I have a problem when I travel. I don't "stop and smell the roses". I have a bad habit of just riding until I get where I'm going without seeing any sights. I also tend to get up early and get going. I did get up early and since I had everything packed I decided to hit The Waffle House and grab some breakfast. There's something so satisfying about watching other people in a rush to get to work and knowing that you don't have to do that for a few days. I finish up and fill up and put the address to the camp site in my GPS and get going.

About 40 miles from the house I look over to the right and see 3 bikes waiting to turn the same direction I'm going. From the quick glance I saw that at least one of them had a Harley. I sigh to myself and get ready for the hassle that usually comes with pack riders. The blow past me after the light and I wave as I do for other riders and only one waved back...They peel off and turn at the next right and I see the GPS has me going right at the light. I'm pretty sure at this point I'm going to be behind these guys as some point.

Sure enough I turn at the light and I see 3 bikes pull out farther down the road. So fast forward to the next small town we get to and the trailing rider waves for me to pull up beside him. He's on a Goldwing and I've had really good experiences with Gold Wing riders so I pull up to find out what's up. He asks me where I'm headed and I find out they are all heading up to the TOTD as well. They pull over at a gas station and I pull over as well. We do the introductions and they ask if I want to ride with them.

A quick aside here: I don't ride in groups. It's not something I really enjoy and the only guy I ride with is in MS.

I had a bit of a Seinfeld moment. My normal reaction would be to decline and keep going my own way. I decide that I'm going to do the opposite and accept their offer. Plus they're going a different route than I had planned and it looked to have some pretty nice roads to it. The only condition I have is that I ride at the back of the pack. This still gives me the sense that I'm riding by myself but still keep up with the group if need be.  At the gas station I found out that the guys are from really close to where I live. One is from Dunn, Fayetteville, and Benson NC.

Off we go..I notice at stop lights and when we get gas that 2 of the guys like for the attention to be on them..Blipping their throttle, burning out at stop lights, etc. Not really my bag so I just ride my own ride and let them do their thing. During this I notice my bike is handling strange, or at least I think it's the bike...I check it at every stop and I can't see anything out of the ordinary so I begin to think it's the way I have my gear loaded or just the way I'm riding in general. I have a ton of gear. Probably too much for just tent camping

Loaded down

So I keep at the back of the pack and focus on keeping clean lines through the curves which are getting quite frequent.

Originally I had planned for the trip out to be ~5 hours but most of that was going to be on the interstate.
View Larger Map

The route these guys had planned looked a lot more fun even though it would add an additional 4 hours to the trip.
View Larger Map

There were some really good roads but when we hit the Pisgah Forrest the roads just went ridiculously curvy. Just before getting to Brevard we stopped at Looking Glass Falls. I've always liked waterfalls and I didn't realize that NC had so many.

Your's truely in front of the falls

By this point I'm getting pretty tired and I feel like I'm really having to muscle the bike in and out of turns more than usual. I tried moving things around and I still just couldn't make it feel right and just chastise myself for bringing so much crap.

One thing I forgot about mountains, especially these mountains is it rains a lot..So the temp starts dropping as we go up and then I start feeling rain drops..Awesome I think to myself. I have a bike that's handling weird because I packed too much, it's raining on extremely curvy mountain roads that I've never been on. I slow my roll down quite a bit to make sure I don't blow a curve and end up a greasy spot on the rocks below since there are no guard rails along most of the BRP. On the positive side I think to myself at least it's not raining hard...5 miles down the road the rain gets heavier.

Shit...Well, no problem we pull over at an outlook and everyone pulls their rain gear out and puts it on. I'm thinking to myself no problem..I got this..It can't get much worse right? Yea..Over the next ridge comes the fog..Fog so thick that when the bike in front of me goes in it literally vanishes from sight. So for those keeping tally...Rain + unfamiliar mountain roads + a bike that's not handling well + cold + fog. That my friends is a recipe for suck. I start focusing on how much this is sucking that I suddenly find myself heading into, what looks to be an extremely tight downhill curve waaaaay to fast. My mind races as to what to do..Brakes? Down shift and brakes? Trail brake through the curve and hope for the best? I decide that I'm going to do my best to get the bike slowed down while she's straight up and down and just lean the hell out of it and hope my tires stick. My left foot jams down twice on the gear shift and I use my right foot to press the rear brakes. I know that general teaching tells you to avoid using the rear brake but my brakes are linked. So when I engage the rear brakes one piston on the front brakes also engages. I know that if I touch the front brake I'll probably lock up the front wheel and down I go. So I re-engage the clutch and feel/hear the engine bitching and moaning..The entire time my right foot is pressing fairly hard on the brakes. I'm extremely surprised that the rear wheel didn't lock up. But I see the curve starting so I let go of the brake and roll off the throttle and I dig in for the lean. I know this one is going to be close and I hear the floor board start scraping pavement. I grit my teeth and see there is a bit more to the curve and I push the bike further into the lean. So far in fact that my floor board moves up so I have to lift my foot off so it can finish its travel. Much to my relief I see the curve finishing up and I bring the bike back up. Moral of that little story is to always focus on what's going on..And an 800lb+ bike carries a lot more speed than you thinking into a down hile curve.

So after that curve I'm ready to stop and get off the bike for a minute and gather myself. We pull off at the next overlook and I see a sign saying we are at the highest point of the BRP.

Highest point on the BRP

By this point I'm wicked tired and judging from the map I still have a good 2-3 hours before I get to camp. It was getting close to dark so probably around 6:30-7pm and I'm really hoping I can get to the camp site tonight but setting up in the dark sucks. I break off from the guys after we get off the BRP and I head towards Robbinsville. It was raining pretty steady by now and I was cold, wet, tired and hungry but I really wanted to make it to camp tonight. But after another 15 miles I hit Bryson City NC and decide that I'm too tired to continue on and I got a hotel for the night. It was money I wasn't ready to spend but the 50-60 mile stretch on the BRP really wore me out and I knew it wasn't safe to continue...

To be continued....:-)

After stuffing my face, drying out a bit from the dog in the river incident and a few text messages with Kate to get some addresses I felt ready to get back on the road.. That feeling didn't last long. It took me about 10 minutes to realize the damn GPS was taking me the same route..grrrrr...Ok..So off with the damn thing and I just started looking for any road that was heading east. I knew that I wanted to head towards Havelock NC..That's not the original ferry I wanted to take. I wanted to ride out to Cedar Island, catch the ferry to Ocracoke Island. Now the first problem was the GPS of course. I also read that the off season schedule for the ferry had changed..This put me trying to catch the 10:30a ferry for the 2.5 hour float out to Ocracoke Island. I would spend a bit of time riding the island and then catch either the 2p or 5p over to Swan Quarter and then loop back home.

Well that plan went sideways quickly. Luckly I'd put a secondary route into the GPS to the Havelock/Minnott Beach ferry..It was only a 20 min ride and it was free but it was still a ride on the water. I'm not sure of my facination with riding ferries but it's something I really enjoy especially on the bike. While waiting in line I started talking with a nice guy who just so happened to ride a Harley. As soon as he pulled up I could tell he was not the "typical" Harley rider. From my experience the typical Harley rider is rocking the non DOT approved helmet, some type of Harley clothing, boots, chaps etc..Well this guy had a bright neon green riding jacket on..I mean bright neon green. I don't think I've ever actually seen a jacket that was that green. We started chatting about bikes and had a really good converstaion on the ferry ride across. Really nice guy. Turns out he'd bought the bike off his son and has been riding it pretty much full time since August of last year.

I'm quite frustrated with my lack of planning on this little trip. I was trying to decide whether to keep going or hit another short ferry ride from Aurora NC to Bath NC. It was getting rather late by this time so I just decided to start back to the house. I had the GPS set for the shortest distance so I reset it to shortest time and the trip home re-calculated. It was at that moment I realized that if I'd changed this option while I was stuck at the bridge I probably would've gotten around it..So in the end I guess it was operator error .

The ride home was uneventful and quite pleasant. I was rather bummed about not getting out to Ocracoke but on the ride home I realized that I still had a really good time and all the problems and distractions are what made it a good trip. I'm very impressed with the way the bike handled and how the GPS worked. It exceeded my expectations in every way. So thanks for tagging along on my little trip..Even tho it was only a day it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about handling the bike as well as all the gadgets that I've seem to can't live without.

Until next trip!

• I was cold in the morning
• The new GPS I have got me lost ( yes, I'm blaming the GPS and not the operator)
• I saved a dog from drowning in the Neuse River
• I should've packed paper maps
• I hate the stock seat on my bike more than ever
• Not all Harley riders are dicks

Miles Traveled: 358

Start Time: 0723

End Time: 1815

Fuel Used: 10.397

MPG: 34.4

Fuel Cost: 21.54

Per Gallon: 2.07

For those who want the long version read on after the jump

Ever since my 2 week trip back in October of 2008 I decided the next trip I did I would have a GPS. It was a real hassle having to look down at my tank bag to try and find where I was or to see which exit I needed to take. So last week my new Garmin Zumo 450 arrived. I decided to head out towards the coast to give the GPS a test as well as stretch the legs on my new bike. This is the first decent mileage trip I've taken on it since I bought the bike back in November.

I left the house at 0723 Saturday morning. According to the weather channel it was going to shape up to be a beautiful day. I decided to get a few miles under my belt before I stopped for breakfast forgoing my usual Saturday morning Waffle House run. I was truely impressed with the GPS to this point. It has the ability to play mp3's and when you get close to a turn the unit pauses the music, tells you which way to go and then starts the music back up..Simply brilliant if you ask me. I love riding with music and up to this the trip has flown by. I've ridden almost two hours of backroads and I pull into New Bern NC. I'm from Mississippi originally and the roads there are not the best in the world. Well..New Bern's roads make Mississippi look like the roads are paved with gold. The entire downtown area was being resurfaced at the same time. So traffic was down to one lane on either side and there were the bigges, nastiest pot holes I've ever ridden on..It was quite a feat to zip around these holes while watching what was going on behind me, in front of me and keeping an eye on traffic signals...Score 1 for the GPS in this environment. There is no way I could've looked down to see what street I needed to turn on.

So the GPS takes me to a road where there used to be a bridge, actually there was a bridge there but it was going under major renovation and looked like it had been closed for awhile. No problem. The GPS has a "Detour" button and since there was a huge detour sign in front of me I figured this was as good a time as any to test it out.

Re-calculating...Re-Calculating...Turn left, go .1 miles then turn right

Perfect!! So I swing the bike around to the left and then right and...into a parking lot? Ummm...Ok so the GPS turned me into a parking lot and is now telling me to drive off into the Neuse River. *sigh* lovely..So I hit detour again and now I'm being told to leave the parking lot and to go straight..So that's what I do..This is the point where I like to say the GPS freaked out. Every intersection it was telling me to go right then go right then go right. So back into the same parking lot I ended up. I get off the bike and walk down towards the river to make sure I'm not missing some road that hits the bridge. No luck....Well damn. So I walk out on the dock and there was one boat tied up and I hear something splashing around under the dock. I'm thinking there is a fish tied up to a stringer or something..Then I hear something that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up...Another large splash along with the unmistakeable whine of a dog.

So I get closer to the edge and look down in the water (the boat that was tied up was very small and there was at least a 4 foot drop down to the boat) I see a large brown dog swimming around, whining in an obvious panic'd state. My mind is racing on what I should do. I look around to see if anyone looks like they own the boat..Nothing. The dog sees me and starts whining again and I see him swim up to the boat and try to climb in..He couldn't get in it. I look down at the boat again and I see that the dog is tied to the boat so he only has about 5 feet that he can swim out and around...There is no way this dog can get in the boat or get out of the water. I drop down into the boat and work my way to the back of it..The dog is there waiting for me whining. I reach down and grab its collar and start to try and get him out..It's obvious now that he has no energy left so I get a better grip and yank him up out of the water..

I get his front paws up on the boat and he's not moving...So reach back and pull the rest of him in the boat..At this point I'm soaking wet and it's warm but not that warm outside..I stand up and see if anyone looks like they own the boat..Nothing...So I stand there for a few minutes trying to decide if I should just leave the dog, wait till the owner comes back or call the cops and let them sort it out...I think the dog was either a Chesapeake or some kind of lab so he was not easy to pick up..But I get him up ont he dock and climb up myself...The dog is soaking wet and shaking so I ask a couple who were standing at the dock if they know how to find out who owns a boat. They didn't so I explain what happened and ask one of them to go over to my bike and pull a sweater out of my saddle bag. I dry the dog off the best I can and as I'm talking to them about what I should do I see someone walking across the park who looks like he might own the boat..The dog starts wagging his tail so I take that as he knows this guy..

He walks up and I ask him if this was his boat..He said it was..I said well the dog was in the water and couldn't get back in the boat.

Me: Your dog was in the water whining and not able to get back in the boat. And since you tied him to the boat he couldn't swim away.

Guy: He should know not to jump off the boat.

Me: ... Are you fucking kidding me??

Me: I pulled him out of the water and he didn't even have enough energy to help me get him out.

Guy: Well, thanks for getting him out. I shouldn't have brought him with me..But every time I leave the house on the boat he runs and jumps in the water and won't go back until I pick him up

Me: You should probably invest in some training to break him of that habit

Turns out he had brought his daughter in to some kind of art show and had been away from the boat with the dog tied to it for about 3 hours..So there's no way to know how long he'd been in the water. I can't put into words how pissed I was at this guy's attitude. There are some people that shouldn't be allowed to have pets and this guy was one of them. I spend about 20 minutes more talking to the couple. Really nice folks..Turns out they're originally from New Jersey and bought a house down here 2 years ago.

Anyway..I get back on the road and the front of my shirt and pants are still soaked. I use the GPS to look for the nearest Waffle House and find it less than 3 miles away..Onwards and upwards..More tomorrow.

The pics are not labeled yet and there are ~170 of them...

780 miles from Brian and Mary Jo's in Hattiesburg to my house.

Tired..

More tomorrow.

So out comes the shop manual that I brought with me and we proceeded to take the front tire and wheel off the bike. Brian and Mary Jo were kind enough to let me use their vehicle this morning so I can take it over to a local bike shop that Brian frequents so they can hopefully fix it for me. I say hopefully because since I run spoked wheels I have to have an innertube. I'm hoping the inner tube can be patched or that I can find one in stock somewhere around town. Brian has just gone through this with his bike where the innertube wasn't in stock  here and it took a week and a half to get a replacement. I don't have a week and a half.

If all goes well I'm planning on getting on the road early tomorrow morning and super slabbing it back to NC. It's 800 miles from here to my house according to google maps. I had planned on passing back thru KY and stopping at Ft. Knox where I was stationed when I was in the Army but with the problems i'm having with the bike I think it's best to take interstate back and just shoot straight for home. Because honestly I passed through some small towns coming down that I would *not* want to break down in.

Current stats for the trip:

Miles Travelled: 1518 miles

Total Gallons of Gas: 32.248

Total MPG: ~47mpg

To be perfectly honest this trip has forced me outside my comfort zone on so many levels. Before coming down I had a little talk with my bike letting it know what I expected out of it.

1. Smooth ride (so far so good aside from the shitty roads in SC and AL)
2. No fluid leaks of any kind (fail..Have a small oil leak from the oil return line of my oil relocation kit)
3. No tire or wheel problems (epic fail on this one since the bike is sitting on a jack stand with no front wheel atm)
4. No more electrical problems (looks like the voltage regulator fixed the battery overcharging problem. Although there were several casualties of the repair. High beam of headlight blown, Right turn signal blown both front and rear, taillight blown, backlight for speedo blown, indicator light for turn signal blown, high beam indicator light blown. Most have been replaced with the exception of the instrument cluster.)

My first thought when all these problems started was to just rent a uhaul and tow the bike back. And that still may happen but I started this trip on two wheels and I want to do everything within my power to finish it on two wheels. Life is about taking on challenges and overcoming them. I used to be really good at that but it seems over the last several years since I got out of the Army I don't challenge myself enough or I take the easy way out instead of dealing with it. So anyway I will be working to get the bike in running order today and hopefully set out tomorrow. There won't be any SPOT updates today since I'll be in Hattiesburg.  Not sure if I'll get to update tomorrow if the bike gets fixed since I'll be beelining back to NC. Check in with the SPOT pages and I'll have tracking mode on if all goes well..

This morning we're headed off to the U.S.S Alabama battleship and then back down to Destin FL. I've got the spot with me and I'll be doing checkin's and I'll try to find a place on the bike to put it so tracking works.

Until Later...

I did end up taking I-95 for a couple of hours last night. It started getting dark and country roads harbor deer and other animals that like to run out in front of you. So the last little bit to Savannah was on super slab and I will try to avoid it at all costs in the future..

On thing is for sure I will be getting a GPS for the next trip. This looking down at the map while riding thing sucks.

Couple of random thoughts from the ride yesterday:

1. The town crossing over from NC to SC on 401 smells like feet...Like the entire town does
2. People give you really strange looks when you put your bike in front of their "Welcome to <statename>" signs.. I'm looking at you SC!
3. Riding interstate sucks ass no matter what state you're in.

More later...