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2007 BMW RA Rally
Asheville NC on the Biltmore Estate A Ride Report by Barb Smith If I could go to only one BMW national rally this year, which one would it be? The BMW MOA Rally would be in West Bend, WI at the fairgrounds, while the BMW RA rally would be in Asheville NC on the Biltmore Estate grounds. I didn't even need to flip a coin to choose. I'd never been to the Biltmore Estate, my son and daughter-in-law are stationed in Norfolk VA, a reasonably close 400 miles further northeast of Asheville, my mom lives another 130 miles north of them in Salisbury, MD. Many of my friends from the MTF will be at Asheville rally, and my good friend Claye lives in Fredericksburg VA and I know I can entice her to ride down that weekend. Decision made! And since there would be a goodly number of MTF members at the Asheville rally that weekend anyway, why not call a RTE for that Saturday? There are MTF'ers who'll ride 1,000 miles for lunch, even if they don't ride a BMW and aren't going to be at the rally. 
After picking up my registration on-site Thursday afternoon - and running into Jim Knight while at the registration tent - I rode over to rally site to check it out. Very crowded! I was tired after riding all day, so decided not to stay, and instead headed to the hotel to check in (no camping for me, after the soggy experience at last year's MOA rally). The next morning I rode back over to the rally site and immediately started running into people I know. I didn't even have my helmet off and Randy from the MTF was walking by, so he snapped my picture. Ardys was sitting at the food tent so I joined her for a while chatting. She and I headed over to the vendor tents when they opened at 9:30. I bought my rally t-shirt, got my rally pin and promptly ran into Bob Steber, a friend of Mike Murphy, from the Alabama BMW club. Then I bumped into Don from TN who, as it turned out, knew Bob from AL. We all stood in line together and then I realized I was standing in line with a fellow MTF member named Fletcher from MS who knew Don from the MTF (we had that 3 degrees of separation thing going on), and now he knows Bob! That's what makes attending these rallies so much fun! I had breakfast Saturday morning with the Chromeheads. I know some of them from the MTF and they invited me to join in with them, even though my BMW valve covers are not clad in chrome. I posted a RTE at the MTF website for Saturday lunch, and had close to 20 folks show up. Most were already at the BMW rally, but a few rode in from GA, SC, VA just for lunch. As I was headed over to the restaurant for the RTE lunch, I ran into Dave McConnachie and his son at the gas station next door! My friend Claye rode down from VA Saturday for the lunch and afterward we rode over to the Biltmore together, took the tour, stayed for the closing ceremonies, then rode around the estate a bit so that she could soak it all in. 
I did manage to ride some of these legendary roads on Friday. I had been given so much advice and so many "must-ride" roads, my head was spinning. But I had set my sights on US Alt-74 heading southeast out of Asheville, over Hickory Nut Gap to Bats Cave, Chimney Rock, and ultimately Lake Lure. This road looks innocent enough on a map, but zoom in on Streets & Trips or a GPS, and the "end-swapping" 180-degree, posted-10-mph hair-pins become evident! Before heading south, I headed north for a few miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the gentler portion north of I-40. I then turned around, headed south and picked up Alt-74. The hairpins began the minute the road dropped from 4 lanes to 2. Once over the gap, it follows the Rocky Broad River as it tumbles down the side of the mountain, through quaint villages with their folk art shops and front porch rockers to the old resort town of Lake Lure. Very pretty, plenty technical enough to wear off some tread on the sides of my tires and - best of all - I had that road practically to myself. Sunday morning I joined the parade of BMW's departing Asheville and getting onto I-40. I was headed east to I-85 then north towards Norfolk VA to visit my son and daughter-in-law who are expecting my first grandchild! 
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