I had just returned home from a whirlwind tour of Italy, I was tired of train schedule’s, itineraries, and crowds. In order to raise some funds I climbed the ladder for two weeks, painting a couple of houses. With my back pocket full of spending money I decided that it was time to get the show on the road. I made my plans and prepared the bike for the road. In a few days I was sailing down country roads on my way to the mountains of North Carolina. The riding was incredible and the landscape beautiful. To think only a couple of hundred years ago this land was just the beginning of a wilderness stretching to the Pacific was mind boggling. The rolling hills of Appalachia stretched out ahead and I climbed in and out of valleys and over mountain tops in search of southern hospitality and an answer to the question, “What’s around the next curve?”.