Mark and I were back in the Southeast from July 11-18 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Deals Gap and surrounding areas. We can't seem to get enough of the roads down here. The purpose of the trip was to hit the BMW MOA rally in Johnson City, TN. Total distance was 2,156 miles.

Mark started in Newark, DE, met up with me in Chantilly, VA (D.C. metro area) and we hit West Virginia, Kentucky, Tenessee, Virginia and North Carolina before the week was over. One broken down bike and one torrential downpour, but no accidents. It was a great trip.

Text from Mark in blue font

Day 1 - Friday, July 10 - Seattle to Washington D.C. (Dulles)

No photos. I was just getting over the flu and it was all I could do to get myself on the plane. Mark rolled into VA that evening.

Day 2 - Saturday, July 11 - Washington D.C. to ??, WV

Picked up the rental GS from Eaglerider, DC.

Spent the day traversing rural VA into West Virginia.

1130am Leave Eagle Rider. 66W to exit 27. Route 647 (Road adopted by BMWBMW) and out to Luray VA for lunch. Cool detour off of 66 that quickly let me decompress from the urban jungle we just left. This may be a good trip afterall!........Then 211 S to VA 42 S to 39 W to Summersville, WV. Arrived at 8pm. Daily Mileage 313

Typical scene in Virginia. Very nice

Day 3 - Sunday, July 12 - ??, WV to Prestonsburg, KY

10:45am Leave Summersville for New River Gorge. Rode around Gorge for a while then lunch at the Cathedral Cafe http://www.cathedralcafe.com/ Then backgrounds west across WV and into KY. Stopped for night in Prestonsburg, KY. Daily Mileage 211

At the bottom of the New River Gorge, WV.

Very cool road descending into New River Gorge.

Bridge across the New River.

Downtown Fayetville. Ate lunch at the Cathedral Cafe http://www.cathedralcafe.com/ (blue sign in front of the truck)

Coal trains somewhere in West Virginia

Looking at the coal trains

West Virginia-Kentucky border

Day 4 - Monday, July 13 - Prestonsburg, KY to Asheville, NC

8:30 - 11:30am - Prestonsburg Honda getting new tire on the GS. Nice people there. Then left for loop through KY Coal Country. Spent entire day riding backroads of KY. Isolated roads. Including one gravel section about 5 miles long. met some friendly locals on ATVs. Some roads in KY were very nice. Others covered in gravel, coal dust and coal trucks. Decided we'd had enough of KY and headed south to I-26 and into Asheville. Dinner at the Mellow Mushroom - where else? Daily Mileage 321

Somewhere deep in Kentucky coal country. Looking for a way out...

This is where we stopped to study the map.

Made it to Asheville, NC. Dinner at the Mellow Mushroom cafe

Day 5 - Tuesday, July 14 - Asheville, NC, Deals Gap

Somewhere near Asheville, NC. We were following a gps route downloaded from BMW MOA forum for the rally.

Broke down on Deals Gap. The GS engine dropped a valve.

Eaglerider delivers a new bike. A Honda ST1300.

Riding the ST1300 on Deals Gap

Day 6 - Wednesday, July 15 - Asheville to Maggie Valley to Mt Pisgah, BRP