Day   8     08/21/08              Thursday

                Headed south from Chambersburg PA on a crowed  I-61 to get on

                Skyline drive at Front Royal VA.  60 miles to the south.

                Skyline goes through Shenandoah National Park and is closed

                to commercial traffic. I highly recommend this road if you like to

                do the curves at legal speeds. As in any Fed Park you are watched

                from the time you inter the park  until departure 109 miles to the

                South. Speed limit is enforced at 35 mph.  Very good road and well

                maintained. Many curves that 35 mph is plenty fast enough though.

                Set up camp at Big Meadows at mile marker 51 which put us about 

                Middle of Skyline Drive.  Our camp was inspected by the Federal Park

                Ranger every hour are so to make sure all the rules and regulations were

                being observed. 

Day   9     08/22/08              Friday

                Backtracked to all the overlooks passed the day before.

Day  10     08/23/08              Saturday

                Broke camp and left to go to the Blue Ridge Parkway without getting a

                fined for something . Just one warning  must have been someone good day.

                Blue Ridge Parkway I also highly recommend . Good  roads, many curves

                but the curves can sneak up on you if you don’t pay attention.

                Pulled off and spent the night at a place called Roaring Gap NC. Motel.

                Good meal and hot shower.

Good reasons beside the curves for the 35 mph speed limit. Deer carry no Liability Insurance. The Deer had no fear of humans in the least. They would come up in the camp with in a few feet of people.

Car club seeing the Blueridge.

Day  11    08/24/ 08       Sunday  

                More curves down the Blueridge to Asheville NC. Good day checked in the Best Western for the night and had a meal at Outback. 

Day  12     08/25/08       Monday

                Rain started this AM and I sure was glad to be in the motel instead of camping with the bath room a couple of hundred yards away. It had been excellent weather up until now so I guess I need to be grateful for that instead of worrying about the slow rain we have today. 

                 Went to the Biltmore Est. Example of pre-income tax wealth. This is one of Asheville main attractions. The place was built by George Vanderbilt and is still owned by the Vanderbilt family. Quite the house and Est. Above average place to set out the rain Biltmore

Old Grumpy with Biltmore Shack in rain background.

Day 13    08/26/08       Tuesday

              Still raining this AM so we just put on our rain gear and headed 137miles back down the Blueridge Parkway to the end of it,

We left Asheville about 8:00 am in a down pour did the rest of the Blueridge. Then went down Hy 19 to 74  then took the Hell Bender 28 over to the notorious Dragon tail. After enjoying all the tight turns we went on up to Knoxville TN and caught I-40 on over to Crossville and checked in a motel for the evening. It had rained the whole day and we were soaked clear through. There is good and bad about riding the Blueridge in the rain. The bad - is the lack of visibility,  Thank you for the yellow center stripe, The good is there was no Truck traffic.  We did well over 350 miles today which is not bad considering the conditions. Riding the Tail of the Dragon in the rain, 2 up, and pulling a trailer does not happen ever day. A little extra challenge Also riding 11 hours in a hard rain does tend to wear you out. Sydni did great and never complained. She is a real trooper. I was very impressed by her tough ride to day, Most women would have said "Take me to an airport and buy me a ticket home."

To give the non Bike people an ideal of what the Tail of the Dragon is the web address to get the details   is  http://www.tailofthedragon.com/dragon.html     or do a Googel search.                                       

The rain stopped us from taking pictures today but Killboy was set up in a curve taking shots so I bought a few his pictures to prove we were there in the rain, on a car tire, 2up,and pulling a trailer. Just a few extra challenges for a Tail of the Dragon ride.

The rain stopped us from taking pictures today but Killboy was set up in a curve taking shots so he included these freebie shots to show what we had been riding on when it was dry and could see more than just a yellow stripe..

All we can say is we road the Tail of the Dragon. With all the rain we did not see much of it. Might of been best we did not see the next curve coming up.                             

A few quotes from other websites .

"The Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap, with 318 curves in 11 miles, is America's number one motorcycle and sports road."

"It's definitely a daredevil stretch of roadway. (For example, check out these Tree of Shame photos!) "

Day 14  08/27/08    Wednesday

Still raining this AM in Crossville TN. so we suited up and took off down I-40 to Mile marker 273 and turned south on TN. 56,146,70s, to see some very beautiful country side over to Murfeesboro TN. Pulled in a Walmart parking lot and pulled off the rain gear. Cloudy but no rain the rest of the day.

Murfeesboro to Natchez Trace on TN. 96 and headed south. Natchez Trace is a wonderful road with no truck traffic and a 50 mph limit which you don't mind because the scenery is spectacular. No real tight curves but many sweepers. I highly recommend it to any bike rider. Met some real nice people riding bikes up and down the trace also.You can see pictures of a few on the " People we met on the road Page".

Made down to Tupelo MS. and checked in to a very bad motel for the night.
it looked OK at first glance but the filth was so bad Sydni went and got some
of our money back the next AM. We will stick to the major brand motels from
now on.

Day 15     08/28/08    Thursday

Had a good breakfast at Cracker Barrel and met some good people while there.
 Back on the trace by 9:00 am and decided to stop at Vicksburg MS to see the old
military museums . Checked in a much better motel and had one of the best seafoodmeals of the trip at a place called Rusty’s Grill. They had an exceptional waitress named Heather that took very good care of us. (Picture)   

Sydni at Vicksburg MS. going to Rusty's for dinner.

More pictures of Vicksburg MS.

Day 16  08/29/08    Friday

Packed up and left the motel and went to see the Vicksburg Civil War Battleground and Museum.

Vicksburg Civil War Battleground and Museum.

Northen Ironclad Ship sank by Johnny Reb. salvaged in 1984

Click underlined to see video of Battlefield of Vicksburg History Lesson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0yRmj91SdI

Did the last part of the Trace and crossed the Mississippi and spent the night in Alexandera LA.

Day 17  08/30/08    Saturday

We had hoped to go to a Labor day party in Lafayette LA from here but the Gustoff the hurricane would not have been fun on the motorcycle so  we headed west and hope to not run in to much traffic evacuating south LA.

Headed west from Alexandera LA.  Very little traffic on the East West road but when we crossed I-45 we were amazed at the traffic headed north on it . Why anyone did not pull off and take the West bound out of the mess is beyond me. The Boon's were having a labor day gathering at the river just north of LBJ lake so we went there.

We ran into a swarm of Love Bugs. Each splater is 2 bugs so guess where the name comes from.

Days 18 and 19   08/31/08,  09/01/08 

Doug And Winerford Boon are excellent Host. Had an absolutely great time. Took their boat up and down the river and saw places that the owners spared no expense in making waterfront show home. Just have to see to believe. Pictures coming soon.

Michelle. Gary. Doug.Winnie Boon. and fatso the rider.

Doug and Winnie's place on the river.

Doug putting the boat up after giving us a tour of mansions built on the river.

Winnie, Gary, and Sydni.

Michelle.

Day 20   09/02/08   Tuesday

Home after a very good trip. Almost 6000 miles and only 2 days in rain and miss one Hurricane  is not bad. Will add pictures and add text as I have time.

Continued on. Link below. Just click and if everything is ok you will go to the next page.

People we meet on the road.