[FullTimeD]

I know I'm a little late to the game, and this probably isn't even the best venue for this, but I wanted to document an awesome adventure without hijacking another thread. Even If it's just for me to look back on...

So, a few days before the solar eclipse, my friend and I (friend drives an E46 330ci, if we're keeping things relevant) decided we were going to embark on an epic, 3-day road trip from PA to Tennessee. This way we could be in the zone of totality for an event that hasn't occurred over the US in 38 years!

We decided since my car only has 60k miles (and it's 11 years old! Can you believe it!?) that's what we would take. These first pictures are somewhere in the mountains on rt 220 in West Virginia. We decided to avoid the traffic, and stay off the beaten path for a while.




It was about 99 degrees in the early afternoon, and 220 is a pretty awesome, windy road up this mountain, so it was cooldown time.

After moving on, we stumbled upon this amazing waterfall, overlooking some beautiful Appalachian scenery, so of course we had to hop in.




It was incredible, and exactly what we wanted on this trip! We also found a few other oddities on the way, like the Holy Land...



...and of course south west Virginia isn't complete without the Titanic (Leo not included)



After a hugely long day in the car, it was time for a bite at Roanoke's own Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint. Pretty awesome little dive, with good, southern hospitality, and some tasty burgers too. I had the Greg Brady.



Then it was time to post up in some random motel for the evening, because there was still about 3 hours to get to the motorcycles the next day!






DAY 2:

This was bout 6:30 in the morning, because we wanted to get in as much riding as we could. The Smokey Mountains in the background were calling to us, and we didn't want to disappoint.


[Most of my pictures, I'll doctor up at least a little, but this one was straight from the camera. The sunrise needed no editing...]


We got into Townsend, TN right around 10 am, and it was time to get riding. We hired some bikes from a good ole boy called Lt. Dan (yep), and decided we were going to head south into Deal's Gap on the Tail of the Dragon, and then jump on to the Blue Ridge Parkway after Cherokee, NC.

Betcha can't guess which bike was mine?




We found some more beautiful sites along the way...




... and after more than 220 miles of riding, it was time to hang our hats for the night.





DAY3:

The final day of the trip, the day of the total solar eclipse, brought me my favorite picture of the journey. Another friend was supposed to go with us, but made the mistake of telling his wife. After that, he had to talk himself out of having any fun on the road trip, so he decided to shit all over it.

He told us it would be too long, and too expensive, and would probably rain, and there's too many people, and so on.......

On the day of, he asked if we were having any fun sitting in traffic, so I snapped this picture and sent it to him.



There was no one on the road. it seemed we had all of NC to ourselves.

We eventually posted up at Lake Santeetlah, and settled in for what was shaping up to be an awesome astronomical event. This is a 360 shot of where I sat for the eclipse...



The clouds around us stayed away, and when the actual event hit, it was indescribable. I was completely blown away, and it made the long rides and 12 - 14 hour days totally worth it.

At this point, you'd expect some epic photo of the eclipse in all its glory, but I am not a professional photographer, and everything was done with my phone. If you were interested in the eclipse, you've seen enough pictures of it at this point. The only thing I got that I thought was cool was the shadows through the trees.




And that's basically it. After 3 days, 1400 total miles, getting back to Philadelphia at 5:30am and having my alarm go off at 6:25 for work, it was an incredible journey, and a once in a lifetime adventure with a best friend, and the final word in reliability... BMW. Thanks for reading through!

[mizta insane]

Nice! which I get to drive my car this much!

[eleniki]

Thnx for sharing your adventure. Really loved the last picture - the bimmer looks great..

[FullTimeD]

Originally Posted by mizta insane

Nice! which I get to drive my car this much!

I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous about so many miles in just a couple days, but Earl Grey held up like a champ!

Originally Posted by eleniki

Thnx for sharing your adventure. Really loved the last picture - the bimmer looks great..

Thanks!! It really was an adventure! I'd trade it for nothing, and I'd do it all over again.

Oh, and thanks for the compliment. The GF has a DSLR and wanted to try her hand at shooting my car instead of her normal stuff.

[GoRomeo]

nice thanks for sharing. What rims are those? I forgot... never seen them on an e90 before I think... they look decent.

[FullTimeD]

They're Style 437M replicas from IPW. 19x9.5F 19x10.5R 245 front 275 rear.

I love them. My current favorite

[mike@x-ph.com]

Nice!

[bimmette]

Looks like fun!!!