Georgia and the Appellation Mountains

The ride up into Georgia went smoothly. I was surprised by the amount of forestation I was riding through. Like Alaska it’s n ice at first but as scenery goes it gets boring quite quickly. I had picked a town called Dublin as my first stop through this state, but it's nothing like it’s namesake in Ireland. Someone must have been very homesick when they named this town. The next day I also rode through one of the larger towns called Athens. This town might have been worth closer inspection as it’s one of the major universities in the south, along with that the sorority houses. Huge old Greco Georgian southern homes that have large Greek letters on the porticos like Alpha Beta Kappa.


The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway about to depart


The main street of Blue Ridge


Up in the mountains

That Thursday night saw me in the Appellation Mountains in the small town of Blue Ridge. The main street of the oldest part of town has some beautiful tourist shops and see’s the departure of the Blue Ridge railway each day. The roads around this part of the state were full of motorcyclists making the most of the winding mountain roads. After a couple of nights there I rode 250km to end up 50km away from where I had started in a pseudo German Alpine town of Helen. Very cheesy but with a lot of people enjoying the river by floating down in inflatable rings and putting on the pounds eating the ice creams and local chocolates. My one complaint was at 5 o’clock on the Sunday I decided that it was beer o’clock and when I put the can of Budweiser on the counter the clerk said sorry no beer sold on Sunday!!


The "Alpine" village of Helen


Another covered bridge near Helen


Tubing down the river. A good way to deal with the heat.

On the Monday I started a slow ride down towards South Carolina stopping in Augusta on the way down to a small town on the coast called Beaufort where there is one of the main US Marine training facilities. So I’m now just outside Charleston with John and Gabby, friends of another good friend who I haven’t seen in 33 years. Claire is joining me for this little part of the journey through South and North Carolina and up to Washington before she flies back home to Paris. John and Gabby’s place in Awendaw is beautiful set among the trees with access to the intercostal waterways that run along the Carolina coast.


The grand old houses of the south


The shrimp boats. There is actually a Bubba Gump shrimp restaurant!


The view from Johns house to the jetty


And looking back to the house


Gabby's Mother still lives on the plantation with this fantastic driveway


Down to the main house

Palm Harbor

Firstly I have to extend my thanks once again to Nigel, Lynne and their family for putting up with me for the last three weeks. I’ve had a nice rest although I’ve been working hard (some of the time) helping Nigel do some repairs and deliveries for his Patio furniture business, and also building some work benches for the garage below the new house. We’ve drunk our fair share of Rum and Red Wine and I hope I’ve past on some Aussie BBQ skills!! Best of luck for the future guys and I hope to see you in Australia sooner than later.



The new cassa Tuckey


Nigel, Lynne and Philippa


Job Started


Job finished!!

We also went down to the Wednesday bike night at Quaker Steak and lube, loads of bikes, big burgers and some good live music.


Quaker Steak and lube bike night


Some huge burgers


And some radical bikes


The blue chrome was cool

To everyone else I apologize for neglecting the blog.

I'm now back on the road. I made the first stop back in St Augustine, 300 km north of where I was and I thought a nice place to have a second look at. It’s no cooler here although I do think the humidity is slightly less. Next stop is Georgia.


Inside the fort at St Augustine

After the British burned down the original fort they replaced it!!


The oldest house in town


Moss hanging from the trees, down to old houses, nice!


Downtown St Augustine

Ground Control to Major Tom

I left the Everglades behind me and rode up the coast road through Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach. Rode might not be the right word more like fought. It becomes more and more evident the more time you spend in American traffic that the use of the phone on driving has a very adverse affect. The lack of concentration and awareness of things that are going on around them is severely impaired. Using the phone while driving has not yet been banned in this country and it needs to be!! Texting has, although it’s still very commonly practiced. So after that little rant I didn’t see anything along that stretch of coastline that particularly inspired me to want to stay.

The Kennedy Space Centre


The rocket Garden


Starting to get a little larger

Titusville is on the Space Coast just alongside the spit that contains the Kennedy Space Centre and Cape Canaveral, one being the civil space centre and the other being the military one. For anyone my age and older the excitement of watching Apollo 11 going to the moon and (in my case in the UK) getting up in the early hours of the morning to watch Neil Armstrong take those first steps on the moon, all comes flooding back as you enter the visitors centre at the Kennedy Space Centre. The rockets arranged in a kind of garden seemed almost too small to have carried someone into space. The shuttle and the rockets that carry that particular vehicle up to the international space station, also smaller than I had imagined. It’s not until you get on the bus that takes you out towards the launch pads, observation platforms and ultimately the hanger that houses the Saturn V rockets that you get to see the giant that you remember slowly rising from the launch pad, smoke and flames billowing from the massive engines carrying the three men locked in a tiny capsule on top of this thing into space. It truly is huge and very, very, impressive. There is also a 3D Imax film showing a film about the space station and a launch simulator that was a lot more violent than I had expected. All in all a fantastic day, that allows boys of all ages to dream about being an astronaut.


The assembly building


The Lunar Module


The original launch control for the Lunar missions


One of the space suits used on Apollo 11

The next day I took a ride further up the coast to see Daytona Beach. If you were coming to this part of the world for a beach holiday I think this could be a very nice, easy going place to spend a week. I would also imagine that during the Daytona Bike Week things could be good fun around here. A little further up the coast I was told to go to a place called St Augustine. This little city is the oldest continuously occupied (European established) place on the North American continent, having been founded by the Spanish explorers in 1565. It is the headquarters of the US Coast Guard and again a very nice little place to visit. It’s quite a change to see buildings of this age in the USA when everything else is relatively modern.






The old Spanish Fort at St Augustine



Some of the original gates into the city


Small cobbled streets


And Spanish colonial buildings

The last day was spent looking at the Warbirds museum and the National Police museum. Loads of interesting planes and historic artifacts to wander around and absorb for a few hours. Including one of the police cars from Blade Runner and an electric chair!!


A B25 Bomber


A Huey helicopter from Vietnam


An F14 Tomcat


One of the police cars from Bladerunner


A Melbourne Police car. The third Melbourne I've seen now


The electric chair. Still scary!

I have now returned to Palm Harbor where I helped my mate Nigel and Lynne to move house and settle in. The rear tyre on the Wombat finally gave in the centre tread down to the canvas, not to bad as it’s now done 20,000km. The new tyre I had ordered on the internet was waiting when I got back and I took the rear wheel out and over to the BMW agent in Tampa to get it fitted and balanced. The odometer has also clocked over to 100,000km! So some fresh oil is going to be purchased this week and put in the engine along with a new filter.


Getting all the value I can out of this one!!

Everglades and Aligators

It’s been another interesting part of the journey. I have spent the last week with Nigel catching up on all the things he and his family have been doing in the last 32 years, as well as drinking loads of Captain Morgan Rum, Wine and generally anything else that came to hand! We did do some work and some packing (they are moving this weekend) as well. I will be returning to continue the stay (and the drinking) next week.

I've also been visiting the Florida Everglades and the Keys.

The Everglades was a place I imagined to be mostly like Mangrove Swamp. I think that’s the impression that most of us get when we watch the TV programs that involve this part of the world. The truth couldn’t be much different. A lot of the Everglades are grass wetlands and some of the higher ground (i.e. 14 inches) are covered with small groves of Pine trees. Certainly no stagnant water here. There are areas of Mangroves around the coastal fringes where the water mixes with the sea water to become brackish. Having said all that Florida is not the place to visit in the summer months. It’s the wet season and the humidity would give anywhere in the tropics a run for it’s money!! Plus the fact that in the Everglades National Park they do not spray for Mosquitoes (being part of the food chain) which means in turn you become part of the food chain!! So after four hours of wandering about getting very hot and sweaty and bitten all over, you start to think this is the swamp you were expecting in the first place.


Some of the grass wetlands


With Mangroves around the edges


Some of the indigenous wildlife


This ones more widely known!


It never ceases to amaze me what people will do for attention

Another thing I got to do while I was here that I have wanted to do for a long time was to have a ride in one of the “plane boats” where the normal outboard motor is replaced with a V8 turning a aeroplane propeller. Good fun, but oh so laud!!


A "plane boat"


Good fun but you need the ear muffs!!


Hanging out at Alabama Jacks on a Sunday arvo

The second place that I wanted to visit was the Florida Keys and more importantly make it down to Key West which is the most southerly point in the USA. If was a nice but long ride (200km one way) from Homestead down to Key West through the state parks and over the long connecting bridges (7 miles being the longest) to get there. Once there you are immersed in one of this countries busier tourist spots, added to by at least one cruise ship in port. I chose to have a look around the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum which documents the finds of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita the Spanish galleons that sank during a hurricane on September 6, 1622, near Key West. Mel and his team discovered the $450 million dollar treasure cache or "Atocha Mother Lode" on July 20, 1985. Over 40 tons of silver and gold were located including over 100,000 Spanish silver coins known as "Pieces of Eight", gold coins, Columbian emeralds, silver and gold artefacts and over 1000 silver bars. Interesting to see where some of those Pieces of Eight that were struck in the mint in Potosi in Bolivia that I visited all those months ago eventually ended up. Next I’m moving up the east coast of Florida.


Old Downtown Key West


No wonder there were a lot of people around!


Another old institution in Key West


The old weatherboard houses are very quaint


Ernest Hemingway lived just up the street


Sunken treasure. These gold bars are the real deal!

Just as a side note. Seeing that I have now reached the East coast of the USA. I guess I have now ridden from the bottom of the world to the top, and now all the way around. Feels good.