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Link to PHOTO ALBUM:
Special Agent Nancy has a knack for finding the unusual, unexpected or special. I am thousands of miles overdue for an oil change and have been trying to figure out how to schedule one in. We left our hotel at noon today due to heavy rain. Not long into our ride we decided that we would cut the day short due to more rain. Lots of rain. There was a town with a few hotels that looked OK. We were looking for a specific hotel. A few of the hotels had similar names so I stopped at one and Nancy went to another. The one I stopped at only had one room available. I waited and finally got a text saying "You have GOT to come here". I walked to where she was. Her bike was parked under an awning next to a Lamborghini and a Ferrari. The hotel was built in the 1800's. The owner refurbished it. He also built a few cars, including the ones next to the bikes. He let these two wet bikers put the bikes in his garage AND let us change our oil there.
While getting $35 per liter oil at the Esso Station, the only place in town that carried the oil we needed, I met a guy with an old Thunderbird from Tennessee. We talked about great roads and cars and bikes. He told me there was a woman in town from California with the same bike as mine. (That would be Nancy).
At the hotel we wheeled the bikes into the garage. We changed our oils next to Lamborghinis, Ferraris and custom cars. He let us keep the bikes in there overnight to dry off. Fantastic guy. A real car guy and a motorcyclist too.
The owner even rents out a Lotus for about $60 an hour so you can enjoy the roads in a real car.
This was a hotel I had written off as insufficient. I was wrong again, as usual.
The owner organizes all kinds of car events here, with rides around what he is calling the Laerdals Sorenring. This sends you up some fantastic roads, with a few options for extending the ride. If you do the ride, you can buy a T-Shirt.
See the Photo album for a LOT more photos of the place and the wonderful roads in the area.
