Flying back to North Carolina...

20th February

Up early, as Buddy has to go to work today! Well, to a meeting anyway – no need to go crazy . I say my heartfelt thanks to Buddy & Sue for their generous hospitality and I’m packed and on the road by 0815. I decide to set course for the Outer Banks and the home of powered flight – Kittyhawk. The weather is beautiful, brilliant blue cloudless sky and already above freezing. I make my way South West, re-entering North Carolina at 1100.

I’m struck by the odd marketing strategy of some companies over here – would you honestly go in and ask for a ‘Sheetz Sandwich’?



I stop for lunch at a ‘traditional’ chrome diner. This might have been here since the fifties, but I suspect it’s a modern reproduction.



These diners sprung up all over the USA between the 30s & 50s, their design being such that, if they weren’t successful in a location, they could be uprooted and moved without too much drama. This one has a reserved seat at the counter…



The food, regrettably, is mediocre Ah, well…

I ride on, arriving at Kill Devil Hill at about 1400. The visitor centre here is run by the National Parks Service, so the pass I bought yesterday gets me in free . I wander around the museum, looking at the replica Wright Flyer and the genuine exhibits of the crude tools that Wilbur & Orville used to build the world’s first powered aircraft.



I then walk out to the world’s first runway. The first flight took place on 17th December 1903. The ‘Flyer’ flew four times that day, with the toss of a coin deciding that Orville Wright would be the first pilot. They then took it in turns to increase the distance flown from 120 feet to 852 feet by the end of the day. The large boulder in the foreground represents the take-off point and the other stones in the middle distance signifies the 4 landing points…



…less than 66 years later, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon.

The flight is commemorated by a huge art-deco monument on the hill overlooking the runway.



I set off South, then turn inland, through Roanoke Island and make my way West. I intend to get to the Blue Ridge Parkway at some time during Saturday – it should’ve had enough time to thaw out a bit by then . The temperature has climbed and I’m wearing my summer gloves for the first time in over a week. I ride past signs warning of bears and deer. As I cross the long, causeway-like, bridges which join the Outer Banks to the mainland, I see pelicans almost hovering in the onshore breeze.

Further inland, the ditches alongside the highway (called, ominously, Alligator Road) are flooded and there is further evidence that this entire low-lying area was hit hard by Hurricane Isabel last year too…

I pull in to a cheap motel in Edenton, and get to work on the (lengthy) business of uploading my pictures to SmugMug and writing up my journal…

21st February

Woke early and, after a foul cup of motel coffee, set off by 0930. Almost immediately, I re-enter Virginia – I’m going to be covering some familiar ground today… I come across the attractively named town of Dismal Swamp. I can’t help but feel that estate agents (realtors, for the benefit of our colonial readers ) must feel they’ve really earned their pay on a day they get someone to look at a property in this town. It’s well named – the General Store is probably the liveliest spot there…



The weather is brightening but, as I approach the town of Windsor, I see that there’s a rain shower approaching. Using the principle of ‘any fool can be uncomfortable’, I decide to stop at a local diner for brunch and let the rain pass. Like all these ‘Mom & Pop’ places, the food is excellent and plentiful, the service cheerful and prices low. This is the $5 breakfast…



Try not to be put off by the appearance of the sausages… The white stuff ‘on the side’ is (or are?) grits. It’s a sort of cornmeal, well - mush – somewhere in the grey area between porridge and wallpaper paste. Opinions differ as to how it should be eaten (as they do with with porridge). Traditionalists say that you should eat it savoury, with salt to taste. The other camp says it should be eaten with maple syrup or jam stirred in. I tried it both ways and have come to the conclusion that it simply shouldn’t be eaten…

Whilst I’m finishing my 3rd cup of coffee, I’m joined by Mike Bodner, who has seen my bike parked outside and come in to see what this foreign interloper is doing on his turf.



It turns out that Mike is the local capo of the BMW Riders’ Association (RA). We chat for about half an hour about various subjects – he runs an RT, but hasn’t ridden it for 2 months or so. I call him a wimp He’ll be at Daytona, where we hope to meet up again. Meantime, he gives me his mobile ‘phone number and tells me to ring if I need anything whilst I’m in Virginia. Once again I’m very touched by the generosity and hospitality afforded me by everyone I meet here…

It being dry, I get back on the bike and ‘haul ass’ (I believe is the expression) over towards the Blue Ridge Parkway. I ride many of the same roads I used to get to Kittyhawk yesterday, and pass within a stone’s throw of Buddy & Sue’s house. I decide against throwing a stone, as they were very nice to me .
I stop at a Circuit City (a bit like PC World) and buy a new modem cable, as I’ve realised I somehow left mine in the motel at Edenton. Unable to resist any techno-crap, I also buy a flexible lamp which fits into a USB port and can be used to light the keyboard…


As I get close to the Blue Ridge, the ambient temperature drops. Just past Bedford, I stop and change from Summer gloves to Winter…

You will be familiar by now with my criteria for choosing a motel. It must be cheap, have free local calls (for internet connection) and, preferably, an in-room coffee maker, or something similar. So why, I hear you ask, would he check in to a motel with no phone, no TV, no coffee maker and pay $100 a night for the privilege?? Well here…



…is the reason. This is the view out of my bedroom window in the Peaks of Otter Lodge (plus the price included dinner & breakfast ). The lake is partially frozen – it’s not warm up here and I think the Parkway will need at least a few weeks of warm sunshine until in re-opens in full.



I dump my kit in my room and then take the bike for a ride along the 10 mile section which is open at present (down to Buchanan and back). The snag with the Parkway is that it’s a tourist road, not a highway as such. It’s therefore not ploughed or treated – they just let it freeze, close it, then open it again after the thaw. All commercial traffic goes down Interstates 81 or 64, which are kept open year round. Almost all the roads which pass across the Blue Ridge remain open, and afford great views, so, weather permitting, I’ll start exploring some of those tomorrow. In the meantime, having finished my journal entry, I’m just going to sit and enjoy the silence here for a bit…

I wandered outside, having just typed these words, and found that there was a herd of White Tailed Deer grazing not 10 metres from the back door to my room. I took a couple of pictures but, due to the lack of light, they aren’t very clear. I sat watching them for a while – and became aware that people were doing the same from nearly every room in the lodge…



I walk the 200 metres or so to the restaurant down a sparsely lit footpath. It’s fully dark now, with a fingernail of moon and about a million stars shining in the cold night sky. I almost walk into a deer as I round the final turn to the lodge and scare myself fartless – don’t think Bambi was too impressed either…

Dinner was superb. You could basically choose any main course off the, extensive, menu. On my waitress’s recommendation, I had the 16oz piece of cow. It was delicious, but - hard as I fought - the cow won – I retired just over half way through…

As I walked back to my room, it was considerably colder, probably below freezing already, with a brisk breeze blowing. The sky remained clear, though, so I’m cautiously optimistic about a late(ish) start tomorrow morning…

22nd February

Woke to find that it's a cold overcast day with a brisk Westerly wind and that I’m 47 years old. There is a threat (according to the Weather Channel, on in the Lodge) of rain or sleet later in the morning. I decide to push South West towards Deal’s Gap. It’s 340 miles, and I don’t intend to complete the trip today. I resolve to start eating more sensibly, a resolution that lasts long enough for me to see the breakfast buffet. I suppose the diet starts tomorrow



I pack the bike and set off, along the (very cold) Blue Ridge Parkway to begin with, then via Interstate 81, towards Bristol, Tennessee, which seems like a reasonable target for the day.



I want to stop early so that I can telephone my folks at a reasonable hour. I’ve found a new ‘phone card from a firm called ‘Radiant’ which gives me 720 minutes call time to the UK for $10 – it’s cheaper than phoning long distance within the UK!

I81 is a two lane dual carriageway (called a Divided Highway over here). If you have to travel by this type of road, I81 is one of the nicer ones. It winds through the Blue Ridge Mountains and the views are quite pleasant. It’s cold though, and after an hour or so, I decide it’s time to pull off the road and find somewhere to warm up. I end up at a Petrol (Gas ) Station in the small town of Radford.
Whilst drinking my giant cup of coffee, I get talking to one of the locals, Rodney. Rod’s unemployed (job got sent to Mexico) and has a son in the army in Iraq. His son’s been there a year and he’s expecting him back in a further 8 months. We talk for a while about my trip and about where I’m going next. I go to the bog (Rest Room) and when I return, I find Rod’s paid for my coffee. I protest, but he won’t hear of it. We walk out to my bike and he asks all the usual questions. As I get ready to put my helmet on and leave, to my mild embarrassment, Rod drops his head and utters a short prayer for my safety on my continuing journey. I thank him, we shake hands and I ride off.
As I continue to ride down I81, I think about why I was embarrassed by Rod’s prayer. It was obviously something he felt was the right thing to do. I decide that, if there’s a problem here, it’s probably mine…

I get into Bristol at about 1430 and check into a Days Inn, which has a King Size bed, huge TV with HBO, Internet connection etc etc – I’m back in the USA again