Done With Covid Ride 2022

[802Mike]

Day 1:

Arrived in Abingdon, VA and had to say Hi to some old friends.



Then had to see her new addition to the garage. Not my color, but I do like the new style.
No time for a ride, maybe on the return trip.



Getting ready to depart. The black bag would get left behind later at my daughters.



First day ride was about 150 miles and a good shakedown to get the cobwebs off.
I'd only ridden 13 miles this year before loading up and heading out.
I went right past the Shady Valley road in Damascus, VA and kept riding up Rt 58.
I pulled off here to take a picture and turn around, put my feet down and promptly
dropped the bike. The stones were ground granite I think and were like marbles. I
did a paratrooper roll and landed back on my feet only dusty.
A nice gentleman came along shortly after and helped me lift it back up.



Backbone Rock, Shady Valley, VA
The RR blasted this hole through to run a line.



I rode some of "The Snake" then stopped at the store where I met another rider on an older airhead.
We had to stop talking while HDs and sport bikes did their thing. One guy on a HD with pipes just
rode through the parking lot and pliped the throttle all the way through. Short penis syndrome I guessed.



Passed through Bristol on the way my night's accommodations.




They called it a Yurt. Normally the parking is for golf cars but I got "Princess Parking".

[Capnrip]

Good stuff Mike!

[802Mike]

Just did a whole Day 2 post and the preview looked good. Hit Post and it says to download at least one photo... WTF !!

[Pete_Tallahassee]

"It" knows that a ride report without at least one photo is useless.

[802Mike]

Pete, I did have pictures. The preview looked fine too.

[802Mike]

Was pretty uneventful day, cold and I just wanted to get to Maggie Valley
where I'd hoped to start riding some good roads along the way to my
daughter's house outside of Birmingham, AL.
It was just too cold to enjoy the ride so I put on the electric vest and added
layers. It never go above 60 until I got into GA.
Warming the east and getting the frost off of it.



I arrived at my daughter's house around 2:00 (gained and hour) and
she says, "Dad, I want to hike to Peavine Falls."
Since my legs hadn't seen much movement in a few days I thought
it was a good idea....
The trail was washed out, steep, rocky and uphill both ways. But it
felt good to get out and move.
Piper tried to trip me up more than once.




After we went to a local brewery for beer and food.
My reward!

[802Mike]

Day 3:

It stormed in the morning and then again in the afternoon.
So, while my daughter worked from home I washed the bike
and replaced the rear brake pads.
Later she said she needed a manicure and said, "You want
to come?" Why not!
Manicure/Pedicure... I drive an older Volvo wagon and ride a
BMW motorcycle, I'm not compensating for anything.
(no nail polish for me though)

[802Mike]

I get my days mixed up now so I'll forget about that label.

My daughter has moved around with her job and when I visit,
one of the things we do is go to a museum. So naturally we
were going to get to Barber Motorcycle Museum about twenty
minutes from her house.



Not the exact bikes but, pictured are here are a K1200RS and a R100RS.
I still have the R100....



The bike I've lusted for, but have outgrown the need now.



My daughters get a kick out of the fact that I'll just walk up and talk to anyone.
She had to capture this one....
I was asking the guy how the cleaned the bikes. He said they have a scissor
lift that reaches all but the top two rows of bikes. A couple of younger guys
climb out with harnesses and do those. They were put up there during the
construction of the building.
The bikes are cleaned and tires aired up once a year.
They have 1250 bikes on display and another 850 in storage. They will rotate
them throughout the year.



I put my pin in the map. Turns out there wasn't much room in VT for it.

[955i]

Great posts, Mike. You'd had quite the trip even BEFORE you rolled into Texas!
Tyson

[802Mike]

Last day in Sterrett, AL

Christen had bought tickets to the minor league baseball team's home opener.
The Birmingham Baron vs Rocket City Trash Pandas (them's Racoons I think)
It was about 50 degrees and the local news predicted a sold out crowd anyways.
I think the stands held 8500... there might have been 850 people there.
Before the game we went to a local brewery across the street and then at the
game had another beer and some kind of sugared fries dough thing.

Her and her sister alway have this peace sign pose they do....



So I had to come up with something too.
I didn't think she'd caught me though.




Even at 50 degrees my fingers freeze these days.



Enjoying that fried bread dough thing, but it came back to get me afterwards.



Payback for taking my picture earlier.
Can dress then up but you can't take them out !

[Susan]

From here it looks like a funnel cake. Your daughter is gorgeous!

[McFly]

Nice work Mike chronicling your trip. Looking forward to more installments!

[802Mike]

The next morning I left for parts west of there. I jumper on
Highway 82 and made it to Greenville, MS for the night.
I messaged my cousin that lived in the next town over that
I had arrived. In spite of him having just broken his foot and
having it in a cast, he came and brought me to a local
restaurant for dinner. He'd offered a spare room but I didn't
want to impose because I knew I would want to just get going
early in the morning.

[Doctor350]

I'm very much liking this report

[Martin_D]

Great ride report so far !
Nice pics too !
It's been too long since we had multiple days ride reports on the site .

Keep them coming Mike !

[Pittsdriverwes]

Awesome report. Looking forward to seeing more!

[802Mike]

Leaving Greenville I made it to Nacogdoches, TX where I gassed up and checked for
hotel rooms. I passed on this town and decided to ride another thirty miles south to Lufkin.
Turns out another cousin is building a new home in Nacogdoches. My mom was one of
fourteen children.... Multiply that by an average four kids per... I have first cousins all over
the USA now. Hard to keep track of them.

Having bucked high winds at even higher speeds for several days, I didn't realize how
tired I was until I got off of the bike. Probably dehydrated too since I rarely slowed down
enough to sip from the Camelback.

The next day I called Tracy to see if I could arrive a day early. She said that she'd find
me a cabin if mine wasn't ready. I set the GPS for fastest route but avoid highways and
headed out.

Before leaving home I asked my five year old grandson what he wanted me to send him
pictures of. He said, "Dinosaurs". I thought that was a pretty tough one. Somewhere
on a back road I'm going by what seemed like ten miles of buildings and tents that looked
like the world's biggest flea market. That's when I spotted this guy looking over a gate.


Turned out there were more...



Some roadside flowers, Bluebonnets I suspected.

[Capnrip]

Awesome stuff Mike. As Martin said, we haven't had a good road trip posted here in a while.