Day 32 - Pikesville to Columbia

We left Pikesville at 8:15am after having had a great visit with our friend Jeff, heading down US 23 East toward Virginia. Highway 23 is quite a marvel. It is cut through the mountain of Kentucky with precision and great engineering skill. Some hills are cut by 400 or so feet. The drill marks in the rock are clearly evident, and the blasting took place in tiers of 30 to 40 feet high each. In some cases there are 10 or more tiers to open the path for the highway. It is truly something to see. According to Jeff, carving highway 23 thought the Kentucky mountains moved more rock and earth than was moved in digging the Panama Canal and took 15 years to do it!

Reaching Virginia, we continued on US 23, but it can't compare to 23 in Kentucky. We reached Norton, VA and had breakfast at the Dairy Queen. The eggs were fine, but in my opinion, biscuit, egg and sausage doesn't make it in comparison with either the McDonalds or Burger King variety. The biscuit sticks to the roof of your mouth!

We left Norton and headed South into Tennessee for a short way on Hwy 91, what a scenic ride. Then we headed to Boone, NC, a truly scenic town with much "tourist" about it. From there we headed South to Morganton, NC, our original destination for the day. However, we arrived at 2:10pm and decided that we would rather spend more time in St. Augustine tomorrow, than in Morganton today, so we cancelled our reservation at the Comfort Inn, made another at the Comfort Inn in Columbia, SC, and hit the road for another three hours.

The ride was largely uneventful, given that it was on I-40 and I-77 at 75 plus mph, but the heat was a bit much. At times the thermometer on the bike registered 105 degrees. Several stops for water were required!

We arrived safely in Columbia at 5:00pm, unpacked and headed for Applebees for dinner. They have the greatest new appetizer menu. You can choose three appetizers for $10.95 - and they are all pretty good!

Tomorrow we head for St. Augustine. So far we have accumulated over 75 points on our ABCs of Touring, with one more to go "Georgia". Until tomorrow - cheers!