We drove up and back in 2.5 days in mid-December to do the purchase, Lee.

850 one way... I was friggin beat by the time I got home. Did the return in one day in 13 hours. Can you say thank you, Beltronics (radar detector maker)?

I CANNOT wait to get up there and ride. It is friggin AWESOME and only 24 miles from that condo to the BlueRidge!!!! Gonna get my 'mountain legs' back well before the Rally.

Chy, I hear ya man (I know your just bustin my chops!).
I never thought I would see the day that any bike of mine would ride up a trailer ramp. This will be the first due to two problems. One, Janet will not ride that far on a bike. Two, she will not, under any circumstances, ride a bike on anything resembling a mountain!!

So, my options are:
- Ride the bike up to Banner Elk from home and have Janet follow me in a vehicle. Even with good bike to truck communications, this is not a good option. Puts Janet behind a wheel for a crapload of hours and might mean we would have to stop for a night on the way up.

- Get a trailer and we all go together on the slab until about Charlotte and then I unpack and ride the rest of the way in and then every day for the rest of the time we will be up there!! Family will be up there too so I should be able to do a couple of hours a day at least and hone those twisty skills.

- I wish there was another option......

"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity" - Robert Heinlein