Day 23

Up late this morning. We got up a 5:45 and couldn't believe it. Must be all the time changes are catching up with us. Hit the road leaving Marion, VA at 8:30 and the fog was lifting and the temperature was 60 degrees. The sun finally popped through and it never got over 80 degrees all day.

The traffic was terrible as everyone was leaving after watching the race at Bristol. It seemed to us that all the race fans came down from the North because it seemed they were all heading back North. It was the worst roads and drivers of the whole trip so far. I think a lot of the drivers were all psyched up on racing and thought it was their turn. I have driven in some bad traffic with some bad drivers but this was horrible.

We got as far as Winchester and decided to call it a day at 3:30 we booked our room for the night. We traveled 337 miles today and see a lot of nice Virginia scenery.

Did you ever hear the story about the guy and his wife on a Harley going cross country? They had rode over 7000 miles in mountains, deserts, coastal highways, cities, badlands, and in all kinds of places. They had a GPS and Atlas and never once got lost. Well it seems this couple was on their 23 day of travel and were going North through Virginia and thought they would ride the Skyline Drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains. They got off an exit for I-64 and went about 30 miles and thought, "This don't seem right" so they stopped to get some gas having learned in Wyoming that it could be a long ways between gas stations. They see there was a nice little diner built onto the gas station so went in to get lunch, after filling their Harley with gas, and asked directions to Waynesboro and Skyline Drive. Well it seems they not only had taken the wrong exit but had went the wrong way also. So the figured what the heck it was a nice lunch and nice people so off they went again. They got to what was the right exit and again it didn't seem right. Stopped for gas and asked direction and guess what. Wrong exit and wrong way again. So they figured that maybe somebody didn't want them on Skyline Drive that day and said "To Hell with it, we can do it next year on our Florida trip".

Have a good day, (we did)
Albert

Day 22

It was a good riding day today. Actually it was a real good day to ride and we had a short ride yesterday and come to find out that was a good thing.

We left Lakeland, TN at 6:30 AM with the temperature at 63 degrees and headed out to see how close to I-81 we could get. Our plan was to go as far as Cookeville, TN which is about 270 miles. Well we got that far real early and decided to go to Knoxville, TN. When we got to Knoxville we figured, since we were feeling real good, we may as well go to Dandridge, TN which is the beginning of I-81 and would be about 400 miles.

Weeeeeeelll!!!!! Did anyone ever hear of Bristol Motor Speedway????? We never did, but we aren't NASCAR fans. But we have heard of it now. Apparently they are having the Sharpie 500 there tonight and you can imagine that would mean motels are booked. They weren't just booked in Bristol either, they were booked for about 100 miles in all directions. The going price for a room that wasn't booked was $200/ night an up. We did find a Super8 that offered us a room for $181+tax because the bathroom had problems. We said no thanks and left. LOL!!

Finally we found a room in Marion, Virginia for twice what he had been paying, but were sick of stopping and asking if they had a room and it was getting late. Anyway, here we are in Marion, VA. which is 531 miles from Lakeland, TN. The first time in 22 days we were told they didn't have any vacancies and paid twice what we did for a room in the Sturgis area.

Oh well, it was a good day to ride and we both were feeling good and we got a lot of miles on today and see a lot of country.
Albert

PS. Marion, VA is on Route 11 the SAME Route 11 that runs through DeKalb Junction. LOL.
I jokingly told Albert that we were going to get out of TN today and he said we wouldn't be going that far. HA HA Albert. LOL.
Susie

Day 21

Waited for the fog to lift a little and left Clarksville, Arkansas at 8:15 AM and headed for Tennessee. We stopped at another interesting place for lunch called the Roadside Bar-B-Q. It had good food and the walls and ceiling were painted white and everybody signs their name, etc. on the walls and ceiling with markers. Something like the place in Sturgis. So we signed our name on the ceiling.

Crossed into Tennesee and into Memphis to go to Graceland. What an amazing place and the hisory of it was something too. We took many, many pictures and walked and walked and walked. You aren't allowed to use flash or take videos. Most pictures come our OK but some were just black. Of course if you don't like Elvis you wouldn't go there in the first place but it was real nice and all the security was nice and helpful also. There was Elvis music playing any where you went. I even sang some Elvis Karoke in one of the buildings. I sang "Fools Rush In" with Elvis. That was cool. We took 2 1/2 hours to do the tour. Most of it is a self guided tour so you can take as long as you want. I can honestly say you could spend a whole day easily.

We left Memphis and got a motel in Lakeland, TN were we are staying tonight. Tomorrow we see how close to I-81 we can get.
Albert