Our leaving early plans were scuttled a little this morning - because it was Sunday, the hotel breakfast didn't start till 8am! Shocking! Taking advantage of the situation - we had a lie in till 7:30 before finally getting our shit together. We got everything packed up and mostly on the bikes before heading down for breakfast.
Up until now, we've been staying in really cheap places - the average of them being a hotel chain called 'Motel 6'. These places range on price (depending on location), but are usually less than $70US a night, and are understandably pretty basic. Having said that - They're a Palace compared to some of the places we stayed in Russia, including a place where Megan slept on a bed that could be best described as a pull-out arm chair if that make sense. HOWEVER! a few weeks ago, after our last cheap hotel, I woke up with bed bug bites from my neck to my little toe - literally the whole length on my body on one side. So no more cheap hotels. Even though bed bugs don't discriminate, and can be found all over the US in both expensive and budget places, Cheaper places tend to have less than diligent cleaning services.
So ...to my point... most of the places we have stayed over the last week or so are expensive enough to offer free breakfast. The breakfasts are different to what you get in Australia, the biggest difference is that everything is on disposable plates and cutlery. The food on offer is similar, although in the South, Biscuits and Gravy are pretty much standard, and usually Eggs and Sausage** or Eggs and Bacon with Hash browns. It's ok I guess, but the eggs usually have cheese in them, and the sausage is really really salty. There are also the usual fair of Muffins, cereal etc, but the unusual additions are Bagels, and sometimes a Waffle station. A couple of times there have been pancakes which were really nice. Even so, we try to stuff ourselves and then go without lunch to try and save some money.
ANYWAY....
After breakfast we rolled out of North Carolina for a place called Blowing Rock which would start us off on our route to follow the Appalachian mountains up the east coast all the way to Maine.
We started off getting fucked around at the service station, the pumps were broken, and we had to try three times to get fuel. For some fucking ridiculous reason, ALL of the fuel stations are pre-pay. Nearly all of them allow you to use your credit card at the pump but some of them ask you to enter your Zip code as an authentication check. This only works for North American residents though it seems, and I have to go inside, and either pre-pay or pre-authorise with my card before I can get any fuel.
It's a complete waste of time and really fucking pisses me off! :)
After 15 long minutes we finally got 2 tanks of fuel and eventually got onto the highway after the GPS took us on another grand tour of U-turn-istan.
By now I was ready to explode the population of the earth with my mind.
I tried to calm down by hammering my bike as fast as it could possibly go carrying about 150kg of payload.
Head down on the tank, I wrung the throttle's neck all the way to the stop in every gear and the of the sound screaming engine calmed me down quite a bit as it usually does. Megan was a small dot in my mirrors as I rolled off the throttle at 160 just as things were starting to get interesting.
There followed a great few hours of riding, some highways, and some back roads, eventually winding our way up through the mountains to our stop at a place called Blowing Rock. The North Carolina countryside was amazing. Green rolling hills, beautiful forests and amazing country style homes with freshly mown grass.
Checking into out hotel, the owner came and chatted about our bikes and our trip, he was a rider himself, and owned (nor surprisingly) a Harley and also a Yamaha. He had also had a BMW at one stage, but had sold it. (Fool!!! )
After we had cooled down and changed, we set out on a mission to find a cold beer. Luckily the hotel was on the main street and we spent the afternoon bar hopping, including visiting the local micro brewery called Blowing Rock Brewing Company. We tried a few of the local offerings which were pretty good (no wet labrador taste) before walking up to an English Style pub. We had dinner there before getting talking to a couple from Pennsylvania who were also bikers. We talked for a good hour or more about riding, bikes and travel before we walked back to our hotel and bed at about 10.
**'Sausage' is a generic term here used to describe a sausage patty like you get on a McMufffin back home, or the traditional links we call sausages. There is also something called Sausage Gravy, which is like white sauce made with chicken stock and has broken up sausage meat in it. It's also sometimes called Country Gravy
Up until now, we've been staying in really cheap places - the average of them being a hotel chain called 'Motel 6'. These places range on price (depending on location), but are usually less than $70US a night, and are understandably pretty basic. Having said that - They're a Palace compared to some of the places we stayed in Russia, including a place where Megan slept on a bed that could be best described as a pull-out arm chair if that make sense. HOWEVER! a few weeks ago, after our last cheap hotel, I woke up with bed bug bites from my neck to my little toe - literally the whole length on my body on one side. So no more cheap hotels. Even though bed bugs don't discriminate, and can be found all over the US in both expensive and budget places, Cheaper places tend to have less than diligent cleaning services.
So ...to my point... most of the places we have stayed over the last week or so are expensive enough to offer free breakfast. The breakfasts are different to what you get in Australia, the biggest difference is that everything is on disposable plates and cutlery. The food on offer is similar, although in the South, Biscuits and Gravy are pretty much standard, and usually Eggs and Sausage** or Eggs and Bacon with Hash browns. It's ok I guess, but the eggs usually have cheese in them, and the sausage is really really salty. There are also the usual fair of Muffins, cereal etc, but the unusual additions are Bagels, and sometimes a Waffle station. A couple of times there have been pancakes which were really nice. Even so, we try to stuff ourselves and then go without lunch to try and save some money.
ANYWAY....
After breakfast we rolled out of North Carolina for a place called Blowing Rock which would start us off on our route to follow the Appalachian mountains up the east coast all the way to Maine.
We started off getting fucked around at the service station, the pumps were broken, and we had to try three times to get fuel. For some fucking ridiculous reason, ALL of the fuel stations are pre-pay. Nearly all of them allow you to use your credit card at the pump but some of them ask you to enter your Zip code as an authentication check. This only works for North American residents though it seems, and I have to go inside, and either pre-pay or pre-authorise with my card before I can get any fuel.
It's a complete waste of time and really fucking pisses me off! :)
After 15 long minutes we finally got 2 tanks of fuel and eventually got onto the highway after the GPS took us on another grand tour of U-turn-istan.
By now I was ready to explode the population of the earth with my mind.
I tried to calm down by hammering my bike as fast as it could possibly go carrying about 150kg of payload.
Head down on the tank, I wrung the throttle's neck all the way to the stop in every gear and the of the sound screaming engine calmed me down quite a bit as it usually does. Megan was a small dot in my mirrors as I rolled off the throttle at 160 just as things were starting to get interesting.
There followed a great few hours of riding, some highways, and some back roads, eventually winding our way up through the mountains to our stop at a place called Blowing Rock. The North Carolina countryside was amazing. Green rolling hills, beautiful forests and amazing country style homes with freshly mown grass.
Checking into out hotel, the owner came and chatted about our bikes and our trip, he was a rider himself, and owned (nor surprisingly) a Harley and also a Yamaha. He had also had a BMW at one stage, but had sold it. (Fool!!! )
After we had cooled down and changed, we set out on a mission to find a cold beer. Luckily the hotel was on the main street and we spent the afternoon bar hopping, including visiting the local micro brewery called Blowing Rock Brewing Company. We tried a few of the local offerings which were pretty good (no wet labrador taste) before walking up to an English Style pub. We had dinner there before getting talking to a couple from Pennsylvania who were also bikers. We talked for a good hour or more about riding, bikes and travel before we walked back to our hotel and bed at about 10.
**'Sausage' is a generic term here used to describe a sausage patty like you get on a McMufffin back home, or the traditional links we call sausages. There is also something called Sausage Gravy, which is like white sauce made with chicken stock and has broken up sausage meat in it. It's also sometimes called Country Gravy
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| Pissing about with the Throttle Lock - No hands at 130 and relaxing back on the luggage :) |
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| More Shade! Top class. |
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| North Carolina! |
We found the same problem with the fuel - all the way down the California coast- Was a real PITA as you don't actually know how much you want to spend when "filling up" (so causes the headache of underestimating or spending too much, which we found 95% of servos wouldn't refund) - the places that just authorized the card for whatever your final $$ amount were wont to add their own tip before you even got in the servo to grab the receipt; I had major rage issues over it. One place even made us pay with credit card for the use of the compressed air! Apparently its to stop peeps getting fuel and driving off without paying; that may have been the case that started this trend off, but servos' definitely now use it to their advantage. I just hope the idea doesn't catch on over here!
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