The personal writings and photos of Jonathan Smith.

This year I attended the Thumper Thaw which was held at the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Campground in Cruso, North Carolina. The Thumper Thaw is an event held by member of F650.com. F650.com is a site for owners of the BMW F650 motorcycle. People from all over the east coast showed up at the Thumper Thaw to spend a few days riding the Blue Ridge Parkway and through the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.

I left Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with my friend Daneen and Mike. We headed south through Virginia to the town of Buchanan where we had a motel reserved for the night.

Our first stop was Woodstock, Virginia where we ate at Adobe’s Mexican Grill. This is the crew who cooked us lunch.

We then took some back roads that ran south along 81 to get to the top of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here we are at the entrance to the north part of the parkway.

As we were getting ready to leave we found that Daneen’s motorcycle had a dead battery. She was running all of her heated gear on high which seemed to have drained the battery. We got her going with a push start. It was cold and windy on the parkway. But quite beautiful.

We made it to our hotel and grabbed some dinner at the restaurant at the base of the hill. We had a cute waitress! But no photos of her. In the morning we ate at the same place, then packed our gear. We had a long day ahead of us.

We got lost in Roanoke, Virginia trying to find a side road that headed south between I81 and the Blue Ridge Parkway. We probably should have just taken the parkway. Finally we hit North Carolina and travelled the parkway south until we got to Little Switzerland. There the parkway was closed so we headed off the parkway on the steepest, most twisted road I have ever been on. We descended for miles. Finally at the bottom we pulled over to take a break. The temperature at the lower altitude was 85 degrees! I had to shed some layers as I was now roasting!

We then found I40 and headed towards Asheville, North Carolina followed by Cruso.

We got to the campground and unpacked into our cabins.

The following few days were spent riding through the mountains of this beautiful area and relaxing at the campground.

I took a trip over the mountain towards Brevard, North Carolina just to photograph the Looking Glass Falls.

I had dinner on Saturday night with Ike and a few others at a nearby diner.

I had the fresh trout which was delicious!

And had to take my photo with our cute waitress.

The sun sets on the mountains of North Carolina.

Sunday morning came quick and it was time to pack up and head north.

We headed north of Asheville and rode through Tennessee and into southern Virginia. It was getting hot so we decided to grab a motel at Natural Bridge, Virginia. I had the worst dinner and service of my life there. But it was nice to get in out of the heat. The following morning we woke up and were on the road before 7am. Virginia is a long state and riding on I81 was quite boring. We were home by noon. It was nice to be home.

In one week I will be leaving Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for a motorcycle trip to Cruso, North Carolina. Cruso is located between the Smoky Mountains National Park and Asheville. I’m totally looking forward to this as it will give me a chance to ride a long distance with my friends Daneen and Mike. Plus it will be nice to get away from work for about a week and really let my mind unwind.

Thoughts of what to take cross my mind. Traveling light would be nice, but how do you do that? Maybe all I need is a change of clothes since I’ll be wearing my riding gear every day. Rain gear is a must. Some medications, and my camera. Really, what else is there? Oh yeah, my Camelbak for hydration while riding. Maybe a few tools and some lube for the chain. Oops, heated jacket, yes, will definitely need that.

Hopefully we can finalize our plans on Sunday at the BMW Dutch Country Riders breakfast in Etters. And if all goes as planned, I will be selling the BMW F650GS upon my return. It’s sad in a way. I really like the bike. We have a lot of memories.

I’m four weeks away from my motorcycle trip to the Thumper Thaw. The trip will be about 600 miles on the BMW F650GS. The trip should be a lot of fun since I’ll be riding with two friends. But I have the urge to switch to a different bike. I promise to wait until after this North Carolina trip though.

The BMW F650GS is a great bike. I love it. It’s light, easy to handle, and great on fuel economy. It’s also fun to ride on forestry roads. The reason why I am contemplating changing bikes is that I rarely get to enjoy the forestry roads without a one hour highway ride just to get there. And even then, I know where the roads go so there is no excitement in getting to the end. If I were to do any two-up riding, the F650GS would definitely not be my choice either.

For those reasons I’m considering a BMW R1100S similar to the photo below.

Finally I would own a BMW boxer. The 1100 wold give me plenty of power to do 2-up riding and eat up the highway with no problem. All of my commuting is highway anyways so this should fit nicely. And the shaft drive means no worrying about adjusting the chain. For longer trips, this bike would provide much more comfort than the single-cylinder F650GS. Now if I can only find one for sale. Before I make up my mind I need to take one for an extensive ride. And find a buyer for my current bike.