– met a 22 yr old girl in a diner who moved there from D.C. with her bf. We got to talking. She mentioned she hates the area and feels stuck. Bummer. 

– met a dude in the diner on a mc who gave us a route up and over several mountains near Seneca rock

– route was so great. Banked roads in turns. Prob best riding we’ve done

– saw worlds shittiest civic si. Dude has a b18 swapped crx like what mine was

– we got cold. Weather shifted

– from lake moomaw: 220 n to montery / 250 west / Right on 28 NE / 28 to 33E / 33 drops into Harrisonburg. Gotta do that ride again. So good.

– as we were getting into Harrisonburg, saw river swimming from road. Stopped and swam with college kids

– they recommended a dinner spot in town

– we boozed up until dark

– then said fuck it, and rode home to philly

– trip is over. Was a great week. Ton of fun with Jake. 

– saw an Ulitma GTR

– headed towards lake moomaw VA. Randomly came across a road called “back of the dragon”. Was way better than normal tail-dragon

– rode a ton of back roads heading towards lake moomaw. Was awesome. Such great riding

– stopped in Pearisburg for lunch. Randomly stumbled on a mc shop. Dude was cool. Kinda a dick though 

– took pics of “real” bikes for Dcar

– also saw Alex clarks dads gold wing 

– made it to lake moomaw. Super happy to make it back. Adam and I were here in 2010. Insane remote. Middle of fucking no where 

– I saw a black bear cross the road. We saw a ton of deer

– lake moomaw: the darkest place on earth. Hippies there partying hard on a thurs night. Disco ball projecting green lights in the woods. Dude boat fishing all night picking up camp honeies. Jake and I got into deep convo about life. 

– first got breakfast at some weird mom n pop spot. Cafeteria style. Was real good 

– people watch out front after eating. There was a Honda metric cruiser with a rear car tire. Wtf. The dude who owned the bike was a very large man

– I heard Quinn really likes metric cruisers. I could see him getting one when he kills his guzzi

– we packed up camp. Rode to deals gap to drink Red Bull before doing the dragon

– on the porch of the gas station we overheard old dudes talking about how sportster 1200’s are women’s bikes, ha

– did the dragon

– my impression: eh

– it was too tight and slow for my liking. If you went fast it felt unsafe or like you’re pushing it. The zrx is a pig. It’d be more fun on my cb450 or ct1-175

– I much prefer the fast, long sweepers of blue ridge

– rode backroads to Knoxville for lunch. Shrimp n grits

– rode to Johnson City for dinner. Met Ben and Bonnie. Got tacos. Ben bought a house. It’s a real house. Not our cardboard and glue bullshit in philly

– went to a brunch spot called sunny point. Was good. Then hard 2 hours of people watching in downtown Asheville 

– hippy vibe is stronggggg

– rode blue ridge parkway from east side of Asheville going west bound for over 2 hours. No traffic. Was some of the most fun riding I’ve ever done. Long sweepers. 4-6k elevation 

– flirted with a German girl that lives in Australia that I thought was Russian 

– stopped on blue ridge to do a swimming hole and waterfall called skinny dip falls. The water was freezing. Paralyzing. Prob 45 degrees

– rode to tail of the dragon to camp for the night… then do the dragon in the morning

– drank a bottle of whiskey

– Steve took us on an hour long ride around the lake and mountains. He was on a moto guzzi griso

– let’s just say Adam Jordan would not approve of steves riding speed. He was ripping

– one of the girls bf had a right hand drive Toyota 4 runner he had imported from Japan. 

– left the girls and went back down to the lake spot to wait for the eclipse 

– bunch of people down there hanging, swimming, boozing

– eclipse was really cool. 100% coverage so it legit looked like a black circle with a glow ring on outter edge. Could take glasses off for 2 min. Never see that again in my life so pretty happy about it

– was a weird dusk for a long time. Temp dropped and it was cold. Then almost pitch black. Could kinda see stars. Was def wild

– got awesome breakfast tacos but it gave us all the shits later 

– Alex bought us eclipse glasses off a homeless person … but he was white so Alex was okay with it 

– made our way south west to a lake 4 hours south of Knoxville. Lake Nantahala. Supposedly 100% eclipse totality for full 2:30 seconds

– picked a random spot on the lake on google earth view that looked good to renegade camp

– it was a boat access spot. Was a good 15′ tall deck to jump off into the lake. Were some 26 yr old girls there swimming and boozing … so we swam … I made friends and they invited us to camp with them at their family house down the street

– when the girl asked her mom if it was okay if we come camp, the mom looks at me and says, “sure, you can throw your tents anywhere as long as my daughter doesn’t end up in it later” ha

– they had a big fire, smoores, Booz, fish for dinner. It was great. Super nice family

– got lunch in downtown Roanoke. Watched a girl spill water all over herself

– half way through the day I realized the clip on my master link had popped off at some point, who knows when. Stopped at a mc shop and put another one on. Scary

– then… hit 140 on the highway

– Jake and I raced several times. Dead even

– made it to Asheville NC to see Alex

– met his gf, who is his sisters baby’s nanny. I approve

– all went out boozing in downtown Asheville. End of night, rode his mini bike around drunk

– drunk Alex tried to ride his sisters horse

Was supposed to be Adam on his cb550 and me on my cb450, but now Jake on his fast as fuck xsr900 and me on my almost as fast as fuck zrx1200.

– got drenched leaving the city

– fucking torrential downpour lightning storm

– Jake has a creeper stash

– we were both wearing same chin-tank shirt. Now both wearing bro tanks

– made it to gooney creek campsite in front royal VA, but let’s just call it the goonies

– goonies has an awesome rope swing into the creek

– down south: the land of natty ice and 5.0 muscle’stangs

– couldn’t find a liquor store so asked a dude in a shitty 5.0 where to go … he knew

– in the liquor store bought cans of rock n rye and drank them in parking lot. Gross