Switzerland Inn, Little Switzerland, North Carolina
May 5 - 7 (971 miles)
(My first rally without Tony. Mountain Moxie is a women's motorcycling conference.)
I left late afternoon on Wednesday May 3 to spend the night with Becky so we could get an early start Thursday morning. We got the Schuberth helmets working with help from Bill and Nancy and a second call to Bill Murray. We left at 6:30 am hoping to miss the steady rain forecast in the mountains.
Our route on Thursday morning was Rt 74, 485, 16, 40, 221, 226 and 226A. We beat all the inclement weather and within 2 hours of our arrival it was pouring.
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| Entrance and Registration at Mountain Moxie |
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| Parking Lot by our room in the lodge |
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| We have arrived |
Our room in the lodge had a door to the parking lot and another inside door to the lobby and restaurants.
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| Room 106 |
We ate lunch in the lodge restaurant and before the fog and rain started I had time to take a few pictures of the resort.
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| Two hours after we arrived. Rained all night. |
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| Picture from the window in our room. Our bikes are next to the white truck. |
Rally registration started at 5pm. Included in the $150 rally fee was a tee shirt, goodie bag, 2 dinners, 2 wine and cheese receptions, 3 breakfasts and speakers. Thursday night Becky and I had dinner in the Fowl Play Pub at the lodge.
Heavy rain and wind all night. Friday morning was in the 40s and foggy.
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| Friday morning fog lifting from the valley |
Breakfast was at 8am with the first presentation in the dining room after breakfast. The speaker was Wendy Crocket (she is a motorcycle mechanic and owns her own shop in California) talking about motorcycle maintenance.
The weather was clearing up and no rain was forecast until 3pm. After the talk we went to a low speed precision demonstration in the parking lot. Then we walked to the "town" of Little Switzerland a short distance down the hill. The Diamondback (route 226A) runs through the town which consists of a coffee shop/book store, a post office and a few other buildings.
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| 226A the Diamondback (12 mile loop) |
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| Little Switzerland |
By noon the weather was good and Becky and I rode to Spruce Pines and then northbound on the Blue Ridge turning back and riding 226A the Diamondback in the downhill direction back to the lodge.
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| Three Knobs Overlook on the Blue Ridge |
We got back to the lodge a few minutes before it started to rain. The wine and cheese reception started at 5pm with dinner and 2 more speakers. Danell Lynn spoke about her Longest Journey by Motorcycle (1 year to ride all 50 states and Canada) followed by Beth Lavinder and Robin Dahl (Moto Moxi) who told us about their 5 day motorcycling adventure in Iceland. Beth also does "hooping" see for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEIB1bNAH_E
May 6 is International Female Ride Day! Today's weather challenge was BIG winds. No rain was forecast until late afternoon. After breakfast Liz Sorrell from the Motorcycle Law Group gave a talk which was surprisingly very interesting. At 11:30 we decided to go for it despite the wind. Becky looked up a great ride online ... the Lake James route. When we finished the Lake James route we took 226A again but this time the up hill direction.
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| Lake James |
It started to rain lightly just as we got back ... again we avoided riding in the rain. It was chilly and windy but we still had ice cream. Great hot chocolate and lattes also!
Saturday night we went to the wine and cheese reception and dinner followed by 2 more speakers. Linda Cluxton (who we sat with at dinner) talked about her commercial photography and motocross events. Wendy Crocket was speaking again, this time on her endurance riding and how to accomplish an Iron Butt.
We left Sunday morning around 9 am on a beautiful sunny day, temperatures in the 40s when we left and 70s in Wilmington. Got to Becky's at 3 pm, traded back to my helmet (having communication the whole trip was awesome) and rode home in an hour.
WONDERFUL TRIP!
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| MOUNTAIN MOXIE 2017 |
