar located in the lobby of the hotel. When we got back to the room, we made plans for tomorrow and then everybody turned to watching Survivor while I caught up on photos and blogging.

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Arriving in Maggie Valley, NC

Today didn't start as early as yesterday but it was going to be a much shorter ride than yesterday so we were not in any hurry. We had complimentary breakfast at the hotel. What followed was the daily ritual of strapping the luggage on the motorcycles and we were off by 8:30.

Leaving from Best Western in Richmond, KY.

The morning was warm and even though the skies looked somewhat overcast, we felt optimistic about our chances of staying dry for the second straight day. As we were approaching Tennessee and the altitude was increasing, the wind became a little cooler. When we rode past London, Kentucky, the interstate showed signs of an early morning rain and there were darker clouds on either side of the interstate. Our first stop came in Jellico, Tennessee which was also the first exit in Tennessee off I-75. There, we fueled up the bikes and had a shot of 5-Hour Energy to help us up. I also put gloves on as the colder air left my fingers very stiff. Leaving the gas station we noticed, in front of a church across the street from the gas station, a sign we found rather amusing. It said "Shock your mother. Take her to church this Sunday". Probably a leftover from Mother's Day.

A church in Jellico, TN with cloud-covered mountains in the background.

As we rode past Knoxville, we were relegated to riding state highways the rest of the way to Maggie Valley. We hit a snag in a town of Sevierville, Tennessee which looks like a great tourist destination with numerous attractions across the whole city. Unfortunately, it meant increased traffic. Similar thing happened in Gatlinburg, which is on the cusp of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, although it didn't take as long.

At the Gatlinburg Visitors Center.

The ride through the park was great with many twists and tall trees on both sides of the road. Before arriving in Maggie Valley, our plan was to meet Heather's parents in nearby Cherokee at the Dairy Queen or the Visitors Center. The GPS took us to a DQ in the heart of the town where Heather used the facilities. Jim and Sandy were not there so we assumed, correctly, that they'd be waiting at the Visitors Center. We arrived there at 2pm, nearly an hour after our original meeting time. The contributing factors to that was the heavy traffic through tourist towns and the slower than normal ride through the park during which we pulled over a few times to let faster traffic through. We also learned that there is a second DQ in Cherokee where we went for some refreshing treats before arriving in Maggie Valley via the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Applecover Inn in Maggie Valley, NC.

After arriving at the Applecover Inn, we spent the evening unwinding, meeting new people who were in town for the SEVROC rally, enjoying a great BBQ and sitting through a raffle. Our raffle winnings included a water bottle and a driving hat while Jim & Sandy also snagged two bottles of wine.

Blondy with her raffle winnings.

Heather and I turned in fairly early given that we were quite exhausted from previous days' riding.

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WATER TOWERS

Back In a Familiar Place

In what has become an odd trend, Heather and I both woke up a minute before 5am. What's odd is that we'd never be up that early on a work day. I guess it's the excitement of an adventure that has us looking forward to making the most of a day. We spent a few more minutes in bed scouting the day's weather forecast which looked quite optimistic.

We left the hotel in Windsor after 7am headed for the border where we were asked more than the normal amount of questions. However, we passed without a hitch. Finding I-75 proved to be a bit challenging but nothing that our GPS couldn't handle. Before leaving we made a decision to have breakfast outside of Detroit. The place where we stopped was a nice little family restaurant in Luna Pier, Michigan. Heather had pecan pancakes with link sausages and I had the ultimate omelet with hash browns. Upon receiving our orders we swapped sausages for hash browns.

Gander's Family Restaurant in Luna Pier.

Continuing our trip we made stops every hour or so for either gas or refreshments. We didn't encounter any slowdowns all the way to a rest stop in Monroe, Ohio. There, Heather took off her heated vest and jacket liner as the day was getting warmer. I chose to keep all my layers on as the ride was going well and I wanted to keep going. I quickly came to regret that decision as 15 minutes later we got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic in Cincinnati beginning exactly 4.5 miles from the Ohio-Kentucky border. Within seconds I was sweating from wearing too much clothing. A biker driving an F-150 came up beside us and yelled something about a car crash holding things back but we didn't see anything so it must have been just volume of traffic going from Ohio to Kentucky. The pace picked up once in Kentucky but the volume was still so high that Heather and I became separated. A small degree of confusion of panic ensued but cooler heads prevailed and we made it safely to a scheduled stop in Florence.

Ice cream stop in Georgetown, Kentucky.

We assessed the situation and also discussed our options going forward. We started to talk about where to stop for the night. Our goal was to make it to London, Kentucky which is only 40 miles from Tennessee. From Florence our stops became more frequent as fatigue was setting in. We finally agreed to stop in Richmond, Kentucky and decide if we wanted to continue another 40 minutes to London. But then we noticed dark clouds on the horizon and decided that we'd spend the night at the Best Western in Richmond, the same hotel where we were last year at a VROC rally.

Radar map taken 10 minutes after check-in.

We checked in at 6pm, ordered Domino's pizza for supper and spent the rest of the night unwinding after a long day on the road.

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WATER TOWERS

Start of Another Trip

Today marked the beginning of our biggest trip this year. This time we will be spending almost two weeks on the road riding to North Carolina for annual SEVROC gathering, then Combermere for the long weekend, and many places in between. And it always seems like the days leading up to a big trip are too short and hectic. This week was no different as Heather and I were at soccer on Monday and Wednesday. This is the second year of our coaching experiment and this time it's a team of U-15 girls.

We packed last night and tied up some loose in the early morning before leaving to pick up the motorcycles. With luggage in tow, we set off at 7. Unfortunately, we only booked Friday off which means that we had to put in a full day behind a desk before starting our vacation. The morning weather was pretty good for 6C. It wasn't too cold and the wind was virtually non-existent. We made a quick stop at the Waterloo Library and an ATM before arriving at Heather's office just before 8. From there I went back east on the 401 to my office.

As expected, the rain started to fall at 11 in the morning with even a small patch of torrential downpour in the afternoon. The rain subsided well before 4:30, when I left work. The skies remained overcast though, and I encountered a couple of sprinkles during my 15-minute ride to Heather's office. We made a decision to rain-suit up for our ride to Windsor where we decided to stay tonight.

Our trip officially began at 5:25. There were a couple of sprinkles of rain here and there but nothing major until we passed Iona Road. From that point, we were underneath a dark cloud that unleashed very heavy rain. It brought back memories of last year's ride to Richmond, Kentucky. And just like last year, the visibility was drastically reduced and we were riding a little below the speed limit of 100 km/h with our emergency lights on. All of a sudden, trucks that we passed several minutes ago were now passing us. The heavy rain lasted for good 15-20 minutes after which we were drenched. I thought of stopping somewhere along the side of the highway but Heather was determined to get through it while riding. We actually considered stopping for the night in Chatham but since it stopped raining we only made a quick stop there for gas. Unfortunately to get to Chatham we had to go through a 2-km stretch of Highway 40 that was dirt and gravel, or more specifically mud and gravel. It will take a lot of work to get the motorcycles cleaned from this mess. Our stop in Chatham was nearly 200km after departing Ayr.

Fresh from riding in rain and mud.

We got back on the 401 and made it straight to Windsor in under an hour. But along the way we went under another cloud that was starting to resemble a tornado. As we were directly under, the wind was so strong that it took all we could muster to keep the motorcycles upright. It only lasted 15 seconds but I could feel my helmet getting ripped off my head. As we cleared that cloud, I told the GPS to take us to the Best Western in Windsor. As we rode by, the hotel was now a ghost town. We kept going and found a Comfort Inn. Our room was, conveniently, the first one from the lobby on the first level. We had supper in the adjacent Golden Griddle, where we learned that this hotel will also be shutting its door in a couple of months. We settled back in our room at 10pm trying to relax before tomorrow's second leg of our trip.

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