The Straight and Boring

I woke up this morning to an alarm that I didn't know I'd set, it was quiet at first, and then got louder, like it was right next to my tent. It was this guy:

And he was right next to my tent. He must have started making noise as he was hopping up to greet me. He didn't say much after I noticed him, but he did hang around to make sure I got out of bed.

Shortly after getting up I realized that I had a headache and a stiff neck. I felt a little like I was hungover, but without the guilt and remorse that makes it really terrible. Maybe I didn't drink enough water yesterday…

In any case, the way I felt made the already boring roads even worse. I wound up on Interstates most of the day to get myself through Southern Michigan and up to Saginaw. I had intended to go farther, but the headache made me stop more often and take it a little slower.

The result of riding Interstates, as usual, is that I saw nothing, talked to almost no one, and experienced very little during the day. As disappointing as I found the day I was pleased to have still made progress north, and therefore closer to home.

I ended the day with the Peace Group in Saginaw, MI. It was a book study and we read a story that I don't think I've read before. I was struck by a passage about the author's surprise at other member's caring. It reminded me that the magic of this whole thing is in that care for one another. And that the love that strangers can have in this fellowship is incredible and not found in many places. Thanks, Peace Group!

After the meeting I found a Motel 6 and got a room to see if I can get rid of this stiff neck by sleeping in a bed. Here's to hopin'.

Of All Things...

Today was another day filled with wonderful and amazing little surprises - Things I had no idea would happen on this trip.

After I had some coffee and packed up the bike I called Phil to see if he wanted to get breakfast. He was too tired from working all night long, but he recommended that I go to the Fort Shawnee Diner and Dairy Bar about fifteen miles outside of town. I wasn't starving, so I went out there, and when I pulled up it looked like the place was closed, but the door was open so in I went.

I ordered the french toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs, and I am fairly certain that the eggs were the best I've had the entire trip. They were perfect, still a little runny, and I could tell they were farm fresh. The bacon was nice and thin and crisp, without being burnt, and the french toast was just cinnamony enough to be delicious. It was the perfect breakfast.

After that I rode north from the river on some wonderful roads through the hills. The scenery was wonderful, but I am sorry to say that nothing stood out as needing to be photographed, so there are no photos today.

I stopped in Greenfield for a break and while I was enjoying the half sun through the clouds a man in a pickup said, "You've come a long way, haven't you?"

I told him I'd come the really long way and that I still had a ways to go. He smiled and told me to be safe. I said that I would and started to turn away, but he said, "Here, this'll keep you safe." I turned around. "It's a buckeye," he said.

"Well, thank you, I appreciate that." I said as I pocketed the gift.

He nodded, started his truck and drove off.

That's when I decided to do the daily hunt for an iPhone 4. I have kept this mostly to myself until now because it has only frustrated me, but today I found one! In Washington Court House, OH of all places. So I rode up there and I made it there before someone else wanted it. Now I have a new phone that I don't feel like throwing across the room every time I use it (iPhone 3G + iOS4 = CRAP!), and the extra bonus is that I got to hang out with the folks in the store and chat about the trip. I just love it when people are interested. Thanks, AT&T people in Washington Court House!

From there I continued north to get to Defiance, OH. When I saw Defiance on the map I thought, "I have go there. That name is way too good to skip." The ride was pretty nice, but one unfortunate thing happened - the roads got straight and flat again. They even had 35 mph curve warning signs on 65 mph curves. These people have obviously never seen curvy roads. I think they should just have a yellow warning sign with a straight arrow on it to warn you that you will not turn…for 100 miles.

So, I managed to make it to Defiance for the 8:30 meeting. Trouble was that the 8:30 meeting had been moved to 7:00, so I'd missed it. Luckily, Randall had missed it too. Randall was visiting from Texas and was in front of the club when I pulled up. Without a meeting we decided to have our own out in front, and that was exactly what I needed, just some good one-on-one talking time. Thanks, Randall!!

Randall was also nice enough to ask his family about camping nearby and passed along that there was a spot called Shepherd's Pasture out on highway 15. They also had a phone number, so I called, but there was no answer so I figured I would just drive out 15 and see what I could find.

On my way out of town I passed the Central Fire Station and the guys were all out front talking to the Sheriff, and I thought, "If anyone knows their way around this place it's these guys." So I stopped and asked about a place to camp.

They all discussed my options, and sounded like they were coming up with nothing, so I said, "I've heard about this Shepherd's Pasture place, but don't really know where it is." And that's when the Sheriff, Chris, got on his radio and called his office to sake if they had a contact number for the owner. (This was getting good.) The office said they did have a number and he asked them to call and see about a spot for me. And they did!

When Chris got off his radio he said, "Just follow me and I'll get you there." Really!? Of all the things I thought might happen on this trip, a police escort to a campground certainly wasn't one of them. The last time I had a police escort it was back to my dad's house…and not friendly at all. Who knew?

When we got to the campground Chris had to run off for another call, but gave me his card in case I needed anything. I love small towns! Thank you Chris, and all the firefighters, not only for the help, but also for the job that you do every day, I appreciate it very much!

Kentucky Rednecks

This morning after breakfast I was sitting out in front of the hotel having a smoke and met the most wonderful person, Marty. She walked out of the front door of the hotel, looked at me sitting on the bench, and pointing to the empty seat next to me, said, "I'm gonna sit here, and I promise to behave myself." I chuckled a little and she sat down.

After a moment I turned to her and asked, "So, what brings you to Harlan, Kentucky?"

She smiled and said, "I'm Harlan High class of fifty-eight and we have a little reunion every two years. Actually I didn't graduate from Harlan, in fact I didn't get my diploma until nineteen ninety-eight, but I like coming back here to see the people."

We talked for a bit about Harlan and I told her some about the trip, and then she got a phone call. I'm not sure who was on the other end, but I do know that just after saying hello she said, "Now sweetie, you're gonna have to make this quick. I'm out in front of the hotel and I've got a man cornered."

I wish I hadn't been drinking coffee right when she said that, because I spit a little out my nose and laughed.

When she got off the phone it was like nothing had ever happened. Marty just went right back to talking. She told me a lot about what it was like growing up in here. Harlan, like a lot of eastern Kentucky, is a coal town, and Marty thinks there is something about having one's father be in constant peril that makes the entire town pull together and become a big family. She remembers being in high school and being conscious that some people had more money than others, but no one was better than anyone else, and everyone looked out for each other.

Marty was a wealth of information, including knowing the origin of the term
'redneck.' "It started right here in Harlan County," she said. "In the thirties there was a lot of turmoil in the mining community, and all the union miners and union supporters wore red bandanas around their necks. That way people could tell who was who."

I think it's incredible that something like that can get so turned around through the years.

After we talked for a little while I told her the details of my trip, and we had a wonderful talk about the importance of friends and family. We had talked some about it earlier, but I told her about my travels through the biggest family on earth, and she smiled from ear to ear.

Talking with Marty reminded me why I wanted to take this trip in the first place - to talk to folks about life. Thanks for sharing the bench with me, Marty!

After my talk with Marty I was ready to get back on the road, she had fired me up. I started north again and found highway 160 through eastern Kentucky. I have tried to keep expectations to a minimum for this trip because that allows for more great surprises, and Kentucky was easily one of the biggest surprises. This place in beautiful! The mountains are lush, the farmland is fertile and green, and the roads are great:

I wound my way north and ended the day in Portsmouth, OH. When I got into town I went straight to the meeting place and was lucky to pull up next to Phil. He reassured me that I was in the right place for a meeting, but it wasn't for another hour. I asked him about a place to eat and he said, "There's a great place for footers just up there."

I said, "OK," and I didn't tell him that I was unsure what a footer was, but I wanted to find out. So I went to the little stand and then it dawned on me that a footer was a foot-long hot dog. Duh. So, I had a footer and net back over to the church.

The meeting was the 12 and 12 Group and it was a speaker meeting. I have to say that I was a little relieved to just be able to sit and listen for a change, and I was really grateful for the story that I heard.

After the meeting I asked Phil about places to camp and he was kind enough to arrange a campsite with his nephew, Dave, and also take me to his house to have a shower. Thanks, Phil!

After setting up camp I had a chance to sit with Dave by the campfire and chat about life and recovery. What a treat to have good company by the fire on the bank of the Ohio river. Thanks, Barb and Dave!

Faith Renewed

This morning I woke up in my tent and it was hot again, so I decided almost immediately that a hotel room would be a good idea. I took my time getting my things together and packed on the bike and rode back to town and checked back into get the A/C.

It was a good thing, too, that I decided to get a hotel, because I needed to do laundry and take a shower if I was going to be anything that resembled presentable for the meeting tonight at the treatment center. I kept myself busy most of the day, and that meant that my mind wasn't running about what I was going to say until I was on my way up the hill to the meeting, and then it started to race. I kept thinking about all the things that I wanted to say and how I was gonna tie it all together, and it was soon just a mess up there.

Then, when I walked into the room and saw that the place was more packed with people than I thought it was going to be, I really started to panic. I went outside to smoke and collect myself a bit, and said something that resembled a prayer. When I got back into the room I still had no idea what I was going to say, but realized that it didn't matter. I was going to say whatever I said, and that was going to be fine.

And that's exactly what I did. I stood up at the podium and I talked, and when I started running out of things to say I turned to look at the clock and I was out of time. Perfect! I have no idea what I said, but I know that I spoke and that people seemed to enjoy it, and I felt great. And not just because it was over, but because I had been given the chance to share my story with a room full of people I'd only known for 23 hours. It was certainly one of those times that I knew I was in the right place at the right time, and I felt that.

When I walked out of the treatment center I looked at the sky and saw this:

Someone's looking out for us…

As I was leaving someone mentioned that they were going to the meeting down in Harlan and I figured I'd stop in for the chance to hear someone else talk for a while. The meeting was great, and there was even another Nick there who has most of the same story that I do! Maybe it's in the name…

Thank you so much to the people of Harlan, especially Stacy for having the courage to ask me to speak, Shawn, for the support, and Nick, for telling my story when I needed to hear it. You all (Y'all) gave me the most wonderful couple of days at a time when I really needed it, and it means more than you may ever know. Keep doing the deal, Harlan!

Dude Bless the Blue Highways

This morning I hunted down another wonderful breakfast at a place called the Little House of Pancakes. I would have gone with the all-you-can-eat pancakes, but the special was a waffle, and I am sort of partial to waffles. I considered sticking around for a bit and updating the blog, but when I went outside it smelled like rain and there were dark clouds looming all around so I hightailed it out of town in hopes of staying dry.

I didn't really have a destination in mind for the day, I just knew that I wanted to get farther north, so I just took random turns onto highways headed north and was reminded that the back roads of this country really are where it's at. Had I been on an Interstate I never would have known that this little spot on the Pigeon River existed:

I stayed in this little spot for a little while and wondered what it must have been like to find this spot for the first time in the middle of nowhere. Not only is it a beautiful little spot to look at, but there were fish jumping all over the place and it would be a great source of food. It's no wonder people settle by the water, it's so peaceful!

A little ways down the road I stopped for some coffee and found highway 70 on the map to take me north and cut the corner of Virginia into Kentucky. What a fabulous road! Only out in the country can you see horses on the side of the road:

Have a little kitty come up to you at a gas station and cover your legs with hair and yell at you for something,  then glare at you when you leave:

AND get to twist and turn up over the wooded hills. Dude Bless the Blue Highways!

Before coming up 70 I found that there was a meeting in Harlan, KY. It wasn't very far to ride, but the meetings are a little sparse out here so I went for it.

The meeting was packed! And mostly because there is a women's treatment center nearby and that meant that about 60 of them came down to the meeting in vans. It was one of the few meetings I have been to where the women outnumbered the men by so many.

We talked about the responsibility we have to the fellowship and it's members and it was a really great little discussion with lots of talk of gratitude. After the meeting Stacy asked me if I might like to stop back through Harlan on my way home and speak at the treatment center. I told her that this was my way back through, but that if it was in the next couple of days I would be happy to. She took my phone number and said that she would call later to let me know. Lo and behold, when I got to my campsite my phone rang and it was Stacy telling me that they would love it if I could come speak tomorrow night! Although speaking at a women's treatment center is something that I never thought I would be asked to do I accepted because I was told early on to say yes when asked to do things like that.

So it looks like I will be spending an extra night in Kentucky tomorrow, and I have to say I am a little nervous, but I now understand why I made the turns I did onto the highways to get me to Harlan. Now I will try to ignore the butterflies and remember to be grateful for the opportunity. Thanks, Stacy!

Trying to Do Nothing

I woke up early this morning to make sure that I got the free breakfast at the hotel, and realized that I would not have missed it if I'd stayed in bed. But as I woke up it occurred to me that staying another night in the air conditioning and a bed might be a pretty nice deal, so I paid for another night and then decided to go for a little ride up the mountain before the day got too hot.

I rode out into Great Smoky Mountain National Park and the traffic began to close in around me, apparently I wasn't the only one with the idea. I found out later that the reason for all the traffic is that one third of the US population lives within a day's drive of Gatlinburg, and the means that everyone wants to go on vacation here.

I rode on in spite of the crowds and pulled off in lots of turnouts to let the swarms pass, only to get caught in them again five minutes later.

At one turnout near the summit I met Jack, a truly Harley biker looking guy riding a 1980's BMW K75S. He told me that he has a newer softail Harley at home, but it kills him to ride it more than an hour, and he didn't know where he was going to end up so he took the BMW.

We talked about the weather we have been through and he said he managed to miss all the rain yesterday, which he explained by saying that he had someone riding with him. I took that to mean the Dude, but he really meant the ashes of an old drinking buddy.

Evidently this friend of his had told him years ago that if he ever got really sick he wanted Jack to get a gallon of whiskey and take him up in the mountains to a big oak tree where they could have one last drinking bout, and he wanted Jack to leave him there to die.

As I pondered whether this was a nice thing for a friend to do, he told me that he never had to do that because his friend had died of a heart attack on his porch. Jack has his ashes and takes some with him on rides and spreads a bit of him here and there as he goes. He said he usually has a beer with him when he does it, too. Maybe it's just me, but if I tried to do that it wouldn't be a very long ride…

Jack went on his way and I rode up the rest of the way to Newfound Gap and took some photos. One side in Tennessee:

And the other is North Carolina:

The view was wonderful and I wanted to go farther into the Park, but all the other people did too, so I opted to head back down the mountain to a noon meeting. The ride back down was far less crowded, and afforded me the opportunity to stop for this:

While not the most fun curve of the trip by far, it's novelty ranks pretty high. It really does wind all the way around and end in a tunnel beneath where you started. Neat.

I went back to the North Gatlinburg Group for a noon meeting and had a wonderful talk about the spiritual value of helping others. It was a wonderful way to spend the noon hour. Thanks again, North Gatlinburg Group!

After the meeting I went to lunch at the Mountain Lodge, where the waitress asked where I rode in from. I told her the story that I have started to tell most people, and that's that I wanted to take a long motorcycle trip, and that I want to marry Mandy, so I figured that I'd better get the trip out of my system now.

Apparently she liked the story because she told at least one other one other woman in the place and the other woman came over and gave me a list of books to read about marriage. From what I gather they are Christian Counseling books about making marriage work, and I appreciate the thought.

After lunch I spent the rest of the day doing as close to nothing as possible, and I am ready to continue north in the morning.

the really good kind of 151

When I left Asheville this morning I took two bits of advice from Lani and Jay. First, I stopped to eat at the Country Kitchen for breakfast, and I was glad I did. For one thing, I got to have fried bologna and eggs for breakfast…Awesome! And second, the waitress called me honey the whole time. Sure, she called everyone else that, too, but it made me feel like I was a regular, and that was refreshing given the day I had yesterday.

The second thing Lani and Jay said I should do is ride highway 151 up to the Parkway. When I rounded a corner in a 55mph zone and saw this:

I knew I was in for a treat. The locals call it their version of Deal's Gap, and with good reason. It's a short run but tremendously fun, and I was busy the whole way up the hill. Awesome! Thanks again, Jay and Lani!

When I got to the Parkway I was ready for a little stretch and stopped at Mount Pisgah. When I pulled in I got to talking with a guy on a Harley from Virginia. I never did get his name, but we had a really nice little chat about nothing in particular, and I was again reassured that there are talkative people out there.

So we stood there and talked while we watched the thunderstorm brewing to the south, the way we were both headed We concluded that it was not so much a question of whether we would get wet, but more how wet would we get. We talked a bit more, and then decided that we should just go for it.

He took off, and I was still hot from the last few weeks in the heat, so I opted for no rain gear, and I was glad I did. I rode south into the storm and it started to sprinkle, then actually rain. I could see the other side of the storm, so I just kept going because I felt really close to cold for the first time in a long time. When I came out the other side I was a little wet, but felt cool, and relished it!

I stopped at an overlook to see if I could get a photo of the storm, but it had already mostly moved on so here are the remnants:

At the overlook I talked again with the nameless guy from before. We had a smoke together, and then off he went. I took off shortly after and enjoyed the twisty fun of the Parkway until I came around a corner and saw all black sky ahead. I stopped and listened to the storm grumble, and I knew that I'd get really wet without the rain gear, so I geared up. I was right, the storm was wet, and kept going for the last 20 miles or so of the Parkway. I had mixed feelings about the rain, because it made the road less fun, but also kept me from bursting into flames in the 100+ degree heat. In the end I was grateful to have not been sweaty all day long.

I spent the last part of the day's ride in Great Smoky Mountains State Park. It was really wonderful in spite of the drizzle and the traffic. For most of the ride I was meandering along the side of a little river:

The road through the park spit me out onto the main drag of Gatlinburg, TN, where I decided to stay the night. Granted I have only seen a few blocks of the town at this point, but I think this town is what the offspring of Disneyland and Aspen, CO would look like. The main drag is filled with bright family attractions to take your money, but it's tucked in the mountains with a National Park and other mountain activites, too. Strange.

So I got a hotel because I have been craving a bed, and while looking up a meeting another storm came in. The thunder was deafening, and the rain was driving. I was grateful I had arrived when I did, and even more grateful to find that the meeting was only a half block away!

The meeting was the North Gatlinburg Group and it was a book study. I would love to tell you that I read the book regularly while I'm on the road, but I'd be lying, so it was nice to be reading the book again. And the group was great. Being a resort town the meeting was about equal parts visitors and locals and the discussion was great. I remember feeling wonderful in that room, and I am happy I chose to stop here. Thanks, North Gatlinburg!