We made it to North Carolina (NC) from Newfoundland in good time. But it was not without difficulties and determination. The weather continued to plague us for much of the ride and Dell's health issues made riding under abhorent conditions at times very challenging for her. After leaving Gros Morne in Newfoundland we were expecting to wait for 4 days before a ferry booking was available. This was due to bad weather with the usual back-up, the beginning of the new school year and some mechanical breakdowns. But upon calling the booking office they encouraged us to go straight to the ferry terminal because we had bikes. As luck would have it, they found space because an extra ferry was running to try and clear the backlog. So a long, cold and wet ride down the west coast got us on the ferry at 10pm that night at Port Au Basque. This gave us time to ride the Cabot Trail in Novo Scotia.

The Cabot Trail is a famous bike riding route that traverses the coastal perimeter of a breakaway segment almost qualifying as a separate island. It is winding and beautiful and very popular with bikers. I was noticing a bit of brake fade near the end of the trail and discovered when I stopped to take a pic that there was brake fluid all over one side of my front tyre. Further investigation revealed that the brake hose was split and fluid was leaking explaining why my brakes were failing. We found a motorcycle garage an hour away and retro-fitted a braided line to one caliper. The second caliper had to be blocked and disconnected.

The ride SW through Novo Scotia and New Brunswick was pretty bland as we had opted to cut and run. We camped at St Andrews on the coast where we slogged through the biggest plate of fish and chips ever before being entertained by fireworks. Dell was again feeling rather nauseous and promptly dumped her meal before heading to bed. Reluctantly we headed off hoping to just take it easy to give Dell's energy levels a chance to catch up. The border crossing back into the US into Maine took some extra time as we had to reapply for entry as our 3 month entry had expired. There were no dramas but we didn't get too far that day as Dell ran out of energy and we camped in a small cabin whilst the princess slept the day away. Both of us were keen to get down to North Carolina for the Horizons Unlimited Meeting. However it was beginning to look like we would not make it. Several more days of travelling with early motel stops seemed to help. But the weather was simply atrocious. It rain intermittently throughout our riding hours. And because we were now on very busy motorways with thousands of other vehicles, riding was difficult. I counted vehicles (one-way)for minutes at a time over those few days with numbers between 60 and 80/min of which 30% were heavy vehicles (ie semi trailers). There was no room for relaxing when you are being overtaken from all sides by heavy vehicles all travelling at a minimum speed of 70 mph (110 km/hr).

The countryside did not vary much as we moved SW gradually moving into rolling hills of Massachusettes and Virginia. It was leafy and green throughout with little evidence of good farming land. The US is however full of budding capitalists. And the rural belt of many States are full of manufacturing industries and especially distribution centres. These massive wharehouses would typically occupy several hectares and provide loading and parking for many hundreds of semi-trailers. Like everything in the US they're bigger than ones imagination. One can only assume that many manufacturers store products for local distribution in these enormous sheds enabling delivery via efficient shipping services to occur within 1-2 days virtually anywhere. Traffic density is managed well with good roads often offering 3 lanes in each direction. I don't know how we would have managed to progress so rapidly without using a GPS on the bikes. Although destinations are signposted everywhere, the density of cities and towns is simply overwhelming. The consequence is that the US has resorted to numbering all of their highways and exits. The GPS simply directs you by describing numbers all day. Its good once you are accustomed to the convention. There are plenty of tricks to learn in traffic and generally bikes are treated pretty well as there are lots of BIG Harleys on the roads.

Dell must have begun improving as we pulled up late on Thursday afternoon and mentioned that she had just noticed a sign to the Blue Ridge Parkway. At that point we had no idea how riding down that road would change our plans so dramatically but we turned off and headed off into the mountains. The Blue Ridge Parkway follows the Appalachian Mountains for a few hundred miles ending near the border of Georgia in the Smoky Mountains. They're not massively high like those in Colorado Rockies. Instead they're heavily forested, rugged and continuous for a very long way. And the Parkway is famous for its beauty, endless blue ridge horizons and the most peaceful and exhilarating riding almost anywhere in the world. We failed to find a motel or even a campground for that matter and in a rather desperate attempt to get a good night's sleep ended up camped by the side of the road just metres from the edge of the asphalt. After 10pm the traffic died down as this road was predominantly used by tourists who were more interested in daytime scenery than commuting. This was bike heaven! Beautiful sweeping, cambered curves, excellent line marking, continuously variable grades and roads that would simply take years to see in their entirety. And best of all, the asphalt surface was near perfect with no cracks and no surprises. What could possibly go wrong? Dell pulled into the info centre to visit the 'you must know what' by now. We had been riding for about an hour enjoying every second of our adventure when she said to me that it was too much for her. Her concentration was simply not good enough to continue on this heavenly road. Without questioning her further, we had lunch at the Info Centre café and made plans to head west and back onto the Interstate Highway 81. Both of us knew we would ride the Blue Ridge Parkway again sometime. We arrived at our destination the Ironhorse Motorcycle Lodge just after dark on Friday evening. We were a day late and had missed some of the presentations that day and evening. But we had made it all the way from Newfoundland in about 5 days despite Dells ill health. We were now amongst a huge bunch of fellow travellers and friends.

The Ironhorse Motorcycle Lodge is a motorcycle campground located near Robbinsville in the Smoky Mountains ( IronhorseNC.com ). It has all the facilities for motorcyclists as well as excellent catering, camping and accommodation. Staying here changed our lives for we made good friends with John and Charlene Powell (owners) and as you will see further down our plans for a future took some new directions.

The Horizons Unlimited Meeting was as usual a lot of fun and informative as many other travellers gave presentations of their adventures especially in South and North America. But my favourite was David and Emy Woodburn whose tales of travelling on a R80GS with a sidecar through Asia and later Africa with their young daughter was simply a blowout. David's unassuming and initially shy nature made their journey through many third World countries seem tough and extremely basic. They proved to everyone that with a lot of compromise a family could travel anywhere literally on a shoestring. Although slightly younger than me, it turned out that he had lived in Toowoomba as a youngster very close to my home neighbourhood. He has lived with Emy and their daughter in the US for a long time and operates the Barnsley Motor Werks a mechanical workshop for airheads and British bikes. My presentation focused on travelling in the Stans (Eurasia) and was met with a lot of questions about travelling in very foreign non-english speaking cultures. We felt very relaxed at Ironhorse and Dell's health issues improved dramatically over the time there.