Blueridge Parkway to Ala"BAMA"
- bikespanniersandpa
- Oct 30, 2022
- 3 min read
We had debated whether to ride the Blueridge Parkway as it was peak Autumn Season for the "leaf peepers" who drive around sightseeing and photographing autumn foliage.
However it was in the direction we were going and we could always get off the road and go a different way if it was "Yellowstone" busy. Plus it meant riding more through Virginia, a place we had kinda fallen in love with.
We rode through the country roads of Marion County to join the parkway around half way along later that afternoon when we came across a little diner in the middle of nowhere with a big sign outside advertising Southern Style sounding food ...perfect!
It was a lovely place and we had a good meal and a great chat with a couple of locals who had popped in for lunch and ended up leaving 10 minutes or so before us.
When we got up to pay the waitress told us the bill had already been paid for by the guys we had been speaking to. We were blown away at the generosity of these people who we had never met before! Apparently that happens lot in Virginia.
Mate if you are reading this ...THANK YOU!!!
The further south we went the more different the flora and fauna we were seeing was getting.
We were seeing a lot of dead snakes and armadillos on the roads, groundhogs running across the roads, as well as a box turtle trying to commit suicide (we saved it) and walnuts the size of tennis balls on the road (you do NOT want to hit one of these with your front tyre!!!).
We joined the Blueridge parkway in North Carolina and followed it in a SW direction.
It had been a wet morning and it was midweek and I think this had kept a lot of the "leaf peepers" away as there was hardly anyone there and the views across the ridges were stunning!
The more the afternoon went on the more the skies cleared ...and still no-one about!
We found a reasonable priced room in Blowing Hole and the girl told us there were parking spaces right outside on the room ...we took this literally and parked right outside the room!!!
The following day the weather had improved and there were heaps of people on the road BUT the views were phenomenal.
We stuck out all the people on the road for a while until it started to make Nick twitch, so we left to do another road, a famous bikers road called the Dragons Tail that was 50kms long and all curves!
It was a lot of fun and we are pleased to report that we held our own on our very dirty adventure bikes with full knobbly tyres!
The following day after spending the night just south of Chattanooga, we crossed the border into Georgia ...yay! we had made it to one of the Southern States! We had missed out on breakfast that day so when we came across a place to eat in Lafayette Nick attacked his burger like it was his last meal!
By this point our bikes and our bike clothing was very dirty ...we knew we needed to find somewhere to stay that had a car wash and a laundromat ...a Laundromat that was either close to accomodation or in a warm place (we will explain later!).
A quick look at the map and Arab, Alabama seemed to fit the bill ...and it was currently 27 degrees C.
When we arrived we dumped all our luggage at the Airbnb and then went to wash the bikes.
They were soon sparkling!
Us next, so we head to the Laundromat, strip off our ride gear to our base layer undergarments, take all the protective crash pads out and wash our riding gear ...then we wash them again (they were grubby!!!)
The only problem is that you cannot tumble dry this type of clothing so we had to put them back on wet ...hence why we needed the warm weather!
By this time its 6:30 and time for dinner ...its warm out so why not go and eat in wet motorcycle gear?
Nick had really wanted to make it to New Orleans but time was running out and we knew we needed to head West for the crossing into Baja, Mexico. So he was rapt to find a place serving Creole Cuisine and we treated ourselves to Crawfish Étouffée and Blackened Redfish with Fried Green Tomatoes. WOW!
It was pitch black when we got back to our airbnb and there were so many strange insects and amphibians making noises!
And it was still warm ...there was NOT going to be a frost tonight!
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