Christmas in July

It's time for an adventure between adventures!

For Christmas last year, I bought Sean a morning of tank driving. Yep...in a military tank. Driving it.

He cashed his gift in on Saturday morning as we got up early and drove about an hour south to Kasota, Minnesota, and Drive a Tank.

Drive a Tank has been featured recently on some Military Channel shows, local news and on Larry the Cable Guy's Only in America.

Tony, the owner, purchased several foreign tanks, created a driving course, and now instructs drivers on how to drive a tank, safety regulations (always stand to the side of a tank, not in front, not in back. Makes sense.) and some interesting tank history.

While one part of our group headed out to the tank course, Sean got a chance to shoot a really big gun. Sean: It was a Sten 9mm sub-machine gun from World War II. 

He did really well and had a big grin on his face afterwards.

We boarded a 5-ton troop transporter truck (Sean: A FV432 Amoured Personnel Carrier) and drove out to the course, er battlefield.

Then hopped aboard the tank (Sean: A British FV433 Abbot Self Propelled Gun) and took off.

Actually, it wasn't quite that easy. Getting into those things is kind of hard. I squished myself in the back and up a couple steps to the observer's post. Sean crammed himself in the driver's seat up front. Our Tank Commander just sat on the tank and told Sean where to go.

Side note: we were told that the optimum size for a tank driver was 5' to 5'6".

The course about about a mile long and really bumpy, in the back anyway, but reportedly a lot smoother up front. Those things really do go through anything, including big waterholes...

...and over cars and trailer houses, though we didn't buy the package that included that much fun.

The drive was successful.

Then Sean took the opportunity to shoot another big gun. Sean: it was an MG-42, a German machine gun. He was vibrating so much as he was shooting that I couldn't even get a good picture.

As we left, Sean suggested that we have lunch at a local winery (yeah, my husband rocks!)

 Which was a perfect way to end a truly unique adventure.

By the way, the first picture is a FV 4201 Chieftan Main Battle Tank. This tank was used in the Matthew McConaughey movie Reign of Fire.

Appalachian Adventure Day 11: Home Sweet Home

Brilliant blue skies and straight roads led us back to Minnesota after 11 days on the road.

Even at the end of our trip we managed to befriend another biker couple, Q-Ball and Pup from Texas, who were traveling to Minneapolis to deliver a friend's bike:

Made me wonder why I don't have a cool nickname like "Pup"...

We pulled in around noon and into the adoring paws of our loving mutt.

It's great to be on the road, but as always, good to be home.

As we unpacked, showered and started back to regular life - the whole trip already seemed like a dream. But we are already busy planning our next leg our our journey. We leave in less than three weeks!

Fun facts

Low gas price: $3.07 in North Carolina
High gas price: $4.07 in North Carolina
Average gas price: $3.67
Today was: Sunny and perfect
Miles day .5: 303
Miles day 1: 566
Miles day 2: 518
Miles day 3: 164
Miles day 4: 128
Miles day 5: 354
Miles day 6: 363
Miles day 7: 330
Miles day 8: 171
Miles day 9: 315
Miles day 10: 672

Miles day 11: 245

Total Miles: 3826 :-)

Appalachian Adventure Day 10 Nashville to Iowa

Nashville was in our rear view mirror bright and early Saturday morning and we managed to get to St. Louis before noon. We made a quick stop in historic Hannibal, Missouri for lunch, but didn't have the time to visit the Tom Sawyer Caves that I remember from my childhood.

We "bombed it" the rest of the day and rode as far as we could before we had finally had to stop for the night.

We met our waterloo, oddly enough, in Waterloo, Iowa. When we checked the mileage, we realized we'd set a personal best record of 672 miles and celebrated as we sat down to a well-deserved meal and then a good night's sleep.

Fun facts

Low gas price: $3.07 in North Carolina
High gas price: $4.07 in North Carolina
Average gas price: $3.67
Today was: Sunny and perfect
Miles day .5: 303
Miles day 1: 566
Miles day 2: 518
Miles day 3: 164
Miles day 4: 128
Miles day 5: 354
Miles day 6: 363
Miles day 7: 330
Miles day 8: 171
Miles day 9: 315
Miles day 10: 672

Appalachian Adventure Day 9 Nashville

After a couple more runs on the Tail of the Dragon, we took off out of the mountains to Nashville. Our four-hour trip somehow ended up taking closer to six hours, but we pulled into town just in time for lunch at my brother's house.

As an added bonus, my dad and his wife were visiting from Iowa.

My sister-in-law put up a wonderful barbecue spread, (though at that point, anything not purchased from a restaurant would have tasted good). After lunch we took my nieces and nephew out to look at the bikes.

My nephew decided he wanted to go for a ride around the block. From the grin on his face, I think he's hooked for life!

Sean even got my dad on the back of our bike for a spin.

After family pictures,

we took off to check out Downtown Nashville.

There was plenty to see, from the original Grand Old Opry,

Ernest Tubb's Record Shop,

 to the blocks and blocks of honkey tonks with excellent live music.

Eventually we called it a night, and since we were parting ways with Jimmy and Cathy, we said good-bye and continued our journey toward home.

Fun facts

Low gas price: $3.07 in North Carolina
High gas price: $4.07 in North Carolina
Today was: Perfect
Miles day .5: 303
Miles day 1: 566
Miles day 2: 518
Miles day 3: 164
Miles day 4: 128
Miles day 5: 354
Miles day 6: 363
Miles day 7: 330
Miles day 8: 171
Miles day 9: 315

Appalachian Adventure Day 8: The Dragon

The Tail of the Dragon is infamous, every serious motorcyclist knows this road. It is 11 miles long and has 318 mind-bending curves. It is a biker's dream, or nightmare.

We started of at Deal's Gap, the headquarters of the ride. Outside the gas station is the Tree of Shame, parts of bikes (and a Barbie Big Wheel) that were left along the road as bikes skidded out of control, or simply scraped so hard that parts fell off.

My stomach was in my throat as we started the ride down the mountain. That didn't last long though, as we began to relax into the ride. I have about 30 minutes of video that I won't post here, but suffice it to say we made it to the bottom unscathed - and wanting to go again and again.

After that exhilarating experience we headed toward Gatlinburg via the most beautiful back road imaginable. I'd driven this road on a visits years ago and thought even then, that it would make an amazing motorcycle ride.

 I'd longed to stop and sit by the mountain stream that the road followed, but I didn't have time during previous trips.

This trip, though, was all about stopping and enjoying.

Breathing in the mountain air, listening to nothing  but the water flowing over the rocks, filled me with so much peace and tranquility I never wanted to leave.

Gatlinburg was just a few miles away, and we got there in time to join about 50,000 of our friends in town for lunch. 

No. I didn't drink the whole thing.

We meandered down the road and ended up back on the Moonshiner 28, which is a very nice road when it isn't raining.

We stopped to visit Fontana Dam.

At one time this was the highest dam in the U.S.

Then headed back to camp to relax and share the day with other bikers from around the globe and hear about their experiences on the Dragon.

Fun facts

High gas price: $3.07 in North Carolina
Low gas price: $4.07 in North Carolina (at the top of the Tail of the Dragon road)
Average gas price: $3.67
Today was: Sunny and Hot, but wonderful!
Miles day .5: 303
Miles day 1: 566
Miles day 2: 518
Miles day 3: 164
Miles day 4: 128
Miles day 5: 354
Miles day 6: 363
Miles day 7: 330
Miles day 8: 171

Appalachian Adventure Day 7: Moonshiner 28

We were up first thing in the morning. Riding at sunrise is amazing.

The morning light streaming through the trees.

The sun-dappled roads

Around the next curve, mountains as far as the eye can see.

Riding above the clouds was surreal.

Then it started to drizzle.

And rain...and rain.

This probably goes without saying, but curvy, steep mountain roads aren't really fun to ride in the rain. 

At times like this, it's best just to find somewhere, anywhere, to pull over and wait it out.

But eventually you have to get back on the road. We left the Parkway to make our way to the North Carolina and South Carolina borders. The rain and lack of road signs made us work very, very hard for this state pictures, but eventually we got them.

North Carolina

South Carolina

 Then wound around to Georgia...

...for our last state picture of the trip, before heading back to North Carolina.

Late in the afternoon the rain stopped and we were able to enjoy roads we'd been anticipating all year.

We made our way up Highway 28, the Moonshiner 28, to Fontana Dam. It was easy to imagine moonshiners in their 1920's hot rods out maneuvering the more stately police cars on these roads, with plenty of side roads for the moonshiners to pull off and hide in the woods until the police passed.

Toward evening, we reached our home for the next couple days and settled into our mountain cabin.

Everything we owned was wet, but we used our ingenuity, the laundromat and a 170-degree oven to dry out our maps and clothes.

One of the great things about our mountain cabin was that it was located in a resort that attracted a lot of bikers, so we spent the rest of the night swapping stories at the lodge as we built up our courage for the next days' ride down the Tail of the Dragon.

Fun facts

High gas price so far: $3.69 in Virginia
Low gas price so far: $3.15 in West Virginia
Today was: Sunny, rainy, wet, sunny.
Miles day .5: 303
Miles day 1: 566
Miles day 2: 518
Miles day 3: 164
Miles day 4: 128
Miles day 5: 354
Miles day 6: 363
Miles day 7: 330

Appalachian Adventure Day 6: Blue Ridge Parkway

I probably mentioned before that we prefer to take as many scenic back roads as possible. It's really the only way to see the true America and on the back roads, every mile around every curve is a new adventure.

Today was our lucky day as we connected with the Blue Ridge Parkway in the morning and road through the mountains all day long.

At lunch we stopped for some awesome Southern Fried Chicken (and hush puppies, again) in Martinsville, NC.

Then wandered on down the road. We'd hoped to make it to Asheville, North Carolina but only made it as far as Boone before the light began to fade. While we were checking in to the hotel (no feral cats at this one) we ran into another group of bikers from Southwest Iowa - my old stomping grounds. It was fun to compare home towns and riding experiences.

Fun facts:

High gas price so far: $3.69 in Virginia
Low gas price so far: $3.15 in West Virginia
Today was: Wet
Miles day .5: 303
Miles day 1: 566
Miles day 2: 518
Miles day 3: 164
Miles day 4: 128
Miles day 5: 354
Miles day 6: 363