Magic Bus Tour- North Carolina and Virginia, Days 30-34

Late April, 2013

 

So I broke camp and was ready to high tail it out of Georgia, but I wound up taking the long and winding road that perhaps The Beatles wrote about as I burned up my brakes on the numerous, twisty, steep grades leaving Cooper's Creek. After crossing the state border I blinked and almost passed right through that evening's rest stop, the tiny country town of Franklin, North Carolina.  One of those kind of towns that still has a "Main Street" that looks like a "Main Street" and very few other streets. One of those towns with a 25 mph Speed limit "to tame them new confounded loud smelly wheelie contraptions".

 

The next morning I awoke and drove through the slightly bigger mountain town of Bryson City, but including  "City" in the name must be an inside joke. It does however grant access to another epic mountain bike trail system called Tsali. I only got to do one of the loops before my knee screamed at me to quit, but with four loops in total I would have to give this place a really high rating even sight unseen. You'll have to spend 2 days there if you want to do all the loops because you can only do 2 a day as they alternate with the horses. Well, horse riders. And based on the lack of horse poop I'd say those horse riders are reserving much more time than they really need.  However, there is a very nice campground there though so it is very convenient to spend the night and get to do the whole trail system. I might just have to do that at some point in the future.

Mage gave me a scare when she stalled on me twice and in a secluded, no cell service mountain area. I was relieved when I popped the hood and saw that one of the air filter ducts was loose and sucking in straight air. You might not think that taking in too much air would cause a stall, but it does! I realized that after installing the battery isolator and trying to run the engine with the air filter removed.  

Confident that the problem was resolved, but not cocky I decided to get out of the mountains (after the trail ride of course) and head for Asheville just in case some more in depth repairs would be needed. All seemed well with Mage so I made for one of America's Scenic By-ways, "The Blue Ridge Parkway". Definitely worth a "Sunday Drive", it's chock full of some wonderful scenery interspersed with areas to pull over and take in the views. However, I would also recommend the occasional detour to drive along one of the roads on the map that you have to squint to see. There's something special about driving the local roads, gliding through the farmlands and spotting those rusty antique cars and old farm equipment amid the rolling hills and methodically plotted plantings.

Back on the Blue Ridge Parkway I stopped at mile 115 for another trail ride. I really wasn't expecting much of it, but it was on the way. Boy did I underestimate it! The Beginner's 1 mile loop was fast a furious as you would expect. Then I rode the first half of the Intermediate course and it too was rather fast and flowing. Then I hopped on the 1.4 mile Expert section even though I normally stay away from the tough stuff when riding alone in the middle of nowhere. Well it offered  downed trees,  slippery leaf covered, off camber and super steep sections nearly impossible to traverse and capped it off with the occasional thorn bush branch reaching out to say, "Hello, Nice to meet you! Would you care to donate blood today?". Needless to say I walked a fair bit of that section. Then to add insult to injury I hopped back on to do the last half of the Intermediate trail and it too got rather technical so that by the time I had thoroughly explored "Explore Park" as it's known, my butt was thoroughly dragging!

Now for a slight detour into culinary news. Being a vegetarian, fast food has never really had much to offer for me, but Burger King and Subway both offer veggie burgers so I have occasionally dined with them, but after recently learning how they and that other "clown outfit" are poisoning us I have sworn them off. It seems they add to their breads a chemical called Azodicarbonamide* that's only use is in the making of plastics. This chemical is banned from not only food, but food packaging in... well..... just about every other country on the planet. No wonder you can put that crap on the sidewalk and none of Mother Nature's critters will touch it. Bon appétit! So as a result I have become a frequent purveyor and budding connoisseur of Asian buffets.  Is it better than fast food? Well, that all depends on your choices. Yes, you can overdose on MSG and oil and too much food in general, but with some discernment you can also do quite well. And I have been doing pretty well, except that there is always that damn dessert aisle! However, even at the most packed of buffets, it is really easy to spot the plastic and thus refrain from eating it!

Anyway, I've driven the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway and I'm now in Woodstock. Janis Joplin, Hendrix and Santana are nowhere to be found, but I'm a hop skip and a jump away from High View, West Virginia where I'll be tomorrow to start a week long personal meditation retreat.

More to come on the flipside, if I don't take a detour into Nirvana!

*(http://www.examiner.com/article/azodicarbonamide-another-reason-to-avoid-most-bread)

Georgia- Days 25-29

Georgia is on my mind. How couldn't it be? It's smack dab in the way of my progressing up north. Fortunately I still have some friends in Atlanta so I'm gonna make the most of it. 

Crossing the border from Florida I immediately stop to fuel up. At $3.33 per gallon I briefly consider just doing laps around Georgia for the remainder of the trip, but a bookstore billboard catches my eye and I decide to have a look. First I go next door and have a stroll at the Antique's store which is a very large utopia for anyone into that kind of thing, but it also has a seriously good collection of vinyl too. If you're looking for new tunes to rock those needles let me know, I'll send you directions.

Now I enjoy reading. I used to do quite a lot of it, but these days it's mostly via the web. However, on a trip like this some thread bound paper and ink is never a bad thing. Even if only to start a campfire. The problem is that I hate searching for books. When I walk into a bookstore my brain just sort of freezes up and shorts out from information overload. I do slightly better in libraries where I find it easier to zone in on what I find interesting, but I decided long ago to more or less give up on finding books and focus instead on letting books find me!

I know that may sound like some Age of Aquarius mumbo jumbo, but I have to tell you that although I haven't been constantly reading lately, the books I have read are all winners. So it's with some intrepidity that I stroll into this bookstore. I quickly realize that one way or the other it's going to be a quick trip. Fifty percent of the books are Bibles, another 40% of the books are about the Bible and the remainder are, I assume, filed under the genre of "slightly to mostly blasphemous". 

Amazingly I came away with three books. The Auto- biographical Volume 1 of Mark Twain who happens to be one of my favorite authors, nearly tackled me as I walked down its aisle. It's a tome and with its weight and girth it simply jumped out in front of me and demanded that I buy it. Out of curiosity I decided to see if they would carry anything Buddhist and to my surprise I found my second purchase, the one and only book of that type in the store. Lastly, at the checkout they offered a  book by Mr. Rogers for fifty cents. When I was very young, maybe 6 or 7, I  remember exclaiming very loudly to my Mother as I pointed to him on the T.V., "I DON'T LIKE HIM!!". I can't remember exactly why I objected so much to Mr. Rogers, but I suspect he was just too nice and sugary. However, as an adult I can respect his message and heart so I felt I had to give him a second chance and bought his book for a penance. Though I do hope it isn't too sickly sweet.  

Heading deep into Georgia I had planned on staying in Oconee National Forest for the evening. Unfortunately, I didn't do much actual planning and drove around and through about 80% of it trying to locate the Ranger station and only finding private homes everywhere which I thought was very odd for a National Forest. Needless to say you can guess where the Ranger station check-in was (somewhere in the other 20%) and I eventually gave up on the idea and settled for another night of concrete camping. 

The actual heart of my Georgia trip I'm going to keep short because it was about getting  caught up with a couple of old band mates and although vastly fulfilling for me, it would be of little interest to others. Suffice it to say that they are doing well and I'm very happy to learn that they have not let their creative sparks die and are as successful as ever. A third band mate whom I didn't even know was living there was working so I missed him, but it was nice to hear his voice and catch up on the phone. 

Progressing north I was a little bummed that plans fell apart to have breakfast with an old mountain biking buddy due to residuals of a dental procedure, but he did confirm what I would be doing for the afternoon. Riding Blankets. No, not sleeping in between the sheets. Riding "Blankets",  a top-rated trail system near Woodstock, GA. I never in my life saw a trail parking lot with close to 100 cars in it! Roswell Bikes and Specialized even had tents set up and demo bikes available. I'm not quite sure why I skipped on demoing a $5000 bike? I guess I was either afraid of trashing it or afraid of taking too much of a liking to it! All in all, a great place to ride. They put a lot of work into it and it's well laid out.

One last night of camping in Georgia, I stayed at Cooper's Creek in Cohutta National Forest. I thought it was funny that neither the camp host or the camp Ranger were familiar with my "America the Beautiful" Annual Inter-Agency Pass. It wasn't quite like a bad movie parody, "We ain't never seen one a does 'fore!", but I still had to chuckle and then settled into a cool evening by the "creeking crick". Actually with the sounds of the water flowing over some of the rocks, it was more of a "babbling brook", I'd say. I couldn't understand what it was trying to say, but that didn't stop me from trying. It kind of sounded like it was saying, "Aren't you glad you're not in that horrendous Atlanta traffic anymore?" The answer to which would be a resounding "Hell Yes!". 

So it's off to North Carolina.....

The End of Florida

Days 21-24

This 17th Century Bronze statue and its twin were brought back from China by Mr. Ripley, Believe It or Not!

When you reach St. Augustine many will stop at the Pirate & Treasure or Ripley's Museum, but  it's obligatory to check out the historic side of this city. There are a few interesting old churches and graveyards with their back stories, but the main draw from a historic point of view has to be the Castillo de San Marcos overlooking the old harbor as the only extant 17th century military construction in the country . Nestled snugly into the ground, it looks deceivingly diminutive from not too far back on its expansive grounds, but formidable when up close.

Castillo de Marcos

 Legend has it that on full moons atop the castle walls you can witness the ghosts of Ponce de Leon and his men battling it out with Seminole Indians and later would-be  invaders of the New World in a perpetual duel of swords, arrows, musket and cannon fire. And on really foggy nights angry spatterings of their native tongues can be heard echoing  across the waters. O.K., I made all that up, but hey, it's just another ghost story of which there are many in this, "America's most haunted city". 

Continuing up the coast I passed another ancient looking castle which caused me to double take and then bang a u-turn to have a closer look. It couldn't be real, but it looked as if it was out of Camelot. Pulling in for a closer look I read a placard that stated the castle was built not long, long ago, but fairly recently as a tribute to Jesus. Medieval castles for Jesus, that's a new one to me!

Up in Jacksonville Beach the population, at least at the beach, seemed to be decidedly less gray in the hair than the rest of Florida. Lots of action on the volleyball courts along with Frisbee playing and even a bunch of hippy culture young adults twirling balls on chains and playing with Hula hoops.

With the Florida tour quickly coming to an end I made one last stop at Osceola National Forest as I headed west towards Atlanta. Stopping at the Ranger's office to check-in and get a map I seemed to have interrupted the girl from her game of solitaire based on the wry look she gave me. "There is no check-in, no fees, camp anywhere, just don't dig anything up or burn anything down!" I was actually quite pleased with this reply and laissez-faire approach to managing the forest. Just the way I like it, you leave me alone and I'll leave you alone and we can both just mind our own business. 

I'm not sure what to say about Osceola. Historically, the Confederacy and Union armies met in the largest battle fought on Florida soil during the Civil War, the Battle of Olustee . Today apparently they do a lot of hunting there, but it's an odd park. I believe in the past it was over forested and then non native species began to take over. More recently they decided to burn out all the non native species (and everything else) and then replant and restore the area. The weird part that I noticed as I rode my bike along the fire roads is that all they seemed to replant are really tall, thin Pine trees reaching for the sky and short Date Palms holding down the fort along the ground. No oaks, no bigger palms, no anything else! It makes for a monotonous view with no points of reference (same flatness as the rest of Florida. Have I mentioned how Freaking Flat Florida is?!). However, if you do lose your way one thing is for sure, if you just stay between any one of the millions of perfectly straight lined rows of Pines you know at least you won't be going around in circles! So who knows, you might be "down" with it, or you might not "dig" it; just don't burn it "down" or "dig" it up! 

With that said there is one small section of heavily wooded swamp which is really cool. They've built a boardwalk a nice distance into it that gets you right out in it and makes you feel like part of an ecosystem which you wouldn't otherwise experience unless you were brave enough to put on waders and get chest deep in gators. Lastly, I have to give props to the 5 ft. Black snake who I nearly ran over. He seemed completely nonplussed by my presence, then hung out long enough for me get my camera and even posed for a few shots.

Late, on my last night in Florida in the wee hours of the morning, I had to get up to wee. The scene of stars through the canopy of towering Pine trees was spectacular. I almost set up the camera to capture it. Then I decided to capture some more sleep instead. I figure the stars aren't going anywhere!

 I, however, am!

 I've got Georgia on my mind.....

The Path Taken So Far.

{Technical Note for you number crunching engineers: At 4:30am (~max. Depth of discharge for the House Batteries) I had a reading of 12.56 Volts. That's only 0.04V less than full charge! Awesome!!} (Or maybe I was dreaming?!?!?)

West Coast to East Coast of Florida: Days 11-20

April  4, 2012

The last port of call on my Floridian west coast tour was the Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater area. The weather was gray and rainy, not the right conditions for getting my rollercoaster fix at Busch Gardens or even the old standby of bathing at the beach. 

Twisted mind, twisted architecture- Dali Museum

So what can you do on a dismal day? Go to the movies or go to a museum, I chose the latter and visited the Dali Museum in St. Pete's. The building itself is interesting and worth a gander for the architecture, but the exhibit is what you go for and I wasn't disappointed. If you happen to go on a Thursday evening you can get a half price ticket for entrance from 5-8pm. Enough time to take it all in and not feel rushed. I recommend  partaking of the free audio guide headset to get a deeper appreciation of the art and a more in depth peek into the wonderfully warped mind of Dali and his obsessions with the atomic world, clocks and his muse. As a bonus, with the audio guide it's like going to a museum and catching a movie all at the same time!

April 5

Traveling back eastward I camped out at Kissimmee State Park. Unfortunately I didn't get anyone to kiss-a-me and even the wildlife seemed to be hiding from me, but it's always nice to sleep under the stars.

April 6-10

The following day I made it to Melbourne Beach where I would eventually meet up with a buddy that I hadn't seen since high school. While grabbing some dinner and watching the Flyers play another horrible game I quizzed the gentlemen on my left from Iowa about what I should see if I head through his home state. "If you like floating down a cold lazy river, we got them. Otherwise, not much else." O.K., I'll be sure to keep Iowa off of the itinerary! Then a guy sat to my right and after discovering that he grew up in San Diego and surfed, we hit it off right away. Rich would quickly become my newest best friend over the next few days, surfing together, sipping frosties, and capping it all off with a great dinner courtesy of his lovely wife. To boot I also came away with a great seaweed salad recipe and a freshly made batch for the road! A couple of other suggestions where he didn't steer me wrong were Da Kine Diego which has an "Insane Burrito" which is Huge! I was just insane enough to eat the whole thing in one sitting. Also, The Big Mansion in Historic Melbourne is a great roof top open air venue for sunset dining or drinks.

My high school buddy, Eric, hooked me up with a couple of great lures and the guys at Spectrum Surf Shop in Indiatlantic who were cool enough to let me park there for a few days. The first night there I ran into Spectrum's manager at The Monkey Bar. An entertaining place to say the least. Part surf bar, part rock bar, part country bar this place had it all. Hotties running around in their cowboy boots, halter tops and daisy dukes (gets me everytime), 3 live hard rock bands, pool tables and beer. What more can you ask for? Well how about, and I think every bar should have one of these, a mechanical Bull! I had to give it a ride and yes, I made it more than 8 seconds. I won't say if I rode one of the cowgirls, but I will say that if I did you can believe it would be for longer than 8 seconds!

April 11

Canaveral National Seashore- great spot for shell picking

Beginning a northerly track I moved on up to Cape Canaveral National Seashore. There I picked up my "America the Beautiful Pass" which will get me into all the National Parks and Federally managed lands. I headed to the southernmost point, maybe because I prefer the "road less traveled", maybe because I heard that it was a "clothing optional" beach! After a short bike ride I hit the beach and went for a swim as Mother Nature intended. It's amazing how fast the body surfing is without any unnecessary drag.

I would have camped out there for the night, but all they had available were island sites that you had to reach by canoe. The beach sites are currently all reserved for the Sea Turtles. As great as it sounded to camp out on your own deserted island, the water/wind conditions weren't great and I just couldn't bare to do it without my camera gear coming along. I also just couldn't risk it.

Mage wasn't quick enough to qualify! :(

Oh well, on to Daytona Beach, "America's Most Famous Beach" and home to "Bike Week" and the Daytona International Speedway. No need for a pit stop there as  I couldn't drive on the track, but I did do a few laps by it, "clean passes" if you will. One note of interest: the beaches there are of fine compact sand and very wide facilitating beach access for your car! Talk about a good parking spot!

April 13

On the way out of Daytona I attempted to make reservations to camp out at Ocala State Forest, putting in several phone calls that went unanswered. Thinking that they might be sleeping by the phone I drove there, but either no one was home or the one manning the office is a bear in hibernation! So I missed out on that. Ce la vie! 

Next stop, the haunted town of St. Augustine, first city of Florida, landing spot of Ponce de Leon!..........