Home from 4148 mile motorcycle journey!

Wow! What an adventure Robert and I had the past three weeks!!  In 19 days and 15 hotels, we managed to travel to 12 states and survived the heat wave too.  Our friends Bill and Linda decided to take this trek and invited us.  We both had gotten our trikes within the past year and we got a trailer (which you really need or at least the women think so)  so we were anxious to try a long trip.  Here are some of the highlights!

  
It was great!  We started east to Memphis and had the King's favorite peanut butter and banana sandwich at Graceland!  On to Nashville to see the Ryman and Music Hall of fame.  We attended Wing Ding in Knoxville, but was only there a few hours--not near enough!  The Smokey Mountains were fantastic, so pretty!

We SURVIVED the Tail of the Dragon.  318 curves in 11 miles!  Rob drove a little slower after I was sucking air in the beginning.  What was scary was the crotch rockets speeding around the corners coming straight at us.  If they would lose control they'd wipe everyone out! 

 

The Biltmore Estate was fantastic.  We had seen it before but Bill and Linda hadn't, so we had to show it to them in Asheville, NC.  Our good friends, George and Luana  (they used to live in Perry) met us and had lunch with us.  It was great to see them.



The next day we toured California Sidecar plant in Arrington, VA.  They made our trike conversion.  The guys enjoyed that! And then on to Norfolk to the Naval Base for a tour.  Went to Kitty Hawk and then on to Mrytle Beach! 

The guys did take us to three quilt stores on the trip and the best one was "Sewing in the Carolinas" near there.  Wonderful quilt shop.  I have a couple of new projects to work on now.  Linda and I rode the big Sky Wheel on the beach.  Huge and a great way to see the beach!  

One of the neat things we saw was a lady "crabbing" on a pier in Mrytle Beach.  She threw out baskets on strings tied to the pier.  The baskets had raw chicken tied to the bottom and she was pulling out crabs fast and furious!

 We rode the Outer Banks and that was fun!  It included two ferry rides which made for a very long day but definitely worth it.  We stopped in Charleston and Savannah.  We took a historic tour in Savannah and it was very interesting.  I LOVE the Spanish Moss on the trees and the lovely old homes.  We stopped in Defuniak Springs, Florida and what a quaint little city.  We saw the Circle Lake and found a geocache (one of three on the trip--didn't have time for more) there.  Also, we visited the "Big Little Store".



 This was just like the old time general stores.  This man had everything you could think of and more.  Loved it!

In Pensacola we toured the Air and Space Museum.  Very busy place.  Not my cup of tea, but the guys enjoyed it. 

And then we come to Louisiana.  We went to Bourbon Street to the Cafe Dumonde for beignets.  Delicious!!!  Everyone should have one of those powdery delights.  (Excuse the dorky hat!)

We walked the open market and then down Bourbon Street.  I'm glad we did it, but not impressed.  We were in the area three hours and our parking cost us $32!!  Rob was not happy.  They said our trailer doubled the price, but it only took up one space.  Go figure.  And the weather is SO HUMID there.  I don't know how they stand it all the time.  I'm sure there are lovely spots in Louisiana, but we didn't see them.

By this time we were ready to get home and it was getting very hot in the afternoons so we travelled in the morning and tried to stay out of the heat in the hot afternoons.  In Hugo, OK we stopped at the Mt. Olive Cemetery to see the circus section.  They have very interesting headstones and I do love cemeteries. 

The last night of our vacation we spent at the Durant, OK Casino Resort.  Very nice accommodations.  I just made a donation to the casino, no luck at all.  I think Linda did okay, but nothing big.  It's all about entertainment for us!

So when we heard that our hometown was going to hit 106, we decided to hit the rode early and we were home by 10:30 am.  It was 99 degrees when we got off the trike.  My cooling jacket really saved me.  Thank God for allowing us a safe and fun trip.