Day 5 of our trip to Deal's Gap.

Day 5, we started out, grabbed some breakfast at the hotel. Nice breakfast with eggs, sausage and waffles. Not bad for complimentary. Today we planned to head east and go to South Carolina. We have never been to SC so we wanted to visit so we could knock it off the list of states we have been to, plus we needed the mandatory shot glass.

We headed up route 17 out of Helen. Nice ride along there. Nothing too exceptional compared to what we had already done, but it was nice. Took that up to US76/route 2 and headed east. Stayed on that untill we were in Clayton, GA. In Clayton we stopped and got some gas. God onto Warwoman Road and continued east. This is another route that I grabbed off the MadMaps Smoky Mountains mapset. I had some pretty high expectations after some of the other routes it has recommended. It started off a little slow. Nice ride, but nothing spectacular, then about 10 kms in, I see the road dissapear to the left. The tree directly ahead has a memorial on it for someone that died in the turn I guess. From then on in, the road was stupendous. At one point you would swear you are at Deal's Gap. What a blast this road is. If you are in the area, I highly recommend it. Amy and I got to the end and all I could say was "that was frikkin awesome".

We then headed south on route 28. This was a really nice stretch of highway. Nice twisty roads, great views and good pavement. It passes through Sumter National Forest.

Amy at the side of the road for a photo op.

Sumter National Forest!

We rode down route 28 into Walhalla. Stopped and gassed up and had a nice chat with the fellow at the counter about how prices vary so much state to state. SC had some of the cheapest gas prices so far. $2.89 where the average seemed to be $3.05. We stopped in Walhalla's downtown area (at least what we believed to be so) and searched for a Shot glass. We struck out on the shotglass. We stopped in a few stores along the main street and ended up in a flag shop. Outside the shop was an amazing Venture Royal done up with a space shuttle paint job. Closer inspection, it is a tribute to the Challenger crew. Extremely detailed work on this. Really amazing job. We went in the shop and talked with the guy about it for a while. Since we couldn't find any shot glasses, we ended up buying a Walhalla keychain. Plan to drop this into a blank shot glass when we get home. Sometimes you have to make due with what you have. I have had success with this kind of thing before, using the placks that you nail to a walking stick, souvenier coins etc etc. We grabbed some lunch at the worlds slowest Arby's, then headed out.

We headed up route 183 and then north on route 11. This was a pretty uneventfull stretch of road. Nothing but some nice scenery. Stayed that way till we got to US178. We stopped and gassed up, while rehydrating (it was extremely hot and I opted not to wear my jacket) I struck up a conversation with a younger guy on a Ducati. Asked which road was better to go north on, US178 or US276. He told me 128 is a better ride because of less traffic. We decided to take his advice. Once we were going north on US178, we got stuck behind slow moving cars. We were able to pass, but every time the road got really fun, we were behind a car or diesel pickup. 178 is a nice road, lots of fun.

We were really looking foreward to getting back into North Carolina because the area were we came back into is called Transylvania. With us collecting souvenier shot glasses, we were excited at the prospect of a Transylvania one. Once we got onto US64, we stopped in at the first gas station that looked like it had some souveniers. Unfortunately we struck out. Enquired about where we might get one, the answer was Brevard. Brevard was back at the intersection of 276 and 64! BAH. I was originally planning to go to 276 untill I talked to the kid on the Ducati! No way I was turning back to go to Brevard (it was another 30kms back the way we came). I was quite dissapointed as I was expecting there to be all kinds of shops featuring "genuine Transylvania souveniers" and whatnot. I figured locals would be milking Transylvania for all its worth! Bats, Vampires etc etc everywhere. Not so. Dissapointingly not so.

We headed back out dejected from our Transylvania letdown and headed west on US64. This is a very nice stretch, very twisty and in good shape. However, there is so much traffic along here it makes US441 seem like a Nascar race. Right from the get go, we got stuck behind a diesel dumptruck. Gah. No chances to pass and slow speeds. I was starting to get antsy when the dumper put his 4-ways on and slowed down to a crawl in a blind corner. I was ready to blow a gasket when I see a semi stopped in the next blind corner. Whew! At that point I was very happy to be stuck behind the dump truck. If he had not been infront of me, I may have come around that blind corner a lot faster. I may not have been in a safe position when I saw that stopped semi. We sat for a few minutes, then some civillians flag us through in the oncoming lane. I guessed the semi had stalled, as we passed the semi, I saw why it was stopped. Around the bend, there was another semi with his trailer in the ditch at a 45 degree angle, the cab still on the road and level. Ouch. The trailer was real close to tipping. Strange thing was that once we got around the trucks and out of the bend, we saw a cop car with a couple of cops standing at the side of the road, talking. WTF. Why the hell werent they down there directing traffic instead of joe shmoe civillians doing it?!?! Bizarro. Shortly afterwards, the dumptruck turned off. Finally. We stayed along US64 and came to Bridal Falls. Pulled in and got some pictures.

Me under the Bridal Veil Falls.

Amy under the falls!

Amy and her 800 Intruder at Bridal Veil Falls in the Nantahala National Forest.

Our bikes at Bridal Veil Falls. Unfortunately the resolution on this picture isn't very high. In the original you can see my footpeg is ground down almost halfway through the side of the peg.

We stayed on 64 and it turned into 28. We rode up to Elljay and jumped on 441/23 what I thought to be mistakenly. Turned out to be the right way to go. Got back on route 28 again. This is where the road started getting really nice again. Had a lot of fun on 28 between 441 and 74. The road conditions are great, the scenery is great and the twisties are fun. Had a blast along this stretch. It was a welcome relief after speding the better part of the day on some pretty boring roads and stuck behind diesel trucks on the nice ones.

I took this video on the stretch of 28 between Cowee and route 74. I was holding the camera in my left hand at the time :)

A shot of the road we just came off. Route 28 south or Route 74.

We stayed on 28 up to route 143 and headed over into Robinsville for the night. We checked in (we had booked this night when we were here 2 days ago as they said they were nearly sold out). After unpacking, we decided to go get some food. Went back to Lynn's place again. Halfway there, we realized neither of us had any money or our wallets. Back to the hotel I go. I grab my wallet, our helmets and take the bike up :) I was way too tired and hungry to walk all that way again. Lunch had been about 8 hours before. Had a NY strip which was pretty damned tasty. After dinner we chatted with a really nice guy outside the store. he had been there when we were there last time, I assume he must be related to Lynn in some way :) Amy pointed something out to me afterwards. The correct pronunciation of Cherohala, Nantahala and anything ending in hala seems to NOT be Cher-oh-halla, but rather Cher-Ah-Hay-Lah. Another example of how different we talk :) Back to the room, not much was happening tonight. Usually there are a lot of people out in the parking lot polishing their bikes and trading stories. Not tonight, so we packed it in a little early. I was pretty much sapped from not wearing my jacket all day, waiting too long to eat dinner and inhaling far too much diesel fumes over the course of the day.