:: September 03, 2005 ::
Pictures of my Harley Trip Aug 28 - Sept 2
Map of the trip, Started and ended in Lynchburg, 1109 miles
Start of my trip, Sunday Morning
The bike posed in front of my parents new house
Sophia practicing to be a biker chick
My old house, with new ugly green shutters
My kitchen looking over Fontana Lake
My view of the clouds breaking on Fontana
My kitchen on top of the Great Smokey Mountains
Sun rays
More Sun Rays
Yet More Sunrays
Looking out from Clingman Dome, clouds on the bottom instead of on top
Blue Mountains
Cades Cove, Smokey Mountain Valley
Jump Spot
My outhouse
My bear-proof shelter at Mt. Collins
Fontana Dam picnic spot
Picture Frame?
Deal's Gap, start of the Dragon
End of the Dragon, or start from the Tennessee side
Tree of Shame
Remains of Katrina
Church camping spot
Debris from Katrina
My campsite for the storm
View from inside just after the storm ends
Horse on Main St. in Erwin Tennessee
Hillsville Flea Market, largest on the east coast... worthless achievment
Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Panoramic view of Great Smokey Mountains
Panoramic view from the Top of Clingman's Dome
.: Ben Hansen :: 11:41 AM [+] 1 comments
:: September 02, 2005 ::
Hurricane Katrina and pigeon shitless gloves
First off, for those of you who don't know, my brother lives in New Orleans. He is fine, his stuff is not. He has a second story apartment, so the floods might not have damaged his place, but he doesn't know about the looters. His job has relocated him to Baton Rouge, he'll be living there until this mess is over.
Second, this email isn't meant to be political, but I have to say one thing. I've been totally oblivious to all of the events of the last 5 days. I was camping in the mountains, riding my bike, and trying to clear my head about what to do with my life now. That's fine for me, I have no responsibilities, but I am not the President, who does have those responsibilities to protect and oversee the people of this country. He should not be fucking playing golf on holiday and posing for those 'Gee I'm really concerned' photo ops...
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/katrina_bush_hurricane_president.htm
Needless to say, this pisses me off even more about having to come back to this country....
rant over...
Thirdly, this will be a long email... if you just want the pictures or the short story, goto my blog at:
http://benhansen.blogspot.com
But, if you've got the time, enjoy....
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So, I left for my motorcycle trip on Sunday morning, just as my brother called to tell us he had left the city, but was stuck in traffic. This was the last news I heard until Friday, except a brief clip from the weather channel in a restaurant.
I headed down to Winston Salem, NC to visit an old friend I met in Spain. She's been married, had a daughter, and is expecting one more since I last saw her... busy girl! They put me up and I had a great time(they spoiled me a little by buying dinner for me, when I'd be eating snack bars and liptons instant dinners the rest of the trip...) Their daughter Sophia really liked the bike, and kept saying 'Bike, Bike!' until her mother allowed her to sit and explore the bike.
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Monday- I drove on down to Newton, NC. I grew up here until I was 13. I have fond memories of the town, and seeing the place after a 10 year absence was a shock and pleasure both at the same time. Somehow, everything seemed tiny. I guess as a little kid, everything seems so big. I couldn't recapture all of my youth in only the hour I was there, but the new owners of the house were kind enough to give me a walk-thru and I saw my old room as well.
Then off to the Blue Ridge Parkway and down it to its termination at Cherokee, NC where the Great Smokey Mountains are located. However, Hurricane Katrina caught up with me and I had to camp down in a field at 3000 ft altitude because I could see the storm clouds coming my way. I just setup the tent when the rains started.... and they didn't finish for 12 hours.
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Tuesday- I spent most of the night, listening to rain hit the tent, seeing lightning but hearing no thunder, and I twice had to run out of the tent to fix the rain-fly because the wind ripped it off. The rain was actually warm, and it had a slightly salty taste... weird, huh?
By noon, it had stopped enought for me to pack up and try to get down off the mountains. However, the road went back up first before coming down to Ashville. Well, I got dumped on by sheets of rain, and blown around by 40mph gusts. I know this because I had to stop at the visitor center to warm up and dry off by their wood burning stove. They had a weather guage there, and I watched to flick to 35-40 mph gusts.
I made it down to Ashville to dry off in a Sonic Drive-In parking lot. That was the toughest driving in harsh weather I've ever had to do. The bike ride in Cambodia was tough, but this was me-against-nature type of difficulties.
I then drove on to Cherokee, but was told the main road was closed because of downed trees. So, I had to drive around for hours trying to find a spot to camp. I found a nice little church, but it wasn't hidden enough. I ended up on the side of some side road pull-off and camped there.
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Wednesday- Always, Always... after a storm, the weather front clears the air of humidity, and you usually get absolutely beautiful weather. This was true of today... and the rest of the trip.
I cooked my breakfast at a roadside picnic area, absolutely beautiful. I drove to Fontana Dam and took a nice nap, with a view. Then on to Deal's Gap.
Now, for a little backstory... Deal's gap is just a road... a very curvy road... so much that people flock here just to drive on it. It even has websites dedicated to it. The stretch of road is called "The Tail of the Dragon"... sounds more like a heavy metal tune. You can view them here:
http://www.tailofthedragon.com
http://www.tailofthedragon.com/maps_dragon_road.html
http://www.killboy.com
So, I rode the Dragon three times... lots of fun! The sports bikes there quite are fast and looked almost horizontal going around those bends.
I stopped at the biker bar to have a 'dragon burger'... ok, it was a biker resort, but biker bar sounds so much cooler. While I had been riding through the rain, my gloves got wet and the dye soaked through to turn my skin black, or very dark blue.
While I was sitting enjoying my burger, another biker came up and said, "Pigeon Shit!!"... That was it, no introduction, just "Pigeon Shit!!". I had an idea where he was going with this..
So I said, "Oh, you mean the dye on my hands is made from pigeon poop."
He said, "Yeah, you gotta get you some gloves like these, they're Pigeon Shitless".
When I was in Morocco, I saw the tanneries and they told me what the dye was made of, but anyone who wasn't aware of this information would have been clueless, which I think most of the people around me were...
So, I was now in Tennessee, and took some scenic roads into the Smokies. I went on a one-way loop road into Cade's Cove, which was a large valley within the park. Saw a great cliff jumping spot, but I had no swim suit, and soggy underwear and motorcycles don't go well together!
I made it to the Tenn side visitor center to find that the road had just opened up, so I reserved a spot at one of the bear-proof shelters and rode up to the top of the road. No bears, just a noisy mouse to keep me up most of the night.
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Thursday- I was planning on climbing Clingman's Dome, highest point in Tennessee, at sunrise, but I overslept. Still, I made it before the masses arrived, and it was beautiful to see all the clouds still below the mountains. I cooked breakfast again, and decided to head back home. I went down to the nearest town, Gatlinburg, which is a tourist trap, and had to pay $3.50 for gas... Damn this town is expensive I thought... still unaware of what was happening.
I did over 300 miles(that's alot for a sportster harley!) to get to Mt Rogers Park. I stopped at a lot of towns my father came through when he hiked the Appalachian Trail... all very quaint.
Found a nice dirt road and camped out under shooting stars!
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Friday- Mt Rogers trail is a 9 mile round trip, and there isn't even a viewing area at the top... just a little geological marker... kind of a letdown. But, the train was nice and good to exercise the legs instead of sitting down all the time. I was going to try to get home by tonight, which was another 300 miles at least. I had no idea of time because my cell phone's batteries had long ago died. So, I passed through this town of Hillsville, which by chance has the largest Flea Market on the East coast... Who knew? Not me, but I got stuck in the traffic for a few minutes.
I made it home by 7:30 to be filled in about what was happening in the world again... Back to Reality!!!
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So, I drove 1109 miles in 6 days. Filled the tank over 20 times, with the price almost always over $3/gallon. And congradulations if you've managed to read this far!
If you want to look at the pictures, goto:
http://www.printroom.com/ViewAlbum.asp?shopperid=PJWL17CU5V0K8H53D21TXPNPEMPQ3GUC&userid=Senecar&album_id=201959
or
http://benhansen.blogspot.com
My favorite quotes along the way:
"Four wheels moves the body,
Two wheels moves the soul."
"Does a bear shit on the Pope?"
"Pigeon Shitless Gloves"
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.: Ben Hansen :: 5:33 PM [+] 0 comments
:: Current Location : Breckenridge, Colorado :.
