So many places. So little time

McGuire Twins - photo from Guiness

So many places, so little time. That’s what it feels like when I start planning trips. Between the time off work, and the cost of even the cheapest hotels I start to get frustrated. But that doesn’t stop me from dreaming and trying to find good places and roads to travel. After a short, 30 minute ride in the crisp 40 degree weather Sunday I decided to start jotting down some ideas that have been rolling around in my head for a while.

Between reading books, blogs, watching TV and desperate day-dreaming, my list of places to visit grows weekly.  My mind is like a bucket of interesting places that I want to go.  Sadly that bucket fills up sometimes letting items fall out and get lost.  I have online bookmarks, post it notes, and pages marked in books of some of these places.  I figured since I now own the worlds coolest domain name, and subsequently run the worlds awesomest blog, I could use it as a spot to keep track of some of those ideas and share it with others that may be looking for ideas.

At a high level my list can be broken down into places I have been once and want to visit again, and places I have only read or heard of.  I’ll start with the most exciting of the two categories.  Places I haven’t yet been.

There are numerous places around the US that motorcyclists seem to flock to with good reason.  Big Sur, California, the Pacific Coast Highway, Deals Gap, and the quickly fading Route 66. I’ve done a few of those and many more, but my list contains different things I’ve read about.  For instance the Angola Prison Rodeo which I first read about in Rick Reilly’s book “Sports From Hell” where he talks about odd sporting events from around the world.  (Rock/paper/scissor championship, international beer pong tournaments, and the world sauna championship just to name a few others in the book), It’s hard to say why this event intrigued me so much.  I’ll admit that part of it may be the danger or possible goring.  But the other part of it is certainly the athleticism.  The way it is described in the book it sounds like a fun, and possibly inspiring event.

Something I found a long the way

There’s always day trips, or at least weekend trips, that don’t require anything more than getting out the door early on a Saturday morning.  There are many fun places in North Carolina that I have yet to see.  Places like Marvin Johnson’s Gourd Collection, the Grave of the Foot of James A. Reed, and the Worlds Heaviest Twins tombstone (that’s them in the top photo).  Those would all be interesting, but not necessarily worthy of a trip themselves  Those are more of a side trip while exploring something like Korners Folly or the Land Of Oz.  As you can tell I have no real criteria for what allows a place to be a destination vs a side trip.

I'm obviously not a food photographer -but it's good

There are so many reasons to take a trip though.  Odd sights and events like Hillbilly Days or the White Squirrel Festival are always a good reason to travel somewhere, but another good reason to hop on the bike and go is for the food.  Gotta love the food.  Little roadside diners that have been able to survive despite the Applebees and Chili’s surrounding and squishing them into the past.  North Carolina is obviously known for it’s barbecue and even has it’s own historic society.  So what better way to explore North Carolina than traverse the NC Barbecue Society Historic Barbecue trail.  Sounds delicious doesn’t it?   Don’t eat too much though you have to save room for a famous chicken cheddar biscuit from Time-out Chicken in Raleigh.

Like I said: So many places, so little time.