Travel

Aside from the memories and photos that I take home from any trip, along the way I pick up postcards, brochures, stickers and name-specific "junk" and shove it in my bag as I go. My friend Ally recently asked her blog readers if they were sentimental about objects. And I ...

While doing our pre-ride once over, we found that my plugged tire had dropped nearly 10 pounds of pressure overnight. We gave the mushroom plug one last tug to try to pull the seal a little tighter and went about re-filling the tire. Our morning began with a conversation with ...

With only a single bar left on the gas gauges, Kenny and I hopped off of the Blue Ridge Parkway in search of gas. After a few stabs at the screen, we followed the GPS over hill and dale to what seemed like the middle of nowhere. We popped out ...

When Kenny and I rolled away from Backbone Rock, we hooked a right in the town of Damascus, Virginia and followed route 58 into the mountains. There were several times throughout the 9 days we were on the road that I needed to flip on my heated grips as the ...

Though I had jotted Backbone Rock down on my list of things to see when we left home, sometimes the wind takes you elsewhere. In the days and miles that had already passed it had slipped my mind until we were headed west away from Shady Valley. That was when ...

Could there possibly be a better fast food chain facade than the one used by Pal's? Nahhh, I don't think so. Can you even handle the greatness of the big hot dog... the soda...? The FRIES, oh... the fries.  :weeps tears of joy: And to top it all off, one ...

Some great motorcycle roads take on a life of their own in the collective consciousness of the motorcycle world. When you talk about The Dragon, The Crest, or Stelvio, curve lovers nod their head with a sort of reverence. Or maybe something more like, "damn I wish I was there ...

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While we are on the road, my habit of waking up at 0'dark-thirty doesn't take a vacation. Instead it is during those quiet hours when I am the only one who is awake that I spend time figuring out where the heck we'll be going for the day. I think ...

At this point, I think Kenny is just messing with me. When I followed the GPS and turned on Ridge Rd to head into the town of Helen, right there on the corner in front of us was... "Goats on the Roof." When we pulled into a gas station, I ...

North Carolina 209 has been dubbed "The Rattler" by locals. Now, if the image of a wiggly snake doesn't get your motorcycle heart pumpin' well, I just don't know what would. I'd first read about NC 209 on Wayne's websites- Smoky Mountain Rider and America Rides Maps. Before we left home ...

On Monday night, after we'd rolled into a hotel in Franklin, North Carolina not an hour passed before the skies went dark and we watched the rain pelt our motorcycles parked outside of our window. It was another tick in the "lucky" column for us. A girl could really get ...

Okay, I know. I know, I know, I know. Every time that I see an amazing art car I go bananas and get all, "this is the greatest car in the universe!" But,... Muffler... CAR!  ::faints:: We actually saw the muffler car when we pulled into the town of Franklin, ...

Kenny and I made a quick stop in Cherokee, NC to snap a photo of a gent we'd passed many moons ago but never stopped for. The Cherokee Muffler Man: Handsome, right? And look - he has nipples! This was the first time I was ever consciously aware of an ...

Wheels Through Time The Museum that Runs Just a hop, skip and a jump off of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Maggie Valley, NC is an American treasure - the Wheels Through Time museum. It is home to hundreds of American-made motorcycles, tons of ephemera and historical photographs. Built by ...

The Blue Ridge Parkway's highest elevation sign is found at the Richard Balsam Overlook, Milepost 431. When we stopped to snap a quick photo, it occurred to me that we didn't have many miles left before our trip down the BRP would be complete. We were just a short hop ...

When I approached the Mount Mitchell State Park sign, it was like the wheels of my bike turned in to the entrance on their own. The past few times we've been on the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Mount Mitchell had been closed or it was too foggy ...

The Blue Ridge Parkway from around Little Switzerland to about Asheville is one of my favorite sections of the whole stretch. Aside from being a great ride, it offers some really beautiful views of the valleys below. The 50 or so miles seemed to go by in a blink as ...

Some would say that putting the words "grandfather" and "mile high club" in the same sentence is the stuff that nightmares are made of. Normally, I would agree. But, not this time, Johnny! After hopping off of the Blue Ridge Parkway for the day, Kenny and I headed to Grandfather ...

Some time around midday I pulled us off of the BRP around Roanoke, Virginia. When we finally stopped at the first traffic light we'd seen all day, Kenny looked at me quizzically and slowly said, "um,... wherrrrre are we going?" Foolish boy. After all this time, he still has to ...

Don't you love that feeling of waking up in a place where you don't live? That feeling of freedom, of being loose, of being able to wander? When I got up and looked out the window at our bikes in the hotel parking lot, I got a tickley feeling in ...

During the night I’d been awakened by rain pouring down the gutter drainpipe outside. It sounded like a steam train was chugging by our bedroom window with big whooshes of wind tearing through the trees. Of COURSE there was a monsoon in the wee hours of the morning we were ...

Last Saturday, Kenny and I rolled our Tigers out of the driveway and headed below the Mason-Dixon line without much of a plan. We had 2 definite items on the plate: I wanted to visit Helen, Georgia to see what that was about and we had to be in West ...

A few weekends ago a friend posted a photo on Facebook of a motorcycle ride he'd taken in Death Valley. The picture was a group of friends in their riding gear in front of a sign that had teakettles hanging all over it.  It marked Teakettle Junction, which I'd never ...

I feel like Kenny and I haven't gone anywhere or done any riding in the longest time. Of course, it was winter. Sort of. But, it's time; time for us to think about hitting the road. The next few weeks are set to be busy ones with things like getting ...