Arkansas has a great selection of motorcycle rides, maybe 7 or 8 real good ones, but we had to choose a couple to get us from Hot Springs , up through the Ouachita National Park and the Ozarks on our way to Oklahoma. The pig trail is a popular ride in Arkansas but was a bit far west off our planned route and we were advised the road surface was the pits. We went for Route seven which everyone we spoke to said was a sweet ride.

Before we left Hot Springs we popped up into Hot Springs National Park Mountain drive in the middle of town and did the Tower thing. Those first couple pics are the mountain road. Route 7 from Hot Springs to Ola was a sweet ride with lotsa Twisties as you can see from the map. We ducked off route 7 and headed across toward Danville to ride the Mt Magazine scenic byway over to Paris, then back to Russellville via Dardanelle. This route is called the “Take your breath away” ride in one of the local motorcycle guide books. Judging by the views from the overlook at the summit of Mt Magazine, I guess that’s where the ride was named from. Mt Magazine was also a cracker ride on a deserted road as you can also see from the REVER map.

Down the Mountain and in to the wee town of Paris, that’s the courthouse and the Eiffel Tower, as you would expect in Paris.

Paris to Dardanelles on Route 22, gets us to Russellville for the night, sadly a dry town with no alcohol sales……..my bad, won’t happen again I can assure you!

Now Russellville, is of significance to the trip as it is the half way mark in terms of mileage. We have travelled 11,000 Km’s to date since departing New York and we have 11,000 Km’s to go before we arrive in L.A. to end the trip on 18 September. There you go.

Continuing north on Route 7 again tomorrow.

Shreveport was a bigger city than we thought, however easy enough to negotiate the interchanges getting out, Pic of one below!

We headed off up the I49 again, a cool ride. You ask why is an interstate a cool ride? This one is all concrete, smooth concrete with no judder bars. Next it was pretty much deserted from interstate standards. At one stage just before we crossed the state line into Arkansas I was counting 3 cars per kilometer traveling in the opposite direction, next to zero Trucks and we saw one motorcycle in 135 Kms. Not only was it deserted, but it is the only interstate we have ridden that my BMW Garmin GPS had no idea existed. Next the scenery changed a wee bit again, recall yesterday I said the farmland looked in better nick and was good cropping land between Lafayette and Shreveport? Yep, well north of Shreveport the land was pretty well developed, nicer than the Waikato even? Less cropping more grazing, real nice country. Very expensive looking I would suggest. I had never pictured Louisiana as a full on farmland state but there is some real nice farmland in this state. The other thing we noticed was the farmland was so green. The heat here is summer is fierce, but the land is not parched like Aussie, must be the thunder storms every afternoon eh?

So now it’s after midday and we are in Arkansas. Now back in NZ, pretty much all we know about Arkansas is that the Arkansas Chug a bug came from there, you know the one from the cartoon tele show, “Wacky Races”, the one that had Dick Darstardly in it. Remember the southern accent of that dog guy that drove the Arkansas chug a bug?

Well No, there is more to Arkansas than the Arkansas chug a bug. I shit you not.

Moving right along, the last 50 kilometers today was on Route seven, Arkansas from the I30 up to Hot Springs. Hot Springs Arkansas is the birthplace of Bill Clinton but has some awesome history of its own. Historic downtown Hot springs is very cool. There is bathhouse row, all the old bath houses from back in the day are still there, but now restaurants and stuff like that. We got a taxi down town and had a good look around before selecting a quaint wee place called the Ohio club to have a beer and a meal. Tuesday night is Taco night, that’s the special. Another wee treat, Christine Demeo ( pronounced Dimayo, you catch my drift) plays there every Tuesday night from 7 till 11. Christine is one talented lady, has an amazing repertoire across a heap on genre’s and is a treasure to listen to. Anyone visiting Hot Springs Arkansas and there on a Tuesday night, needs to have a graze at the Ohio club in Central ave and listen to The Christine Demeo.com. She even does a couple Eagles songs as well.

There are some impressive buildings in Hot Springs, a massive sucker up on the hill is the Hot Springs Rehabilitation center. I have posted a pic, looks like a castle from 15 th century Europe.!!!!!!

Did I mention Hot Springs National Park and the Mountain drives right in the middle of town, outstanding place?

Now I have raved about Hot Springs and told you what a fantastic place it is, but we do have a small story I was initially reluctant to pass on, that dulled our experience just a teeency wee bit. Before you read on, be warned the content may offend and if your teenage son or daughter is reading this I urge caution in case they, or you, throw up and faint? Warned? Read on dear blog reader.

Let me tell you about our taxi driver, an individual who must remain un named. Firstly I will tell you about an empty coke bottle that he kept in his lap to “ put things in” shall we say. yes, he put things in this empty coke bottle when they were not going against the side of the seat or his trousers. What were these things you may well ask.? Well I will not use the common names for the items that went into the bottle, against the seat or his trousers………. suffice to say if you cast your mind back to when your kids were between 3 and 5 years old, you were always trying to get the perfect photo of your little treasure but had to keep telling them to get their finger out of their nostril?

Yes, you do remember don,t you. Well this little treasure never grew up, now he drives a taxi in Hot Springs, Arkansas and still performs the same tasks even with customers in the cab. Grossed out yet?

OK, now you have been sick, I still recommend visiting Hot Springs, But if you call a cab, just sit in the back with your eyes closed if your taxi driver is a male over 50. You have been warned, and yes I apologise for putting this in the blog, but it was a traumatic event we witnessed and as the consummate travel professionals that we are, we feel the need to appraise our loyal blog readers of the good, the bad and the ugly of our motorcycle journeys. So there you have it.

Hot Springs, Arkansas, awesome place. ( taxi ride excluded) More on Arkansas scenic byways tomorrow.

So you don,t have to look at a map, picture if you will, a red band gumboot, you are looking at the red band side on with the leg bit to the left and the toe to the right. Can you see this in your minds eye? Right, this is the general shape of the state of Louisiana, New Orleans is at the toe, Lafayette is about the ankle and Shreveport is two thirds up the leg part. Comprende?

We are riding from The toe to the ankle and then up the leg of the red band, if you catch my angle.

Recall Horse and Janelle have headed home to NZ to get back to work, we are now down to three bikes.

Right, so we leave New Orleans, at the toe of the red band, crossing the bridge over the Mississippi and head west toward the ankle, on Route 90, supposedly the scenic route to Lafayette and off the interstates. I use the word scenic rather loosely, this is Bayou country, back home we call bayou country, swamp. It’s just a culture thing the difference. One has the impression everything is low lying and prone to misery during times of flood. A lot of the wee towns we passed through on the 90 were pretty run down, the land was pretty damp looking and the only crop visible was sugar cane. Road building looks expensive in southern Louisiana as there are lots of concrete viaducts just to get across the “ bayou” country, posted a couple pics below. The native plants in these here parts, as common as manuka back home is swamp cypress. Now swamp cypress is an impressive looking tree, mature ones left by the roadside have gorgeous long tendrils of moss hanging off the branches. By and By we jumped onto the “Bayou Teche Scenic byway”. All I can say is Louisiana is hard up for byways if this is what they call scenic. The main drag route 90 is more scenic in my view. Despite my less than complimentary appraisal of the day heading west out of NOLA, I did enjoy the ride in a different part of the world, I.e. bayou country, simply because we had not seen any of this country anywhere else in the US of A. We duly arrive at the ankle of the red band gumboot, the city of Lafayette, a busy as hell place, booked into the Comfort and hit the pool due to that bloody heat wave that is following my bike with a vengeance, just to annoy me.

Day forty two dawns and we head north from the ankle of Lafayette, to midway up the leg bit of that red band, to the city of Shreveport, Louisiana. Now I have to say this is an a to b ride and pretty much all on interstate apart from another so called scenic byway. ( Again Calling it a scenic byway could be a Tui billboard advert) just saying. We are now on the I49, it is an actual interstate but with shag all traffic which makes riding quite pleasant. The land topography has changed significantly from south of the ankle. We are now in very fertile looking well drained expensive looking cropping country, sugar cane crops looking much healthier , farm houses looking much more affluent and generally very pleasing to the eye with Excellent farmland to gaze over, well looked after and no slum villages to pass through. I don’t imagine this is a cheap part of Louisiana to buy farmland in.

Shreveport supports a fair wack of oil country so lots of oil tool businesses, guys in overalls sporting the same companies as back in New Plymouth, like Halliburton and Weatherford. Another big employer in Shreveport is the US Air Force who have a a big base here.

We arrive in Shreveport ( that’s pronounced shreeeeveport, not shrev like Trev) once again temps high 30’s and all we are good for is a swim in the pool, some re hydrating with bud light and some bbq sausages.

Tommorrow will see us riding off the top of the red band leg into Bill Clinton’s home state of Arkansas.

Lotsa moving parts today, last night saw a review of the famed Bourbon street, Friday night in Bourbon street. It was packed to the gunnels, local police spoken to said it was a quiet night, following night Saturday. Ignite would be waaaay busier they suggested, it was loud, party central and you could just about get stoned walking down the street there was that much weed in the air. perhaps I am a bit old for this part of town. Word on the street was that the other trendy area, not quite so loud and obnoxious and maybe suited to a slightly older clientele was Frenchman Street. To do list. the bikes were at the shop being serviced on a Saturday and had to be picked up by 4.00 pm. 6 of the crew booked one of those airboat tours in the bayou/ Everglades to get up close and personal with some alligators and loved it, pics to follow. Marie and I went to the WWII museum, just in’s case there was a hiccup/ delay/ breakdown on the airboat tour that caused a delay as the bikes still needed to be picked up on time. Also, because it was very close to the hotel, second it was air conditioned and it was 36 degrees outside with high humidity. The NOLA WWII museum is world class, it is rated about 16 th best museum in the world and No 1 on the list of attractions in NOLA. We spent hours in there, it covers 4 buildings and is an outstanding series of displays across the buildings.

The bikes were picked up circa 4.00 pm, couple quick beers then off to Mulato,s around the corner for a farewell dinner for Horse and Janelle who were flying home after a quick stay for a few days with friends in Austin, Texas. Mulato,s is the real McCoy southern Cajun fare, local band playing for the mood and the meal was nice. I had blackened Cajun chicken on a jambalaya base. heard of but never tried Jambalya so it had to be done, mix of fried rice and other stuff with some spices, nice.

After dinner, an Uber up to Frenchman street to see what all the fuss was about, basically a quieter tamed down version of Bourbon street, perhaps more appropriate for the slightly older set who don,t want to party to loud music all night cramming into bars where it takes forever to get a drink after you have negotiated the 40 meter queue to get in there in the first place.

Needless to say I didn’t spend much time in Frenchman street either, Cover charge to get in practically any bar but by the way the band won’t be starting for an hour or so, yeah right, taking the piss as always but plenty going for it.

There were markets and stuff up there as well so plenty to look at.

First couple pics below Bourbon street, next ones Frenchman street, Couple random museum pics and some alligator pics to follow.

Farewell to Horse and Janelle, been a great 40 days riding, safe travels home.

My route book had indicated we would leave Memphis on the I240 east and then take the 78 down to Tupelo, to give us a good long run on the Natchez Grace Parkway to our overnight at Kosciusko, Mississippi. It was pissing with rain as we left Memphis and I never did find Route 78 and we finished up heading south on the I55 for most of the day with just a short stint on a secondary back road to get to Kosciusko, Mississippi. This is a quaint wee town, the courthouse and town square could be right out of the movie set of “Back to the future”, the fictional town of Hill City. A quick check on google shows it is not but it would be fair to make that mistake. Now the heart of Mississippi is well and truly Confederate Country, so not unexpected to find the confederate flag flying in the town square and a memorial to the “ men in grey” that fought in the civil war.

We overnighted in Kosciusko and headed off early the next day down the Natchez Trace Parkway toward Jackson, needing to get to New Orleans about midday if possible. Horse and Janelles last day on the bike and they needed to get there early for the bike pickup and Red and I needed to get our bikes to the Triumph and BMW dealership, TTRNO, NOLA as we were getting new back tyres and a service since we have done about 10,000 kms to date on the trip.

The pic of the nice road with the mown verges is the Natchez Trace parkway, of which we did a little over 100 kms on and the four laner is the I55. This is one of the most “mature” interstates we have ridden in terms of vegetation. It had tall pine trees for much of its length not only in the middle so you could not see north bound traffic on the other side, but also to our right.

The good thing about a well tree’d interstate in this part of the country is the shade it provides when the riding temps are mid thirties!!!, with humidity waaaaay to high for comfortable riding.

We took a wee diversion to get in to NOLA instead of staying on the I55, we cruised around and went across the Lake Ponchatrain causeway, the longest causeway in the world at 24 miles long. It is a toll road, very cool to ride, for several miles in the middle you cannot see land in any direction, did it just to say we had.

Freeway riding in actual NOLA was all good and it was a relatively straight forward ride into the Accommodation in the French Quarter on South Peters Street.

Conversation between a couple from these parts heading to the cafe next door ahead of us.

” Yawl, Yaongto cafe nadoor”

Transalation. You all, do ya want to go to the cafe next door.

Answer “ R eight “. Transalation ………All right.

In the cafe. “ Yawl bringa wa’all widjadidja?” Transalation, Did Y’all bring your wallet with ya did ya?

That widjadidja word had me guessing for a second, but it’s always good to be learning a new language.

Odds and sods happening today, some visited Graceland, some visited outdoors shops, I cranked out a few lengths in the pool in the morning when no one was there, did some homework on the route planning, general day off stuff with no riding, quite good for a change..

We all went for a cruise on a paddle boat steamer, the “island queen” on the Mississippi in the afternoon for a couple of hrs. The commentator guide through the was funny but he’s put the odd person to sleep, including myself, humidity was up, it was hot, a bit average I guess.

Horse, Janelle and Marie popped down to the Motel where Martin Luther King Jnr was assassinated, it is a bit of a museum now, still as it was then, even has the same cars parked in the car park.

Massive lightning storm late afternoon wa s pretty impressive with heavy rain for a while, as it does every day it seems.

Heading South tommorrow into Mississippi State, two days riding to get to New Orleans.

Before we had left NZ, I I had consulted Mr Google On the most scenic route between Chattanooga ( where we were going to stay originally) and Memphis. Blogs suggested State Route 72 following the Tennessee river valley might be the best way if one wanted to avoid interstates.

Given we hate riding motorcycles on interstates with a passion, State Route 72 it was. Now to be fair, we know that in a couple weeks we will have two days of total boredom riding in a straight line across the Texas Panhandle, so it goes without saying that I totally planned that State Route 72, crossing Alabama, Mississippi and into Tennessee was going to be a training run for the Texas panhandle. Convincing?

The first pic below is State Route 72 just after we left Decatur, Alabama, circa 0900 hrs. The second pic below is State Route 72 about 11.30 am after we had gassed ourselves up with caffeine to stay awake. The third pic below is State Route 72 early afternoon as we approached the State line into Tennessee.

You will agree I don’t need to provide much commentary on the scenery on this ride.

Once we hit Route 385, we skirted around Memphis on interstates to avoid traffic lights on the smaller roads and dropped off the I40 west right onto the Comfort Hotel, Downtown, Memphis on the Mississippi River. A stress free ride into the big city, apart from having to recognise that drivers in Memphis are as crazy as drivers in Vegas. Be aware out of state riders coming to Memphis for a visit the place is full of crazies.

It was pretty hot in the afternoon, so it was into the rooftop pool at the Comfort, great views out over the Mississippi River and the bridge that crosses that river linking Tennessee with Arkansas.

It was still daylight when we wandered the half dozen block down to Beale street to see what all the fuss is about. The party central part of Beale street is only two blocks long, needless to say we found a rooftop bar and sampled some local malt and hops rehydration refreshments. As they don,t have KGB’s here, Marie has taken to drinking beer, she doesn’t cope well with the 7.5 percent beers, you may see some Facebook evidence of this I am thinking, re our subsequent visit to the Jerry Lawler Hall of Fame bar and restaurant where a very good band was playing……… The spoons came out……are you reading this Bob? Yes, indeed, classic Coastal is all I can say.

A great night was had by all, I say great night as we were back at the Hotel by about 8.30…………. I think we were………… I quite enjoyed that local IPA with the higher percentage alcohol as well……. just saying.

(Pics will follow when I can find a half pie decent internet reception…….. )

When we headed south toward Elijah, Georgia, you know the drill, about and hour and a half down the road apiece, we were looking for coffee. We stopped at a McD to be on the safe side and I asked the troops the answer to this School C geography question, 5 mark question, short answer, a line, maybe a paragraph. What have you noticed about farming practices in The State of Georgia since we left Blue Ridge this morning that are different to all the other States we have visited north of here. ? Red and Janelle were onto it, like 3 out of 5 for their answer. Long story short, riding through rural Georgia, a bloke could imagine he was in the Naki or maybe the Waikato. Gone are the feed silo’s, gone are the loafing barns and spot the reappearance of road boundary fences, fully fenced farmland and pastures grazed by stock rather than all cut and carry. Just like NZ on a Sunday drive in the country. We were surmising we must be far enough south now that they don’t have fierce cold winters and snow so they don’t need to farm indoors? Could be the answer.

Highlight of the day at this stop was a young fella driving in in a rusty Jed Clampett style 1917 Model T Ford, original az. As expected, Marie approached him to ask if she could have her photo taken in the car. Chatting to him, his real job is restoring vintage cars. He found this Model T in a barn in Rhode Island, bought it and did a full mechanical front to back, restored the engine to its original state and it purrs like clockwork, crank to start. He had to get new wooden wheels made by an Amish guy in Ohio as the Amish still know how to make wooden wheels. He divided it was time he had a holiday so drove the car from his home In Virginia across to California where he was going to ship it home. Now the car was loaded up with his worldly possessions, the original soft top roof is rotten and he hadn’t fixed it but he had only been rained on twice.

Couple issues he told us about, reckons it’s much like a horse, needs water and fuel. It uses as Musca water as it does petrol.

He carries extra cans of petrol, the tank is under the drivers seat, if he is a bit low on gas the car won’t get to the top of the hill as the gas goes to the back of the tank and won’t siphon to the carb, thus he needs to stop before a hill and top up the gas tank. Tolerable idiosyncrasy he thought.

Top speed is about 35 mph so he said he had received a number of waves where people waved with a single finger pointing skyward, fingernail facing outward if you catch my drift, he grew the beard specially to look the part but was at pains to tell us he was not a homeless guy.

I digress…… he got to California and decided to turn around and drive home again, wanted to drive all the bottom 40 and he has, he is almost home, Kentucky, North and South Carolina to go and he’s home. Great guy to talk to, a very cool adventure.

We are meeting some great people on our road trip, one of the highlights is the people ya meet and run into.

We rode on to Decatur to our accomm for the night. Now I point out here that Decatur is just a stop in a town on our way to Memphis. Decatur is like an industrial/ commercial suburb of Huntsville it seems, weird, it has no footpaths, very difficult to walk anywhere. Not the most appealing place to stay, but the Quality had a pool, it was hot, the servo sold Bud Light. It will do eh?

Photos to follow, you gotta see this model T.

I’ll be surprised if we get another day on this trip that has such epic motorcycle riding as today, we did three, let’s say four epic rides today over a total of 445 Kms. this part of the country, the Great Smoky Mountains region is made for motorcycling and the locals know it.

Yesterday we were supposed to ride to Newfound gap at the summit of the Smoky Mountain National Park when we got to Cherokee but the road entrance was closed with road works so we carried on to Bryson City. Not wanting to miss out on a good ride, we decided to head up there this morning. Lucky we left early, as we got to see some Elk before they disappeared into the bush for the day, had a great ride up the 441 to Newfound Gap with hardly any traffic on our side of the road. Big crowd at the Newfound gap lookout. First couple of pics on the blog today are scenic shots from the summit, low cloud hanging there and in one of the pics you can see below in the bush, the road coming up the mountain. This was a great ride and well worth it just to eyeball the elk. We also saw a bear on the side of the road on the way down but not quick enough to get a snap. A great ride up the mountain from Cherokee, it would be even awesome if we went right down the other side to Gatlinburg, Tennessee but no, we had to get back to Bryson city for the rest of the days riding.

We cruised back to Bryson City for a coffee then headed south. The first epic was the Moonshiner 28 but just from the 74 through to Deals Gap. This is an awesome ride in itself and much longer than the dragon. Follows a lake for much of the ride, Very scenic and very twistie

We arrived at Deals Gap, being a Sunday the locals said it was real quiet compared to the day before, Saturday. We had lunch here and then headed through the Tail of the Dragon, one of the Top Ten rides in the USA. This ride is not too technical if you come from NZ, but is a heap of fun, 318 curves in 11 miles. The Tennessee State line is shortly after Deals Gap so most of the Dragon and the Cherohala Skyway is in Tennessee.

Consensus, everyone enjoyed it 100 percent and could easily have turned around and ridden the dragon again. we followed the 129 through to Tallassee, took the 72 across to Vonore, the 360 down to Tallico plains and came back to Robbinsville on the Cherohala Skyway. This is also in the Top Ten motorcycle rides in the USA, the Cherohala consists of excellent wide sweepers and is called the mile high ride as the tops get to 5400’ asl. It was 29 degrees at Tallico plains, 18.5 degrees on the tops and by the time we got down to Robbinsville for coffee it was back to 26 degrees. As we were pulling into Robbinsville, it started raining, but after a 40 min coffee stop the rain had pretty much diisappeared for our last 100 Kms down to our hotel for the night at Blue Ridge, Georgia. A three state ride today.

There were plenty of pics taken today but I have added a couple aerial shots downloaded from the net of the Dragon and also of the Cherohala Skyway, to give a better idea of how great these rides are.

Long story short, the Dragon has a lot of hype, but it truly is a lot of fun. The only danger involved is the dick heads in their sport cars racing each other in the other direction, meaning one of them losing it on a corner could be the end of a biker riding in the other direction. I would suggest the Dragon is best avoided on a Saturday, peak work day for the rescue crew we were talking to at lunch at Deals Gap.

Today will be hard to beat, in term of day long riding enjoyment, every keen biker in the US of A needs to ride this part of the country at least once before they get too old to ride any more.!!!! Any tourist riding anywhere near Tennessee, North or South Carolina, needs to make tracks to Deals Gap and have a bit of fun on the Dragon. Enjoy, but be careful and watchful of the idiots riding in the other direction. A beautiful part of the world.

As with yesterday’s gliche in my trip planning, I originally had today down for the last 347 kms of the Blue Ridge Parkway From Boone NC to its end at Cherokee, NC.

Too many kms for the one day so we compromised with some more of one of my favourite State routes, the 221 South.

We kicked off by riding south toward Blowing Rock and ducked onto the first 30 km section of the Blue Ridge Parkway off that road so we could ride and photograph the very frequently photographed Linn Cove Viaduct on that section of the Parkway. On the World Wide Web this looks like an impressive piece of engineering and looks huge. In the flesh it was all a bit of a disappointment and can only be photographed from a distance as you approach as strangely enough they have not built any overlooks at each end and pedestrians are not allowed on the viaduct. Needless to say the color pic I have added below is of a postcard, but Marie took a couple good shots I will add later when she gets back from Bryson City retail Therapy.

There had been new seal on that section of the BRP as well so there was loose metal everywhere and later there was a sign, “ motorcycles not recommended”

We jumped off just south of the Viaduct and back onto the 221 south for a well deserved coffee break. We had been on the road for a good thirty minutes by this time so re-caffeinating was well overdue you can understand.

We stopped at the Little Deer Cafe in Linville, it’s in the block of shops at the Route 221, 90 degree turn. Now this cafe is a wee treat, the coffee is espresso and delicious and they do their own baking. Friendly as owners. Good coffee is hard to find. Now any motorcyclist following our blog who is a coffee snob like us, here you go, if cruising the Blue Ridge, it’s a two min ride down the hill round a lot of awesome Twisties to get to it. If you are heading to or from the Blue Ridge Parkway and going through Linville, load it in the gps to get a good coffee, 3616 Mitchell Ave, Linville. There you have it, worth the effort. Pics of the “ Little deer” it is named after to follow.

Righto, so after our early coffee stop we continued south on the 221 through Linville Falls, past Linville Mountain and a whole lot of other stuff with Linville at the front of it as well, took a right on Route 70 and had a bite of lunch at the village of “Old Fort” before we jumped on the interstate to skirt around Asheville and head toward Cherokee. More to “ Old Fort” than meets the eye on a drive through as well, just saying.

As with yesterday, Route 221 south crosses the BRP at one spot and again, literally shadows it all the way south with the BRP over our left shoulder for the whole day.

Onto the I40, then later the I240, Alt 74 then the 19 to Cherokee. I was expecting Cherokee to be a wee country village at the end of the Blue Ridge, but Jesus Wept, we were greeted by a gigantic casino, heaps of traffic, crowds, poorly maintained roads. We gassed up and couldn’t, get out of there fast enough, I would call it a dump and that would be a compliment. We popped down the road to our accomm at Bryson City NC which has a little more character and no casino to attract a million people to a small spot. We are in a Sleep Inn again tonight, twice the price of the same establishment in Boone, but with rooms half the size and with staff with half the personality of those in Boone. fair to say I think the temperament of people in Bryson City may be affected by the crowds that flock to the Casino down the road at Cherokee. Tragic. Spoils the truly awesome surroundings in this part of the world in my humble opinion. Again in this wee corner of North Carolina is this strange state law that the State sets the price of Liquor and liquor stores are not allowed to sell beer, so a bloke needs to pop to the servo to buy a couple beers. Struck this in a couple places on the West Coast as well.

Only in America eh?

Anyway, we have left the Blue Ridge and are now in the Smokey Mountains. I like the look of the Smokey Mountains, more character, more hills, more rolling, more substantial and The way the hills surround Bryson City reminds me a bit of little old Reefton on the West Coast back home.

Oh by the way, Naki and Coulton cuzzy viewers, yesterday along the road in southern Virginia I spied a run down walk through cowshed, very similar to the one on East road as ya cruise through Douglas. This is the first walk through cowshed I have spied on my travels in the back blocks of the US of A, bought a wee smile to my face to know they used to milk in exactly the same buildings as Kiwi’s not that many years ago. Bit of useless trivia I thought I would throw in there.