Columbus Day Weekend 2016

[redbirds_imp]

So glad you guys are okay.

[Inhouse Bob]

Glad to hear all is well with everyone down there.

[the Ferret]

good deal Nemo

[Cormanus]

Nemo and redbirds, glad to hear you and your families are OK.

I hope any other forum members in that part of the US are also safe and well.

[Chapomis_imp]

Good work Nemo, sorry about the fence

[Sam Mac_imp]

Good to hear that no serious damage.

[Nemo_imp]

I wish I had Ferret's discipline about photo-documenting my rides. I've never been good a it. I've never even owned a video camera, so there are no cute videos of my kids growing up. Now I take pictures with my phone when I remember or when I see something worth re-seeing. Riding down the BRP should've produced hundreds of photos but, me bring me, it didn't. The trip, however, left me with super heartwarming memories of camaraderie (Thank you InHouseBob, 4Paws, Sam Mac and A-Man!) and of quality time with my youngest son, sharing the road on our bikes and being friends.

Left the house on Monday (3 October) at 11am, heading to Sanford to get us (the bike and me) in the Auto Train. Starting mileage:
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Brief stop at local gas station. Full tank: CHECK. Tires air pressure: CHECK. LET'S GO!!
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On my way to Sanford, Luberza got to this milestone:
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Got there. Loaded the bike and waited...
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The train left at 4pm, reached Lorton, VA at 8:30am on Tuesday. When I detrained (is that even a word?) there was InHouseBob waiting for me. Got the bike and we started towards Charlottesville where we would meet Fran. We had lunch at Moose's place... Owned and operated by two very peculiar ladies, very proud of their racks...

Bob
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Fran
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Nemo
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Outside Moose's
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From lunch we rode to find the BRP...
On our way Fran stood up on the pegs and dropped his wallet. Thank goodness Bob was bringing in the rear and saw it. Bob and Fran walked back about 2 miles and found it. After the wallet incident we found the BRP, mile zero, at Rockfish Gap. We parted ways with Bob, he went north and we, south.

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The views were incredible and, yet again, I failed to capture them with the camera. But I lived it.

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He just can't help himself... He had to stop to climb that rock.
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We called the day at the Peaks of Otter Lodge.
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View from the room
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We almost made it to heaven
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[Nemo_imp]

On Wednesday we left the lodge after breakfast but not before asking the front desk directions to the closest gas station; 4 miles away. We were both running low, the CB said I had about 35 miles to go and Fran's Street Twin told him he had 15 miles. The Triumph lied. Turned off of the BRP to go for gas, went up a hill, down a hill, left, right, left, up again, start downhill and Fran comes up in the comms and says "there's something wrong with the bike, no throttle". I told him there was nothing wrong, you just ran out of gas. He started the bike, gave it a rev and it died again, but now he coasted for about 100 yards all the way to the gas station. Lucky strike 2.

After gas we got back on the BRP and continued south to go meet 4Paws and Sam Mac. On our way we caught this view
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And the BRP intersected The Trail
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And here we met with Dan and Sam
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Went to lunch at the Fancy Gap Deli
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At the Fox Hunters Paradise overlook we said bye to Dan and Sam
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And Francisco climbed on something else
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South we went. We still had about 130 miles to go to our next stop at Little Switzerland and it was already part 4pm. I knew we would be riding at dark. With the amount of deer that we had seen, I wasn't crazy about the idea. So we were "moving". We stopped only once by a bridge that was on the side of the mountain. I think that was the highest elevation of the trip.

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After that the documentation stopped. We got to the Skyline Village Inn (SVI) at 7pm. The restaurant with the pissed-off shrimp (moderators note this is actually the name of the dish so I will allow lol) had already closed and Mike (owner of the SVI) cooked for us. Good steak!

At that point the weather forecast for Jacksonville had turned for the worst. Hurricane Matthew was headed there, maybe even make landfall. My wife was alone at home and very worried. I had to cut our adventure short. We had a good night sleep at the SVI and next morning headed home.

We got off the BRP and hit the highways. I-26 was closed in Columbia, SC. We had to take some secondary roads but eventually got to I-95. All traffic was going the opposite direction. We were riding into the storm... Sounds pretty bada**, but in reality we didn't even have rain until we made the FL-GA line. From the motel to my driveway it was 469 miles. It was a long day.

Because of the weather that threatened home I wasn't able to complete my goal to ride the whole BRP. I didn't get to ride the Diamondback and I didn't make it to Maggie Valley. Great excuse to go back next year. I will.

Ending mileage
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EOR

[Sam Mac_imp]

and you didn't mention the advertisements on the fence that Fran was standing on?

[the Ferret]

Great pics bro. Too bad you had to cut the trip short Nemo but it was the wise thing to do. Yep you missed the best partof the BRP,the southern end, Diamondback, MT Mitchell, Maggie Valley all great stuff. was definitly cool for you guys to meet up with other forum members, eat and ride for a bit.

One thing about the count down computers on these bikes that many have noticed. If it starts counting down and for some reason you turn the ignition off, it confuses the computer and you can't really trust what it is telling you anymore. Getting down to 15 miles is putting a lot of trust in the computer, especially if it had been turned off for a rest or to take in a scenic view, or in your case stopping for the night. I got down to 13 once on my ST, but I never turned it off once the count down began.Others who have turned them off, suffered the same fate as your son, running out of gas.