Well today my good luck took a bump. My bloody GPS died after 11 days of service. There you go, buying the best and most expensive just doesn’t always pay off. Things were going so well this morning too. Early to bed (well kind of after Halloween partying) and on the road very early, about 7am for the first time this trip. Today I am travelling from Savannah, Georgia to Lenoir, North Carolina – about 330 miles. I had planned the trip half on the Fwy and half on side roads that looked kind of twisty on the map, as I had had a gutful of big open Fwy riding – even though you can stick on 90-100mph for hours and cover miles very fast. After the Air Base, I hit the Fwy hard and put in some good quick miles. The traffic was nicely spaced so using the passing traffic as radar shields was working beautifully and the 100mph average was quite easy to maintain. On the second fuel stop, the tummy was grumbling and screaming out for some American staple food – the Hamburger. After a deliciously satisfying Grilled Chicken Mexican Burger, I jumped back on the bike to finish off the home stretch and plugged the GPS back into the bike mount. Instead of seeing the screen light up with big comic arrow pointing the way to go - the screen flashed brightly for 1/10 second and then went black. Instantly I thought, “Oh shit that didn’t look good!” After calling Garmin support, they gave me some things to try, but it involves removing the internal battery, (which requires a 2mm alan key and of course isn’t supplied with the product) then connecting it to laptop and updating its flash memory. Yeah right! My gut feeling is this isn’t the problem at all and the bloody thing has short circuited. Anyway, because I sent the box home they won’t exchange it so it has to go through a 10 day repair cycle, plus they have to mail to me and don’t know where I will be. So fingers crossed with their solution. What a bloody pain in the arse. Reading road maps and drafting mud maps to fit in my tank bag map window is time consuming and is definitely a pain compared to using the GPS. Arrrgh! Anyway, I arrived in Lenoir ok, but some 3 ½ hours after my original GPS estimated arrival time. The country has changed a lot compared to Florida. The trees are now classical American forest and the Autumn colours are beautiful. I have come up to North Carolina from advice from Amy in Orlando. She said it is regarded as one of the best places in the US to see the Autumn colours. By sheer coincidence, the place she told me to go, Grand Father Mountain is very close to the Smoky Mountains. It turns out, after talking to another biker in Savannah, that this whole area is Motorcycling Mecca and the location of the world famous Dragon’s Tail at Deal’s Gap. 318 turns in 11 miles! After looking at Google Maps, I see the whole area is made up of the most amazingly twisty roads that go through mountainous terrain and apparently covered by the most incredibly beautiful forest. So tomorrow I am going out to have some fun and I think I will spend a couple of days up here. Check it out. http://www.dealsgap.com/
