2017 Spring Florida to Maryland Trip Day 1

[Guest]

My son and I planned a week-long trip from Florida to Maryland. We had a very loose itinerary of riding up the coast of Florida, and then head up to Deal’s Gap in NC and hit the great roads around there, and then head north on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive. My son had his ’94 Honda VFR800 and I used my ’83 Suzuki GR650 (a twin cylinder).

We left from Baltimore on a Friday, April 21 and travelled to Lorton Va., where we caught the AMTRAK Auto train that we would take and travel overnight to Samford Fl. While the train was a convenient means of travel, sleeping in a tiny bunk bed, along with the bump bump of the train made it a challenge to get a restful night. But the attendant was very helpful. He let us store our carry-on gear in an empty room.
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[mnferwerda]

Day 2
The next morning we started riding @ 11:30 and headed eastward to route A1A and then headed north to Jacksonville. I was really looking forward to Rte A1A that travels up the coast of Florida, but I was disappointed to see how built up it was. We really could not see much of the Atlantic Ocean between all the hotels and condos except in brief stretches. We continued north of Jacksonville, caught a ferry to cross the St. Johns River, crossed the Ga. border and spent the night at Scrubby Bluff KOA. We had originally planned to spend the night at Little Talbot Island State Park on the ocean. But being a weekend it was already full and we had not made reservations.
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[mnferwerda]

Day 3Checking the weather on Sunday it looked to be rainy late in the afternoon. We set our goal to get to Oconee River Campground, about 250 miles away. We rode all back roads in rural Ga. till and got to Greensboro, where the rain started, about 20 miles short of our destination. We pulled in a gas station to put our rain gear on and re-assessed our situation. One of the things we wanted to do was to visit the “Wheels Through Time “ museum in Maggie Valley, NC. Since the weather looked bad for Monday also, we decided to continue riding another 170 miles to Maggie Valley. We called in reservations to the Oak Park Motel in Waynesville, NC, and started north in the rain. Both of us have never ridden in the rain for an extended period of time and I thought this is going to be interesting. At least we had a place for the night, right? 60 miles later I had to stop and put on some more gear as the temperature as dropping as we were getting into the mountains. A couple of times 1 of the 2 cylinders started missing for a minute or so, but then started up again. By the time we pulled into the motel at 8:30 pm, the blinkers were not working anymore. I got off my bike and let the water drain from my glove for over a minute. My son looked at me and we just started laughing at the absurdity of it. The motels owners came out, pointed us to our room, gave us a bunch of towels, and said take care of yourselves and pay in the morning. After a long hot shower and some delivered pizza we started to feel normal again. Our gear would remain damp for a few days though
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[mnferwerda]

Day 4
Monday we got to the museum around noon and had a great time there. Lots of interesting motor bikes. One of the employees was walking about and he would give us backgrounds and stories of various the various bikes. There was a HD Sportster that had been in an Iron Butt Rally that came in 3^rd place, having traveled 11,328 miles in 11 days. Ouch! We then travelled about 70 miles to the Cheoah Point Campground on Santeetlah Lake (Nantahala Nat’l Forest). This was a fantastic site and we spent the next 2 nights here.
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[mnferwerda]

Day 5
Tuesday we traveled a few miles south and got on the Cherohala Skyway. Unfortunately when we got above 4500’ we would run into fog. We then took Rte 360 north, and then Rte 72 east till we got to Rte 129 and the famous “Tail of the Dragon”, 318 turns in 11 miles. We then took Rte 28 east to Stecoah where stopped for a late lunch. There we met a couple of fellow bikers that said there had been a bad accident on Rte 129 earlier in the day. Apparently there is normally at least 1 death a year on that stretch of road. We then headed back to our campsite.
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[mnferwerda]

Day 6
Wednesday turned out to be the best day of all (but trouble at the end of it). Weather was perfect, 70s and clear. We headed north to ride Tail of the Dragon the opposite way and then caught the Foothills Parkway north for 20 mils, and then turned east to ride Little River Gorge, and then Rte 441 to Blue Ridge Parkway. Rte 441 crosses the Smokey Mtns. And you could see the impacts of the big burn from last year. A lot of traffic, but this was my favorite day by far. I fell in love with North Carolina that day. We traveled up the Blue ridge Parkway and got off at Boone NC, in search of a campground. We found that all the campgrounds were closed (as well as all services) on the BRP. Pulling into Boone, I noticed that the rear tire of my son’s VFR800 looked a bit squishy. We pulled over and he found where it was leaking. He plugged it. (He also found that the forks were leaking oil). The first campground we went to was still closed but the next one had just recently opened. When I opened one of my saddlebags, I discovered that one of my fuel bottles has leaked white gas. Oh well.
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[mnferwerda]

Day 7
The next morning it was apparent that the tire was still leaking and the search for a replacement tire was on. After several calls, we found a place outside of Boone, called Stameys, had a used tire that would work and they could put it on when we got there. A couple of hours later and $60 (total) we were on the road again. We spent the day on the BRP and did about 250 miles. It threatened rain all day but stayed dry until later on the evening after we had already camp set up.

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[mnferwerda]

Day 8
Friday turned out to be the last day. My son was ready to be home and have a whole weekend to catch up with stuff and be back with his wife. We finished the BRP, did 60 miles of the Skyline Drive, and then turned west at Thorton Gap, and headed over to Massanutten and drove the nice Ft Valley Road to Front Royal. I stopped in Charles Town in WV to spend the night my daughter and her family.

Overall it was a great trip. The bikes did pretty well. My GR650 (with a bigger tank) was adequate. The only other issue I had besides the ones I had in the rain is that the engine leaked at least a quart of oil during the trip. The base gasket has been leaking for a long time but I’ve definitely got another leak somewhere.

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[gsrick]

Wish I had known, I'm 10 minutes south of the Amtrak station in Sanford. You could have ridden over to Leesburg for the Leesburg Bikefest this weekend and been bored looking at thousands of Harleys. Sounds like I need to make that trip, I'm originally from Maryland, just south of Baltimore. How much did the Amtrak trip cost, if you don't mind telling?

[Redman]

Interesting to read of your father-son adventure.
Good that you got pictures of you two together.

.

[mnferwerda]

Amtrak cost

I thought about posting before we went but forgot about doing it. The tickets were $650 for both of us which included transportation for the bikes, and small room with 2 bunk beds, and supper and breakfast. If you make it up to Baltimore someday, look me up.

Wish I had known, I'm 10 minutes south of the Amtrak station in Sanford. You could have ridden over to Leesburg for the Leesburg Bikefest this weekend and been bored looking at thousands of Harleys. Sounds like I need to make that trip, I'm originally from Maryland, just south of Baltimore. How much did the Amtrak trip cost, if you don't mind telling?