| Author | Message | ||
     No_rice |
Ok, Ok, so first off i will say we crossed a few of those states with the bikes on the trailer... Jenn had been wanting to go on a southeastern motorcycle trip with me for some time. the main problem is that my usual excuse to head down there is buelltoberfest, and she is not able to get anytime of work during that time of year. So we got to talking about Buells in the Alps at the end of July in Little Switzerland, and i decided if we were going to do this, i wanted to make it memorable for both of us(Jenn having never done ANYTHING like this, and me having never spent so many days on a bike not going back to the same spot each night) so we started talking and figuring, and calling friends... We ended up deciding on leaving after work on July 23rd, driving all night and being in Nashville morning of the 24th to visit my sister and brother in law. Loaded up and ready to hit the road all night. Finally made it out of town about 10pm wednesday, night of the 23rd of July... after working all day  still driving as the sun comes up.  someone managed to get some decent sleep! (even though she drove most of the first half i couldnt sleep)  stopped for fuel in Metropolis!  Thursday July 24th 8:30am we rolled into Nashville TN for our first stop. Visiting my sister and brother inlaw. was good to see them since it had been awhile. heck of a skyline view from there place.  made a few stops in Nashville.  spent most of the day hanging out with them and catching up, then we proceeded on to Murfreesboro TN, and our first night away on vacation. Tom(Tnxbrider) and Angie Bumpus were nice enough to put us up for the night(as well as keep an eye on our car and trailer during our trip). It had been a couple years since I had seen Tom or any of my southern friends. we went out for a couple drinks and even Jeremy(Ft_Bastard) stopped by. was great to see the fat man!!! went back to the Bumpus's for a night cap and some chinese lantern flying!  Friday July 25th this was the view i woke up to...  yeah, it was a good start! With Tom as our guide for part of the way, we hit the road on the bikes headed for Little Switzerland... ALL day on the road made a small detour and took Jenn a few miles up US129 the dragon, just so she could say shes been there. plus get a pic on one of the overlooks!   somewhere along the way we grabbed some sandwiches and Tom found us a nice place to stop and eat!   and... thats where he abandoned us...  ok ok he turned around to head back home while we continued on our way. Now it was just the 2 of us on our own.  right before we split ways, Tom asked if we had everything we needed and said here take my bungee net just incase. on that note, my brand new saddle bags let some zipper stitching go within maybe an hour of us parting ways... lol  anyway, we made it to Banner Elk(near Little Switzerland) and to the cabin we were staying in for a couple nights during Buells in the Alps. i really didnt get to many pics during this time, i was to busy talking to everyone(imagine that) and putting those super curvy roads to some hard use! Our cabin mates included Ulywife, Carlos, Glitch, New12r and Old dog. what a mess! actually it was a good time! Saturday morning July 26th all of us took off riding and Carlos lost the shift peg on the M2, luckily it was found and reinstalled, Glitch however required a little more effort when his came apart on the xb... but a push start, napa, bolt and alot of washers got it back on the road!  fuel stop  and the view from Alpine Valley, where i got to find out just how easy the new 1190's will loft the frontend while laid over mid corner... repeatedly we got to see a bunch of Riff Raff wandering all around the area. wish we would have gotten to talk to everyone more then just a few minutes here and there!!!  and these particular signs were probably the worst decision that North Carolina could have possibly put on a road... in front of a guy on a sportbike... in full race leathers... im not sure if you notice, but this is not a speed limit...! there is alot left to interpretation on that there one...!  My beautiful fiance from the land of flat straight roads, even showed just how good of a rider she really can be(wether she believes in her self or not) and managed to put a beating on the sides of her tires... no chicken strips for dinner this time! her xb9slr rear  (as for more pics of this part, i've seen us popping up around badweb so im sure you get the idea. Sunday morning July 27th we had to say our goodbyes to everyone :-( Then it was just Jenn and i on the road by ourselves for the next handful of days. after another all day ride, Sunday night we rolled into Charleston SC. had some snazzy digs!  supper and live music at Voodoo Lounge, with some very good drinks!  we spent that night, then monday day/night in Charleston. breakfast at The Broken Egg Cafe, YUM!  then some wandering around all over, even ocross the water from the Yorktown battleship(no good pics)       found an old cemetery hidden down a random walkway. its amazing to think that some of these being from the 1800's are 150+ years old... many of the headstones had weathered so much they were hard to read, but then again many of them looked in amazingly good shape although also worn down.    walkway in the park.  and then... we headed out for our NICE night out while in Charleston... oh... yeah!  rooftop sunset drinks. how can a guy go wrong...  the next morning Tuesday July 29th we took off for one of our shortest riding days, and headed into Savannah GA. only a couple hour jaunt. rolled into the bed and breakfast we had reserved while we were there, right downtown in the historic district!  checked in, unloaded, and then headed to Tybee Island to play on the north beach(the nice part about this trip is my sister had lived in Savannah for awhile and was able to point us in all the right directions for things to do/see and food!) on to the beach! Jenn lost her sunglasses to the ocean, and i got stung by a jellyfish... second time in my life. it doesnt get any better as you get older...      i had jerk pork that was amazing, and Jenn ordered seared swordfish. i hate seafood, but since we were right on the ocean i figured id try some again. her swordfish was edible, and thats alot coming from me!  (Message edited by no_rice on August 07, 2014) | ||
| No_rice |
Wednesday July 30th we went wandering in Savannah.    Halfway there... (i really like this pic for some reason, so simple...)     the Dude Abides      Jenns sons name is Lucas, so had to take this    Then our VERY nice night out in Savannah.  another rooftop bar!     then we went to The Old Pink House for supper. I had Roasted duck, and Jenn had Flounder. again, very good. then the waiter asked us if we would like a desert drink... and the head honcho came up and said they had had a first, the internet called and had bought our drinks... (i checked us in on facebook at the old pink house, and apparently someone who they wouldnt name, called up and told them they wanted to buy our drinks) so i had Cognac, and Jenn had Tuko(sp?) Thanks whoever you are!!!  then to wander back to the room...   (Message edited by no_rice on August 06, 2014) | ||
| No_rice |
up and at'em the next morning. the bed and breakfast chef made us red velvet pancakes with cream cheese frosting!  and then we hit the road again for the day on Thursday July 31st headed for Gainesville FL to see some old friends.     made it to Gainesville that night and spent that night and the following friday August 1st staying at Buellgators, as well as riding down to Inverness and meeting up with MartyMax and Paintshaker. went to Satchels Pizza, its an odd, interesting place with great pizza!  they even have their desert menu on 3d viewmasters!  as well as an old van you can dine in...  later on when we went to meet Marty and Paint, we ended up at some big biker bar for awhile where the lead guitarist of Steppenwolf plays without most people knowing who he is! Paint mentioned that we were only about 8 miles away from the gulf of mexico... did we want to ride over there...? well sure! so at about midnight we were staring at the gulf of mexico in the dark... lol  an hour and a half ride back to gainesville and we called it a night... only to sleep longer then we should have, and get a late start to Friday August 2nd and our full day of running interstate between gainesville and murfreesboro. we covered ALOT of ground in short order. we never ran under 85, and spent hours in traffic that was running 100+ it was great! Jenn and i just played leapfrog with traffic and pounded out miles. but... we hadnt made it very far into our day when we stopped to fill up and Jenn says something is in her glove... SCREAM!!!!! yep there sure was... LMAO!!!  another fuel stop, and eyeballing the only rain we had the pleasure of riding in on our whole trip. we made a quick stop at the waffle house to eat, put on rainsuits and light the wick again!  made it back to murfreesboro and another warm welcome by the Bumpus's! good munchies, drinks, and conversation... then off to bed! we loaded up the bikes on the trailer Sunday August 3rd and headed home, stopping in Nashville once more for a quick visit with my sister, some food,  and the Parthenon...?! huh?! apparently they thought there needed to be one of these in the center of Nashville...  back on the road again after some goodbyes. with alot of miles to cover to get back to central iowa... somewhere around midnight Jenn and i decided it would be a good idea to hit the strip club... so... about 5am monday August 4th we finally made it home... and apparently i had had enough for the night...  did absolutely nothing on monday but nap and watch tv! and spent tuesday getting a couples massage along with dinner for Jenns birthday! today was the first day back at work in 13 days... i am not a fan... lol. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Awesome pics! Glad you guys made it down and back safely. This pic (if it's where I think it is) makes me shudder. About 10 years ago, our band played a New Year's Eve gig on Water Street. After the gig, at ~2 AM, I had to climb those stairs toting a bass and an arm load of equipment, while passing a bunch of drunks staggering down the stairs at the same time! I did NOT trust that handrail to hold me up. | ||
| No_rice |
im sure thats the very set of steps then, because this is on river street! although now they have gates on both ends in an attempt to keep people from walking up them! i had to be pretty selective most of the time with pics, i told Jenn that if i stopped and took pics of all the stuff id like to, that we would never get anywhere... she laughed and said she new, but it was fine... | ||
| 86129squids |
Good pics, good times, Tim! Wish I'd known your crew and Tom were up at Calderwood Dam Overlook, heck, that's barely 30-45 minutes from my place! Your peeps in Nashville look to be set up in a new development, pretty dang nice, almost RIGHT on the river! There's a place called The Pinewood Social over there, a GREAT restaurant, with a bowling alley AND a swimming pool AND bocce ball-- wacky but very cool... Good seeing you again, and riding with you- glad you (and I) kept the rubber side down! | ||
| Etennuly |
Tim and Jenn it was good seeing you again even briefly as it happened. It looks like you had an awesome trip! Congrats on making that beautiful life experience happen. 'Till the next time we meet!  | ||
| Blake |
Thanks for sharing your vacation. We've yet to take one this year, and that was the next best thing! Smart move taking a day to recover before heading back to work. | ||
| No_rice |
it was a heck of a good trip, and great to see everyone that we got to see, wish we could have had the opportunity to talk to people longer! Jenn and i both mentioned to each other how odd it was to be back and to work, not talking to each other all day long about everything... she said we must be doing pretty good, 13 straight days together and we only had a couple small moments of stressed out bickering, simply to do with things like being lost or something. we thought that was a pretty good sign :-) | ||
| Rcf2 |
Congrat, great trip! Tks for the report. | ||
| Indybuell |
Excellent Pics! What a cool trip. I wish I could get my wife up for such an adventure. | ||
| Longhorn |
Thanks for the pics of your trip, I really enjoyed them and am a bit envious. Nice bikes! I live in California near Santa Cruz. Safe travels, Scott  | ||
| No_rice |
Thanks! I will say we both feel it was one of the better experiences of our life. Great time with friends, and amazing time together as a couple. We both felt odd our first day or 2 back to work, not being able to just turn around and talk to the other... that's a good sign! | ||
| No_rice |
man, i wish we were just getting done doing a trip like this again this year... im really missing it! |
