Photos

Rubicon Alaska Cannonball - TAT 1

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
    • 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
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