2009 Eastern Migration

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.

Western Migration 2008

Wild Pelicans Western Migration 2008

Click on the pics to enlarge.

Wow, What a trip! There were so many highlights, I'm sure I'll miss a few.

Day 1


Keith and Rickey had ridden to our house in Texas, and we left from there. We rode west on I-20 until it merged with I-10 and took us thru El Paso to our first days destination of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Somewhere west of Odessa, the speed limit is 80mph! We made a stop at Barnett Harley Davidson in El Paso, the largest Harley dealer in the world. It's quite a place!


It was graduation weekend in Las Cruces, but we got lucky and found a great little mom & pop motel.





Day 2


We rode from Las Cruces to Deming, where we exited the Interstate at Deming for Hwy 180. We rode northwest to Hwy 78 and could tell that we were in for a treat when we saw this sign.
















The ride for today was centered around Hwy 191 between Clifton and Alpine Arizona. At the south end the road is very tight and twisty as it passes the Morenci copper mine and winds its way up into the mountains.
















About halfway to Apline we met Alice and Ledger, who had done a MERC the previous day and rode down from Holbrook Arizona to meet us. After a spectacular ride, we had lunch at the Bear Wallow Cafe in Alpine, AZ.

















We ran into the first snow of the trip on Hwy 191, luckily it was on the ground, not falling on us.
















We stayed at the historic Wigwam motel on Route 66 in Holbrook Arizona, where we were robbed a Pizza Hut delivery driver! $42 for 2 pizzas!!!





















Day 3


From Holbrook the next destination was the Grand Canyon. We had to make the obligatory T-Shirt stop along the way, just outside of Flagstaff in Bellemont, Arizona.
















Then it was on to the Grand Canyon, the pictures speak for themselves.









Alice at the Desert View watchtower


Jim, Ledger and Keith at the watchtower


Ledger, Rickey, Keith and Alice taking in the view.



Rickey



We stayed at the Cameron Lodge in Cameron Arizona that night. What a great place! My pics there didn't turn out, maybe someone else got some good pics of the Lodge. Everything was great, the restaurant, the store, the rooms, all of it. A very pleasant surprise.

Day 4


Unfortunately Ledger had to leave us this morning, headed home to Oklahoma. We took the scenic route, US Alt 89A, to Kanab Utah then into Zion National Park the back way.

We spent a lot of time the next few days on Navajo lands.


The scenery was breaktaking


Along the way we came to a place called "Cliff Dwellers", where in the 1920s a woman liked the area so much that she built a gas station/waypoint there. Keith is standing by the remnants of the biggest building.



Alice and Jim inside


Keith and Jim


Harley should hire us for ad photos!


Alice is ready to roll


But first we stopped at Lee's Ferry on the Colorado river.


Where we saw some rafters floating the river.



Next stop, Zion National Park






We stayed the night at the Zion Park Motel in Springdale, UT ... another very pleasant surprise.

Keith and Alice taking in the sunset in Springdale


Day 5


Today is a short day, less than 100 miles over to Bryce Canyon National Park. Good thing too, as it turned cold and windy that afternoon.

The Bryce Canyon Ampitheater


Can you see the horseback riders?


Let me zoom in a little, see them now?


Luger and Lucy joined us at Springdale, this on Hwy 12 near Bryce


Day 6


Today's ride was the highlight of the trip for me, Utah Hwy 12 from Bryce Canyon to Torrey then Hwy 24 to Hanksville and Hwy 95 to Blanding.

Hwy 12 scenery



Alice taking in the view


We stopped to see the Natural Bridge National Monument.




Keith's Road Glide on Hwy 12


More Hwy 12 scenery


We ran into snow again on the north end of Hwy 12, no snow in the pic, just some great riding.


Day 7


Keith, Rickey and I did a MERC back to Azle while Alice decided on another day of scenery in Utah and Colorado. We're already working on the plans for next year.