Rubicon Alaska Cannonball - TAT 1 Aug 16, 2018 Photo Gallery | Autoblog

This page is for personal, non-commercial use. You may order presentation ready copies to distribute to your colleagues, customers, or clients, by visiting http://www.autobloglicensing.com

Photos

Autoblog Staff

Aug 16, 2018

Stopped for lunch among the foliage, next to the all-American babbling brook, in a gravel pull-out off Wisdom Road in Westpoint, Tennessee.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

One last tank in Columbia, North Carolina before hitting the Outer Banks. I've been doing about 300 miles per day and filling up once a day. Details on mileage to come.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

Before hitting the Outer Banks - or the OBX if you're reppin' - one learns one might need to deal with large, cuddly bears...
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

And giant shrimp. Made of car parts.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

Set up in the A Loop at Oregon Inlet National Park Campground. It's windy, but an excellent camping spot. The beach lies behind the hills, and you can get an off-road permit to haul ass on the sand. Just watch out for the turtle hatchlings.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

The Bodie Island Lighthouse. It's pronounced "BAH-dee," like 'body, not "BOW-dee." The OBX is known as The Graveyard of the Atlantic, so many ships have perished there - some due to the shifting sandbars, some due to Blackbeard, some due to German U-Boats during WWII.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

The nine flights of steps to the top of the 165-foot-tall lighthouse. They get narrower and shakier the higher you go.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

After the wind at Oregon Inlet, I got the windiest, rainiest night I've ever spent outside at Teeter's Campground in Ocracoke. And that includes all my years in Australia and Thailand.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

The British Cemetery - one of several in the OBX - next to Teeter's commemorates the British seamen who died when a German U-boat sank the HMT Bedfordshire. The U.S. deeded the plot of land to the English, and every year the U.S. Coast Guard performs a memorial service here.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

The Trans-America Trail doesn't turn to gravel until you get to County Line Rd in New Bern, North Carolina. It's only about eight miles, though. Then back to blacktop.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

At the end of that rainbow is a Shell station. Which was a good thing, because I didn't pay attention to the gas gauge before getting to Pisgah National Forest, and was so low on fuel I had to coast down the last hill.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

Locals don't tear down dead structures, townspeople let everything die a public death. I've seen a few hundred dead barns on the Trail so far. This was the largest, and it will still be dying long after I'm dead.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

On Power Lane in front of the Pickwick Dam, holding back the Tennessee River in Counce, Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Authority, whose territory covers eight states, does not play.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

Camping in Pickwick Landing State Park in Counce, TN. Another great campground. And if you end up there, have a burger at Jane's Diner just down the road. Sensational, and the bun was made by angels.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

I didn't know there was an Eastern Continental Divide until I crossed it. This is somewhere in North Carolina. After this, no more Atlantic waters, it's all blue stuff from the Gulf of Mexico.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

Betsy's Ole Country Store in Collettsville, NC. Highly recommend. I got a UFO, a Cheerwine, and lotsa laughs.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

Making my way to Pelham, TN. America is gorgeous.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

Another view into Pelham. Often, driving the Trail is like driving through the Star-Spangled Banner.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

A former general store turned into one man's personal museum and a stop for TAT riders in Trenton, Arkansas. Chatted to five great guys while I was there, and --
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

Got a sticker showing I'd been to Redneckistan, Arkansas. It's a keeper. I'm going back, too.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

The pharmacy in Hector, Arkansas isn't like my local pharmacy in SoCal. Mine sells a completely different kind of Dove load.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

If you lost a Ford or Chevrolet pickup sometime between The Korean and Vietnam Wars, try the lost and found near Oark, Arkansas.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

No driveway, no car, no place to park a car anywhere near here that I could see. Whatever Aesop's Fable character lives in this abode uses that wooden bridge to get to his - or its - house across the river.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

Under a trestle on Lester Hollow Road in Ardmore, TN while the train goes by overhead.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

Maple Sally Road in North Carolina begins a terrific stretch of Trail. It hasn't stopped. On to Port Orford.
Image Credit: Jonathon Ramsey

List

X

Sign in to post

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Continue

You must have JavaScript enabled to experience the new Autoblog. Please follow the instructions below to enable JavaScript in your browser.