A friend named Dean has given me his map....and suggested the road through Dillard and Clayton, Warwoman, Blood Mountain, and something called the Russel something or other.  He has been riding in the are 2-3 times a year for the past 14 years.....he prefers the area to the busy Blue Ridge/Dragon/Pigeon Forge areas.

He also suggested that we shouldn't be too concerned about riding somewhere....then taking the same road back.  He said the views change, in one direction the road will be an uphill climb, and the other direction it will be downhill.....and you won't even know you are riding the same road.

Due to body/joints concerns I am going to have to drop out of the full protracted trip and just perhaps be picked up for just a sliver of the whole pie.    I will ride up with you for a day, spend the night then ride back for home the next day, thus staying inside my somewhat smaller 'soft wrought iron butt' limits.

My best join up spot is the Bojangles on HWY 220 (alias Franklin Street) which will be a couple of blocks north (3,000 feet) of the Roanoke Blue Ridge Parkway exits (ya got two of them exits in Roanoke both on HWY 220 alias Franklin street, so you can actually miss the first one and it does not matter at all whatsoever as the second one works just as well).

The Bojangles is located at 4440 Franklin Rd, Roanoke, VA 24014
(540) 206-2711

I will give you the number for the cell I will be carrying at trip time, since that number shifts around depending on the phone I choose to carry due to best reception.   Might even be my Google Fi phone, it has unlimited data reception off of T-Mobile, United Cellular or Sprint towers so it gets everything other than AT&T towers.

Google Fi, gotta love them.   Makes the handle bar Google map thing very easy to do.   I just ordered me a larger phone holder with corner keeper elastic thingies, so now I can use my big phone without playing catch with it.                    

Now all you need to do is get up a meet up time that seems reasonable to you and text it in to my cell phone that night when you stop for the first time.   Or call me.  Dave will be with you by then and his phone works really well with my phone -- we proved that on the last trip.

How is that for flexible?     As long as you can tell me the approximate Roanoke meet up time up at least four-five hours in advance I can roll to hit it pretty much on the dot.    

And I will be sipping tea, reading a paperback and enjoying AC comfort during my wait time at the Bojangles.

I agree with Dave, unless we have some takers (folks ringing in on this thread discussing what they want to do) then this is an exercise in futility.

I have a gut feel that we have done too many items of late that were too closely spaced and what we really need is some time off pending getting us some folks ringing in with firm commitments to attend these events.

Cancellation penalties for reserving some of these places are running from 50% all the way up to 100% now, so you can see why us event organizers are getting a little skittery.  

I can't afford to have more of these impromptu "free weekends" due to having committed to a cabin early enough to get one and finding we only have 1-2 people going after all the chatter stops.

BTW Dave, I just called the Mi Mountain guy and cancelled the reservations for next month.  

We have no entanglements that I know of now and are all the way back down to ground zero.

I plan on going to the NC/TN area 2-3 times a summer.....and my enclosed trailer makes it so I can go anytime I want.....it is easy to stay in the back of the trailer and I don't need a cabin.  But as you say.....when you make it a group event that requires a cabin or bunkhouse....it gets financially risky.  If tent camping.....then there is no need for advance planning, as most places have room for us to throw up a tent.

There is no risk with the August event at my house....if it rains out and nobody comes....nobody pays!  The roads up here are just as good as the ones we found in GA....the scenery offers hills instead of mountains.

For this thread on the July trip.....we just need to know if anyone additional would come if we actually had a permanent location and weren't traveling.  Some may only make it for a day or two, and that is fine - but it makes it far easier to hook up if we have a location where they can easily find us.

Dave wrote on 06/19/16 at 16:22:16:


Same as we've recently discussed, I'm in for an event based ride as I can only drive up Friday night and ride Saturday and Sunday, drive home Sunday night.  I'm flexible, so if arrangements change last minute in my favor I'll be ready.

If the event is a traveling circus on the Blue Ridge Parkway....then likely we will be living in tents and not need any reserved lodging.  We will just take our chances on finding campgrounds that can provide a place to pitch a tent.  For this event I suspect that MMRanch and Dave(me) are the only full time participants....Stewmills likely will drive up Friday night and ride Saturday....then on Sunday he will have to ride back to his truck/trailer......Oldfeller may not be up to the trip.

If the event morphs into a stay at Stecoah and the Kick Stand Lodge - then I suspect the participants are MMRanch, Dave, Oldfeller, and Stewmills for the Friday night lodging/Saturday ride,Sunday morning ride.

I will have a City Council meeting again on that preceding Wednesday July 20th, and I likely will again just leave after the meeting and drive down and arrive late in the night.....and be ready to start riding on Thursday July 21st.  I will bring my trailer again and I can sleep in it....so for me lodging is never a problem.  If we want a cabin at Kick Stand Lodge...we could reserve one and it has 2 double beds, somebody could sleep on the floor, and I can sleep in my trailer.  And I can pack my tent and cots.....and we really don't need a cabin if folks are willing to sleep in tents.

 

I'll get wherever we start on Thurs and leave for Richmond on Sunday morning.