Episode 043 – Top 10 Bucket-List Motorcycle Roads East of the Mississippi

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Number 10: Devil’s Triangle

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So if we have the top 10 here, I’m putting the Devil’s Triangle at number 10. ~Um, ~that is located in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. It’s pretty easy to get to.

~Um, ~and really it’s the, to me, Mississippi. The hairpin turns in elevation, like I would say, like, there’s nothing crazy special about this road, except there are some just S turns that are in, you’re in first gear on the motorcycle and you are dragging, you know, no matter what happens. Yeah. ~Um, ~I love this road.

There’s times when you’re, you know, kind of just riding the edge of a cliff. You got to, you know, a wall of rock on one side and a sheer drop off, you know, on the other side without a guardrail. Yeah. I remember the white line that’s painted on the edge of the road actually like fell away because like some of the road had crumbled, crumbled there.

Yeah. So you don’t want to be close to that white line. It’s, it’s an amazing, amazing road. We’ve, we’ve, uh, been on it, uh, both in the daytime and in the nighttime. Well, and that’s weird, right? Why would we be riding this road at night? There was a specific reason. The very first time, yeah, we, we were heading down to this area, you know, the Tale of Dragons style area.

So what do you guys want to do? Do you want to still try it or not? And so we decided to go ahead and try it. And I just remember my biggest memory of that thing is I was leading, I think. And I know that Chris was riding the Harley in the very back. And I don’t remember if there’s five or six bikes. I just remember I was coming out of the second hairpin turn and I look up and Chris’s bike, cause he has that Harley with that like 000 K light.

You could go take tours of it. They had a,~ um,~ restaurant inside. I think there was a brewery or something or a distillery, something like that in there. But, uh, they have outdoor concerts. They’ve got stage set up and, uh, it’s really, it’s it blows my mind because when I was there, there was, it was a field of weeds and an abandoned building.

Number 9: Great River Road

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So yeah, so the number eight road is the great river road.

~Um, ~minnesota to louisiana mississippi river You can run on both sides of the mississippi, which is kind of cool And uh, it’s just uh, the mississippi river valley is just unique I mean it is so big and so interesting and then the locks and dams that we’ve talked about before it’s just so big There’s nothing else like it, I don’t think, and,~ um,~ you know, I don’t know, that’s, it’s just a tribute to this kind of the longest It’s just an icon, right?

Of kind of the U. S. and, and, and Maricona, if you want to say that. I think, yeah, so I don’t, I don’t know what you think of that. I just, I totally agree. There’s certain times of the day I like to ride that road and I like to be on a certain side, you know, of the river. ~Um, ~but you know, as the sun is starting to set and you see it reflecting off the water, it’s, it’s just amazing.

No, excuse me. Ten, nine, you’re on eighth now. It’s eighth. Thank you very much. Yeah.

Number 8: The Snake

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Eighth! Bah, road for your bucket list, uh, on the east of the Mississippias. This is Appalachians Mountain Road, US 421, mostly known as The Snake. Yeah. So this is uh, border of Tennessee and North Carolina, so right in the Appalachian Mountains.

Like it’s just,~ um,~ it’s very sweeping. You and I have been on this road before, and it’s just what you would imagine if like just a great, if you could design the road to ride, you’re just cutting into corners, but they’re not like. Insanely technical. It’s just, it’s a great ride. I mean, it just feels great.

Yeah, agreed.

Number 7: Kankmanus Highway

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Okay, I’m gonna, this is a road, our number seven road is a road I’ve never been on. I’ve never rode motorcycles in New Hampshire. ~Um, ~the Kankmanus Highway. Hmm. ~Um, ~that’s in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. They sometimes locally call it the kink, but it’s really,~ um,~ it’s really about this white mountain national forest is really as you can imagine.

And, uh, so that’s kind of where this park and, uh, the white mountains. And came from and just lots of trees overlooks, as you can imagine. So that would be a great one. Someday I would really like to get out East and ride more. I don’t think I’ve rode much in the North. I don’t think we’ve rode to Ohio on the bikes.

And then we kind of shrugged our way down to. Parts of North Carolina, but never really gotten really east which I think would be be fun

Number 6: Skyline Drive

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One more East Road number six is one called Skyline Drive, Virginia. So that’s Shenandoah National Park 105 mile road Along the Blue Ridge Mountains. ~Um, ~so Skyline Drive, because it’s kind of, uh, one of those top of the mountain type views.

It’d be great to plan a trip in that way So, all right, so my six is that what it is?

Number 5: Tunnel of Trees – M119

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Sixth road tunnel of trees. We’ve been on this one for sure m119 michigan It’s in the lower peninsula of Northern Michigan. It’s on the lake, uh, the Lake Michigan side. So it’s just a funky narrow road that is literally a tunnel.

I mean, I think that is why it’s called the tunnel of trees. It is a literal tunnel of trees. And for me, what’s cool about the tunnel of trees is you’re like kind of just cruising down a road and it looks like you’re almost turning into a sub development and it turns into this tunnel of trees. Yeah. And it just kind of appears out of nowhere and then disappears out of nowhere.

It’s just so dense. ~Um, ~just like so many of these roads that run next to lakes and rivers, you don’t see that much of it most of the time. Yeah. Yep. I’ve been on this. It’s been a little while, but yeah, it’s, it’s a great road. That was number five, by the way, I just had to check. Thanks. We didn’t put our numbers next door.

We didn’t do a good numbering job. We were so excited about the roads, right? Right.

Number 4: Natchez Trace Parkway

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So number four, then. Uh, Natchez Trace Parkway. Uh, so this starts in Natchez, Mississippi and goes to Nashville, Tennessee. Now, we rode this road, and it is quite interesting. ~Um, ~it’s the only national park road. Is that correct?

It was a historic path You Long time used by indigenous early settlers and that’s kind of where the name came from. But~ um, ~You know, it’s a bittersweet road in my opinion Like i’m so excited to try it because it’d be they kind of sell it Well, like I feel like if you were into motorcycle camping, this might be the perfect road for you.

It had this feeling of I feel like I’m on someone’s private driveway approaching their house. But I mean, it’s 444 miles, but it had this strange, like slow manicured on both sides of the road feeling, and we didn’t, you know, you don’t see restaurants, there was no stop signs, there’s no stop signs, there’s no stop lights, no stop signs, no restaurants, it’s not commercial at all.

Mm hmm. And that was pretty awesome. Like, you kind of just ride yourself right into Nashville and that was pretty cool. Like, so I think I would highly recommend that part. Mm hmm. And it is great to experience. It’s just,~ um,~ it’s just not thrilling. I mean, it, it, But if you want to stop and do trails, if you want to stop and do fishing, if you would want to stop and camp, that, that would be the ticket for this.

Yeah, and I, if I remember right too, like, you guys were running low on fuel and There’s just not fuel stops on the road. So you, you gotta plan ahead and be ready to exit somewhere and, and drive a little ways to find fuel or food or correct. Yep. There’s very little right next to her. Cause I think we’re, you’re in an, you’re in a federal park.

Number 3: The Cherahala Skyway

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All right. The Cherahala Skyway, Tennessee, North Carolina.

So this is Telecom Plains, Tennessee to Robbinsville, North Carolina. ~Um, ~it’s just beautiful in the Appalachians. ~Um, ~Cherahala combines Cherokee and Nottahala, which is part of the Cherokee heritage. So it passes through the Nottahala National Forest. ~Um, ~really kind of known, uh, I don’t, this might be a road you have not been on though, I can’t recall.

Number 2: The Blueridge Parkway

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And I did a little research to figure out what that is. There’s some of these native trees in the area have isoprenes. And when those react with sunlight and like kind of the morning air, it creates a bluish haze. So that’s kind of why the Blue Ridge Parkway is called that. So what a beautiful piece of road.

I mean, What I think most I remember about the Blue Ridge Parkway is, it’s almost like an accident when you’re getting on there, you’re just like, is this, is this the road? Like, it’s like, the bridges are very historic looking. I mean, they’re very cool. And everything is very well grown up. ~Um, ~so you’re, you just see a lot of vegetation.

So I don’t know how they’re going to fix that. I mean, how do you do that? Do you put a bridge in then like in that section and leave it, you know, like I, I just, so be careful here if you’re traveling or thinking about this, you want to plan ahead and make sure you check the locals. Yeah. So yeah,

Number 1: Tail of the Dragon

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our number one road, I think, uh, no surprise tale of the dragon.

Wow, what a cool, cool place. Yeah, it really is. You know, and I don’t know that this has to be a multiple time thing, but you really do have to ride this road at least one time. I mean, go there once. It’s just, it’s cool. I mean, it’s only mostly like what I think is just like. It’s a motorcycle road, right?

Like, I mean, everyone that rides a mo There’s so many motorcycles there when you go, and people are just fun and cool to talk to. Uh huh. What were your thoughts when you’ve been there? Oh, I agree. The very first time we rode it, I remember just this feeling of like, Who designed this road? What were they thinking?

Oh, yeah Hit it midweek if you can’t avoid the weekend, that’s true. Yeah, but you know at one end of the road There’s you know, some great shops and yeah, that’s deals gap Yeah deals gap has you know, just fun things to do and the tree of shame is there too. Oh, yeah, that’s right So they kind of pick up all the parts That get in get hurt when people wreck which they wreck a lot.

And I always buy their pictures too. It’s nice to have a few pictures of me riding my motorcycle and they just, they’re standing in the perfect spot. They’ve got, Great cameras. They know exactly what they’re doing and they get great shots. So I’m happy to give them 25, 30, 50 bucks. It’s worth it. It’s totally worth it.

I’ve got those on my phone and someone said, what do you ride? And I’ll just show a picture of me riding tail of the dragon. They’re like, well, that’s cool. It’s such a great place. I always do it. And kind of like, like bonus, bonus bucket list is there’s so many great roads in this area. Oh gosh, yes. I know we rode little Switzerland that time and that was just insane.

Oh, yeah moonshiner 29 is in there. I mean, they’re just 29 or 129 Yeah, they’re all in there. You just got to do the research back of the dragon The snake there’s six six six I think is in there, too It’s just there is a ton of great roads, but it’s all kind of this is the tale of dragons What makes it makes it it so yeah, yeah look up some motorcycle specific air B& Bs in the neighborhood, too

Right. You need to bring up some extra layers of clothes. ~Um, ~you know, we’ve talked about this for a while But if you don’t have layers man, it can really like when it gets cold it’s really nice to kind of be able to kind of Regulate yourself a little bit. ~Um, ~we just I just got I talked to the bond body armor people and got that in and oh My gosh, i’m actually in love with that gear ~Um, ~it’s kind of like I call it long underwear with armor in it ~um ~It’s got a base layer and then you can put pants over the top and then you wear a shirt and then a Armored and then you can just wear whatever you want over the top if you want a hoodie or something so I when I think of layering now, I really think of that because it allows you to just Two, two or three layers if you need it, throw rain gear on top.

And then you can take the armor from one and put it into the So it’s not The armor’s not permanent, you can move it around. So what’s really nice about that is, as you’re getting towards winter, you can grab the winter shell and kind of fill the armor with that as well. So, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s brilliant.

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