Monday, June 8 started off really good. The weather was holding out albeit a bit humid. Our night last night was very pleasant except it was FILLED with frog noise! (we are camped right on the lake). Though we never really thought about it before, our ear protection for the motorcycle DO come in handy at other times! We now know that there is no campground too noisy for us. After a good night’s rest, we were ready to do some more exploring. We decided to stay another night at FDR State Park and do a round trip out to Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, in the hinterlands of Alabama. I found that if you ever want to really explore the backcountry, set your GPS to ‘Shortest Route”. We found ourselves on mainly County roads and passing through some pretty interesting small towns. Places you can’t help wondering what exactly the folks around there do for a living. It was worth the time we spent motoring around backroads. Only about 70 miles from our camp, Horseshoe Bend NMP was the site of a major battle between the Red Stick Creek Indians and Andrew Jackson (just before his famous victory at the Battle of New Orleans). The park is small and well maintained and we encourage anyone to visit and get the history behind what went wrong in US policy between Native Americans and the US government. After yet another Walmart trip, we were back at camp to enjoy a leisurely afternoon and the relatively cool shade of our campsite. We also had time to chat with the camp hosts and got more helpful information about RVs.
On Tuesday we had decided to keep heading north with a stop around Atlanta and onwards into northern Georgia. Our route took us out of FDR State Park and up US 27 towards La Grange, GA. I know I’ve said it before but the US highways are the way to go! WAY more picturesque with lots to see, the pace is also slower so you get to enjoy the ride more rather than speeding along the boring interstate. They all tend to look the same just about everywhere. Once near Atlanta, we cut up along the northwest into Kennesaw and to our interim destination, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. It was a timely visit too. I have been reading a biography of General William T. Sherman and just completed the part about his efforts from Chattanooga, TN down into Georgia and eventually battling for and winning Atlanta at Kennesaw Mountain. This is an excellent Civil War site even though it is surrounded by private land (i.e. homes). We had a great visit! Good film in the visitor’s center that really explains the sequence of events with just the right amount of detail. This part of Georgia is very pretty and the park is VERY popular with locals who seem to really enjoy the vast trails that are in the battlefield. Put this one on your list too! After leaving there, we picked up I-575 north and soon we were in Chattahoochie National Forest frantically looking for a campsite before the rain deluge (that never came…). We found a really nice spot on Lake Blue Ridge at a National Recreational Area administered by the State of Georgia. Once again right on a lake, we were starting to get used to our daily lakefront real estate!
By now it was time to head to Denver, NC, just northwest of Charlotte to visit our friends again this year. We continued on US routes staying on US 76 through the National Forest and it is a great ride! On the lower extreme of the Appalachian Mountain chain, this northern part of Georgia is a must area to explore later. Dotted with lakes, very nice small towns and a great motorcycle road (US 76), we put it on our list for next year! Too bad the route isn’t longer because we found ourselves out of the mountains and approaching Clemson, SC to try and pick-up another historical landmark to count for National Parks Tour and an additional state. What we were looking for was Fort Hill National Historical Landmark aka John C. Calhoun House. The great thing about finding this site was that it was smack dab in the middle of Clemson University! What a nice campus! We got our photo since we could not enter the house and rode on to I-85 and blasted north towards Charlotte. On US 321 out of Gastonia, we just came up on a really bad accident not too far from our destination where one of the cars was ripped completely in half, one half on the median by our side of the road and the other half on the far right guardrail of the southbound traffic lanes. I hated to think about how that all happened but hoped all were okay (though it didn’t look promising). We were at our friends in time to get cleaned up and head over to their son and daughter-in-law’s for a boat ride on Lake Norman and dinner at a lakeside restaurant. What a great time we had! Motoring back on the boat from dinner in the dark was quite a relaxing experience. It was just the start of another great visit with them!
Thursday was a relax day for us just spending time with our friends and doing a little shopping. I was able to get an appointment for Friday afternoon at BMW Motorcycles of Charlotte (where they treated us so good last year) to get a front tire replaced and rear brakes checked. This will mark 13,000 miles for the Michelin Pilot Road 4 GT, the best mileage out of a front tire I have ever gotten. To be consistent in comparisons, the wear bars are just meeting the tread surface now. Not bad… As for the rear brakes, this marks over 25k miles since they were done in Denver, CO last year.
Friday, June 12 was another HOT day here in south-central North Carolina but we were having such a good time, it didn’t matter! By 2:30, I made my way to BMW Motorcycles of Charlotte, just a 45 minute blast down I-485. Even though the appointment was for 4:00, I like to get in early just in case the shop has an early opening or someone is freed up unexpectedly. The folks at BMW Motorcycles of Charlotte were very helpful. If you are in the area and need service, give them a call with as much lead-time as possible. They got me on my way by 6:15 having put on the front tire for only $30 (not counting the cost of the tire of course) and did the rear brakes. When you find a dealer (or any business) this good, give them all the business you can!
By Sunday June 14, I had made our plans for next week. We decided to leave our friends, albeit with regret, on Monday. It was a wonderful visit and a great chance to relax a bit and enjoy our friends. Confronted with some real heat (upper 90’s and the famous mid-Atlantic humidity), we planned a trip west into the mountains (to pick up Tennessee and the Andrew Johnson National Historical Site) before a blast across North Carolina to the coast. Getting the trailer organized and all our equipment checked out and ready to go, we were looking forward to more adventure.
Stay tuned, the trip to the coast is coming up! (…and much more!) Greg & Cynthia