Hey y’all. Welcome to the “South”!! Home to the Tail of the Dragon, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Biltmore Estate, Grandfather Mountain, and the Bristol Motor Speedway. Our own Gerry Jackson will be leading the ride!
Our Southeastern Region Director Carlton Pernell has laid out a wonderful 8 day leisurely yet most enjoyable 1200(+) mile excursion coupled with great fellowship starting & ending in Atlanta, Georgia.
Day 1 starts from Atlanta, Thursday morning, June 16, 2017 traveling through Helen, Georgia to Cherokee, North Carolina. We will spend 3 nights in Cherokee, daily riding and enjoying various rides & activities in and around that area including the Tail of the Dragon, Cherohala Skyway, Maggie Valley, Wheels through Time Museum, Great Smokey Mountain National Park, and the Cherokee Casinos.
We will ride the Blue Ridge Parkway and on our 4 th night will be in Ashville, North Carolina where we will enjoy visiting (and perhaps even stay on) the Biltmore Estates.
We will then continue up the Blue Ridge Parkway and on our 5 th and 6 th nights will be in Little Switzerland, North Carolina as we enjoy rides and activities near there including US 421 (a.k.a. the Snake), Grandfather Mountain and the opportunity to ride your motorcycle on the Bristol Motor Speedway, in Bristol, Tennessee.
Our 7 th night will be near Lake Lure, North Carolina where we will experience Chimney Rock. And on the 8 th day we travel back to Atlanta, Georgia (Thursday June 22) completing a wonderful week of riding and fellowship.
Not enough? Separating from the rest of the group at the end of the Little Switzerland activities, we have an optional 3 day side trip to the “Outer Banks”: site of the first manned flight at Kitty Hawk, iconic light houses, ferry ride to Beaufort Nags Head, attend the famous outdoor drama “The Lost Colony” and then the ride back to Atlanta.
If you have never experienced riding in these areas, boy are you in for a great treat. For those of us that already have been to at least some of these areas, I’m sure you agree they are a timeless pleasure that can be enjoyed time and time again.
You must register here to reserve a spot. You will be emailed hotel registration information. Also please email geraldwjackson@gmail.com if you need to rent a motorcycle. You can also email geraldwjackson@gmail.com for any other concern.
There will likely be a collection at the time of the ride (on the order of $100 USD) to help cover cost of incidentals during the ride.
- See more at: http://motorcyclingrotarianseclub.org/event/ifmr-na-post-atlanta-convention-rid/#sthash.KdU4kB2A.dpufNOTES: 1) All Rates Quoted do NOT include taxes
2) Rates quoted are per night
3) Call & register at each hotel separately
4) Ask for “IFMR” group block/rate
5) Each hotel will have a mixture of rooms blocked, some with 1 bed & some with 2 beds
6) We have 15 rooms blocked at each hotel. Although they have various dates of last day to register, suggest you reserve your room as early as possible. The ride is during the height of these hotels busy season. There is no guarantee we will be able to get additional rooms at any hotel.
Questions or concerns: contact me, Gerry Jackson, geraldwjackson@gmail.com or ph 248-820-9804
The Hotel is now available for booking ... ask for the "IFMR" Block.
Bellevue Baymont Inn & Suites, 4115 N Riverview St., Bellevue, Iowa ph. (563)872-5000.
Rates will vary depending on room selection ... there are some great river view rooms!
Please book your room directly at the hotel! ...
The Gettysburg Battle is named for the city in PA around which the battle was fought. This battle, along with the Vicksburg Battle, was the turning point of the Civil War. Both battles ended the same day on July 1863 with the Union victorious on both fronts. Causalities were very high at Gettysburg on both sides with approximately 51,000, included ~ 13,000 dead. A note on Pickett’s Charge to the center of the Union lines. The Charge began about 3/4mile from the Union lines and required the Confederate soldier to cover over ground while traversing fence rows and ditches going slightly uphill all the way.
Of all the battlefields Gettysburg is the only entire battlefield mostly preserved. This is mostly due to President Lincoln dedicating the battlefield In Nov 1863. The visitors center here is by far the largest and most elaborate.
All the other battlefields were not designated national parks until the 20century. However, each has a visitor’s center that has excellent presentations of what occurred on that specific location.
Most all other battlefield has seen development encroached on the actual battlefields. The exceptions are: Appomattox, Andersonville and Vicksburg, Appomattox Court House and the McLean House [ where the Lee met Grant and the surrender occurred]. This area is generally preserved but on a smaller scale then occurred on April 1865. Nothing of the Andersonville Prison remains, just the grounds on which it sat and of course a good visitors’ center. Vicksburg occurred on a bluff above the Mississippi River and is not developed but vegetation growth has obscured much. Nevertheless, a little extra time and prior knowledge allows one to get a real sense of what HELL occurred at each location.
On my trip to visit Civil War Battlefields I visited the following: Vicksburg [Mississippi], Andersonville [Confederate prison for Union soldiers], Kennesaw Chickamauga, Appomattox, the Wilderness, Chancellorsville, Frederiksberg, Antietam and Gettysburg.
For years, Angalia Bianca had slept in abandoned buildings throughout Chicago. She stole. She did drugs. She spent time in and out of jail for forgery, theft, trespassing, and possession of narcotics. But after she landed in prison for the seventh time, something changed -- Bianca knew she wanted a better life. She just didn’t know how to make it happen.
Throughout India and around the world, Rotary clubs are celebrating a major milestone: India has gone three years without a new case of polio. The last reported case was a two-year-old girl in West Bengal on 13 January 2011. To mark this historic triumph, Rotary clubs illuminated landmarks and iconic structures throughout the country with four simple but powerful words, "India is polio free."
