The Adventure Begins

It’s Monday April 13th, the day I leave on a life-changing motorcycle adventure. It was storming most of the night, so I plan on waiting till the storms pass and leave around noon. I get up around 0700 and begin to pack up a few remaining items and load them on the bike. I make myself a big brunch of eggs and hash browns. It’s one of my go to meals and one of my favorites, kind of like a last bit of ‘normal’ for me before I set off. Plus its fuel that will be needed for the journey ahead. It’s strange but I’m not filled with excitement or fear or anything like that. I have just kind of been going with the flow. Maybe it’s just that my mind has been focused on getting everything ready over the last few weeks and going through different scenarios that could play out due to the ‘virus shutdowns’. It could also be that it just hasn’t really hit me yet that I’m leaving for the next six months to live off my motorbike and travel to places I’ve never been. It was strange to me that I didn’t really feel much emotion, especially with having the desire to do this for a long time. Whatever the emotions were or were not, I was leaving and soon.

I get the last few items packed onto the bike and have everything ready to go. I set up my new digital camera on a tripod at the end of the driveway, as I want to capture the moment when I pull out of the driveway and head on down the road. As I mentioned, it was storming last night which brought some heavy winds. I put on my helmet and jacket and begin to walk over to the camera, when I see it start falling forward after a heavy gust of wind. The camera lens face plants directly into the asphalt. I pick up the camera to see that there is a slight crack in the lens. I turn the camera back on and notice that the image is now all shaky, it must have broken something with the stabilization feature in it. Needless to say the camera is broken now, before I even left and got to use it… Not the way I had envisioned this going! I pack up the camera anyway and take it with me, maybe I can fix it along the way or can do something with it.

I hop on the bike, turn the key, and hit the start button and hear the heart of the V-Strom start beating. I pull out of the drive, waving goodbye, and then head on down the road. This will be the last time I see Raleigh for awhile. I decided to head west and go into the mountains of Carolina. The beaches are all shutdown and I know there are more authorities that way which I didn’t want to deal with. I didn’t have much time as I started at noon but could make it over to the mountains with plenty of daylight left. My ride takes me through familiar places, roads that I have traveled on a few times before. I found a free campground site online and would try to find that. The route takes me on the Blue Ridge Parkway which is always scenic and was quite empty.

As I went further down the road, the parkway is closed off. It is the only route that is available to get to the campground. Quite silly that they shut roads down due to this virus. Oh well, I will have to figure out another plan. I ride through the mountains searching out any places that are open. I ride some amazing roads while keeping my eyes pealed for available camping spots. I rode around for 45 minutes or so through the Pisgah National Forest and by this time it was starting to get dark. I finally found a little dirt road that leads into a field that has a little spot available to camp at. It’s not the most scenic of places (as it has a few mud holes and a few items, like tires, that somebody seemed to have dumped) but its off the road. I set up my tent and put a tarp over my bike to help keep it concealed and dry from the morning dew. It was my first night camping like this, quite a new experience for me. I felt a little uneasy about it as I had no idea who’s land I was on or what kind of wildlife was around me. Not that I would be doing any harm to the land I was on or anything, it’s more that it’s something new for me.

I didn’t sleep great that night but slept okay. I pack up my tent, trying to dry it off as much as I can from all the dew. It takes me a little while to get everything packed up with it being my first night out on the road. I’m sure I will develop a good system to get everything tore down and packed up quickly and efficiently. I will get lots of practice soon enough. Once the bike is packed up I head south into South Carolina. Once again I ride most of the day, logging close to 250 miles of which a good portion of them were beautiful curvy roads that carved through the hills near the southern border of North Carolina. I rode through Chimney Rock which is absolutely deserted due to the virus shutdowns. I did stop by the river to take a nice little break though before continuing south and crossing into South Carolina. I stopped at a Chik-Fil-A to get some food, they only had the drive-thru open. So I take my bike through the drive-thru (first time doing that!) and then pull over and sit on the curb to eat my lunch. I continued riding the northwest section of South Carolina that afternoon. While riding, I found a large lot of land for sale with a dirt road that takes you back behind some trees. It is hidden from the road and it doesn’t look like anyone has been here for awhile. I pull off to the side of the road and walk up the dirt road to check out the area. The spot is relatively flat and pretty well hidden from the road, so I ride my bike up the hill and set up camp.

I set up camp in the mid-afternoon so it gave me a bit of time to relax and transfer some videos from my GoPro onto my laptop. That night it was quite clear so I set up a Night Lapse to try it out. There was quite a bit of traffic running up and down the road (even though it wasn’t a major road), so I did not sleep well. There were quite a few tractor trailers and some guy on a modified motorcycle that was very loud and quite irritating. I like loud motorcycles but this guy started it up at 2200, 0000, 0400, and again around 0700 to rev the engine and run it down the road and back. I don’t know what this guy was doing but it got old, maybe he was just trying to irritate his neighbors or something and I got caught in the crossfire!

The next morning I got packed up and headed west into northern Georgia through the Chattahoochee National Forest, which is beautiful. Most of the parks and sites are closed down due to the virus but the roads are empty which makes for some great riding. I pulled off at Popcorn Overlook to take in the scenery.

At this point it was late morning and I wasn’t sure where I was going next. I decided to continue riding west and stopped by Rib Country BBQ and had some lunch. I continued making my way west towards Blue Ridge before turning north and heading into Tennessee. I rode around the area of Ducktown and came across some crazy mountain roads which were neat to ride. I then decided to head further west on US Route 74. Riding the Ocoee Scenic Byway was stunning and thoroughly enjoyable. With everything shutdown, the roads were clear of traffic which made for great riding and beautiful scenery. After riding to the end of the lake, I turned around and rode it the other way, I enjoyed it so much. By this point, it was getting close to dark and I needed to find a place to set up camp for the night. There were no campgrounds nearby that I could find. I rode around the southeast corner of Tennessee for awhile but couldn’t find a good place to set up camp. I did come across an old abandoned church while riding through the mountain roads earlier in the day, so I retraced my tire tracks back to the church. There was a little clearing behind it that was large enough for my tent and my bike, so I was hidden from the road. By the looks of the church, I don’t think anyone has been around there for quite some time. I set up my tent, clean myself up a bit with some wet wipes, put on some clean clothes, and then try to get some sleep.

That night in the mountains it got quite cold, dipping below freezing. It was hard to stay warm all night and I woke up to a little bit of ice on the top of my tent. Before packing up my bike, I wired up my heated vest. I decided I would utilize this since I brought it and I would need to get the chill out of my bones (especially since I will be riding today in temperatures in the 40s and 50s). A morning like this I was sure glad I packed it! Once I got the heated vest harness wired up to the battery, I got my bike packed up and ready to ride.

I’ve been on the road for just three days but have been able to log a lot of miles and see some beautiful places within the hills of the Appalachians. Each night the Lord has provided me with a place to lay my head and get some rest as well. It hasn’t been easy, as much of this is new to me, but so far it has all worked out okay.

I start up the Strom, plug in my heated vest and turn it on to try to warm up my core. It is day four and today I’m heading back south into Georgia where it is warmer!