Our Mission Is Complete!
We reached our 4th corner this morning!
With completion of the USA Four Corners, Team 60’s and Team 70’s have split. Each has gone their separate ways seeking new adventures!
Team 60’s is heading east to the ME coastline seeking 2-lane roads!
Teen 70s is bee-lining west to Chicago to run Route 66.
Our blaze of hard riding has gone into slow-motion!
As you can imagine, with all this time, our priorities have changed dramatically. Our USA Four Corners Tour will be over in a little over 300 miles. The main purpose of today’s ride is to have lobsters for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Our first stop is Becky’s on the Hobson’s Wharf in Portland ME.
Lunch was at McLaughlin Seafood in Bangor, ME.
It’s 6:14PM. We’re at the SureStay Hotel in Presque Isle, ME. We’re 63 miles from Madawaska. It’s time for…
Lobster for dinner! One restaurant in Presque Isle serves lobster! Our motel restaurant guide says the close at 9PM. We get on our motorcycles and ride to the restaurant and they stop us at the entrance. We close at 8. But, but, but … dang … no lobster for dinner😤☹️😩🤬
High-tailing it north!
Today we high-tailed it out of the Keys area. Tropical Storm Elsa is scheduled to hit Key West tonight! We need to get as far north as reasonably possible. Our decision is Atlanta. All forecasts indicate the path is up the east coast. Atlanta GA takes us west of Elsa!
Team 70’s departs an hour before Team 60’s. Along the way I decide to stop at a FL service area to look at a SunPass. I purchased a $5 SunPass Mini. But I didn’t read the small print … it was good for only FL, GA and NC. I spent an hour at the SunPass entry station trying to initiate the pass but no luck! I couldn’t get all the into into the in the time limit! After my 3rd attempt I gave up. Besides I figured we’d be out of NC in the next couple days.
Team 60’s passed us with a goal of Atlanta. JimmyV was going to visit a friend on Day 10. Since Team 70’s was now an hour behind, we chose to call-it-a-day in Perry GA 100 miles short of Atlanta.
Strasburg VA to Easton PA
At Villa Milagro Vineyards with Audrey Tittle Gambino. Audrey & I are LHS Class of 63. Audrey & husband Steve own this Incredible little winery in Finesville, NJ!
We had a tour of the winery & vineyard.
We had a wonderful time catching up over Audrey’s home cooked dinner.
This was the first time in the past week of staying ahead of Elsa to relax, Despite Team-60s whining all the 4AM starts and long days was to stay ahead of the Storm!
We decided to stay in Easton another day R&R, and wash clothes, oil change, catch up on blog, and Steve offered to take us on a 70 mile tour of the NJ/PA country villages & rural roads tomorrow.
To the East of us Elsa was creating havok with heavy rain, road flooding and 40+ mph winds.
It’s Day 14 and we have 7 days to get to Madawaska ME, 750 mile north.
R&R waiting for the storm to pass. 2nd night Red Roof Inn, Easton PA
It’s catch up with the blog day! Adjust the chain day and sleep in day.
Steve once owned a formula race car and competed on the circuit. He’s owned crotch-rocket bikes but not for awhile. Upon hearing we were coming he rented a Honda CBR500 to ride with us!
The easy and relaxing 70-mile putt through rural NJ/PA with Steve Gambino showed off the lush green countryside.
We celebrated Jimmy V’s birthday at the 3rd & Reef Fish Market, a wonderful seafood restaurant. Audrey and Steve joined us and again it was hours of talking about winery, racing, riding, how they found the 100 acre property and lives-in-general.
Dean’s ol’ hang gliding memories
Grandfather Mountain, NC, in the mid-70s through the mid-80’s, Grandfather Mt was a popular hang gliding destination, playing host to the annual Masters of Hang Gliding Championship and countless exhibition flights. The competition was patterned after golf’s Masters. As I remember, 10 to the top US pilots and many foreign national champions were invited to compete. I competed in the first 4 Masters of Hang Gliding. This hang gliding competition raised the awareness and interest in hang gliding worldwide.
A lot has changed since I was here in the late 70’s. The new building at the top is beautiful and functional! There is an elevator so handicap can visit the Mile High Bridge. The road to the top is steep with 5-6 switchbacks. In my opinion these switchbacks are more technical than the Tail of the Dragon!
This week Grandfather Mt is hosting the Highland Games at MacRae Meadows. North Carolina is the home of the largest settlement of Highland Scots outside of Scotland. Today they are tossing cabers where I have landed a hang glider in the late 70’s.
The infamous Tail of the Dragon, Deals Gap
The Tail of the Dragon with it’s 318 curves in 11 miles is world famous motorcycle and sports car road. Designated US 129, the road is bordered by the Great Smoky Mountains and the Cherokee National Forest with no intersecting roads or driveways to hamper your travel.
Team 70’s came in at the north-end and rode through to the south-end. Unfortunately, we had a pickup truck towing a trailer in the last couple miles that slowed us down.
Team 60’s (the young whipper-snappers) came in at the south-end and rode north THEN turned around and came back! On the Deals Gap end there are restaurants, motels, & Tail of the Dragon souvenir shops with patches, pins, cups, t-shirts.
Deals Gap infamous dragon
The head of the dragon
Tail of the Dragon commercialization
The tail of the dragon at its worst
Gary & Dean with the dragon
But I hate to burst anyone’s bubble but Germany, Austria, France, Slovenia has hundreds of roads like this!
Corner #3! Key West FL Buoy.
We left around 6AM a little before sunrise. The keys run east and west. At sunrise the sun rose behind us as a bright red fireball!
Riding on the many bridges was beautiful. What tropical storm????
We rode directly to the most southern most buoy. There was a like on the sidewalk with 15 people waiting to take a photo with the buoy. We took turns parking next to the buoy and shot our corner photos – flag, motorcycle, rider and the buoy as our landmark!
Then off to the gas station for a computer receipt with date, time and Key West, FL. A local at the gas station gave us a dinner a ½ mile away and we did lunch.
Then we rode back to our motel in Homestead. Speed limit for the entire Keys was 45 mph. Many police and fake police cars. We traveled between 45 and 65 on the bridges.
They say history is written by the victors. So far you’ve heard one viewpoint on teams 60s and 70s from Dean, so now it’s about time you allow me to retort before you form any opinions.
Team 70s. The Tanji brothers. Farm boys, Grew Amonds (Almonds), wake up early, hard workers, with get-r-done attitudes. Team 70s with their efficiency typically likes the quickest way from point A to point B riding the truck routes, I mean Interstates… You would think age would reflect wisdom. But so far we’ve encountered couple of riding on the wrong side of the road and two naps with the motorcycles.
Team 60s. Rick and Jim. Midwest boys. Hard work ethics. Yes, a bit bigger bikes and flashier. Cruise control, ABS brakes, stereos with amps. Like the back country roads so they can slow down in the towns to show off bikes before hitting the throttle on the other end of town. Not crazy about 4 a.m. wake up calls cause it affects beauty sleep.
So don’t believe all the news you may hear on this blog, but be sure of this…
So far, the riding has been great and the company superb!
We have had to tweak a few things due to Elsa, but otherwise we are far ahead of schedule.
