Coast to Coast (and back?) with an Italian Supermodel

[Blader54]

hey man, the RRs here are rife with stories about how "waterproof" gear turned out not to be, or usually, that it was only waterproof for water trying to get OUT again! You just got caught out a bit, but look...you recognized the danger and you adapted...took action.....and overcame the problem at least to the extent that you were able to get to your next hostelry, right? Using the Duc's exhaust to warm up was brilliant. Once again though...you made me start thinking....this time about ways to improve waterproof gear. I also got a kick out that shot of the signs entering North Carolina.....they really like to stack them up: State sign, County sign, demand that bikes have lights on, demand for helmets, and then more signs right behind those. A person would have to come to a complete halt to read all that! I'd love to be able to goof on the "motorcycles burn headlights" sign over the use of "burn" but I have to concede that it just may be the shortest message you can put on a sign that tells bikers to turn their headlights on.

[RingGap]

Originally Posted by Blader54

hey man, the RRs here are rife with stories about how "waterproof" gear turned out not to be, or usually, that it was only waterproof for water trying to get OUT again! You just got caught out a bit, but look...you recognized the danger and you adapted...took action.....and overcame the problem at least to the extent that you were able to get to your next hostelry, right? Using the Duc's exhaust to warm up was brilliant. Once again though...you made me start thinking....this time about ways to improve waterproof gear. I also got a kick out that shot of the signs entering North Carolina.....they really like to stack them up: State sign, County sign, demand that bikes have lights on, demand for helmets, and then more signs right behind those. A person would have to come to a complete halt to read all that! I'd love to be able to goof on the "motorcycles burn headlights" sign over the use of "burn" but I have to concede that it just may be the shortest message you can put on a sign that tells bikers to turn their headlights on.

Lucky your not in the UK then those wet roads would have nice white painted caution / chevron lines on all your braking zones for the nice corners.

Great rr stay warm.

[RhinoVonHawkrider]

Anti - I feel ya

I think we've all been caught out like that

But heated grips & Gerbings go a LONG way

Function over Form

Stay Safe & KEEP GOING

[mmonce]

AntiHero,

Welcome to NC. I have been following along with your ride report.

A colleague of mine recently left the US to head back to his home country, Italy. He is a huge Ducati fan.

I stopped by the new Ducati dealership here in North Raleigh. I told the sale man (Mark) about your journey on the 1199. He thought that must be one hell of a trip on a Panigale. I finally saw a 1199 Panigale at the dealership. Nice choice on a bike. The sale mans also talked about the female appeal.

Enjoy our great state of NC. Hopefully mother nature allows you to have dryer and warmer rides.

Happy trails,

[AntiHero]

Thanks for the welcome, mmonce. I'm actually in GA now (Savannah). Just uploading pics of the rest of my stay in the Carolinas before I'm out of the South altogether!

Funny that you mention all those signs in NC, Blader. I was thinking the same thing when I was there--and those "Burn Headlights" signs sure are oddly worded.

After the Tail mishap I finally found the only thing that's ever worked for waterproofing for me.





You heat your gear up with a blowdryer and then cake the stuff on (then hit it with the blowdryer some more). It's just thick wax, but it soaks into leather and actually works. Used to use it all the time when I rode everyday in SF. Only issue is when you cake it on your gloves you have to remember not to wipe your visor or you'll smear a light coat of wax all over it.

After a quick shine they look as good as new.



I intended to stay in/around Asheville for a couple nights, but the forecast called for two days of snow. So I got up early in the AM and headed east for Columbia. The bike read 39 degrees, the sign at the bank read 38 and my skin and bones confirmed the effects of windchill.



That there's frost inside my helmet.


On the way to Charlotte I saw the first cotton field I've ever seen:

[AntiHero]

That night I got a message from inmate NitroRoo asking if I'd be interested in dinner. His messages to me didn't seem to indicate he was an axe murderer, so off I was. Very good call. His wife is from Venezuela and I was treated to homemade Empanadas! Like an ass, though, I didn't think about taking a picture of the baskets of 'em she made. Got to meet his whole family (their kids and his parents) and, in addition to the great food got to enjoy an evening of great conversation. Muchas gracias, amigo!



Spent an uneventful Halloween in Columbia, SC. Well, almost an uneventful Halloween. On the way I stopped to grab a bite to eat and saw this nondescript looking deli called Groucho's. I've had a lot of meals on this trip--and a lot of sandwiches. And this one stands out among my top 5 meals (ok, maybe top 6). But definitely the best sandwich I've eaten thus far. If you're ever even close (looks like they're only in NC and SC), pay these guys a visit. http://www.grouchos.com/ These guys deliver a death blow to any other franchised sandwich shop in the world.

[bk brkr baker]

Well, now that you've gotten you boots sorted, what about the hands ?
The best , no fail solution I've tried is Gore-Tex over gloves. I used some on loan to cross the U.S. by sidecar in '02 then in '06 bought my own pair of "Spock gloves" from Areo-Stitch. I take them everywhere , because you never know when the liquid sunshine will happen.
I have never had wet hands while wearing them.

[AntiHero]

Originally Posted by bk brkr baker

Well, now that you've gotten you boots sorted, what about the hands ?

Got some proper snow gloves from REI. They're definitely not going to hold up in a crash, but at least they'll stay warm and dry.

[AntiHero]

Around Charlotte I started thinking again about how long this trip was and how far I'd come. Sometimes I imagine that everywhere I travel, invisible needles follow behind me, pricking the landscape with beacons implanting and imbedding the coordinates of my existence. At first the silvery slivers seems quite extensive until I begin thinking of all the parts of the earth I haven't seen. Fortunately (or unfortunately) a lot of places are nearly identical to other places. Though I never seem to tire of seeing rows of cornfields (which I haven't seen in quite some time), but a lot of places seem to be near replicas of other locations. Same strip malls are filled with the same stores, people drive the same cars and wear the same clothes, urban planning makes one city like another and television and media regularlize opinions and outlooks. Independent experiences are also starting to feel the same. Points of interest and local attractions in one location have begun to converge with previous locations. Privately owned coffee shops and hole-in-the-wall restaurants are starting to homogenize; individual, distinctive characteristics seem to be morphing into a unified whole.

My normal life was fairly devoid of cookie-cutter-experiences and this trip was going to be no different. There was no purpose of going city to city, state to state if all I was going to do was hang out at Starbucks during the day and order the same items at night off the menu at Chevy's. But if unique experiences are to be devoid of novelty, what will become of the momentum and energy needed to propel me further and further? That nervous, anxious apprehension that accompanied me to each new place I visit has become a quiet lull; the stimulating, excited vulnerability, a vapid, monotone occurrence.

Thankfully, the Panigale is as merciless, raging, brutal and fierce as ever. The law of diminishing returns might apply to most endeavors or efforts, but fortunately the experience of piloting a Ducati is never unexciting, uninspiring or dull.

[rico2072]

Originally Posted by AntiHero

That night I got a message from inmate NitroRoo asking if I'd be interested in dinner. His messages to me didn't seem to indicate he was an axe murderer, so off I was. Very good call. His wife is from Venezuela and I was treated to homemade Empanadas! Like an ass, though, I didn't think about taking a picture of the baskets of 'em she made. Got to meet his whole family (their kids and his parents) and, in addition to the great food got to enjoy an evening of great conversation. Muchas gracias, amigo!

Dam Nitro! You better have some empanadas for me when I go up there!!!! LOL

[CaliforniaKid]

Originally Posted by AntiHero

Around Charlotte I started thinking again about how long this trip was and how far I'd come. Sometimes I imagine that everywhere I travel, invisible needles follow behind me, pricking the landscape with beacons implanting and imbedding the coordinates of my existence. At first the silvery slivers seems quite extensive until I begin thinking of all the parts of the earth I haven't seen. Fortunately (or unfortunately) a lot of places are nearly identical to other places. Though I never seem to tire of seeing rows of cornfields (which I haven't seen in quite some time), but a lot of places seem to be near replicas of other locations. Same strip malls are filled with the same stores, people drive the same cars and wear the same clothes, urban planning makes one city like another and television and media regularlize opinions and outlooks. Independent experiences are also starting to feel the same. Points of interest and local attractions in one location have begun to converge with previous locations. Privately owned coffee shops and hole-in-the-wall restaurants are starting to homogenize; individual, distinctive characteristics seem to be morphing into a unified whole.

My normal life was fairly devoid of cookie-cutter-experiences and this trip was going to be no different. There was no purpose of going city to city, state to state if all I was going to do was hang out at Starbucks during the day and order the same items at night off the menu at Chevy's. But if unique experiences are to be devoid of novelty, what will become of the momentum and energy needed to propel me further and further? That nervous, anxious apprehension that accompanied me to each new place I visit has become a quiet lull; the stimulating, excited vulnerability, a vapid, monotone occurrence.

Thankfully, the Panigale is as merciless, raging, brutal and fierce as ever. The law of diminishing returns might apply to most endeavors or efforts, but fortunately the experience of piloting a Ducati is never unexciting, uninspiring or dull.

Simple; if you do basically the same thing (riding around the country looking for experiences that differ from your norm) then it de facto becomes the new norm. I totally understand what you mean about the nervous energy "required" to propel you on your way, so not sure if the rest of this episode (however long that may be) will feel as impromptu. Doesn't mean it can't be enjoyed though as you point out on the Duc...

Whatever you decide, do it without regrets...

[Sgt93]

Originally Posted by AntiHero

Thanks, guys--I'm unfortunately out of Knoxville now and won't make it back to Tennessee. Too bad, because I really enjoyed the short time I spent there. Just had my TN to SC portion all written up, but I lost it due to a submission error (I waited to long to hit send). Starting over....

I learned a while ago, if you are typing anything long for a forum post, do it in word and paste it into the forum. Cheap insurance

[Rinty]

...the only [stuff] that's ever worked for waterproofing for me...Anti-Hero

Ah, Sno-Seal; popular with the hiking crowd.

[Blader54]

Hmmm....it could be that a lot of America is the same all over...a sort of homogenization seems to have taken place...but perhaps you're discovering something more. That is, even the independent places strongly resemble each other, like there's a sort of fractalness to it: "all funky coffee houses resemble each other" and that all old-fashioned diners look very similar. Maybe, say, in the case of a coffeehouse, people who start coffeehouses do so because they really liked one they went to, and so the one they create contains the same elements as the one they liked, and if that holds true for most people who start independent coffeehouses then maybe a population of "funky coffeehouse owners" develops that shares a certain eclectic style--eventually developing into some "norms" for such coffeehouses. When someone visits for the first time a coffeehouse in a new city they probably compare it to their favorite "back home" and it gets higher marks the more it resembles that favorite. And this tends to reinforce the "type." When I ran a used bookstore for a couple of years I was careful not to stock books that were mildewed or moldy but then people would come in my store for the first time and complain that it didn't have "that old bookstore smell I love." My explaining that the smell they loved was due to dust and mildew and that I was trying to run a clean, well-lighted place, did not seem to satisfy them. Based on their past experiences they had a model in their heads of what a used bookstore had to be, an expectation, and I had failed to meet it. I could tell they felt my store did not measure up.
Then too, all restaurants resemble each other, really, because they all generally have tables, chairs, etc. Maybe if one sees enough places differences tend to be obscured by our perception of the common elements. If I'm sitting at a table on the dock at Nantucket eating oysters how different is it from sitting on a dock eating oysters at a little place on the Rhode Island shore? In both places I'm sitting next to the ocean, on a wooden dock, at a table, in a chair. The oysters may even have come from the same beds....it's possible. The places are very similar but the building I'm sitting in in each case is distinguishable, the waitresses are different, the details of the view are different--in Nantucket I look onto a harbor scene with yachts and ferries coming and going. At Rhode Island the view is smaller, a cove, with private homes and small personal docks. So, very much the same, but different in detail. Maybe being on a long journey such as this one, the experiences begin to bleed into each other, to blur somewhat, and the details get filtered out in the process because the common features are sensorily reinforced and fill the memory. Or it may be that humans become overloaded with novelty after a period of time of unceasing change and so we mentally grab hold of the common, familiar elements....to sort of ground ourselves. But if this were the case one might expect it to be a comfort and it doesn't seem to be that to you, so I'm going with the other idea...that subconscious awareness to the common elements tends to crowd out the details, in time. Don't know if this is balderdash or not....but if not for your insightful RR, Anti-hero, I wouldn't have paused to ponder.... so thanks again for making me think!!

[AntiHero]

Agree with ya, Blader and CA Kid. There's always going to be similarities on a grand scale (Golden Gate Bridge is just a bridge, after all), but it's my reaction to the subtle differences--the subtle differences that once made places seem very different. Perhaps I'm just tired, perhaps I've just seen so many 'new' details that the law of diminishing returns takes over. But it is an interesting phenomenon.

I made quick work of the Carolinas and am now in Savannah. Stayed a night (two?) in Charleston, hence not much to write about, before arriving here in GA.

Did get a few good shots along the way, though....





This is just a taste of what's to come. There are some mighty big oaks dwarfing the Panigale in my pics of Savannah.

One final thing to close out Charleston--to the guy in the truck next to me at the light who said he'd been following this ride report--come clean and introduce yourself! Was very cool to run into someone on the road who knew who I was and had been following along. :)