TPF Across America - The Journey of One Lens Across the USA - Round 2

[Kazooie]

Holy crap.

 

[Markw]

Those are some AWESOME solar lights, and great bokeh from the lens. Thanks for adding the photos!

Mark

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Beautiful pics! ^^^^^^^^^^^

I'm on PP a crappy lap top shooting off a motorcycle in not good hours most of the time but I'm working that lens over.

So yesterday house sitter came around early and I met a sport touring friend and inspiration, SteveJ and we went up to GA for lunch at the shack by the track. This dude plotted my course out west coast and colorado last year and helped me with Maine this year. After a huge lunch he went back south and I went North. 1000 miles days are nothing for him and the bike he has now is pushing towards 200,000 miles.
DAMN this place is good. And of course real hickory. not mesquite like out west, or OAK and PALM tree like FL................ just real Hickory smoke.

I was there too

I went through GA it was 110 degrees. Everyone thats been through the badlands of OK or the desert of AZ realizes mesh is no good (gloves or jacket). Its like riding through a blow torch at speed. Leather or textile is a must. I was skeptical of the RS Taichi jacket when I left Tampa, but was thanking God I had it when I got in that heat. Kept the heat blast off perfectly while letting a draft flow through. I'm now sold on the brand. Today wasn't as bad as yesterday since I made it to the mountains. I did too many places in NC/TN to list. Was in the saddle 13 hours of all back country mtn roads: Gap/ Cheroholla/LOCALS ROADS/Asheville Boone/Blowing Rock/ The HWY 181 (and more locals roads) and tonight I'm in Hickory before meeting a lady tomorrow for breakfast. Again the jacket rocks, and it got special attention!

Sweet rest area on the blue ridge parkway (on a rare part of the parkway plenty of places to pass we ride), of all the times I've been past it I never stopped and looked at it

Stopped on a backroad and took a "break" by a zombie building. would it have been wrong to steal these old horseshoes?

"StudioS"! This photography studio is different than the ones I'm around in Tampa by far. I appreciate boudoir customers walking on pavement in their heels instead of the dirt this guy has for an extrance but hey if he makes it work thats great.

We werer railing the bikes outside of Boone and before we could think about pulling over to don rain gear we were in a hailstorm from hell. Sounded like machine gun fire hitting my helmet. The jacket got it first soaking =)

Tomorrow I'm doing the 421 SNAKE and then the extreme twisties of WV. And that state is the best kept secret ever. I'm still amazed it hasn't been infiltrated by squids, tourist riders, and hardly-ablesons

 

[cbrown222]

Thanks for the feedback guys,

It was awesome having that lens! Some shots weren't quite as sharp as I'd like, but that was mostly my fault. The lights were this show that Longwood Gardens was having, so glad I got to shoot it.

2wheel-- Your photos are looking great so far! Keep 'em coming!

 

[2WheelPhoto]

^^^thanks my friend, doing a lotmore riding that popping pics. This laptop I have for PP is discouraging

Today I road NC/TN/VA/WV and then interstate through a small piece of Maryland and PA. 600 miles of mostly switchbacks. Wow what a day it was. WV is incredible every time I ride it.
On way to Catskills in the AM.
Few pics, can't post process on this crappy laptop monitor but saving the raw files for when I get back.
Hickory to the Snake

Then I hit the real backroads, routes plotted into GPS and way off the main roads. OK so this guy in the country is raising fighting gamecocks. Wish I'd have brought my zoom lens.

On a back road from hell in WV and came up on an abandoned zombie school, real cracks in the columns and all going on

Was turned on to "the hangout in Welch, WV". It says Drive - in, but everyone is inside socializing. Made new friends there, I'll be back =)

 

[Aloicious]

Diggin' the pics 2wheel, thanks for posting them.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Thanks Aloicious

Riding the Catskills of NY. Stopped here in Cooperstown yesterday,my nephew from the Carolinas is up here in a baseball tournament. He hit a home run as I was walking up to field # 4, good times!

Spending the 4th with them, then on to the Adirondack mountains and the Canada. Will have next batch of pics up soon, my nephew caught a catfish heh =)

 

[manaheim]

This is cool. Funny thing is I have the exact same lens.

I may PM mark and get in on the fun, even though it looks like it'll be about 12 years before I see the lens here.

 

[sm4him]

This travelogue edition almost makes up for all those weeks of no photos! Great idea, 2Wheel.
The Shady Valley/Snake area is familiar to me, though I haven't been there in a while. When you come back through, you should do the Tail of the Dragon on 129; I hear it's far more exciting on a motorcycle than The Snake, but I've only ever done either in a car.

Keep 'em coming! It's fun seeing your travels, and knowing it's the very same lens that *I* have taken photos with.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Yes sir Did tail of the dragon already too

 

[Markw]

Wow. This is too cool 2wheel! Thanks again for including our journey in your journey! I don't know how you resisted exploring that abandoned building.

Mark

 

[2WheelPhoto]

OK I gotta cheat and slip in a phone cam pic. Lets call it a "sharpness comparison" with the Nikon lens =)

Went by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum between nephew's tournament games. Glad Tyler hit a homer here, Uncle Steve got the shirt!

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Wow. This is too cool 2wheel! Thanks again for including our journey in your journey! I don't know how you resisted exploring that abandoned building.

Mark

This grizzly land owner ran me off, and I wasn't about to argue. Persoanlly I wanted sxome different angles of that building and closeups of the cracks in the columns.

Those country folk shoot =)

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Canada!

And rollin'

 

[2WheelPhoto]

I miss my hi ISO body for night handheld shots!

Catch up some crazy pics-

Catfish my nephew caught in the Catskills

Back roads to Montreal (from Catskills through these moutains)

Canada - Friend in Montreal I visited has quite the car collection and lifts installed in his garages. A new viper is his every day driver. I liked his white GT500, its his weekend car and he's done a ton of mods to it. He also has a stock one with 21 miles on a lift that he said will never see the street, and he has a Z06 Vette that he said isn't much fun to drive compared to the other cars and he's about to sell it. I took a few phone pics

Vermond, NH, Maine - Ate at a lobster shack in the cool brisk ocean breeze upper Maine after visiting Montreal and motorcyling the beautiful mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire. Another check mark on my bucket list!
This was at Boothbay Harbor

This was a shack in town (Portland), suggested by a sport touring bud and he was spot-on

Rhode Island-
Geez I never new the Coastline of Rhode Island was so incredible, I didn't see a bad spot anywhere. This is a working lighthouse, light and soundhorns

Ct- This is the Pizza place in Mystic the Julia Roberts movie "Mystic Pizza" was filmed. The movie plays over and over in there but no sount.

My bud went coast to coast on this silver bike in under FIFTY hours. Talk about a non-stop butt burner....

NYC/NJ- got to Atlantic City in the middle of the night after riding NYC. So far I'm up on these Casinos

Ona scale of 1-10 of Casinos I've stayed at in Vegas, this one in NJ ranks about a 7. Although i like the bathroom colors and stuff that matches

I stayed here an extra day but I'm rolling in the AM. No clue where but it'll be towards mountains. Can't wait to get serious about pics again and stop with the traveling snapshot off a bike non-sense. I'll put the lens to better use before I send it off =)