33 Days in a Leisure Suit: Day 1 - Durham, NC to Pikeville, KY

Click here to see the Route

I woke up the first time at 4:00 this morning. Too early… try to sleep some more. At 4:45, I decided it was useless to try to sleep anymore. Some coffee, last minute items in the bags and a shower… now just to wait for the sun to rise. I took a look at the weather and confirmed what I figured was going to happen. A good bit of the day would be spent riding through the remnants of hurricane Harvey. It looked like most of the thunderstorms were past where I would be going, but I would still be in the rain most of the day. After some driveway photos, a kiss and hug to the wife, I was on the road - kickstand up and rolling at 7:00.

The jacket is SO slimming!

The first 200 miles today were roads that I had ridden many times before and was very familiar with. I tend to stop much less when I am riding in the rain, so there were only a few stops today - only 5 stops between Durham and Pikeville. The first stop was at the NC/VA state line to get the obligatory photo and check the bags to see that everything was still secure. Bags good, photo snapped…

The next stop was in Meadows of Dan for fuel (ethanol free!) and a cup of coffee. When I left Durham, it was 60 degrees - in Meadows of Dan, it was 48! It was at this point that I turned on the heated grips and heated seat… they stayed on the rest of the day.

The next stop would be the first kitsch stop of the trip. I love the Roadside America types of attractions, etc. so you will see lots of them along the way. How can you NOT stop and take a photo of the GIANT pencil in Wytheville, VA!?!?

From there, It was pretty much straight through riding all the way to Pikeville. One quick stop for the Kentucky state line photo was it. US 460 through western Virginia into Kentucky is a very beautiful drive. It winds through a narrow river valley that also has several side-by-side rail lines running through to move coal. Serious coal country here. I don’t think I have ever seen so many consecutive miles of forest taken over by kudzu. Yes, it is crazy invasive, but it makes the sides of the mountains almost look cartoonish. For those of you who don’t live in the American South, click HERE to see what I’m talking about. There is a bunch of it in the background photo below:

It rained the hardest for probably the last 10 miles of the trip today. There wasn’t a lot of traffic to kick up a bunch of spray that coats you in gunk, so it wasn’t really that bad. The Klim gear performed brilliantly - 8 hours in rain and drizzle, and I was dry as a bone! The only issue is my waterproof gloves. They aren’t.

I arrived in Pikeville around 3:00, got checked into the hotel, unloaded the bike and went for a walk about town. Here are a few fun facts about Pikeville!