Following the stunning rides through the Shenandoah Skyline, Blue Ridge parkway and the adrenalin rush of the “Tail of the dragon” at Deal’s gap on the border between Tennessee & Nth Carolina, we were looking for somewhere peaceful to set up our first camp of the tour. Our choice was the appropriately named Kickstand Lodge […]

Blue ridge mountain isn’t in West Virginia but I sure felt like “mountain mumma” as we did the Shenandoah Park road. Wonderful riding,,, the trees still totally bare when you get to the tops of the hills at 3000 ft (about 1000m) and various stages of spring as you go down again. We were warned […]

Well, we had a couple of days up our sleeves so a slight detour to Amish country seemed to be a good idea. The mornings are early 30s in degrees F ( around zero in our scale) but warm up to pleasant riding temps. Yesterday I had 9 layers on when we set off. Now […]

Well here we are in Hiram Ohio, 2600km nth/west of our starting point in Miami Florida.   We are in the heart of Amish country and we have been hosted here by a Ernie & Sue contacts of Gareth & Jo Morgan, when we arrived we were met by them & members of the local […]

Roger, through a friend, has managed to score an invitation to overnight in any Fire Station we’d like as we cross the USA. Sounds ridiculous but when we reached Williamsburg, Virginia we thought we’d taste the hospitality of America’s bravest. We were overwhelmed, Chief TK (Buzz) Weiler and his colleagues Randy Swinton and Eric Stone […]

As we have met more Americans of all types I have to say that I’m blown away by the care and hospitality. They will put an arm around you and wish you well, offer you a room for the night and help in any way. In the “Old Slave Market” in St Augustine I talked […]

Our first run along backroads today – the farming area of North Carolina. It’s Sunday and obvious – the churches, one every 1 kilometres – have been doing great business, their carparks full of RUV’s, pickups and farm vehicles. Strangely the doors of all churches were closed and those that had windows the curtains pulled, […]

  Sited on a tiny island at the heads of Charleston Harbour, South Carolina, Fort Sumter is where the Civil War broke out, just after Abe Lincoln’s election on a platform to abolish slavery yet hold the Union together. The Fort was abandoned by the Yankees on 14 April 1861, and the celebration of its […]

There are cops on the roads everywhere in Miami, mostly riding Harley Heritage Specials. In true US OTT fashion, when the SWAT team goes for its daily jog along the highway, they are accompanied by 30 cops on bikes to shield the exercisers from the traffic. Actually looking at the joggers I’d be bloody worried […]

Dave and Gareth still scratch as “no-see-ums” attacked them. The local name was given to the bugs in the Bahamas that you never see but then you itch madly for a week after a bite. The boys didn’t believe me when told to wear bug repellant, so now they itch. Roger has now arrived and […]