Saturday 6 October 2012

 
We are now in Richmond, Virginia and spent an interesing day walking round the sights. Above is The Capitol which is the Virginian Parliament. During the Civil War years of 1861-1865, Richmond became the capital of the Confederate states. Interestingly, the Parliament still runs on the British system and they also use the Mace to open sessions. 

 
Outside the Capitol stands a magnificent statue of George Washington.

 
This building was very interesting as in 1837 the owners brought over engineers and foundry workers from the town of Tredegar in Wales to construct the furnaces and rolling mills and in their honour named the foundry after their home town.
Later on the foundry would become the major Confederate munitions supplier.

 
Just behind the foundry is the above building. This was of great interest to John as it is the HQ of the company that he worked for, for 33 years.  It is locally called 'the White House'.  Ethyl Corporation bought the land from the owner of the foundry in 1957 and then helped with the restoration of the foundry buildings.
We should be moving on tomorrow but John took a fall today and has sprained his wrist so its now wrapped in an ice pack and hope he is ok to ride tomorrow.  We had 27C (82F) temperature today but the forecast for the next few days is a lot cooler and rain so Autumn has arrived!
 

Thursday 4 October 2012

 
Always happy when the hotel has a luggage trolley otherwise it is a couple of visits back and forth to the bike with all the bags!

 
We got back on to the Blue Ridge Parkway today for another 225 miles through the beautiful scenery of North Carolina. At 11am we stopped at a Visitor centre which was still covered in cloud and only 12C (52F) but by the time we came out, the cloud had cleared and the sun had come out showing the beautiful colours up the side of the mountain.

 
En route we came upon Grandfather Mountain which has the above Swinging Bridge which is a mile above ground. Fortunately the gorge below was only a couple of hundred feet down and not a mile which was a relief!  Being so high up, the view was wonderful.

 
View from the Swinging Bridge. You can see why they are called the Blue Ridge Mountains, as you can see all the ridges in the distance and they appear to have a blue hue over them.
 From here John continued to enjoy the wonderful twisty roads which had very little traffic on but we can imagine what it would be like in the summer.
Below is the video we took while riding the 'Tail of the Dragon' in Tennessee.
Please excuse the inane chattering at the beginning and the end which we have been unable to edit out so far. Hopefully when we have time when we get home we will manage it:-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-5QQte4FW8&feature=plcp

Wednesday 3 October 2012

 
After waiting long enough for the sun to burn the mist away, we were very fortunate to ride back over the Cherohala Skyway and see it in wonderful sunshine with just a hint of mist left in places over the treetops.

 
Whilst riding over the Skyway we came upon groups of cars on the side of the road with boxes on the back, carrying dogs. We stopped to ask one group of men what they were doing and they told us they were hunting bears and that they use the dogs to flush them out. 
 

From the Cherohala Skyway we then rode about another 30 miles and joined the start of the Blue Ridge Highway which runs over 400 miles from North Carolina to Virginia. The Fall is starting here with the temperature ranging from 12C - 26C, depending on elevation, which reached 6000ft at its highest point. We travelled about 90 miles on this road today and intend following it most of the way to Virginia as the scenery is spectacular.  John is especially enjoying the twisty roads!


 
Yesterday we rode across the Cherohala Skyway but unfortunately at the top (5,300ft) it was in complete mist so had no view at all.  We stayed in our best accommodation yet at Tellico Plains, in the Lodge above, and all for $95 (£60) - this included a whirlpool bath and yet again, a garage for the bike. Just as a comparison, the worst place we have stayed in so far, was a Best Western who charged $125 and the window fell out so we had to change rooms.
 As you can see we are sitting it out for a while as we are still surrounded in mist. We are waiting for it to break so hopefully on the return trip we will see the wonderful view we have been told about.  Tellico Plains itself is a lovely small town.

Monday 1 October 2012

 
We stayed at a motel in Robbinsville, North Carolina specifically so that John could ride the 'Tail of the Dragon' which is famous for being 318 curves in 11 miles. The icing on the cake for this motel was that the bike had its own garage! The downside was that we awoke to pouring rain! We sat around debating the merits of riding this road in the rain as it is notorious for bikes and cars trying to get to the top in the fastest time possible, and not always keeping to their side of the road.

 
We decided to go for it when the rain lessened for a while and the start (the Devil's tail) is above. It turned out to be a brilliant ride although there was quite a lot of leaves on the road as it is now fall. In the end John was pleased that it was raining as we only encountered one car on the way up so managed to film it all on his GoPro. We are currently trying to download it to YouTube but its taking a very long time. If successful, we will post the link tomorrow. 

 
We rode both up and down the 'Tail of the Dragon' and the starting point is the 'tail' above.
Across the road is the famous Deals Gap Motorcycle Motel and cafe.
 
 
Inside the cafe the ceiling is covered with signed T-shirts of people that have ridden the road. There was also a signed photo and letter on the wall from a NASA astronaut that had ridden the 'Tail', (check out his website:   http://www.astronautbiker.com/) There were also photos of the Blue Angels (America's equivalent of our Red Arrows) whose pilots have also enjoyed the road. Our motel is booked solid this week with motorcyclists as the roads around here are fantastic to ride and the scenery is spectacular.
 
 

Sunday 30 September 2012

 
Our route today took us through Lynchburg, Tennessee, which is home to the Jack Daniels Distillery.  The spring in the above cave, is where the water comes from to make the Whiskey, which all began back in 1859.

 
 Jack & Anne.
Jack Daniels started distilling whiskey at the young age of 13 years. He made money selling it to both sides during the Civil War and by the age of 20 in 1866 established the Distillery as a Registered company. He died due to blood poisoning. It all started when he arrived at work one morning before anyone else and wanted to open his safe. He couldn't remember the combination so kicked the safe with his foot which resulted in a broken toe. Gangrene set in so he had the toe amputated but the gangrene kept spreading up his leg and although his leg was amputated the poisoning finally killed him - so the moral of the story is: "Never go to work early!"

 
The tour of the distillery is free and takes about an hour. They were on shutdown so we couldn't see anything in action and photography was prohibited. However, we were shown the massive vats where the whiskey drips through charcoal which gives it its unique taste. The tour guide lifted the lid up and down so we could all inhale the 140 proof fumes which were very powerful!
The irony is that Lynchburg is in Moore County which is a 'dry' county, so you cannot buy the whiskey for consumption in stores or restaurants. 

 
After Lynchburg we were heading for the Smoky Mountains which meant passing through Chattanooga. Probably only the older generation have heard of Chattanooga Choo Choo (definitely before my time:-). The song was recorded by Glenn Miller for a film made in 1941 and the old Railway Station in Chattanooga has been turned into an hotel and is now one of the Historic Hotels of America.