Journey to the Mississippi from Brooklyn

[DRKWNG]

The Tail of the Dragon is not so bad mid-week but stay away on the weekend.

This.

[He Man]

How is monday for tail of the dragon? My friends parents are not cool with me +1 staying in their house (he forgot to mention +1) so i am skipping jacksvonille as an overnight stay, and istead just stopping by for lunch so i am aiming to be in the shuttle area by 2-3pm, get a hotel and chill there for the day to watch the launch and leave to tallahassee the next morning or night.


To be honest, the shutle thing is so out of my way, it may not even be worth it.

[muskrat]

Monday may be fine but mid week is better for the Dragon.  Take the skyway though while there.

[He Man]

thats waht i go so far. Though from Deals Gap to Tallahassee is a LONG stretch of rode that I want to cut in half with some activity. DRKWNG Will see you in DC!


So revised isDay 1: Make it to DC
Leave at 1pm, make it there around 8pm and stay over freinds house, check out dc at night for a bit hangout.  Total Miles: 225miles ~5hours according to google maps, so well say 7 hours if we do it nice and relaxed with food and gas stops.

Day 2: Make it to campground @ Blue Ridge Parkway
Wake up around 8am leave at 10ish and make our way to Blue Ridge Parkway, were going to make our way to Wilderness Canoe Campground (http://www.wildernesscanoecampground.com/index.html). Approximately 6 hours according to Google Maps, so we'll say 9 hours since theres a lot of things to just stop and enjoy. So we get there around 7pm the latest depending on how we feel ( we are next to a highway so we have the option of cutting a few hours out if we feel tired).

Day 3: Wake up at 9am and get on the canoe bus at 10am. Rent a Canoe Class I and Class II rapids ($60 for 2 man canoeing, or $30 for solos). They have 5-10 mile canoe trails. ranging from 2-7 hours depending. We can camp here overnight again and leave in the morning, or leave around 3pm. and make a 5 hour trip to another campsite or stay at a motel.

Day 4: Leave by 10am and Make our way to TAIL OF THE DRAGON!!!! around 2pm Ride it, conquer it, get some stickers and find a place to stay.

I need to make it to tallahassee from here and if there is something to do, that would be great. But its 9 hours google maps time, so 12hour real time wit hfuel food and bullshitting. Its too much. Its only 480miles. but with speed limits. So i wanna find something to do near atlanta and stay the night. 

Day 5: Make our way to tallahassee (its superslab boring) Get there and stay with a friend. Hang out with some freinds that go to FSU grad school now.

Day 6: New Orleans
Day 7: New Orleans
Day 8: Jacksonville
Day 9: DC
Day 10: Home
Day 10:

[DRKWNG]

What part of town (DC) are you going to be staying in?

[Teutonics]

...So i wanna find something to do near atlanta and stay the night.  

Day 5: Make our way to tallahassee (its superslab boring)...

Barber Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham is well worth the extra two hours from ATL.  From there take I65S to Montgomery then back roads (through Dothan and Bainbridge) to Tallahassee.  Breaks up the superslab as well.  

Edit:  See this thread - http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=31378.0

[ducpainter]

Barber Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham is well worth the extra two hours from ATL.  From there take I65S to Montgomery then back roads (through Dothan and Bainbridge) to Tallahassee.  Breaks up the superslab as well.  

Edit:  See this thread - http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=31378.0

But with his schedule he won't have enough time to get past the friendly folks at the door.

[OT]

Be sure to watch "Easy Rider" before you go 

1) Definitely stop at the Barber Museum NE of Birmingham.

2) I lived along the Gulf Coast (in/between Mobile AL  and Port Arthur TX) during the winter of '05-'06 doing environmental work in the wake of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.  The people I met there were among the nicest I've met anywhere in the world.

3) If you need to, the Mobile area is a good place to stop, as it was far enough east to have missed Katrina's wrath and has pretty much everything you'd want/need.  Name, and other, hotels (and one of two Hooters in town) are off I-10 (Rts 16/90) in Tillmans Corner or/and off I-65 west of downtown.  If you have to shop, most of the name stores you'll be looking for are on/near Airport Blvd - there's a big Walmart in Tillmans Corner.  Consider visiting Fairhope, it's is a pretty little town on the east side of Mobile Bay about 30 minutes south of I-10/Spanish Fort. 

Parts of the Mississippi coast are still recovering from Katrina, so you may want to consider an overnight stay in the Mobile area before heading west, if it fits your schedule.  Travel time from Mobile to NOLA is about 2.5 hours, if I recall corrrectly.

4) But......I'd recommend you consider these stops (chek with AAA to make sure all the roads/ferries are open):

Pensacola, Fla is nice, you can stop at the Navy Base and tour the really cool naval air museum and maybe even see the Blue Angels practicing, then head west through Perdido Key on local roads along the coast towards Gulf Shores, Ala.  GS is touristy, so I'd recommend riding through (on Rt 180) and  taking the ferry over to Dauphin Island, where the flavor is much more "local" and you should be able to find a relatively cheap place to stay/eat lunch (Barnacle Bills was a regular stop there - not sure if it stlll goes by that name - just north of the circle heading north off the island ) or even keep riding for another half hour (take 193 to 188) and eat in Bayou La Batre.  These places are where the real people live....then continue up to I-10 and go westward.  Skip Rt 90 going thru Pascagoula and Ocean Springs; Pascagoula is a run-down refinery town and Ocean Springs is mostly residential.

Once in MIssissippi (on I-10), take I-110 south to Biloxi and ride '90' west along the beach....you'll still see some of the damage from Katrina (the eye made landfall just west of Biloxi in Gulfport).  Should be able to find lots of small places to stop at and chat up the locals (maybe a Lonely Planet guide available?) - check with AAA to confirm that 90 is open all the way to I-10 above Lake Ponchartrain, which is the way you'll want to enter the NOLA area.

If you ride around the residential, southern parts of NOLA you're likely to still see houses with 'bathtub rings' indicating the water level during the flood.  Other than the French Quarter/Garden District/Mardi Gras parades, downtown NOLA itself doesn't have much to offer (other than crime) imo, so you may want to research some of the historic plantation "trails/rides" along the Mississippi heading upriver from New Orleans towards Baton Rouge.  From Baton Rouge you can pick up the I-12 east to Slidell and then I-59 to Meridian/Birmingham.   FWIW - I stayed in Tuscaloosa on my drive home - more motel/hotel offerings due to UofA, afaik.

[Vindingo]

Mardi Gras was last week, so NOLA will probably be low key.  Probably a good thing...

Where are you staying down there?   I would make sure you have a safe spot for your bikes.  The roads are TERRIBLE with pot holes, and make NYC streets seem like they are paved in gold, so be careful in the city. 


There is a Duc dealer in New Orleans if you have any issues.

I have a few close friends down there and a good lawyer in the city, so if you get into any real trouble feel free to shoot me a PM. 

[He Man]

What part of town (DC) are you going to be staying in?

I will be about 10 miles out in rockville MD.

Mardi Gras was last week, so NOLA will probably be low key.  Probably a good thing...

Where are you staying down there?

I have a few close friends down there and a good lawyer in the city, so if you get into any real trouble feel free to shoot me a PM. 

Thanks! Hopefully I wont need to. I was in there for Mardi Gras back when I was attending FSU. It was pretty fun overall. I havent been there when its not mardi gras so i have no idea how its like. Im hoping its much more laid back.

I am going to rework the scheudle with all your recommendations. My friend doesnt want to camp, and he wants to see the shuttle launch too. So I may skip tail of the dragon for the trip back up. He also doenst mind being in new orleans for only a day or two so that gives more time to  [moto]

[CDawg]

The Tail of the Dragon is not so bad mid-week but stay away on the weekend.

+1!

[CDawg]

Cherohala Skyway
NC 28
Key West Highway (if you are willing to go all the way south)

[zooom]

I will be about 10 miles out in rockville MD.

hit me up with where in Rockville, so we can organize a meet-up spot!!!

[He Man]

hit me up with where in Rockville, so we can organize a meet-up spot!!!

will do

[bikepilot]

Sounds like you've got a great plan set out!

If you need anything in the DC area I've got tools and plenty of space (garage and bedrooms).

For the routes, you can take reasonably good roads from the dragon to about mid-Georgia, then everything gets flat and boring and you might as well jump on the slab.

There's not really any great riding or anything else worth mentioning that I know of between FL and LA - I'd slab it and make good time.  

My ride report from summer '08 covers the bit from FL to LA (very beginning) and deal's gap to FL (end).

You've probably made the run from NYC to DC before, but if not, there's also not much other than lots of traffic along the way.  I've tried running way out west, sticking way east and going right down I-95 for variation.  Nowadays I just slab that run, usually overnight or in the wee hours of the morning, to get it over with.