Chapter Two of the Vacation Chronicles!

Here we were, on the road for the second half of 2500 mile motorcycle adventure.

We followed our new Pennsylvania friends, Brad and Val, across the state of Arkansas, through a corner of Missouri, down across Tennessee, a small corner of North Carolina and into the mountains of northern Georgia, This took the better part of two days with a whopping 480 miles the first day. For me, that was the first time we traveled that far on the Harley all in one day. Luckily we avoided the rain and only had to deal with strong winds the first half of the day. Day two found us racing to get up and on the road ahead of another rain storm.

We didn't quite make it! We soon drove out of it but still watched the skies around us. I love this photo of the Tennessee hills as we approached Chattanooga. Thank goodness for our rain gear and the Weather Channel radar iphone application!

Here's our fearless leader, Brad on his 2009 Harley Davidson Screamin Eagle Road Glide.

And here is courageous Val, on her 2005 (?) Screamin Eagle Ultra Classic. They've ridden all over the country and been in just about every state. We met several women who ride their own bikes this past week. I certainly do admire them, but I know it is something I would never try. Life is so much less stressful when just riding along in the passenger seat!

Our final destination, Copperhead Lodge! Located just outside Blairsville, Georgia, this is a resort community dedicated to motorcycle enthusiasts. It was a great location for the CVO Harley Ribfest. Of course many of the same people were here that were in Eureka Springs, but lots of others too.

Isn't this a beautiful fireplace with the motorcycle rock work?

This photo was taken from the back deck of our cabin one morning. There were several other cabins back in the trees behind the lodge. Where we stayed, we were treated to an automatic alarm clock, courtesy of the chicken farm next door! The lodge houses a small restaurant too. FOOD PHOTO for those of you who look forward to them! This was D's prime rib dinner. One of the funniest moments of the trip occurred when Dennis asked for his potato. It was so small that he didn't see it on his plate next to that big hunk of meat! (You had to be there. It was much funnier then!)

Ribs for the Ribfest were provided by "Hogbreath" but Eddie tended the smoker and did a fine job!

We didn't want to try to keep up with the large group rides on the twisty, curvy roads in the area. But we enjoyed riding with Val and Brad and even stopped and shopped in a couple little towns. We did manage to find the larger group having lunch at a small German restaurant in Helen, GA.

Of course we battled the raindrops just about every day. Even as we headed out Sunday morning and stopped at the site of the kayaking events of the 1996 Olympics. One last group shot with Val and Brad. Another vacation is history. But we've got fond memories and new friends. We enjoyed riding with and getting to know our Pennsylannia, Texas and Iowa friends and many others. We hope to cross paths with many of them again at the next CVO Harley event!

Our Vacation - The Last Chapter !

I know you all are waiting for the last chapter of our motorcycle ride/vacation:) So perhaps I should get this posted while still fairly fresh in my mind!

Of course the weather turned beautiful again on our last morning in Savannah. We angled our way up across Georgia through small towns and the back roads. As long as we weren't trying to beat the clock to anywhere in particular, we stayed away from the four-lane roads and big cities. Another scene that almost looked like snow were the cotton fields along the way. In many places they were still harvesting (picking?) it. I wasn't able to get a picture but we saw combines similar to the ones we see harvesting corn and wheat but set up for cotton. This old farm girl stills finds it interesting to see the crops along the way. (Daddy would be proud!) We left the flat farm lands and came into the mountains of northern Georgia. We spent the night in the interesting college town of Dahlonega, a very pretty mountain town that is the location of the first major gold rush in the United States. We browsed through a few of the little shops that were still open then picked one of the several nice restaurants for dinner. The next morning we headed out over some of the prettiest roads we'd traveled so far to Helen, Georgia. It was still early and of course D was anxious to get back on the bike so we only stopped in the motorcycle clothing shop. This little town and the whole area would be worth a trip back. Back in the 60's, in order to bring tourism back to the area, the town underwent a face lift of sorts. Everything was re-modeled as a Bavarian village. Pretty neat!

Next stop, Hiawasee. Located almost to the North Carolina state line, this is another town that would make a great destination. Looks like the lake that is nearby, though it is pretty low, would be a great place for fishing, boating and camping. And guess what! They have a quilt shop!! And my biker hubby let me go in and spend some time here at Log Cabin Patchworks ! Of course I bought a few things that I really didn't need, but might someday (you quilters know how that is!) and I enjoyed visiting with one of the owners.

Back on the road. One of my first posts last year was about our trip to Chattanooga and our foggy ride over the Cherohala Skyway. Since we were in the area again, we decided to try it again so hopefully we would have clearer skies and better views. No such luck. Not quite as foggy, but this year we had the added challenge of light rain. The trees I'm sure were quite pretty as we could tell from the spots where the fog lifted a little.

An interesting addition to the ride were the abundance of hunters in the area. Evidently it was BEAR season! One lucky hunter strapped his unlucky prey on the back of his pickup truck. This guy was huge! Poor Smokey, guess the fog wasn't good enough camouflage for him.

Well, this is all of the highlights of the trip. We made it as far as Cookeville, Tennessee that evening. Then Saturday morning we drove the rest of the way home in the coldest weather of the trip. For the most part we were lucky with the weather. I don't think we could have found any better for this time of year. After the challenge of bike repairs to begin the trip we had absolutely no problems the remainder of the week. We were glad to have made the two major purchases before we left of our new Nolan full face helmets and our new rain gear. The helmets are so much warmer and comfortable (once broken in!) with the integrated microphones and speakers. Of course, our American Legend trailer was great to have along so we could carry extra gear (some of which we didn't really need!) and fill with souvenirs (which we didn't!).

Thanks for joining us on our trip! Back to more quilty posts in the near future. Also, check back in a few days for Baby J pics! With the holidays coming, you know fun times are ahead!