The Appalachian Motorcycle Journey of a Lifetime

Good morning. Wow, I slept well. I'm up in the Appalachian Mountains outside of Hamilton, Tennessee. Boots off hostel and we're riding the Transamerica Trail through the Appalachians, man. It has been an amazing trip. What an amazing adventure this has been. Oh, what a ride. I appreciate you guys coming along for the journey, man. This has been fantastic. I'm gonna get dressed, get some breakfast, get packed up, and we're heading back to the tiny house, guys. Welcome to Roan Mountain, guys. Roan Mountain, Tennessee. Beautiful, beautiful little small mountain town. A lot of adventures around it. Small town. Amazing grill. Yeah, this is a great place. We're gonna head up to Carver's Gap. Should have some good twisty roads once we get up over that and some great views. Let's head over. All right, way up to the highest. If you can see that, it's way back there. Carver's Gap. Man, this has been an amazing drive. Got the mountains the whole way up, multiple ridge lines. Welcome to Carver's Gap. Absolutely amazing. Cloud cover coming up, covering these mountains. Driving at Carver's Gap. Roan Mountain, maybe. So these are some bulbs on the Appalachian Trail that go down to the city of Roan Mountain where I just got gas. This is the mountain, Roan Mountain itself, which the Appalachian Trail comes right down it. This is gorgeous. Well, that is awesome. A couple deer eating right there. And we are in the clouds. I'm driving down the backside of Roan Mountain here. In the next three to five miles, we should be dropping about three or four thousand feet of elevation. We should be getting some pretty epic views I'm excited for, but also going downhill. We should get some good twisties. All right, runaway truck ramp. Not there in one mile. Okay, because I didn't see it. This might prove to be a pretty nice little road. I skipped the Blue Ridge Parkway to hop on here, so I'm hoping it gives me some twisties. And it looks like that is so far. That guy's not afraid of anything. We're definitely coming out of the mountains. You can feel, number one, it getting a little warmer temperature-wise. These curves, man, you can just feel how steep they are. Downhill is definitely something that I'm getting better at. You know, this is tarmac, so no big deal. Not as big a deal, I should say. Steep downhills on the off-road are probably my, a little bit of my, arch nemesis. I'm still learning a lot. Oh my gosh, man, look at this view. You see that? Breathtaking. I can do some practicing on tarmac as well. Oh, what a ride home. There's our downhill truck runoff, which is a little different, but at least they offer one. My little sprinter van, Eddie Vander, would not do so well on this road. He'd handle it fine, but man, he'd rip up these brakes. I am going to shift down and warm up my own brakes. I hope this is fun as it looks, man. This is a great ride. It's 226, North Carolina 226, dropping out of the mountains, right where it comes up to the Brubix Parkway. Highly recommend it. I'm going to enjoy the heck out of this. Keep it nice and safe since I'm still new, as you probably know, watching my channel to Adventure Biking. I got 50-50 tires on for off-road and on-road, so just growing my skills. All right, guys, so two things. Absolutely beautiful. Actually, the water looks a little down. They must have slowed down the dam. The other thing, not so good. So I just stopped to get gas in Draven, and he would not start afterwards. Kind of seemed like he wasn't getting enough fuel. If you're familiar with the, sorry, I said to take a corner. If you're familiar with the Royal Enfield Himalayan, and this is the only bike I've had, so maybe others, but when you first turn it on, you hear a little noise, a little and I've been told and understand that is the fuel pump. It doesn't seem to be firing every time. I didn't hear that noise. I do not know if that was the exact thing, but tried to jump it so many times that I almost killed the battery. I tried to get it to start anyway. I was on a hill, so I tried to push it down the hill, thinking, okay, I mean, why not? I got enough speed up, and it was starting, and it was starting, but it just wouldn't kick in. So I called my Always Adventure buddy, Barry, because I'm almost back to the tiny house, and he was nice enough. He was going to go grab the truck you see me pick Draven up in, so he can get it up into the truck and get it tied down and bring it home. Right after I finished talking to him, I turned it on because I was going to let it sit there for a bit. I just, with all the commotion, didn't know what gear I left it in, but when I turned it on to check the gear, I happened to hear the buzz noise. So after about 25 minutes attempting to start it off and on, it started up. So in a panic, I made sure I was revving it and getting it going. I still had to put my helmet on, gloves on, jacket on, which was interesting because I did not want it to die, but it's running perfectly fine. I think it's just the fuel delivery on startup. Now, I am at the 3,000 mile service. Actually, when I get home from this trip, I was going to do the 3,000 mile service. You know, they check everything, so I don't know if maybe the fuel pump wiring is just coming a little loose. It more than likely is not a tough fix at all, and I am certainly no mechanic yet. I'm trying to really learn the ins and outs of this bike so we can go cross country, but I do presume it's fuel pump related. So I am not going to turn this thing on. Luckily, it would not start after getting gas, if you can be lucky at all. Nope, nobody behind me. So I mean, in that aspect, I'm a full tank of gas. I'll be able to go as long as I want, but I'm only about an hour, 20 minutes away from the tiny house, right around an hour anyway. So here we go, pushing on, won't stop the bike, and I'd already had a service appointment, everything set up. So what are you going to do? You're over landing like this, you run into some issues, you got to overcome them. So let's see if I can overcome this, but we're going to get home guys, and I'll let you know what the heck happens. Hopefully I make it home. I think it'll be okay, but hopefully I make it home and no more issues.