Last night we went to a takeaway BBQ business – we ate in actually. It was superb. Today we rode to the Blue Ridge Highway and along some of it. The ride of about 70 miles to it was on a fairly empty single carriageway road through mainly hardwood forest. We stopped at our first family run diner (plenty more to come I hope) for a coffee and then went on to the highway which is a 500 odd mile single lane mainly mountainous road. The bit we’ve ridden on so far was through thick forest, fairly empty of other vehicles and one sweeping bend after another. Gorgeous. Harleys aren’t made for going round corners though – but ours have done quite well and we’ve only touched the footplates down (ie hit them on the road) a few times. We went off piste to find petrol and filled up and ate at a real Hill Billy petrol station. Nice food though. Interestingly we spotted a young girl and her dad crawling under my bike when we were eating. They then came and found us and, with great concern, told us petrol was pouring out of it. Actually I’d just filled up and a little was coming out the vent. By 4.30 we left the highway and went into Roanoke to find a hotel. First we looked at a cheap motel – but decided we wouldn’t be safe there! We then fired my mobile up and found a very nice hotel called the Cambria, however it wasn’t clear if the room was a double or a twin bedded one. We rode over to it and the hotel is very good with all mod cons. But the only room they had has a very large king size bed and a very uncomfortable pull out futon. We’ll I’ll let you guess how we intend to organise sleeping arrangements tonight? The good news though is that we negotiated the price down by $15 from the ‘unbeatable’ price on booking.com.
PS Had a Mexican meal in the evening – cheap and cheerful and the only place in walking distance of the hotel. The below is Andy, or ‘Porkie’ as I call him, in action.
