Let me share a few tidbits about my brief stay in Birmingham. I arrived late on Tuesday afternoon and after a quick shower I took a taxi to Bistro Two Eighteen, one of the best restaurants I had been lucky enough to get a late reservation at. The food, a delicious Gulf crab salad, a perfectly cooked steak on a lovely mushroom and shallot reduction with matchstick French fries, the wines, an Oregon Chardonnay and a Malbec, and the service were all excellent.
Since I was early I walked a few blocks on University Avenue and came to “The Heaviest Intersection in America”. Whether that was true or not at the time that the name was given the buildings on each of the four corners are impressive.
Wednesday’s 424 kilometres ride that touched on parts of Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and finally Tennessee ended in Knoxville. The landscape keeps getting more interesting as you move North throug the Appalachian range.
Yesterday was an interesting day. It started with an encounter with another BMW motorcycle aficionado at an Exon station in Knoxville where I had stopped to gas up. As I was trying to get the gas pump to accept my credit card, that it was refusing because I don’t hav a five digit zip code, this guy comes over and offers to help which he does using the app on his phone. We talk BMW motorcycles, the advantage of an RT (my model) and a GS. I suggest that since he wants to take his bike off-road, he’d probably prefer the GS. When I reach for my wallet to reimburse him for the gas, he declines the cash and wishes me a safe journey. I thank him, we say goodbye, and I don’t even know his name, nor he mine. Just two biker friends.
For those of you who have been following my blog for some time, and for others who would like to catch up, you will recall that back in June of 2014, I shared an episode with Lucille (Lucy), my internal GPS lady/guide. Well, she was up to it again yesterday. After getting me out of Knoxville efficiently and on the road to Charleston, at one point she decided to take me on an adventure on roads that got progressively narrower and windier. I humoured her for a fair bit but when she pointed me to something that looked like a back lane in the mountain I put my foot down. That is I reversed course, ignored her repeated admonitions to “Make a u-turn!”, and returned to something resembling a highway where I then reprogrammed my GPS with a more direct route to Charleston WV. I don’t know how much of my 510 kilometres day were due to Lucy’s detour, but I know that parts of it were in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia. The scenery is amazing.
Today was a no-ride day in Charleston, the capital of West Virginia, and I took advantage of my time here to visit the State Capital Building, the State Museum, and the Capital Market where I had lunch and chatted with some locals.
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