Here's the rest of the ride report. An awesome time up until yesterday when my wife wrecked.
Here's what I did
Day 1 Sunday 7/8 DE to Petersburg VA, I rode down to meet up with some guys I know from a keyboard/musician forum. Parked the bike, grabbed a taxi, had a few brews and jammed with my fellow musicians.
Day 2 Monday 7/9- Petersburg to Mt Pleasant, SC. Hopped on 95 for a bit, got off just south of Smithfield, NC onto Rt 701 south. Followed 701 all the way down into SC, and in Georgetown, SC, picked up Rt 17S down to Mt Pleasant. A little under 400 miles this day and a nice easy ride thru the Carolina countryside.
Day 3-4-5 7/10-12 spent with my wife's family. Got a ride in Day 4, we took a 70-80mi ride thru Frances Marion National Forest, then headed over to Isle of Palms and cruised around there and had a nice lunch. Day 5 my wife's friend who had come down with her from the cabin they had rented in Almond, NC left to ride home, so we rode about 50 miles up Rt 17 with her and then came back. Took a boat ride thru the harbor with my sister in laws fiancee which was fun.
Day 6 Friday 7/13 Mt Pleasant to Clemson SC. Hit I26 for an hour or so. 10 minutes into the ride the sky opened up on us. It was sunny and beautiful before that. Pulled over and put rain gear on, left it on the rest of the ride but only got spit on. After 26, we got on 178W, then 378W, then onto Rt 28 to Clemson for the night.
Day 7 Saturday 7/14 Clemson to Robbinsville, NC. Not a long day but a great one. Took Rt28 all the way up, thru some great mountain sweepers and some nice twisties. Got a room in Robbinsville, unloaded the bikes, and headed to the Tail of the Dragon. This was my 1st time and I had a blast. I followed my wife the 1st time then I did it myself. Stayed mostly in 2nd gear and used the rev range to control my speed around the curves with not a lot of braking needed. I learned my bike is way better than I am! The Concours was well represented, I saw probably a half dozen of them in the time we were up there. After the Dragon we went back down 28, got on 19/74 only to be greeted with another downpour. Waited it out for a bit then followed 129 back to Robbinsville. Obviously Saturday isn't the best Dragon day, but it was how it worked out. There really were no problems like people talk about, though a small portion of the HD people were not real receptive to moving out of the way to let you pass. Some of the sport bikers are amazing. You let them pass, they go around a curve, you go around the curve 3 seconds later, and they are already out of sight. I was able to maintain 40-45 throughout the ride, which was pretty exhilerating for me, but a snoozer for some of you guys I'm sure. This was my worst fuel day, averaged 39.2, but it was among the most fun in terms of riding.
Day 8 Sunday 7/15 Cherahola Skyway to Gatlinburg TN. Took the roundabout way to Gatlinburg via the Cherahola, then TN360 (a real nice country road, it turns out) to 411/33 to Maryville. Got on 321/73 in Maryville, then took the scenic part of 73 to Gatlinburg. More rain on this leg, during the scenic route. Cherahola was a nice road and the temps were great, it was 64 at one point. We got a room in Gatlinburg and spent the rest of the day walking around and people watching. Think "People of Walmart" x a million... Had a nice BBQ dinner and turned in.
Day 9 Monday 7/16 This is where we changed up. Originally we were going to slab it to WV, get a room, then hit some WV twisties the next day and end up in Harpers Ferry. We decided to cancel that out, and instead, headed out 321 from Gatlinburg, wanted 25/70 but the road was closed so we stayed on 321 till it met 70 in Greeneville, TN. Took 70 south into NC, then got on 208, a nice windy mountain road with a big rig trucker who was an asshat. Wouldn't let anyone pass him, he'd speed up in the straights and then slow way down in the twisties. Finally the car between him and us passed, and the jerk sped up and almost cut the car off. We backed off, and he kept on 208, while we headed out onto 212, which was even nicer. And talk about out in the boonies, this was it. 212 turned into 352 as we headed back into TN. We ended up in a little town right near I26 called Erwin. Stopped in the local hangout for a bite to eat. Decided we were pretty close to the BRP, and figured we'd hit that for a day or 2. Took 26 to NC, got a map and some assistance from the people at the welcome center, and headed down a very scenic part of I26 to Rt19, which we followed (in a good downpour again) to Burnsville. From there we grabbed 226 and followed that to the BRP. It rained for 60-70 miles of the BRP ride,but it wasn't real heavy so it was tolerable. There was very little traffic on the BRP which was nice. We stopped at a lot of the overlooks and took pics, etc. We got off the BRP for the day at Rt 21, which had some awesome sweeping switchbacks coming down the mountain which the Connie and I enjoyed very much! Grabbed a hotel in the Elkin/Jonesville area.
Day 10- Tuesday 7/17 BRP from NC/VA border to the north end. We took I77 up to Rt 89 headed towards Galax, hopped on the BRP and had a great day of riding. 250 miles or so, took it all the way to the end in Waynesboro. Not a lot of traffic until near the end. We were going along with a couple older people in sports cars for a while- Miata, 911, and a Vette. Then we passed them. No rain today but it did get pretty warm by the end of the ride. Grabbed a room for the night and had our last indulging meal, a steak dinner, before heading home and getting back on the diet menu.
Day 11 Wednesday 7/18- Waynesboro to what was supposed to be home. Last day of the trip, we headed out I64E, got off at Rt29 in Charlottesville, then picked up Rt20 and wandered our way east towards Fredricksburg. A little Rt 3, Rt 1, and then onto Rt 218, a road with some nice twisty sections which would lead us out to 301N and homeward. On 218, disaster struck. Around 11am, as we were going thru the nice twisties, I lost site of my wife. This isn't uncommon, and I always stop and wait for her. Well, this time she didn't catch up. I went back looking for her, and she was standing on the side of the road, bleeding from her lip, on the phone with 911. She had gone off the road and wrecked. Hit the curve too hot, was scraping hard parts too much, new she was going to end up wide, and decided between the guardrail, or where the guardrail had been taken out by another recent accident. She opted for no guardrail, hit the side of the road, went airborne, and when the bike hit the ground, lowsided and slid for 30' or so into the woods. Didn't hit any trees but plenty of saplings and brush. We spent all day in the ER, through the night. Xrayed and CAT scans galore. They transferred her to another trauma center near Fairfax VA around 1am Thursday morning because of a CAT scan they didn't like the looks of, which turned out to not be a problem, but better safe than sorry. In the end, she's banged up, bruised, sore, but not a single broken bone or other serious injury. Almost miraculous when you think about it. I spent the night there and went to the storage place that had her bike and grabbed all her stuff off of it Thursday morning and headed home. Her friend had gone to Fairfax to bring her home by car when they released her. Her bike is most likely totalled. The good thing is she is OK and really lucky because of where and how she wrecked, it could have been much worse. Sort of a bad end to what was really the trip of a lifetime for us, though even the bad part has some good in that my wife is alive and not really hurt too bad.
We got to see a lot of our great country, met a lot of wonderful people, and rode some of the best roads you would ever want to. The Connie was an awesome ride. I averaged over 47mpg, which was totally unexpected, and I wasn't taking it easy especially in the mountains.
