| Author | Message | ||
     Dwardo |
I'm hoping/planning to take myself on a solo ride from Baltimore to Arkansas starting sometime around the Labor Day holiday. I will be riding the H-D Road King. I'm going to a town called Altus, which is not too far from Ft. Smith. From there I will be going to way rural Missouri to visit my sister. I want to make the trip as fun as possible, with the most scenic and least stressful roads. Things that I like to stop and see are air museums, steam trains, and car/motorcycle museums, that kind of stuff. I'm thinking of putting in a long day the first day but then not doing any more than 400 miles a day afterwards. I'm hoping I might be able to take two weeks to do it. Route suggestions would rule! | ||
| 86129squids |
Holler when things get more clear in your planning... If it's open then, check into Maggie Valley NC and look up Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum- Dale the owner is a great guy, over 90% of the machines WILL start, run and ride, plus Dale the nut is happy to fire most any of them up and do a burnout for shits and giggles right in the museum! West NC and East TN are great for riding/sightseeing/exploring, by Labor Day the weather conditions should be good. | ||
| Babired |
my favorite way out west is 70 to 340 to 7 into Winchester, Va then get on 50 in the mountains totally awesome riding. When I went to Colorado in 09 I headed into Ohio and stayed near the AMA museum and saw that for the second day of travel. I did high mile days in the beginning then started to do 250 to 300 mile days as I got further west. Use half the day for travel then the other half for sightseeing. It got more interesting the farther west I traveled. (Message edited by babired on August 03, 2011) | ||
| Fahren |
Spend some time looking for your sightseeing destinations, and definite "must ride" roads; then some time on google maps, connecting the dots with the smallest, squiggliest lines you can find. | ||
| Honolulu_blue_esq |
You can take the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way from the middle part of NC over into Tennessee. Pretty wonderful stuff. | ||
| Fahren |
Heck - you can even pick up the BRP due west of Charlottesville, VA (right where Skyline Drive ends). | ||
| 86129squids |
+1 on the Blue Ridge- many folks I know say the prettiest section is the one in the Asheville area. Incidentally, the BRP will poot you out smack dab in Maggie Valley where Wheels Through Time is. You can even go gambling at the Cherokee casino... not my cup o' tea though. | ||
| Sifo |
+1 on stopping by the Wheels Through Time museum. I certainly got more than I paid for!  Dale loves to fire up the old bikes! If he says hop on - Don't ask questions! I took route 52 to route 85 between Knoxville and Nashville a couple weeks ago. Nice road to travel if you want to enjoy the road more than you want to get to your destination. | ||
| Honolulu_blue_esq |
Sifo: That picture is amazing! Looks like fun. I might have to make my way over there. | ||
| Sifo |
I wish I had photos of when he took the 2 track up the hill behind the museum! | ||
| Nm5150 |
I know where Altus is.One of the few places you can buy beer on Sunday in Arkansas  You might like to go to Eureka Springs,AR.It is a neat little hippie type town then take 23 from there down through the Pig Trail and stop at Turner Bend by the Mullberry River and get a sticker.At that point you are only about a half hour or so from Altus.Hwy 16 is a cool ride from one end to the other.Pettite Jean has a car museum and is not far from there. | ||
| Babired |
If you go on the blue ridge on mile marker 241 there is a nice place to stay called Bluff's lodge. Its in a park and has a resturant in walking distance. There are no TV's or phones in the rooms. The lodge is 2 old farm buildings connected by a large stone patio with a huge outdoor fireplace. A beautiful place to stay. This is just inside North Carolina/ Virginia state borders, North Carolina side | ||
| Jb2 |
+1 Babired! Stayed at Bluffs Lodge many a trip. We've photographed deer, bears and turkeys in the parking lot at dusk and dawn. Blueberry cobbler at the restaurant is worth the trip alone. | ||
| Dwardo |
Keep it coming, guys! Nice to know that you can buy beer in Altus. I'm going to see the house my uncle bought, and he does not (gasp) drink. I will not incidentally be scoping out potential places to move to. What I would do for a living I don't know. I'm starting to look forward to this. | ||
| Ratbuell |
good route to BRP from Baltimore is: 70 to frederick 15 south to leesburg, pass leesburg and get on 29 south to charlottesville. short hop on 64 from charlottesville west to the parkway. go as far as you want on the parkway. take spare fuel, there are no fuel stations on the parkway. typically you're at least 10 miles from a gas station....once you get to the exit to actually get off the parkway. and there aren't many. but it is an AMAZING ride. just...gorgeous. | ||
| Fahren |
On Ratbuell's itinerary, you can also avoid the I-64 slab bit by taking Rt. 250 West out of Charlottesville - it hits exactly the same place: southern end of Skyline Drive, northern tip of BRP. 250 is no Dragon, but it's nicer than slabbing. | ||
| 86129squids |
The Dragon is overrated. Everything else in the area is fantastic. Cherohala Skyway is great, but I guess you have to go west sometime. | ||
| Stevedplumber |
i just got back from a mancation of 6 days 1802 miles. i did skyline drive north to south. then got on brp and did north to south. went into maggie valley for a tour of WTT. down to robbinsville for a few. rode into suches to see the oh so valuable property that was TWO. into helen ga for lunch. found a walmart that had been closed down. must say it was a nice relaxing trip. | ||
| Ratbuell |
nice. <jealous> | ||
| Nm5150 |
I am a pipeliner so I can live where I want.I would never get to work there anyway Altus is in the middle of Arkansas wine country(I know,an oxymoron)and is also fairly close to Hot Springs that was a getaway for gangsters back in the day and had a lot of illegal gambling and still has a public hot spring among other interestring stuff. | ||
| Dwardo |
<bump> | ||
| Dwardo |
Well, I could not undertake my excellent adventure due to surprise surgery, so I decided to take a few days and ride down to Maggie Valley to see the museum. My buddy and I left in driving rain on Thursday, he on a Street Glide and I on my Road King. Rain turned into hail for a while, and then back to rain almost all the way down to the Smokeys where it turned to sleet after dark. He didn't have boot covers and said he couldn't feel his toes after a while. My rain gear worked flawlessly. That was a long 600 miles. The museum is indescribably excellent. Every motor-head should go see it. We chatted with Dale quite a bit and he fired up 2 or 3 bikes while we were there. Friday night we did some barhopping. Saturday was supposed to be a leisurely ride on the Parkway. We went for a while, and then were stopped for 2 solid hours by ... a bear. Apparently there was a bear in a tree traffic was totally snarled. Not fun. We made 60 miles in 5 hours. Then we beat feet for just south of Roanoke, where we found an excellent nightclub. Next day all went well until we got stopped totally on 495 for some reason. So, we made an illegal u-turn and on home. When it was fun it was very fun and when it wasn't fun it was really not fun. But, it was worth doing. The second best part after the museum was when my much-younger riding buddy told me that I ride too fast for him. Love it. |
