July 2
Riders: Tommy & Jo Ann, Mike & Rhonda, Mike & Amelia, Michael B.
Destination: BMW Motorcycles of Baton Rouge
Comments: Club members attended the wedding of friends Marliam Lee and Karen Honeycutt held at BMW Motorcycles of Baton Rouge. The wedding cake was designed to look like Marliam's motorcycle.
More pictures can be found here.
July 16
Riders: Tommy, Mike S., Mike & Amelia
Destination: Magnolia Cafe, St. Francisville
Comments: A few club members braved the weather forecast of rain to take a nice ride to St. Francisville. Mike B. even rode to Houma to meet Mike S. since the Magnolia Cafe was only a short ride from their house. Amelia met us at the cafe. The ride up was good and dry and the food was good. We rode across the new bridge near St. Francisville, with Mike B. re-crossing to return home. Mike and Tommy continued on to New Roads and returned by LA 1. We ran into rain just before reaching US 190 and got rain on and off most of the way home.
July 20
Riders: Mike & Rhonda, Mike & Amelia, Bob & Wanda, Alan
Destination: Roberta's River Road Restaurant, Sunshine LA
Comments: Roberto’s was open for business and they even let us in. The service and the food were very good. The decor was “OLD.” The pricing on the high side but palatable. Except for getting there a little late; it was a good experience. The ride back was uneventful.
July 23 thru July 31
Riders: Tommy & Jo Ann
Destination: North Carolina
Comments:
Jo Ann and I departed on a week-long trip to North Carolina on Saturday, July 23. Saturday night we stayed in Fort Payne, AL. We rode the Cherohala Skyway on Sunday, taking a side road to Bald River Falls. We then rode to Maggie Valley where we spent Sunday Night.
Monday we took the Blue Ridge Parkway at its beginning just north of Cherokee NC. There was very little traffic and the day was nice and cool. Parts of the lower section of the parkway were in the clouds, limiting visibility, but as the day wore on, sunshine appeared. We stayed in Asheville Monday night to avoid an approaching weather front.
Tuesday we continued north on the parkway, stopping at the Folk Art Center. Then it was a ride up to Mt. Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi River. At first clouds obscured the view on the observation deck, but eventually the eastern view cleared up. We spent the night in Boone, NC.
Wednesday we rode the parkway south stopping for a hike to Linville Falls. Since Jo Ann wanted to ride the Great Smokey Mountain train from Bryson City to the Nantahala Gorge, we headed for Bryson City. There was a bit more traffic on the parkway with much more auto traffic than we had encountered previously.
Thursday, Jo Ann got her train ride through the Nantahala Gorge. We also visited the train museum at the depot. There were lots of model trains and a few model train displays with running trains. We again stayed in Maggie Valley Thursday night.
Friday we rode a small section of the parkway and then through the Nantahala Gorge back to Robbinsville. We took the Cherohala Skyway back into Tennessee. We stayed at a friend’s home in Decatur AL. Our friends took us to Wintzell Oyster House for supper where I naturally had an oyster poboy!
Saturday we rode to meet the Alabama BMW club at Brierfield Ironworks State Park. We had a good time with the club members. Bob and Wanda were there also.
We returned home late Sunday afternoon.