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Re: [ST] Trip Report



Great report, Rupert....we missed you in Vermont! Nice helmet, BTW.....

Denis Liakos
- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rupert Galea" <rupert@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 12:49 PM
Subject: [ST] Trip Report


> For those with ADD here are the pictures,
> http://www.rgalea.com/photos/rcr2004/
>
> 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.
>
> Rupert
> 99 ST
>
>
>
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