Cherokee, NC to Charlotte, WV

Sunday we rode 400 miles, crossing the Smokey Mountains, through Knoxville, TN to Cumberland Gap National Park, KY then along the Cumberland River on Hwy 119 up and over Pine Mountain to the North Fork of the Kentucky River and all the way the Charleston, WV. We rode until 1:00am to get it all in partly because we felt good riding partly because there wasn’t any lodging along the way.

The first 100 miles of 119 is called the Kingdom Come Parkway which struck me as tempting fate, I really didn’t want to have the kingdom come while driving along the road. The road was beautiful, smooth, flat, lots of curves, little traffic and a 25 mile section of Pine Mountain that was as good a twisty motorcycle ride as I’ve seen.

Yesterday the phone rang as we were deciding whether to stay another day here due to thunderstorms being forecast. It was Chase Bank who holds our main credit card. Someone had tried to purchase airline tickets over the internet with the card number but did not have the 3 digit security code to complete the transaction. Chase was johnny-on-the-spot dealing with it and the card was immediately canceled but it is going to be a bit of a hassle dealing with it since we have a lot of our bills paid through that account and we will have to notify all those merchants including our car insurance.

So we are having new cards express mailed to the hotel here in West Virginia and our decision was made to stay another day. Naturally the weather held off and we had less than a half inch of rain and it would have been a great day to ride. Oh well.

We have decided to go north from here to Plattsburgh, NY where our friend, Mark with the awesome Victory motorcycle, lives. He arranged with his mechanic to do the 30,000 mile maintenance on the bike which is past due. He will do it for $300 less than a Harley dealer will do it for and with Mark’s reference I trust he is a good mechanic. We need to be at the shop Friday at 9:00 and it is 800 miles so we will be putting in a couple of long days to get there. From there it is 400 miles to Acadia National Park in Maine so we will nail down the second of the four corners we are aiming to do when we get there.

Here’s a shot from the top of the ride over the Smokeys that shows the blue haze that gives them the Blue Ridge moniker.

And a view from the top of Pine Mountain at dusk.

A few more photos here

Hopefully the mail will get here in time for us to get some miles in today. We want to ride a stretch of Highway 60 from Charleston to Sulfur Springs and to New River National River which is a Harley recommended ride and will give us another park stamp.

Onward and upward!!
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