Appalachian highway (Day 3 and 4)

I googled some welding shops around Fort Thomas and headed to the bank to get out some money. Arriving there a few minutes too early I asked another gentleman in his car if he knew any good welding shops that could fix it. Pete went to school for welding and knew a guy just down the street that was a good buddy who could do it no problem! 

After making it to the shop, the owner said he could, but his welding stuff was on the second floor. He recommended another shop down the road, who ended up sending me to another shop. No one wanted to fix it and I decided that I don’t care anymore and left. About 30 min down the road, the bike started making a bad noise at maximum speed coming from the muffler area. Sigh….. Oh man…. I quickly pulled into a car repair place and asked two young guys if they could do it. They were super helpful and helped me get the job done! 10 dollars later, it was fixed!

After cruising east for a good bit, I couldn’t help but wonder about my ening oil. I checked my oil and it was on the very bottom of the dipstick.. Maybe on the very bottom. It was hard to tell. Time for an oil change. Asking around there was a incredibly kind gentleman who owned a collision repair shop that said I could use his tools no problem. Grabbing the oil from a gas station, it was done a few minutes later and I continued down the road.

Now comes the boring part. The extremely boring highway of a highway section that the locals recommended.  I am just going to add these pics and leave it at that. I lived on the shoulder of the road for hours. Not fun! 

After a long time, I finally arrived in a neat college town named Athens and met some college guys celebrating a birthday party. They were cool with me hanging my hammock out back and had a lot of fun riding the moped. 

After waking up the next day, and cruising around a bit I headed out. Athens has some cool streets that are all brick, and other really steep ones. 

50 East was basically the same as the other highway pictures I showed and not a good time. After entering West Virginia, the very very steep side roads at 55 mph were more dangerous than the highway! (There are no shoulders on the side roads.) 50 East has a nice wide lane as you can see in the pictures above.

I did not take many pictures today with the frustration of terrible moped routes here. It is much more dangerous as well with everyone flying by at 65 and focusing on the shoulder of the road and any potential debris. I took some long breaks and am going to map out a better route for tomorrow. I made it to Bridgeport West Virginia and am calling it a night in a Super 8 for internet and a place to recharge. Until next time!