Post-Thanksgiving Weekend

The Post-Thanksgiving weekend in North Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee Mountains

Last week was thanksgiving week, my brother his wife and his youngest daughter traveled north to our house and arrived on Wednesday night. With plans for a large thanksgiving feast at my mom and dad's new house we went to bed early and woke up early, after a nice breakfast of Sausage Gravy and Biscuits we headed out to spend the rest of the day with our parents. 

My brother wanted to ride my new Victory Cross Country, and I wanted to ride my Yamaha Super Tenere so that I could do a throttle body synchronization with my dads knowledgeable eyes. And it required a small adjustment.

I could take the entire blog space to describe the feast but I will just say it was the usual spread my mom has always come up with and it is fit for Kings!!!

The weather this past weekend was surprisingly warm for this time of the year and sunny as well, so my brother asked if we could head up towards Cherokee NC, ride some of the great roads on the way there, and ride some of the great roads on the way back on Saturday. He also asked me to arrive early enough on Saturday so he could load his motorcycles up and head home to FL. Wow!! requests, requests... but we did it, and while doing it squeezed some great riding.

My brother rides a 2013 Yamaha Super Tenere adventure bike, his daughter a Honda CB500X adventure bike, Jeannie took the opportunity to do some more riding herself on her BMW F 700 GS adventure bike and I decided since the theme was "adventure" I too rode my 2013 Yamaha Super Tenere adventure bike. And it was an adventure for sure!!

The total was 382.5 miles in a total of 14 hours, now those 14 hours account for riding, stops for rest, stops for water, stops for site seen and off course food!!.

Here are some of the stops we made.

US 129 Dragon store, at the bottom of US 129 11 mile stretch with 328 curves knows as the Dragon. All of us had ridden the dragon, including Jeannie, as a passenger, she had never ridden it on her own bike, and express the wish to NOT ride it yet, she wanted more experience. Well she rode it!!! And she nailed it.

I have been up this way numerous times, but never out of season, I had never experienced this place closed, well the picture shows and empty dragon store parking lot.

Everyone getting ready to go, Jeannie by this time is nervous but ready, soon she realized that concentration on the road overcame the nervousness and each curve was better than the previous.

328 curves and 11 miles later, she made no mistakes, did not cross a single yellow line, or white ones for that matter. She found the right gear and allowed it to engine break the bike and ride away from the curve once in it!! She did well. Below is the obligatory photo while at the top of the mountain, the end of the 11 miles.

Than my niece said, hey I want to get in a picture up here too, and I have done it more than once! Ha! 

Once up top I reminded Jeannie that, "Now you have got to get back down!" and so she did it, we ended up all at the Tapoco Lodge for refreshments and little something to eat since we had been riding all day. 

Below are some photos of the 4 "Adventure" bikes, and the lodge is a very nice place. Its been re-done in the last couple of years and a great job too. They offer Lodge rooms and cabins for overnight stay.

That night we arrived in Cherokee NC and did our obligatory casino run, my brother and his wife "tried" their luck at the poker machines.

This was yet again another unplanned weekend of great riding, great weather and family fun, very happy my brother, his wife and daughter where there to share it with us, very proud of Jeannie for riding some challenging roads and displaying her increasing skills as a rider.

Thank for keeping up with us, we will be back soon!!

Pre-Thanksgiving Weekend

The Pre-Thanksgiving weekend in Loraine IL

This past weekend Jeannie and I headed north to Loraine IL to visit with her parents. We decided to celebrate her Mom's birthday and thanksgiving on the same weekend. It was a very nice trip full of surprises. 

We left the house on Thursday 11/19 after work and headed as far northwest as we could, ended up in Clarksville TN for the night. Off course we used the inevitable I-75 to Chattanooga and I-24 all the way to Metropolis IL after crossing the Ohio river.

The next day saw us using mostly 2 lane roads all the way up to Loraine, through most of south central Illinois, east of St Louis MO. We saw towns like Pinckneyville, Couterville, Mascoutah, Lebanon, Staunton, Bunker Hill and finally Loraine. It was a very nice two lane ride in the car. We are also scoping out two lane roads for our motorcycle ride up there in the spring.

Most people find driving in the state of Illinois boring, me in the contrary I like the large grain silos, the small farming towns, with a cluster of home, barn and silo all together, I appreciate that very much.

We woke up in Loraine Saturday morning to snow!!!

Oh yeah this is Cochise, he is the chief in these parts!!

After a great day and dinner with family we woke up Sunday morning and headed for a day of shopping and visiting St Louis MO. This was a very nice day, cold!!, but a nice day indeed. 

The courthouse downtown.

The arch and gateway to the west. This is by the way the tallest stainless steel structure in the world. There is a considerable amount of construction around the arch area right now for a brand new park that once completed will be worth another visit.

Next we headed to the Anheuser-Busch museum and tour which by the way is a FREE!! tour with samples and ONE beer of your choice at the end, check out the picture. This tour takes you through the beer making areas of the complex, the Clydesdales are always an attraction, and finally the beer drinking itself !!

And NO Jeannie did not order a glass of wine in a Beergarden, she is trying the new Stela Artois Cidre beer, and they serve it in a wine glass!! She loved it said it was very good.

Food!! We had dinner at a great restaurant, highly recommended. Broadway Oyster Bar on 736 S Broadway, St. Louis, MO 63102. I liked their food and mostly how they choose to recycle this beer cage

Thanks for keeping up with us we will back soon.