So this all started out very innocent. I had some time off work, and I started looking at flights, not really expecting to find anything decent, because, well, just because. There’s not been a lot out there lately that caught my eye. But then, out of the blue, into the blue.. there it was. €281 return Shannon – New York JFK, with Delta, round trip, including taxes and fees! How could you not book that. So that’s what happened.
The flights were booked before I’d really thought this through, so when I actually got around to looking at hotel prices, I was horrified at the prices. Horrified!! They’re outrageous!!
So the decision was almost made for me. You cannot stay in New York for 2 weeks. There isn’t enough money in the world to pay for 14 consecutive hotel nights in NYC. So I had to get out of town. But where? ?
Again, the internet had the answer, and within no time at all, a one way plane ticket to New Orleans had been secured. The rest was the easy bit. If I spend two days in NOLA, and two days in NYC, then I have precisely 10 days to somehow make my way between the two.
This is completely do-able. Right?
Two days and nights was followed by a long drive through Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to Maryville, Tenessee. Strangely enough, Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson is here.
The ‘Dragon’ is a good road, no doubting that. But the other roads around here are even better. The dragon is tight, advertised as 300 odd turns in 11 miles, and the surface is good.. It’s just the Foothills Parkway and the 441 from Gatlinburg to Cherokee I thought were better. Faster and with good flow. The dragon is too tight to build decent flow, but I doubt I’d be saying that if I’d been on a small Japanese sports bike and not lugging the John Deere around ;o).
Also, am allergic to MC culture and backpatches. I just want to ride my bike and I don’t feel I have shit to prove to anyone, so the Clare top was my personal oppositional attire.
The famed Blue Ridge Parkway. Cherokee to Waynesboro, but I stayed at Charlottesville at the end, because Charlottesville. Seriously. The town is buzzing with life and soul.
Washington DC, the penultimate stop on this adventure, and a couple more days to relax and explore. Dinner in Seven Reasons, followed by beers and moskow mules. No reason to complain.
And the final push of the trip. Into Jersey and NYC via the Holland Tunnel. Believe it or not, there wasn’t a single toll road in this entire trip till today, and then today made up for lost time with $60+ of tolls.
Also, apparently Kendall Jenner is a turd. I can’t confirm this personally, but the poster seems sure of it.