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Overland Expo - Austin to Asheville

I want to see a picture of the pulled pork sammich with bacon....pork with more pork. [emoji16]

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As I expected, I wasn't able to keep up while we were moving.

So, this is a placeholder for Monday. We rode NC197 to Burnsville. This was one of the recommended rides by many here and at Expo. There was only a short (ten mile-ish) gravel section up at the top over the pass, and that was all the gravel we got to do this trip, but it was an awesome ride nonetheless.



Had a good lunch at Garden Deli in Burnsville.

<pictures here later>

Then we rode NC80 down to Marion. This was actually a surprise, as I didn't expect it to be as twisty and fun and in as good shape as it was. There was a little construction right at the start of it, but once we were past that, it was smooth twisty asphalt for the rest of the afternoon with hardly any traffic. I found no evidence that NC DOT has any clue what chip-seal is and I hope they remain ignorant of its existence.

<pictures here later>

It was still a little early, but the skies had been threatening rain most of the day and we felt pretty good about the riding we had gotten in this day, so we decided to head to Lake James State Park and set up camp. We got there around 1630. The camp sites were walk in, so we would have to unload all of the stuff off of our bikes and haul it down about a half mile but we were the only people in the whole place for that night except for the park hosts. After checking it out and a little discussion about how hauling our wet gear back up the hill was going to be no fun we decided to stay anyway. The people we ran into were packing out and told us the best site to take, so we followed their advice and ended up with a great view.

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We set up camp then did a little hike and on our way back to camp the rain started. It stayed pretty light for a bit then started coming in hard for the rest of the night. Luckily we were at the tail end of the weather system that was moving through, so no thunderstorms, just some steady rain until about 0900 the next morning.

Dinner: Mountain House Chicken Risotto, quite tasty.

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,
 
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Tuesday was our trip back to Chattanooga. Another surprising ride. I expected flat straight highway slab all the way back, but it turned out to be nice riding (albeit with some extra traffic that we had not been dealing with the last couple days). We ran IH40 back into Asheville, then US74 most of the rest of the way. I didn't think there would be much to look at all day so didn't set up my GoPro until we were a ways out of Asheville when I finally decided to pull over and catch some of it. I'll post up those pics later too.

Back in Chattanooga earlier than expected, we decided to load up the trailer and get to Tuscaloosa so Wednesday's ride home wouldn't be so brutal. Had a great dinner of ribs and banana pudding at a hole in the wall BBQ joint called Original Dreamland BBQ. We weren't sure what to expect when we pulled in, but it turns out the place is fairly well known and was fantastic. Sorry for the post apocalypse photo, but you get the idea.
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The last day was just 14 hours on the interstate and we pulled in about 2100 and got to unloading everything and putting it all away so it's ready for the next adventure.
 
Updated post #11 with pics of us from the commercial photos on the Dragon.
 
Very cool pictures on post 11.

Thanks - I had a blast posing for them.

Post #11 has now been completed with the rest of the pictures I have from that first day of riding.
 
Post #!8 and 19 have been updated with pics from the Expo.
 
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