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NC Mountains, VA and WV

By Tor | October 14, 2020 - 2:30 pm |December 4, 2020 Adventures and Travels

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Roaming NC, VA and WV. Stayed in the Balsam, NC area for a few days, riding prime moto roads. Then headed north through VA and WV, all two lane country roads. Ended up in Canaan Valley, WV, where we stayed at Canaan Valley Resort State Park Campground. This is a very nice area of VW.

Moonshine Campground, Balsam, NC

Found a small, secluded Campground in Shady Valley, NC.

The Shady Valley Country Store, Shady Valley, TN. This is a very well known store in the intersection between NC 421 (The Snake, prime motorcycle road) and NC 133.

Canaan Valley, WV

Canaan Valley,WV

Caanan Valley

Canaan Valley, VW

NC 209 between Wanesville and Hot Springs, NC.

The deer came up pretty close at Canaan Valley Resort Campground, VW.

Off to riding Western NC Mountains

By Tor | September 1, 2020 - 9:45 am |September 1, 2020 Adventures and Travels, Motorcycles

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Had to get away for a few days. What better than riding and camping in the North Carolina mountains. Basecamp at Blueridge Motorcycle Campground. Camped there quite a few times, and the place still looks good. Had the campground for myself until Thursday afternoon, when a few more rolled in. Among them was about 10 riders from the Nashville BMW club. Great bunch of guys.

Headed out Friday up 276 to the parkway, and followed it until I turned off at the Asheville 25 exit. Wanted to pay Eurosport of Asheville a visit. Had heard a lot of good things about this dealership. Very nice place, great people.

Continued out of Asheville up Hwy 63, and NC209 to Hot Springs, both excellent motorcycle roads. Stopped in Hot Springs for lunch, before riding back down 209, through Waynesville, then into Cruso on 276.

Sat down with the Nashville gang after supper to exchange tall tales.

Went out again Saturday and planned to head up to Mt. Mitchell, but it just was not to be. At Craggy Gardens, The rain, wind and fog got so bad I could hardly see 10 feet in front of me, and I had enough, went back down to 276, and back to camp.

Packed up Sunday morning to head home. 4 days go by in a hurry when you’re having fun.

Good times. Nice riding. The XR is such a beast up in the mountains. Love it.

My all-time favorite bike

By Tor | August 14, 2020 - 7:11 am |August 14, 2020 Motorcycles, Photography

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There is no comparison. My 2018 BMW S1000XR is by far the best bike I have owned so far, and I have owned a few. If you want a feeling that the bike is part of you when riding, this is it, for me anyway.

Superb handling, scary fast, outstanding technology, and a superbike engine, that just sounds wonderful. Can’t go wrong with this bike.

OH-STOC 2020 – Riding Ohio – West Virginia – Kentucky

By Tor | June 15, 2020 - 8:08 am |August 13, 2020 Adventures and Travels, Motorcycles, Photography

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Packing our bikes up, and rode up to Shawnee State Park, OH (6/11 – 6/14), for a long weekend with motorcycle friends on ST-Owners.com. 450 miles later, we arrived, with beautiful weather. Had a little rain on the way up, however.

Excellent ride on Friday, roughly 220 miles of pristine OH, KY an WV roads.

Friday:

Saturday:

Some images from both days. There are quite a few hillbilly eating outfits that serve excellent food, and we sure took advantage of it. Excellent roads, Saturday in particular, dropping down into Daniel Boone NF, KY. The last few images are from the flood-wall in Portsmouth, OH, where the wall has been painted with murals for a 1/3 mile stretch. Beautiful.

Lois was riding her Can-Am Spyder RT Limited. I was on my BMW S1000 XR, the perfect bike for these roads. Love that bike.