Girl Meets World on Yamaha FZ-07 Motorcycle: Chapter 2, Part 22

As we said our goodbye in Southport, we found what looked like a decent camp spot in South Carolina, and started on our way. Not long into the ride aboard the Yamaha FZ-07 , a misty morning turned into a full on downpour, and we ended up cutting our day early, limping into a hotel in Myrtle Beach. While the city was clearly supposed to be a resort town of some sort during the summer, in these autumn months, hotels on the beach were about $30 a night, and we had already made our goal of hitting South Carolina for the day, so it didn't make sense to keep going. We passed a million cheap and kitschy souvenir shops and settled for the night. While I often feel like a wimp whenever we get a hotel, this quickly became a trend that unfortunately we couldn't avoid. The forest fires that we vaguely got a glimpse of on our last day on the Blue Ridge were now surging across the Carolinas. As we rode west toward Colombia, the air was thick and we were finding camp spot after camp spot was closed. Although between the short days, cold November nights, and the obvious campfire ban, it would have been fairly unpleasant to camp anyways, I guess. Trying to find the silver lining.

Fortunately, hotels were pretty inexpensive in these cities, and being surrounded by restaurants meant we could salvage the nights watching kung fu movies and eating chinese takeout. What used to seem like such a mundane way to spend time off is kind of a treat now that I spend every single day riding around. The things you never realized you took for granted, haha. As we sat in another hotel, Hollywood realized we were not too far from the Headquarters of Ohlins USA. Hollywood had an old coworker from when he used to wrench for the Latus Triumph team in the AMA who worked at the Ohlins factory, so after a quick phone call, we were scheduled to get a tour of the facility! Having run Ohlins on my race bike for years, I couldn't have been more excited. We headed out midday toward North Carolina again, where we stopped for a guided tour of the facilities. They showed us forks that cost what I used to make in a year back in my game industry days, MotoGP shocks, simulation machines, and workshops. It was like being a kid in a big, gold, high performance candy store. How many limbs do I need to sell to get these things on the FZ?! We got some commemorative shirts and then headed into Asheville for the night. Thanks for the amazing tour, Jeff!

Next up, we headed back toward Deals Gap. Hollywood had never ridden the Tail of the Dragon despite living in North Carolina at one point, so it was cool to show him a road that I had enjoyed so much. You could smell the smoke in the air, and unfortunately, while the weather was a beautiful 70 degrees, all of the shops had closed down for the season, so we didn’t get to hang out with any other bikers or get any pictures or souvenirs. BUT, having the whole road to ourselves is hard to complain about. After a quick jaunt through the 318 turns over the 11 miles, we made our way to Knoxville.

My second time in Tennessee proved to be every bit as pleasant as my first . As we sat down for a nice meal in Knoxville, an older man named Ken who was looking to retire and do a similar ride started talking to us and sharing stories. After a short chat turned into an hour of conversation (It's hard to not get sucked into talking about motorbikes every chance I get, haha), he bowed out of the restaurant and said goodbye. As we finished our meal, I asked for the check only to be told he had covered it for us, and swore the waitress to secrecy until he had left. He was as kind as he was humble. People in Tennessee just seem so friendly all the time.

As we contemplated where to go next, another one of Hollywood’s old highschool friends from Steamboat, CO happened to be in town at her beautiful Lake house in North Carolina. While I had no intent to go back to North Carolina again, it was hard to say no to a few days on a lake, and what kind of an adventure would this be if I never deviated from my already barely shaped plans. We turned tail and headed down to Chatuge Lake to spend a few days. Genny and her family were as good natured and pleasant as I’ve come to expect of Hollywood’s friends, and it was great hearing plenty of stories of his days as a young punk doing cowboy things (opposed to now where he’s…. a slightly older punk). After a few days and a lot of laughs, we got rerouted yet again, this time down to Atlanta, Georgia to see yet another friend. Jeff was in town from Colorado visiting his girlfriend Amanda, and this perfect timing was the kind of convenient coincidence that I feel like you shouldn’t question. Sometimes it seems like everything works out almost too conveniently in life.

We rode through the tiny German-looking town of Helen that was already decked out for Christmas (It’s not even thanksgiving yet, people!) accidentally taking some wrong turns and getting lost on exactly the kind of twisty roads any biker would be happy to get lost on. We made our way down to Atlanta, where Jeff had been kind enough to get us a room. As he is also a very talented musician, he and Hollywood spent the night playing guitar and writing some good adventure music (I think we have a new theme song!). Always a good time seeing familiar faces in far away places. It was cold and windy the next morning, so we determined it wasn’t the kind of day to go too terribly far. After saying our goodbyes, we made our way only as far as Gainesville before veering off to visit another coworker from Hollywood’s North Carolina days. Tammy was kind enough to give us a warm bed and swap lots of stories for the night, before we finally got back on course. Next stop, Kentucky (for real this time)! Just 4 states to go!