Eighteen Years In The Making

Agrarian









Numa

I wonder if a Goldwing fitted with knobbies could plow a field?

Jon

A John Deere 9570 STS weighs 29,000+ lbs without attachments and has 298 HP with boost. That works out to a little over 97.3 lbs per horsepower.

The Gold Wing is 900 lbs and has 105 to 115 HP (depending on the source). That works out to a little over 8.5 to 7.8 lbs per horsepower respectively.

Either way, the Gold Wing kicks the combine's butt! And it would probably take weeks to drive the combine from Portland, Maine back to Charlotte.


Numa

Yep, the farmers are doing it wrong for sure.

It was foggy this morning when I headed out from my house towards Polkville to meet my buddy Loren. The forecast called for rain around the Charlotte area, but we had plans to ride up into Tennessee on back roads near Roan Mountain.

Met Loren for breakfast at Christie's Kitchen in Polkville and then we headed out for a ride. We were a little delayed beginning Loren's route, because it took us a while to find a branch of my bank so I could hit the ATM. Meant to go straight to the bank when I left the house this morning, but was thinking about the day's ride and forgot all about it. We back-tracked to Lawndale, but Google had it wrong. Re-routed to Old Fort and had to take some back roads to get around an accident. In doing so, we rode across Moriah School Rd which was on my list of roads to explore.

After we got back on track, Loren led us across some great back roads with nice views.








We rode along the Doe River...

















...and stopped for a break.









We rode across Old Railroad Grade Rd which is about the width of a private driveway...








...and runs along beside the Doe River west of Roan Mountain.




















Rock walls bordered the narrow road in several places along the way.










Then we headed up over Roan Mountain where we ran into some fog at higher elevations...

























...and then dropped down into Spruce Pine for a late lunch at City Drive-In before heading for home. Managed to ride most of the day without getting wet and only got rained on lightly the last 10 miles of the way home. Very nice day of riding! Thanks for leading, Loren. Nice route!



Numa

So we get home and Numa jumps right on the pictures! I on the other hand, fall into the 'chair' and doze peacefully.........


Chasing Numa to the bank















Nice mural at his bank















I hardly ever manage a 'rear view' shot. Only took 4-5 tries

















Another great day and ride.












.

Just after the fog burned off (mostly) this morning.








Numa

My wife and I went out for a ride on the Gold Wing this afternoon and headed over to Pee Dee Wildlife Refuge. We decided to do a little luxury adventure touring and headed off road to see Gaddy Covered Bridge and the Pee Dee River.

















We even had a water crossing.










We were treated to some nice views.


















Inside of a hollowed-out tree.








We followed a gravel road a couple of miles and it made its way down to the Pee Dee River.








There was a canoe launch that's a part of the Carolina Thread Trail.


































Marise at water's edge.







Great weather for riding today!

Numa

Hope you don't oversleep after the required clean up time..........











.

I resisted the temptation to wash it last evening, but suspect I will do so after work today. The silver paint just looks so good when it's freshly washed and fully illuminated by the sun.

My Gold Wing is a handfull when you get it off of the pavement, but I took it slow and it performed adequately. (It helped that those roads were very well groomed.) That's not its first off road foray; right Augie?



Numa

I rode up to Maryland for the weekend to visit family. I was going solo so I decided to ride motorcycle and try to pick up a couple of tags along the way. The Gold Wing was closest to the garage door and I was not planning to ride off the tarmac so I took the Wing.

Grabbed the USA Tag in Meadows of Dan, Virginia here...







... and took Nutsey -- the mascot for the USA Tag -- along for my ride north.

Wingnut.









I jumped on the BRP a short distance...








...and then headed to Charlottesville, VA on back roads where I grabbed the Virginia Tag here...







I ate lunch in Charlottesville here...







...and then continued north along Route 20 stopping by the Ruins in Barbersville...















































... and then dropped the Virginia Tag here at Wilderness Battlefield.









On Saturday my brother rode with me to drop the USA Tag here...








...and then we had lunch at my favorite place to get a steak & cheese sub. (Their BBQ is also great.)








I made the 400 mile ride home today. The weather was beautiful for the whole trip!





Numa

Gracious me............

It has been awhile since I've been able to free up a full day to go riding. I've been busy with family commitments, work commitments and even took a class that ran all day on Saturday and Sunday one weekend. I did get free on Saturday and met my buddies Augie and Loren for a ride up into the mountains. We had a new to our group rider join us on Saturday. Cliff rides a BMW R1200GS and came to the most recent meet at Hawthorne's. We met at Christie's Kitchen in Polkville for breakfast and then headed across back roads up to Curtis Creek.
















The external temperature gauge on my BMW was reading 31 degrees at various points along the ride in the morning, but the temperature increased to 62 degrees as the day went along. At the top of Curtis Creek Road, we headed south a short distance on the BRP and then turned north on S. Toe River Road dropping down to Route 80 just north of Sugar Cove.




























We headed into Spruce Pine, stopped by the railroad tracks and then headed to City Drive In for a late lunch.


















After lunch we headed south and rode across 226A through Little Switzerland on the way back to Polkville where we split up and headed our separate ways. My clocks showed 314 miles door-to-door when I got back to my garage. Sunny and clear weather for a nice day of riding with good friends.



Numa

For some reason my connection to your thread quit working. Glad I saw it tonight. Really enjoy seeing all your ride reports. I see where NCWulfman rode with you from his description on the Riding North Carolina thread. Great that you all got together and he was able to enjoy his first off road excursions with professionals! One thing I gather from your ride reports is that you all know some great places to eat. I am definitely up for that!

Augie, Larry and I met NCWulfman at November's third-Thursday meet up at Hawthorne's Pizza in Charlotte. He joined us on Saturday's ride and appeared to enjoy the riding.

Between Loren, Augie and Larry, they seem to know most every little mom and pop restaurant in NC, SC and TN. They always route the ride to include a stop or two (sometimes three on a long day) for some good food.

I enjoyed the ride Saturday. It was good to be back on the bike.


Numa

Grundens

Awesome report! Thank you!

Thank you for the tip. I will have to look into those.


Numa

Thank you for the kind words.


Numa

Another long time reader, "first time caller". I always enjoy the great updates and I wish I could still ride with my dad (in his late 80s now and will only sit on mine when I change bikes for photo ops anymore) and my sons if they were not living so far away. Anyway, the shared times your report reflects are all too rare with life getting in the way so thanks for sharing with us and thanks for the memories it brought up for me.

+1 on looking at standard issue rain gear options. I have used all kinds of motorcycle gear combos over the decades and the gor-tex stuff I use now is great, but nothing beats the cost and functionality of traditional rain gear and the heavy duty/commercial quality is a bargain. Several friends are commercial fisherman and I would often join them and can report first hand the stuff works. They aren't making a fashion statement, but they are getting the protection needed to keep them going in the worst of weather. My old set finally gave up the ghost, but I will get another as they store easily and weigh very little.

Cheers