RCR XIII (June 22-28, 2004) Photos

Day One - 419 miles (MA-NY-PA) We left Mike's around 9am and did 60 miles on I90 to get out of the Boston area. The rest of the day was back roads. Late morning we hit rain but by late afternoon we were in the sun again and had dried off. We arrived at Rickett's Glen state park at a reasonable hour. Seconds after we picked a camp site the skies opened. We pitched our tents in the pouring rain and not long after we finished the rain stopped. If there is a God he has a sense of humor. Luckily the next morning the weather was good and most of our stuff dried out before we left. Day Two - 389 miles (PA-MD-VA-WV) We did not get moving until 11am after a late breakfast. For some reason we decided that we still had time to stop in Gettysburg. We looked at a map and decided on 118W->487S->254W->147S->45W->235S->35W->333S->75W->74S->34S. The weather was good all day and we hit some great roads. Somehow we ended up on 333 going north instead of south. This turned out to be a lovely 12 miles of road and we rode it the other way to get back on track. We had lunch in Gettysburg at 4pm but did not have time for anything else. Riding out of town past all the fields/monuments the history of the area hung in the air. We did not make it to Seneca Shadows until around 11pm but at least it was not raining when we pitched our tents. Day Three - 366 miles (WV-NC) We got an early start and put in 60 miles before breakfast. I tried biscuits and gravy for the first time and may now have an addiction issue. As Mike promised this was the best day of riding and the weather was great all day. 28S->39SE->92S->60S->I64E->311S->42S->460S->8S led us to the Blue Ridge Parkway. On one of these roads a bird hit Mike's visor hard enough that the visor touched his nose. We rode the BRP in glorious weather for 95 miles. Since the limit is 45mph and supposedly it is well patrolled we kept it at a relaxed pace. 35 miles after exiting the BRP we arrived at Riders Roost (a motorcycle resort and campground). This was my favorite campground. I was able to setup my tent beside my bike with a river in the background. We had a few beers and some good conversation and crawled into our tents. Day Four - 278 miles (NC) We woke up to some inclement weather. We lazed around and got a late start. I had more biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We headed back to the BRP. This time we were greeted by rain and spotty cloud cover. We briefly got off at Little Switzerland in an attempt to find an orchard that the parents of a friend of mine own. The rain was really coming down. We did not find the orchard but did ride the loop. Back on the BRP conditions were worse and my gloves were soaked from Little Switzerland. We decided to get off the BRP at Asheville and find another route. About five miles before the exit my speedo stopped working. This was the only time my bike misbehaved and I put it down to a Lucas ghost. We ate a late lunch in Asheville and when we got back on the bikes my speedo was working again. Not wet enough we decided to blast 25 miles the wrong way up 70 into the rain. We arrived at the Iron Horse campground for the RCR just before dark and pitched our tents in the rain on a rather wet field. Day Five - 176 miles (NC-TN) After a relaxed morning we headed off and ran Deal's Gap in both directions and then Cherohala Skyway in both directions. Deal's Gap was as crowded as you would expect on a June Saturday. Hanging out people/bike watching at the bottom was fun. Cherohala was a blast and following Mr. Pou was a great way to ride the road for the first time. We got back to Iron Horse around 4pm and then relaxed/bullshitted/ate/drank. Day Six - 1025 miles in 18 hours (NC-TN-VA-VW-MD-PA-NJ-NY-CT-MA) For breakfast I had biscuits and gravy which helped soak up the Wild Turkey. I had wanted to ride the stretch of the BRP that we had missed from the southern end to Asheville and then continue on to see the Biltmore. However the weather was not cooperating. I decided to join Bob for the ride home. The plan was to ride highways for the day to cover a lot of miles and get above the bad weather. Then if we had covered enough miles we could hit some back roads on Monday. A few hours into the trip we came across Fred and joined up with him. Fred and Bob were talking about seeing how far they could get. About 680 miles in Bob decided to find a motel. Fred and I continued on and ended up riding all the way home. The only problem I had was hitting the kill switch while moving my hand around to try and give it a rest. Annoyingly I had the paperwork with me for a Saddle Sore 1000 but did not keep track of anything as I did not plan to do 1000 miles.