On Broadway – 23 August 2008

Last night we caught the subway from 86th Street (corner of 86th and 4th Avenue) into Manhattan for dinner and a few drinks, propping for a while at the “Hogs and Heffers” bar where the film “Coyote Ugly” was actually shot, finally catching a cab back to the hotel at around 2.00 am.

OK, its Saturday and we are not feeling crash hot, but we catch the subway again, over to Battery Point on Manhattan.

Here we queue up with a zillion other people for a ferry over to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (where the immigrant’s were processed upon arriving in the USA back in the early 1900’s).

When I refer to a zillion people, the queues make the queues at Dreamworld look very, very small and this is to pay for the tickets to get on the ferry, then to get on the ferry and again to get off.

We blew a whole morning doing the Statue of Liberty bit, but at least I got a photo with the old girl.

We then had a look at “Ground Zero” where the World Trade Centre once stood and I will not post photo’s regarding this.

Now, Broadway is one enormous and busy street and it took us 40 minutes in a cab to get from the battery point end to the other end where “Times Square” and the “Empire State Building” are located.

A cab ride in New York at any time of day is a harrowing experience, the streets are generally one way, a few lanes wide without any lines actually marked on the ground, the traffic is thick and there do not appear to be any road rules as such, it is weave and tuck and dive as best you can, how there are not accidents all day long I will never know.

It was mid afternoon and we were starving, so hit what must be the world’s largest Hard Rock Cafe, where the resaurant part comprised 3 levels.

It was here that one our party told us that the queues for the Empire State Building were so long that it could take an hour and a half to get in and up to the top and it was already nearly 5.00 pm, so we caught a cab back to the hotel in Brooklyn to re-gather the troops and head out to a local Italian restaurant for a group dinner.

Old New York – 22 August 2008

Well, where as close to being in “Old New York” as we can be and still survive the traffic.

We are in downtown Brooklyn, directly across the East River from Manhattan, where we going to have dinner tonight.

I could not comprehend a tourist navigating around anywhere within say 50 miles of New York City without a tour guide, let alone attempting it on Harley, which is why even with a tour guide, we stopped in Brooklyn.

Imagine the traffic around Sydney, multiple it, the size of the Interstates and Turn Pikes and the size of the bridges by 10 and you would be close to what New York City is like.

After arriving at the hotel we did a quick check of the odometer aggregate for the trip, we have now travelled just on 4,700 miles (yes miles) since leaving Denver back on 4 August and we still have well over 1,000 before we get to Milwaukee, if that doesn’t qualify for “Hard Arse Rider” patch, I don’t what would. 

Coming To America – 21 August 2008

Well, Washington DC is the Capitol of America and residence of the President, 100 Senators and over 400 Congressmen.

Everything here is about running the country and the security and police presence is almost overwhelming.

We started with a tour of the buildings that house the Senators, there are a number of these and they are all linked with underground hallways that are serviced by trolleys.

The undergound hallways also take you under and into the the “Capitol Building” with its huge dome (it is in the background behind me in the picture),  countless rooms for Senators and Congressmen meetings, judicial areas and countless statues.

This is virtually a city within a city, underground there are shops and resteraurants for Senators, Congressmen and the thousands of staff to shop and eat in without leaving the building until it is time to go home.

 The National Mall is the centrepiece of the city with the Capitol Building at one end and the Lincoln Memorial (as een in the picture) at the other, with countless government buildings and museums on either side.

The mall is half a mile wide and some 4 miles long and it takes an eternity to walk the length of it, stopping at the memorials along the way.

The security around the “White House” means that you can not get close enough by car to take a good photo and we were to exhausted to walk another couple of miles to get there by foot, there is simply to many places to visit properly in just 1 day.

Mr. President (By Pink) – 20 August 2008

I learnt this morning not to take a long shower, as I emerged the group had made a group decision not to get back on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but to make up some time, so it was onto interstate 81 from Roanoke.

Probably not a bad idea as, with a few unsheduled stops we still did not hit Washington DC late afternoon.

Firstly, we sought out a post office (we each needed to post the blasted collection of new Harley T-Shirts home), which we found in a quaint town called “Steeles Tavern”.

Secondly, we learnt in Steeles Tavern about the “Shenandoah” Harley dealership in Staunton, Virginia and convinced that not to many of our own various countrymen would ever have acquired a Shenandoah Harley T-Shirt, we proceeded to each get one.

On the way into Washington, we saw a number of sights from a distance, like the “Pentagon” and the “Washington Memorial”.

Washington is named after the first President of the United States, President George Washington, but the location odf the Capitol was chosen by President Thomas Jefferson, in somewhat of a trade off like the location of the Canberra in Australian Capital Territory.

No pictures today, but we are sightseeing and taking photo’s tomorrow.

Log And Winding Road – 19 August 2008

Fueled up and determined to stay off the interstates, this morning we headed into the Smoky Mountains.

The biological make up of the vegetation throughout the Smoky Mountains is such that it produces a constant haze (not Pollution), that the first settlers thought was smoke, hence the name “Smoky Mountains”.

A windy road with sharp bends and breathtaking views all the way, We had picnic lunch and a photo shoot at the top of the Smoky Mountains.

Leaving the Smoky Mountains we took the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is another winding road that runs for some 400 miles along a ridge in the Appalachian Mountains, part of a trail once used by the Native American Tribes.

There are a number of ”must do” rides for bikers throughout America, the Needles Highway in the Black Hills (which we did during Sturgis), the “Tail of the Dragon” which has around 315 turns in 11.5 miles and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The chosen route for the day was around 460 miles, which we knew would be a long day, but we quickly realised that at the speeds achievable on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we would not get into our accommodation at Roanake until around 2.00 am.

We decided to hit the interstates again, finally getting into Roanake at 9.00 pm, a little weary and sore and in desperate need of food and a drink, in my case some red wine.

Tomorrow we have a much shorter ride into Washington and we will head back onto the Blue Ridge Parkway for some of that ride.

Triple Creek – 18 August 2008

No, where not Down in Triple Creek, but we are down in Tennessee.

After leaving Birmingham we travelled on highways heading towards Lynchburg, the home of Jack Daniel’s.

Jack (Jasper Newton) Daniel’s learnt to art of distilling whiskey from an old preacher and established his distillery adjacent to a cavern that has an endless supply of filtered ground water, where it still stands today.

In 1866, Jack Daniel’s became the “first” registered distillery in America, an achievement that all the folk at Jack Daniel,s are proud of.

Although all of the distilling, including the charcoal filtering and barrelling are still done on site, due to the sheer size of the operation, the bottling and shipping around the globe is handled elsewhere.

You can a whole barrel (over 250 bottles) for US $ 10,000 and have it shipped to your door, this private bottling is still done on site, packed and shipped out from there.

After doing the Jack Daniel’s tour we headed off to Knoxville for the night, although we will not get to see Fort Knox itself.

Tomorrow we ride the “Blue Ridge Parkway” to Roanake.

Sweet Home Alabama – 17 August 2008

We left New Orleans travelling through the suburbs that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina, whole suburbs, shopping malls, housing, apartment blocks, petrol stations, businesses and industries that will never re-open.

From there we headed along the some 50 miles of coast of part of the Gulf of Mexico towards Mobile.

Soon after Katrina, there was Hurricane Rita and this hit the Coast extremely hard, demolishing virtually all in sight, some houses, apartments, hotels and casinos have re-opened, some are being rebuilt and others still lay dormant, a good example of what “may” happen if a similar hurricane e ever hit the Gold Coast in Australia.

It was a very long day, around 350 miles on highways with a multitude of small towns and interesting countryside, before finally getting into Birmingham for the night at nearly 7.00 pm.

Tomorrow is Knoxville and the Jack Daniels Distillery.

Down On The Corner (Paret Two) – 16 August 2008

We all know how things sometimes just work out good.

After an exploratory afternoon, during which some of our party took “naps”, Sean, Jodi and I met up for dinner at an Italian Restaurant that Jodi had spotted during our morning stroll.

Like any good old fashioned Italian restaurant, this one was named “Frank’s”, the food was good, the staff were great and the night was memorable.

On the television was the live grid iron game being played here in New Orleans between New Orleans and Houston, New Orleans lost in the end, but who is counting.

Firstly we have an Aussie and 2 Kiwi’s asking what the hell is happening throughout the game and secondlyt we could not understand the replies (which could be another blog all by itself).

Now the staff turnover at this restaurant has been low to say the least, apparently it has been the same staff for over 15 years, however, “Frank” has been sold off a few times, most recently according to the head waiter to a Caribbean Yacht Owner.

What ever happened is really irrelevant, it was a great and memorable night – although I still know nothing about grid iron football.

Down On The Corner – 16 August 2008

Last night in New Orleans we started with dinner at “K Paul’s” a renowned and award winning eatery in the French Quarter – it was everything that we had been told and more.

We then moved to “Bourbon Street” to witness what is known worldwide – Bourbon Rocks until the last person leaves, whatever time of day that may be.

This morninmg was a leasurely stroll along the waterfront and the markets. keeping an eye out for the storm that was soon to hit – like Queensland, it dropped and dropped, so we adjpourned to lunch at Pat O’Briens in Bourbon Street, to whether the storm so to speak.

The rain stopped and after lunch it was shopping along Bourbon and Canal Streets, where we met Christina, who works on Bourbon Street and who offered to show us some of the sites for a feather boa, which Christina is proudly displaying in the photo.

I must say that although New Orleans and more particularly Bourbon Street, really does hum, Beale street in Memphis has my vote for a street that has real atmosphere.

Where off to dinner at an Italian restaurant tonight (as you would in the land of “Jambalaya”) before a quick check on the clubs and an early night before heading off to Birmingham tomorrow, where “Goldie” re-unites with his partner Jo.

All in all we are still enjoying the tour and each others company.

Down on the Bayou – 15 August 2008

Leaving Vicksburg, we took the “Natchez Trace” south towards New Orleans, a road of sweeping curves and great scenery.

The road essentially closely follows the 500 mile long Natchez Trace (trail) used by the Natchez Native American tribe from around 1500 AD to travel north after boating their goods and wares south down the Mississippi River towards the Gulf of Mexico.

It was located on ground generally higher than the surrounding swamps and bayou’s, thereby providing reasonably safe travel for the long journey back up river.

Early settlers taking their goods and wares down the river also used the Natchez Trace, until around 1820, when steamboats became a more reliable and quicker method of travel back up river.

In parts the trace has sunk, like in the photo, where 300 odd years of foot and horse travel over the sandy areas, coupled with rain washouts has resulted  in the trail virtually becoming a gully.

After the United States won the war against the French, wealthy plantations sprung up throughout the area and the large opulent house were known as “antebellum” (after the war) houses.

The picture is the ruins of the largest antebellum house built in the south, with only the columns remaining.

Most of the grand old plantation houses were destroyed during the Civil War as General Grant moved south.

Tonight we will see what Bourbon Street is really about.