2009 Eastern Migration - June 6 - 12
Alice, Keith, Rickey, Tammy (Rickey's fiance) and myself has been planning this trip since we returned from last years Western Migration. This one would be primarily a trip to North Carolina, with some other interesting stops along the way.
Friday - Alice had ridden down from Kansas the day before, we hit the road toward Monroe, LA about 8:30 to avoid the Dallas/Ft Worth rush hour traffic. We arrived in Monroe in time to clean up and relax a bit before meeting everyone for a great meal at the Portico.
Saturday - We were up early and headed east. We crossed the Mississippi river at Vicksburg and picked up the Natchez Trace Parkway at Jackson. Beautiful scenery and no traffic to speak of made for a great ride.Some new highway construction in Florence, AL confounded my GPS but we soon outsmarted the GPS and found a motel and a great steakhouse (Dale's) where we had an outstanding meal.
Sunday - On the road early, with a stop in Anderson, AL for a great breakfast, and it was only $4!We meandered north until we hit Highway 64 in southern Tennessee. Saw some of the nicest houses and locations today that I've ever seen in my life. Detoured to Lynchburg and visited the Jack Daniel's distillery. I would highly recommend that anyone traveling through this area make time to visit the distillery and take the tour.
Keith, Alice and Rickey at the cave springs at the Jack Daniel's distillery.A statue of
Mr Jack himself.
Our tour group's photo from the Jack Daniel's website.
In eastern TN, Hwy 64 runs along a river for a while and is a great ride.
We stayed at the Newfound Lodge in Cherokee, NC, where every room overlooks the river behind the Lodge
and we woke up to views like this.
Monday - Time to hit the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The Blue Ridge Parkway was the highlight of the trip for me. Another very scenic road, with little to no traffic and no big trucks.
We spent the whole day riding the parkway, and stopped for the night at a little biker motel called the Station Inn. Not a bad place, but certainly not up to the standards set by the Iron Horse Stables or the HUB in Arkansas.Tuesday - No pics today, this was a long hot ride across the North Carolina/Virginia state line. We stopped for the nigh in Elizabeth City, NC. The Quality Inn there comes highly recommended.
Wednesday - Today we ride the North Carolina Outer Banks. A short day in miles, but it includes a couple of ferry rides, one of them 2 hours and 15 minutes long.
Our group (minus Tammy who took a lot of these pics) at the Bodie Island lighthouse.
Riding on the outer banks
Keith, Alice and Rickey at the Cape Hatteras light house.If you're ever in Topsail Beach, the Breezeway is a great Seafood restaurant.
Thursday - Up early again for a run down to coast to Randor's house near Savannah. We made a quick stop at the USS North Carolina battleship in Wilmington, then on to Randor's place where we stayed the night. Many thanks to Randor and Maleia for a great meal and great hospitality.
Coast Guard ship moored in Wilmington, NC
Friday - We split up and went our seperate ways today. Alice headed north to catch I-40 for her trip to Kansas. Rickey and Tammy joined Keith and I for the ride home. Storms were forecast for the route through Atlanta and Birmingham so went south to Jacksonville, FL and took I-10 west.
Rickey and Tammy dropped off in Mobile to find a room and beat the heat. Did I mention that it was HOT!!! Keith rode a little ways past Monroe to get enough miles for a Silver MERC then turned back towards home. I continued on and got home about 1:30. One of the toughest MERC's I've ever done.
All in all it was a great trip. One I intend to do again, bringing Cheri along next time.
