Alright...Now, I'm at a computer, and can catch up. Almost done, almost.
I have to include an interaction Bob and I had at the lunch stop on Sunday. I forgot about it until I was riding yesterday.
We were upstairs, waiting for food, when a couple walked in and sat at the table next to us. The man asked us what we rode, and of course, we both answered FJRs. The bikes were right outside the door, and were the only ones that close to the building, so he couldn't have missed them, but whatever. Then he sat down, with his back to me, and I saw a huge graphic of an FJR on the back of his shirt. It was an IBR 2015 shirt, which was based out of Albuquerque. If I had known they had those, I would have bought one.
Anyway, a little later, I asked him if he rode in the IBR, and he said he rode two of them. 2013 and 2015. He said he rode a K1300GT for the first one, and started the second one on the same BMW, but finished on an FJR. Bob and I immediately knew who he was. He told us he had a final drive failure on the Beemer and an FJR guy gave him his bike in Oklahoma. We told him we knew that guy, and I couldn't remember who it was. Funny thing is, neither could he.
We talked about some of the guys we all knew, the results of the 15 IBR, how BOB had been a the eastern check-point, etc. Then he told us he is going to ride this year's IBR on an ST1300. Not a bad choice, and a super reliable bike, but it made me laugh inside. The guy finished on a rock solid FJR, and knows FJRs took a bunch of the top spots, but still chose to ride a different platform. Maybe it's just the way I think, but if it were me on that ride, I'd ride what I know has a 99.9% chance of finishing, and not screw around with anything else. Different guy. Sort of friendly, but weird. I couldn't place my finger on it, but whatever. AND, that sums up what I missed about Day 6.
I already did Day 7, so onto Day 8.
Day 8 started EARLY. We were on the bikes at 0630. Our plan was to ride from Wytheville to Maggie Valley, hit the Wheels Through Time Museum, and then go ride Highway 28, the Dragon, the Cherohala Skyway, hit Tellico Plains, and then maybe take some good roads as we continued west. We wanted to be on early, to increase the ride time, as we were still a couple hours from Maggie Valley. Bob gave me a great route to take from Chattanooga west towards Memphis, and then take 16 in Arkansas from Searcy to about Fayetteville.
Unfortunately, we started the same as usual. Droning along on the freeway, but I knew we had a goal. Because of the fuel limitations on the Vulcan, the speed limitations on the other riders, and the fact that I don't have cruise control, I rode sweep. I was happy back there listening to my music, and singing in my helmet. I spent some time, super bored, and had to fight dozing off a few times, but by this point in the ride, I had my eating and scheduling down pretty good, so was just riding along, checking stuff out. Eventually, we passed a sign that said we were some number of miles from Bristol, and headed that way. That's when a light bulb went off. I knew TN 421, The Snake was near Bristol. I did some quick route finding, and made a plan that would only put us 40 minutes off our original schedule. I pulled to the front, and had everyone get off a few miles later. I told Paul my idea, and he was all for it, so off we went.
The new route took us on small roads and through small towns. Nothing too curvy or too slow. Nearly 20 minutes later, we hit the south end of the Snake. We turned on, and the fun was on. Paul stayed with me for the first couple of bigger sweepers, but I wasn't on it hard. No point in trying to prove something and crash. However, the first 120 degree left, and he was gone. I picked up a good rhythm and had a blast. Things were cool until I came to a hard right hand, uphill curve that had a lot of wood pieces and gravel in it. I braked, but being concerned of sliding out, I overshot it into the other lane. I was sure the road was clear before I did that. I was just being over-careful. Not wanting the other guys to do the same thing, I turned around and waited at the turn. I tried to tell them to just slow down, but they all pulled off and lined up behind me. Dammit...They just don't get the etiquette. Oh well, I went back a few hundred yards, found a turn around, and went back at it. They followed.
We got to the store, and I waited for them to show up. Paul was first, Vulcan was a few minutes behind, and the 2017 Screaming Eagle was far behind. I'll say this: That guy started this ride with 1000 miles on that bike. He is a pretty new rider, and knows it. That guy's first ride in the rain was when we hit it in Virginia. He was concerned about some of the conditions, but he never whined, and always trooped on. When he showed up at the store, he was cool. I told them all they had just ridden The Snake, and asked them if they were going to go into the store and get decals. The answer was, "What?" I explained Shady Valley has decals for the road they just completed, and explained the roads to them. Everyone went in, and everyone came out with a souvenir. Nice. We grabbed TN 19 and continued on to Maggie Valley. That took about an hour-15, including the store stop. Haha...
We made one gas stop and then finally came into MV. We went right to the museum and I saw a group of Harleys leaving. The closed gate explained why. The effing website I pulled up on my phone never listed the hours, and I looked. The tab just reverted back to something else. The closed gate advised the museum is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays or some ****. Honestly, I was a little pissed about it, but standing there bitching wasn't going to make it magically open. So, we said, screw it and went to eat lunch. We went to some little pizza/burger joint that was pretty good. Our waitress's name was Skittles. I think it was spelled Skittlz.
We rode out of MV towards Cherokee, I think, to the Harley Dealership. Going to dealerships is like a rite of passage with these guys. They bought more Harley trinkets, and after some fuel, we pressed on. I lead us onto 19 and turned off on 28. Highway 28 is one of my favorite roads. I like the turns, I like the smooth pavement, and I like the speed. It's awesome. We had made sure everyone knew where we were going, so, I wasn't concerned about spreading out. As happens on all small roads, I came up on a small white car. They were cool, and immediately let me by. THANKS!! Then a few minutes later, I came upon a UPS truck. That guy was a ******!! He was not going to let me by, and did about all he could to prevent it, except swerve into my lane. GAWD. Why would he care if I passed him? I don't understand some people. Oh, well, I gassed it around him and went back to having FJR fun.
I came to the first intersection where a left heads to Deal's Gap, and a right goes to Fontana Dam. I figured I'd stop and wait, just to be sure we were all good. Then, the UPS truck caught up. He made a left, coming towards me, and I didn't want to have to deal with him again, so I took off. I ran the road and had a blast. When I got to the Pit Stop at 28 and I think Welch Rd. I stopped to wait. It was hot, so I waited in the shade of the fuel pump canopy. A while later, Paul rode by, looked at me and kept going. I figured he thought I would catch up, and knew what I was doing. Then I waited a LONG time, and no one came. That worried me, so I jumped back on and headed back. About 100 yards from the intersection where we had to turn left, the two trailing bikes passed me. So, I turned around and took off again. Somehow I ended up behind that dammed UPS truck again, but this time, he either didn't see me coming, or had given up, so, I burned past him quickly. I got to Deal's Gap and found Paul. Turned out, he hadn't seen me, and thought I was already riding The Dragon, when he didn't see my in the parking lot. I think with me being in the shade, the contrast made it too black, and he wasn't really looking for me anyway. When the other two showed up, we found out they had made a right, when they were supposed to make a left. Todd had heard Paul and I talk about the dam, so when he saw the sign for Fontana Dam, he went there. Thankfully, that's a dead end and they had to turn around. Lesson learned.
We walked around, went into the store, and they bought all the required crap. I actually found some cool decals and magnets, and new key chain, so I joined in on the fun. Haha...If you haven't been there in a while, the place has changed some, I think for the good. They opened another store on the other side of the road, and moved the big metal dragon there. They added marked parking spaces for the bikes, and just made it more crown friendly. Speaking of crowds, there were more people than I expected there on a Tuesday afternoon. When I came outside, I noticed a red 1995 Yamaha GTS parked two bikes from me. I started talking to those guys and turned out there was another guy in their group with a blue 94, parked closer to the doors. The guy with the red one has 3 of them. I told him I wanted one bad, back when I couldn't afford on, and he told me they're everywhere for about $4 or $5k. That would be fun, but just not right now.
As my group was gearing up for their first run on the dragon, a guy next to me on a FJ-09 asked my about my bike. I told him how happy I was with it and he told me he also has an '07 with like 20k miles on it. He said he's selling it and wanted to know if I know anyone that wants one. We talked FJRs for a few minutes, and he was impressed with my knowledge of the bike. I told him about the Forums and explained most of my knowledge was learned right here. Haha...Then he went inside and I jumped on my bike. Now, I know that many consider that road a gimmick, but I have a blast on it. I love running it in 2nd gear and smoking out of the turns. I especially like passing bikes that I know are faster than mine. Haha...The good thing was, there were only a few bikes on the road and no cops. Hopefully Killboy and US129 got some good shots. We rode to the dam overlook and stopped to BS. Paul rode up and broke the news that his bike was making racket again. A lot of it. He was irritated, but he said he was going to ride it and see what happens. No other choice really.
I went to take the obligatory picture of my bike at the stop, and a small group of guys were standing by it. As I took the picture, the big guy of the group went to move his friend, and I said, "That's ok, I'm really just trying to get a shot of his ***." That drew some laughs, and the big guy came to talk to me. Turned out they were from Canada, around where Bungie lives, I think. Said it was cold when they left, but they were having a blast. I think he said they took 10 days to ride down, and were going to take 10 days to ride back. We talked for about 20 minutes. Super nice guy!!
After that, I jumped on the bike and rode back to the NC side of the road. At the dam, Todd mentioned riding out from there. He said he was tired, as the turns were kicking his ***. Big bikes are hard to muscle around. He and Paul had mentioned the Cherohala Skyway, and I told Todd, we had to go back to get to it. So, back we went. We all took a picture in front of the metal dragon, got something to drink, and took off for Robbinsville. We stopped at the Robbinsville gas station, that used to be a Chevron and got gas. We had already decided Sweetwater TN was our goal, and took off. Actually, right before taking off, I told them would stop at the high overlooks and got told, "This isn't a scenic ride, let's just get there." That is ancient Greek for, "I'm tired, and I want to get to the hotel, so let's hurry up, and not waste time taking pictures." What a shame!! Their loss, but I already have pictures, and if I wanted to stop, I'd have plenty of time. I assured Craig, the new rider, that the Cherohala is big sweepers and not like 28 and the Dragon. Haha...OOPS!! I forgot about the road that leads into the Cherohala.
OMG, the pavement was awesome. The Dragon also had good pavement and has been redone since the last time I was there. The Dragon was smooth, but not like this. The Cherohala was like riding on a chalkboard that sticks. They also added cool markings to the pavement that took a few to figure out. If there was an arrow, it meant the corner was a big long fast sweeper. If there were multiple arrows, it meant the turn decreased a little, and was sharper. If there was a series of white lines along the center line and the pavement, it meant it was a hard decreasing radius turn. Once I figured that out, it was on. I stopped by an overlook and waited for the guys. I made sure everyone was good, and we all took off again. I forgot how long the Cherohala really is. Holy ****, it is like 55 miles of turns. The road is weird on my GPS, because it will warn of a pending turn off, and at the forced right or left turn, it is happy and continues its route. That happened until I got to Turkey Creek Rd. It was serious about making me turn off. I knew better, so continued, and it adjusted, but I got worried about the other guys. I didn't want them going down some route and not know where they would pop out. So, I turned around and waited. Again, they all showed up, and everyone was good, so we left for Tellico. I had time to look for hotels, and not finding anything we wanted in Tellico Plains, the guys and I talked about it. Sweetwater was only like 20 minutes away and had a nice hotel, so I told them we would go there. I got specifically asked, twice, "There's no more twisty roads are there?" I'm pretty sure two of those guys don't want to be my motorcycle friends anymore. It's sad really!! Paul was good. He was looking for more, but we were all tired, so it was time to head out.
We got to Sweetwater about 7:10pm and stayed in a really nice Holiday Inn Express. We ordered Domino's Pizza and just hung out there. We only rode 430 miles, but we were tired. Twisty roads are a different animals, and we had been out and about for 13 hours. Like I said, even I was tired. No idea what would have happed if the museum had been open. Maybe we would have stayed in Robbinsville. That was the end of a great day. Man, I had fun. I know they did also, but they got worked. Haha...my tires that had formed a small flat-spot over the freeway droning were now very round and worn, so I knew life was good.
