Day 5 - Three State Loop

Today could be our last sunny day in Murphy, so we took a bit of a scenic loop from Murphy to Turtletown, TN; Ducktown, TN and on to Blue Ridge, GA.

Blue Ridge is a cool little town similar to Steamboat Springs in a lot of ways. It's very much a tourist town, but friendly and quaint. We actually went there because we read about a restaurant that offers locally grown grub. The produce is mostly grown on site and the meats come from a farm just west of Blue Ridge. It exceeded our expectations; the daily specials we delicious. We'll be back!

After a scrumptious lunch, we kicked around Blue Ridge. Fun place to site-see.

It's spring here in Murphy, albeit several weeks behind Big D. We're digging' the laid-back vibe and the cool, crisp air that smells fresh like trees in bloom.

We stocked up on groceries expecting to be socked-in tomorrow. We're going to try to copy a dish we had at the Parson'r Pub on Tuesday. It's a baked combo of big, fat, juicy butter beans smothered in spaghetti sauce. Sounds like a mismatched pair, but you mouth will disagree big time.

Got to get back to relaxing and enjoying this very special part of the country. Stay tuned!!

Day 4 - Kicking Around Murphy

I went to a place in downtown Murphy called the Parson's Pub. There I met this chick sucking down some suds. We hit it off - she has agreed to travel with me for the rest of the trip. Here's her photo:

Chick I met at Parson's Pub

Murphy is a cool place! The chick (hereinafter referred to as Liz) and I walked along the Murphy River Walk and rode the bike up an old logging trail to Fires Creek Falls (video to follow). It was a beautiful, balmy day. We will definitely come back and spend more time in Murphy.

Always up for something new, I tried Wells Banana Bread Beer. It won't be my last - don't knock it unless you've tried it!

Yum!

Day 3 - Arrive at our cabin in Murphy, NC

Arriving at The Owl's Nest

We enjoyed a gorgeous day of cycling through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina. The weather was cool and comfortable and we avoided any rain. We just love this part of the country.

Our log cabin is called the Owl's Nest. Liz found it through VRBO.com (vacation rental by owner). It's like Uber for vacation lodging. This place is too cool for school! Were out in the sticks just SW of Murphy. While sitting on the back porch our first night, up walk a couple of neighboring deer. They just dropped by to stay hello.

The cabin is small but includes all the creature comforts of home. Can't wait to get out and see some of the local sights tomorrow. So...good night from Murphy!!

Back Porch

Day 2 - Starkville, MS

As much as we hate slabbing down the Interstate, common sense told us that the potential for 475 miles of potential thunderstorms from Tyler to Starkville, MS was best traversed on I20. We hit the tarmac shortly after 6AM. Turns out we only encountered 50 miles or so of rain before we pulled into Starkville and settled in after a delicious meal of deep south Indian Cuisine - Yum!

Wow!! I can't say enough about the addition of the Russell Day Long custom saddles. We got to the room and both backed up to the mirror. Sure nuff; just as we expected, both our butts were smiling! Seriously, amazing. We can't believe we didn't spring for this upgrade 50,000 miles ago. Oh, well...live and learn.

Day 1 - Beat the Elements

Sunday night, March 26 presented some really challenging weather to include strong storms and tennis ball-sized hail. Liz had worked her butt off preparing for a baby shower for our niece while helping prepare for our trip. She's amazing...so both came off well as planned. The shower was Sunday afternoon after which Lizzy raced home so we could beat the severe weather and bust out-of-town. Everything worked out great and we spent the night in Tyler.

Overview

It's that time of year again! Yep...Lizzy and I are off to see more of this beautiful land of ours. We hope you'll ride along with us. Here's a glimpse of what's in store...

Dates are from March 27 - September 1. There will be several extended stays to include, but not limited to:

Murphy, NC - 4 nights
We got antsy and couldn't wait until our original departure date of Mar 30. Since our Kentucky accommodations weren't available until April 1, we decided to go to Murphy for a few days. It's smack in the middle of some of most beautiful parts of the Smoky Mountains. It just a few minutes from the legendary Hwy 129 - The Tail of the Dragon for the motorcycle and sports car enthusiasts among you. It's also near Asheville, NC and the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We've got a log cabin reserved; so here's hoping that the weather will allow us to get out and see some of the great sights.

Lexington, KY - Entire month of April
Yep!...after a quarter of a million miles of exploration over the past few years, Lexington remains our favorite place. I guess a huge part of that has to do with the incredible place we stay - the barn apartment with our amazing hosts Michelle and Mike and friends Gunner the camel and Jack the donkey. Add to that bluegrass, thoroughbreds, rolling terrain, five-board fences, beauty and bourbon; how can you go wrong?

Wells, ME - May 8 - June 8
After leaving Lexington, we'll wander slowly up the east coast. It's a challenge because travel on the east coast is stifling. All motoring is slow with frequent traffic interruptions. However, the sights are amazing! So...we'll just slow things down a bit and sequence a few 150-200 mile days back to back while we savor the scenery. We'll hug the coast and take in Cape Cod for the first time.
Once in Wells, we'll relish the Maine experience while making day trips up to Bar Harbor and into New Hampshire and Vermont.  Things are so compressed in the northeast that you can experience a plethora of incredible areas within just a couple hundred miles of our location on the southern coast of Maine.

Lake Placid, NY - June 9 - 13
Turns out our awesome next door neighbor has a gorgeous "camp" (home) in the Adirondack wilderness on the Chubb River. She was insistent that we stay there gratis; how's them apples? We had her over for a wine infused happy hour wherein she enlightened us about all there is to do and see in and around Lake Placid. If a third of what she shared is true, this could turn out to be the highlight of the trip. We're excited!!

Steamboat Springs - July 16 - August 31
We're not totally sure about our itenerary after leaving Lake Placid. There are some tentative plans that may or may not come to fruition. Most likely, we'll cross upstate New York and return to Niagra Falls en route to Northern Michigan and parts beyond. At some point we'll return to have the bike serviced and check on things at home before departing for Steamboat.

Steamboat is, perhaps, our second favorite spot after Lexington. It's a blend of back-to-nature, awesome beauty with a touch of laid-back, small-town cosmopolitan spice. How is that possible? I don't know; guess you'll just have to spend some time there and see for yourself. Anyway, we're headed back to our same condo we enjoyed last year.

Chosen mode of transportation:

Yes, we decided to make this trip on the BMW GS Adventure. This is the same bike we rode for last year's adventure. You may or may not recall that we suffered severe pain in the ass during that excursion, so we've upgraded the seat to a Russell Day Long custom seat (not pictured). That makes our seating accommodations much closer to that of the Goldwing. It also has lower mileage than the wing at 55K. And...it's hard to beat 45-53 mpg when you're racking up the miles. While in Colorado last year, the mileage never fell below 50 mpg - YES!

Many miles on the road have taught us that - "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" So we've been using the same BMW Navigator GPS and the same AutoCom hard wired communication gear for most of our travel experience. We just haven't chased a lot of new technology and have been very satisfied. The AutoCom headsets, however, are a little quirky and require a serious amount of voice pressure (Liz refers to this as screaming) to activate each conversation. So, we've upgraded to the Sena headsets. So far so good. While we don't like the idea of having to charge the units regularly and, thus, carry additional charging units in our luggage, they do seem to have decent fidelity. Add to that no voice activation (screaming), and it seems to be a winner at multiple levels. The Bluetooth capability allows both headsets to pair with one source, so we can listen to the same book or enjoy the same music simultaneously. This will be our first long adventure with this new gear, so the jury's still out. Looking good on the test runs so far.

Gotta run - more stuff to pack! See you down the road!