Well it's been a few weeks now and the juices a flowing.
We are settled in now and all our furniture has been delivered.It's hard to visualize your apt. in a show room. We had to return two end tables and two lamps because it would have been too much. We opted out for a smaller chair table and the sofa had a defect in the stitching so it too was returned.
The TV is awesome 50 inches of viewing pleasure. It's a Sony(Vizio) LED and it's incredible.
Our larder is now fully stocked. All this shopping was exhausting. A weeks worth!
You forget how much you really need. It was like or first shopping when we were first married.
But we now have our favourite Publix,CVS, Big K, Target, hair salon and yoga studio.
Yes I'm into Yoga now. Who would have thought? I love it. I've been to two classes so far and I would have gone to more but for my upcoming trip.
Aprille is learning how to get around.
It is confusing I must admit.
I have a little trouble with uploading pictures but hat too will come to pass.
I flew home on the 14th of June to get my motor cycle to start our trip to North Carolina with Will and Joe(two fellow riders from the OPP). Our mission was to ride the Tail of the dragon(Deals Gap NC) check it out on line.
I got to spend some time with Adam and Annette and a lunch visit with mom.
I met with Steve and Cathy Kovach and Mike Pidberezny for breakfast at Memphis Sat morning(was the talk of flat tires a precursor of things to come?)
The trip started on Sunday the 16th at 8 am in the rain . I met Will at the Casablanca cut off..
5 minutes later at 100 km/hr, in the rain, I.get a flat rear tire. That was a wild ride let me tell you.That is something I do't need to experience again. But it ended well. Thank you. Happy Father's Day!!!!!
Will calls CAA and I tell him I'll see him at Joes when I get he tire fixed. I wait 20 minutes on the QEW in the rain. Fun wow.
I go CAA to trailer my bike to Steve's. The tire was plugged and Slimed ( a liquid sealant) to be extra sure and I made a 5 minute test run to see if the pressure would hold. It did.
I'm on the road again. I call Will I'm on my way and I'll meet them on the American side of the Peace Bridge.
That was around 1230.
I get 3/4 down the St Catherine's Garden City Skyway bridge and the plug lets go. Flat number two.
Yea!! Now I have to get to the bottom of the bridge. This is too much fun, even for me.
Fortunately I am picked up by Carmen Kelly from Southhampton Limosine Services. He drives me to the Hortons at Glendale ave. Lets me use is phone to call CAA(again) and Annette(to come pick me up).
My phone is a Trac phone and only works in the states. But what could go wrong n the 40 km from Adam and Annette's?????
Thanks Carmen.
I get CAA to trailer my bike to Clare's on 20 Hwy( of course this all has to happen on a Sunday when nothing is open). Thank God for a CAA membership (and the drivers were just fabulous).
I get to spend Fathers Day with Adam anyway. Thanks kids.
Monday morning Steve picks me up and drives me to Clares. We get here just before 9 am(when they open) and they get me in right away. Steve and I go to Kieths for breakfast and when we ge back the bike s almost finished. I'm on the road by 1045 am. Thanks to Stuart and company at Clares. They were just terrific. I'm now $341.00 poorer.But I have a brand new tire( oh did I mention that the tire I had, didn't have 5,000 km on the tread)
Steve inspected the tire and found a 1 inch slash. No wonder the pug didn't hold. This was no ordinary puncture.
I cross the border at the Rainbow bridge (because that's what I did ) I have Nexus. I can get across in minutes. Wrong!!!! The Nexus lanes are closed.They are only open in the morning!!! What the F......???
A nice man let me in line.
All is well with the world. I reach Morgantown West Virginia by 6 pm. It was a beautiful ride. I should have continued on to Sutton. I stopped an hour too soon( I only did about 310 mi.) and left my self a long ride on Tue. 661 km (410 miles) to Pigeon Forge Tennessee.
Okay. Tue is beautiful at 7am. One hour later I am in the rain and it rained for 9 hours. Till I was about 1 hr. away from my destination. I was on the road for almost 11 hrs. No problem. I can easily do about 400 i. now.
Pigeon Forge is BUSY!!! It took me 35 mins to get to the hotel.
It seems I didn't miss much on Monday. I rained all day there too. Steak dinner at the Texas Roadhouse.
8 oz filet. Just magnificent.
Wed 19 th June 8 am. On the road to ride the dragon and the Cherohola Skyway( a 120 mile plus loop) Just perfect weather, sunny and warm. We meet up with a guy from Illinios, Jake the barber, a great guy,and he spends the day with us. Who would have figured that on a wed. at 1100 am in June Deals Gap would be so busy? Unreal. I would hate to see this on a busy day in holiday season.
The ride was indescribablely delicious!!! Wish we had more time. Like Joe said "this place was made just to ride motor cycles in".
Back to the hotel after a 10 hr day in the sun for beers, a swim and a hot tub. Texas roadhouse again for a repeat of Tue nights dinner.
Thurs. 20 th June . Time to go home. Damn.We take the 441 S to Cherokee.This is the spill out point for the Blueridge Parkway. We just don't have enough time to run that. Another trip???
Another fabulous run. We were going down hill for about twenty minutes at one point. Beautiful riding
scenery. Mountain stream and speckles of sunlight through the trees. Awesome.
We separate around 1100. Will didn't get another breakfast(tragic). South bound for me.
I continue on the 441 south. Perfect. What a great ride. I hook up with interstate 75. I head for Macon and
then south to Valdosta Georgia. All is good until.......just north of Codelle
I was out passing a slow moving truck( I was traveling approx. 65
mile/hr ) and the car in front of me went off onto a grassy shoulder. The
driver over corrected, lost control, over steered and after four attempts to
straighten out, slammed into the guardrail. I was already on the brakes because
I was afraid of a roll over and her coming into my lane in front of me.
A stake
truck following me slammed into the car and the collision was right (and I mean
right) a my rear fender. I saw the impact.I actually thought he touched my bike(he didn't) I truly believe the truck went into
the shoulder to miss me. He would have run me over(even though I was already
moving. I heard the squealing of his brakes and I knew what was coming) I had no
where to go because there was a transport truck immediately to my left. Whoa!!!!
After that it was smooth sailing.
I ran into some very
heavy rain squalls south of Jacksonville Florida (I stopped for about 40
minutes, the rain was coming down sideways). I had stopped before the rain
because the skies were black and nasty with lighting up ahead. It was a perfect
time to stop I had a chicken wrap and a coffee ( (I was in MacDonalds). The was
more heavy rain in Florida (three very heavy down pours but they were short
lived.
So here I am safe and sound and glad to be home.
Aprille had a whole week here by herself and she is starting to know her way around.
Today is Sat and we are going to the beach(maybe an ice cream) oh that's another story. You wouldn't believe the size of the ice cream cones we got in Pigeon Forge I couldn't eat it all.
I'll try some pictures
TTFN
