Louisiana to NC and back

[Redfish Hunter]

One thing I left out was that we saw a few FJRs that Tuesday. We only spoke to that one but there was another one we passed twice very close to Tellico Kat's on the Tennessee end. I wanted to stop but we were already running very late. This one in particular caught my eye for two reasons. It was silver, very clean and had the dark gray racing stripes on the fairing. It looked great. The other thing was that the riders were sitting on the rock wall next to the bike. I noticed that the passenger was a particularly attractive lady and they both smiled and waved each time we passed. If that gentleman is a member of this forum, I apologize for not stopping. I was so far behind schedule and I don't like forcing Dad to ride all day.

 

[user 28803]

Andrew, don't sell yourself short, man. You paint pictures with your words and that's a whole other league. I, for one, appreciate you sharing at such a depth.

Ride on and be well!

Jesse

 

[Redfish Hunter]

10-10-12 Wednesday

In the interests of self preservation, I decided to cook breakfast this morning. I don't like my food quite as well done as David seemed to like his.

The bikes were still fairly clean after yesterday's ride but I went out and did a quick wipedown of the windshields and the snouts. I discovered the GoldWing had a seriously leaking left front fork seal. It had been leaking for some time, but the GW covers up most of its mechanicals so it had gone unnoticed.

David had also mentioned the day before that Dad was riding his brakes. Dad never rides his brakes, that is one of his pet peeves. I remembered that SkooterG had a sticking rear brake pedal in that Darkside thread, so I checked that. Score another hit for the FJR forum. Dad produced a small bottle of gun oil (what else would it be?) and we lubricated the shaft as best we could. Voila! Yes, I know, go ahead and say it. There is nothing like a well lubricated shaft...

I started to discuss the day's plan with Dad and David, but David cut me off. "You do one thing different from yesterday, I'll kill you." By God, I really think he was serious.

We headed east on 143, turned onto hwy 28 and headed toward Great Smoky Mtns National Park. In my happiness I had forgotten how popular this place is with the "Leaf Lookers". I had never seen the park so full of cars. We never, ever did the speed limit, no one was moving. Traffic was heavy in both directions. There was cloud cover but we were hoping it would burn off. My plan was to ride up from the South, turn around at the Cade's Cove Visitor Center and head back south. I wanted to turn off and make the ride up to Clingman's Dome.

As we climbed the clouds got closer. Then we were inside the clouds and could not see past the front of the car in front of us. Then that car pulled over and I found myself following, and I swear I am not making this up, a 2007 Harley CVO Ultra, pulling a trailer. The bike was blue on blue instead of red on black and the trailer was slightly different. You poor *******, I thought. He rode very smoothly in spite of the fact that his wife was pointing out stuff that we could barely see in the fog.

The road to Clingman's Dome was completely invisible when we passed it. I did not find that ascent to be very inviting with that limited visibility.

Have you ever ridden 441 through that park? There is a curve sign that has the arrow making a complete 360 loop and continuing. The first time I saw this, my brain could not wrap itself around this concept. When we finally hit the tunnel I remember feeling like a fool. I would have enjoyed this curve tremendously except that we were going so slowly the Harley I was following did not even drag anything. Not his fault, the traffic was that bad.

We pulled into the parking lot and it was full. I mean so full that cars were sitting waiting on parking spots. We found an RV spot and parked the 3 bikes together. That Harley eventually made his way around there and I motioned to him to come in behind us. When I asked him if that CVO was a 2007, he looked astonished and confused at the same time. He looked at my ST and asked, "How on earth did you know the year of that bike?" I explained about my cousin and the red Harley. He and his wife graciously allowed me to take a cell phone pic and send it to my cousin. I was amused that his first question was, how many times has he rebuilt his motor? He was not pleased with the reliability of his 110 inch motor. I helped him out with some mapping and routing questions and he headed toward the Dragon. I hope they had a good ride, they were super nice folks.

I did not want to ride up to Clingman's Dome in those clouds, plus you would not be able to see anything once you got there. My companions were in complete agreement. David was giving me a look I did not like. "You let it rain on me." was all he said. I replied that I had not. Rain, by definition is condensed water that falls from a cloud. We were in the cloud, the water was condensing on us, not falling out of the cloud. In order for it to be rain, he and his bike had to fall off the side of the mountain and fall out of the cloud. He was unwilling to do this for some reason.

We rode back over the pass and I have to say that the very fresh and smooth asphalt with the headlights reflecting off the wet surface was the slipperiest looking thing I ever rode on. The PR2s never once felt squirrely to me. Dad told me without hesitation that his PR3s were better. He has been through 2 sets of PR2s, he should know.

The lower elevation areas of the park were quite beautiful. I was, and still am very bitter that I was not able to show David the best parts of that wonderful road.

I tried to get a little artistic with the camera, I failed:

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I know it is wrong to beat a dead horse, but looking at my pics and looking at some of the others on this forum really revealed a weakness to me. I really respect and admire the things some of you guys do here. I stepped up my game for this report, I tried some different things. I am making progress and I sure thank you guys for setting such a high standard. I know I took better pics than ever before and it is because of you and some others over on ADVRider.

David was still pretty happy with me. He was seeing things he had not known existed. I had originally planned to walk up to Mingo Falls and GeorgiaRoller was kind enough to point me in the right direction. Unfortunately, we were pressed for time and were unable to do lots of things I had really been looking forward to doing. I was getting pretty bitter over missed opportunities when Dad pointed out that Byron was not seeing any of it. I don't argue with Dad much.

I have to go on a little rant here. If you are the lead vehicle and don't want to do the speed limit, fine, that is your right. But at least have the decency to pull off and let the long line of cars behind you pass by. I sure said some mean things in my helmet until Dad started fussing at me. Then I had to just think mean thoughts. I don't like to argue with Dad. Not much anyway.

To be continued

 

[Bugnatr]

Bravo Andrew, very nice report so far. A couple things if I may, first - no need for rain covers. Just put your belongings in a heavy duty trash bag INSIDE the cargo bag, everything inside will be nice and dry no matter what speed. Second, nice Hondapotamas!

My heart just dropped when I read of the accident. Sounds like inattention more than the trailer was the cause but no matter, the important thing is he got help and is on the mend. Hats to you men with balls of steel for continuing the ride! I'm sure that was a tough decision that was not made lightly.

 

[Patriot]

Andrew, I hope to ride with you...real soon...

I couldn't help dream of being able to take Byron's place to make it a foursome again

I was there riding the Smokies Oct 4-5 and the weather was so diff than expected...warm.

I work mesh the whole trip with the occassional liner or extra layer underneath.

Fav roads of mine LA to TN:

Northeast corner of AL is the Little River Canyon road. Bham is the Barber Motorsports Museum. And I favor staying in Cleveland 20mi north of Chattanooga then riding into the park from there. This time was a traditional hw 68 north from the Ocoee River with great sweepers, to the Cherohala Skyway.

low 70's in the am up to high 70's to 80ishy F. Did have some light rain Sat on my way home until Bham, but still quite warm for October

post on...this thread is a great read...I feel I'm getting to know you

 

[hallett]

Hey Redfish. This is Hallett that you met when we all were in the Smokey Mtns. I had the silver FJR. Didnt know until I read this that you had all those problems. We had a great time and the rides were awesome. Made it make to Oklahoma Friday evening. How do you post pictures on the website???

 

[Patriot]

Hey Redfish. This is Hallett that you met when we all were in the Smokey Mtns. I had the silver FJR. Didnt know until I read this that you had all those problems. We had a great time and the rides were awesome. Made it make to Oklahoma Friday evening. How do you post pictures on the website???

checkout the "how to post pics using photobucket" but it's the same for others like flickr

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=137849

you click on the square portrait/painting icon and past the url of the picture in

you'll see

[img ]https://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.jpg[/img]

hope this helps

 

[Redfish Hunter]

Hey Redfish. This is Hallett that you met when we all were in the Smokey Mtns. I had the silver FJR. Didnt know until I read this that you had all those problems. We had a great time and the rides were awesome. Made it make to Oklahoma Friday evening. How do you post pictures on the website???

Hallet, you first open a photobucket account. It is easy, it's free, REMEMBER your username and password. Once you have your "photobucket" you download pics to it. Then when you are looking at the pics in the album, put the cursor on the third line down and right click. It will briefly flash "copied".

Then, if you look right above the post you are typing, on the line that starts with the B I U two places to the right of the is a little square with a green circle. Click that and use you left mouse button to "paste" the line you copied from photobucket. The hit "Insert Image"

It sound like a lot of B.S to go through, but it is not that bad once you get used to it.

When we met you we had just started to really enjoy our trip. Things had been very sour, the loss of my cousin was weighing very heavily on us all. It still is. I really enjoyed meeting you, glad your trip was good and you made it home safely.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

Dad and I are going back to Tupelo tomorrow to visit my cousin. It is at best a 6 hour run. We have to go in the truck because my mom and my/our uncle want to go see their nephew. Byron was in surgery for 5 and a half hours today for his shoulder and they may have to do another one later this week.

I am trying to get in a position to finish this Ride Report, it has taken more out of me than I thought it would.

I hope that some of you can take away a little bit of something that may save you from ever having to go through this pain yourself. It sucks for me, I know it sucks worse for my cousin.

 

[majicmaker]

Dad and I are going back to Tupelo tomorrow to visit my cousin. It is at best a 6 hour run. We have to go in the truck because my mom and my/our uncle want to go see their nephew. Byron was in surgery for 5 and a half hours today for his shoulder and they may have to do another one later this week.

I am trying to get in a position to finish this Ride Report, it has taken more out of me than I thought it would.

I hope that some of you can take away a little bit of something that may save you from ever having to go through this pain yourself. It sucks for me, I know it sucks worse for my cousin.

Wishing Him the Best Redfish!

 

[HPTuner]

Yep, tell Cousin Byron we are all pulling for & wishing him the best of speedy recoveries! It has been an awesome report & we'll wait patiently for the finish.

 

[Patriot]

I feel the sorrow and pain.

I know fa sure you'll never ever erase the memory of what you saw of Byron face down and not moving. The limp body flying through the air. I should be considered a bit of PTSD that probably won't go away anytime soon.

BTDT

 

[Boomer612]

I wish the best for cousin Byron... even with all the right gear a hard blow is still going to break ribs.. hurts just thinking about it. I enjoyed your RR very much.. I to don't seem to have a "good" eye for photography so try my method.. can't have quality -- givem' quantity. I find it interesting hearing of others impressions of roads that I have ridden and roads I wish to ride some day.. I read all the west coast RR's because the Pacific Coast Hwy. is on my bucket list. Thanks for making the hard decision to continue the ride and taking us along. Keep us posted on Byron's condition.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

I feel the sorrow and pain.

I know fa sure you'll never ever erase the memory of what you saw of Byron face down and not moving. The limp body flying through the air. I should be considered a bit of PTSD that probably won't go away anytime soon.

BTDT

I don't want to sound insensitive or insulting to anyone who might read this. I grew up the son of a combat veteran, I was held to a different code than most. My Dad had no time or respect for panic. If you could not function to do what needed to be done, he had no use for you. If your emotions began to get the better of you, you got control of your emotions. He believes in grief and sorrow and all the other human emotions, he was always a wonderfully patient and loving father.

I knew that I had to (Dad's words) "Keep my head and ass wired together." I was calm, I was organized, we all did what needed to be done and made good decisions on the side of the road and at the hospital. I was very proud of this. I won't lie and say that I was not choked up at times or that I did not shed a tear here or there, but I was always able to function.

I will not ever forget what I saw but it will not be a negative thing. I can and do relive the whole thing to try to see what I could have done better, and what my cousin should have done better. I don't want to forget it, the story does have a happy ending after all, right?

We are hoping to get the man home from Tupelo this weekend. We had a good visit up there yesterday, he is hurting like hell but he is healing.

I promise to make progress on finishing this report soon.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

We left the park and headed back to the Smoky Mtn. Expressway going west. We turned south on Hwy 28 headed to Franklin, NC. As soon as we turned on the road, I saw a UPS truck in front of me. I started to curse it, got another scolding from Dad and shut up. I guess he must have walked off and left our sorry ***** because I never even got another glimpse of it. Much later when we got to Franklin, a UPS truck passed us going back the other way. Dad's sarcastic message in my headset was, "Hell, he already delivered all his packages and he's headed back home. Damn you're slow." I kept my mouth shut. I want to believe it was a totally different truck, but I'll never know.

The 6 or so miles of twisties on hwy 28 are outstanding. We really did not hit them very hard, the leaves were just the right shade of yellow, the scenery was great. I can't count the # of times Dad said, "Dial it back, David is trying to sightsee." I was trying to sightsee as well, I just wanted to do it from a little steeper angle...

The little restaurant where I wanted to eat lunch was closed. Permanently, chain on the door closed. I had really been looking forward to a smoked potato with my BBQ pork platter there. Dad and I ate there two years ago and they had this awesome side order, a smoked potato. I guess I will never get another one. In fact I remember now that Dad had only given me one slice of his. Greedy rascal.

We ate lunch in Franklin and headed south on 28/64. Here, traffic conspired against us. I think I could have ridden my bike upstream in the river faster than the jackasses in front of us were going. I still think mean thoughts about them as I type this. We reached my first spot, finally. Dry Falls. It is called Dry Falls because you can walk behind the waterfall and stay dry. Well, in good raingear and if you did it at a good run you could stay dry. Otherwise the mist will soak you. If you don't get wet from the waterfall, the walk back up to the parking area will soak you with sweat. Especially if you are in riding gear and boots. Being old and fat has no effect on this of course.

There was plenty of water flow, it was very beautiful. David was very impressed with me by now and was almost being nice to me. Dad was fussing because neither of us would carry him back to the top.

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This one is my attempt at being GeorgiaRoller:

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As you can see from the first pic, my companions are not nearly as fun to look at as the one GeorgiaRoller always has in his pics.

We drove a little farther and hit Bridal Veil Falls. We did the obligatory pics there, nothing unusual or special there. Who am I kidding, they were special to us. David actually got excited over getting these, I guess Dad and I were as well.

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We had a slightly faster ride back up to Franklin but traffic still thwarted every attempt at any fun lean angles. We fueled up just south of Franklin and now I remember another interesting thing. As long as we are on normal roads and as long as my windshield is all the way down, the ST always gets slightly better fuel mileage than the FJR. Not much, usually around 0.2 to 0.4 mpg. With both bikes running the windshields up and both using lower gears, the FJR gets better than the ST by about the same margin. The GoldWing obviously uses much more fuel.

We have to go back north up 28 and I am looking forward to those twisties now that David has already done his sightseeing. I know I did not set any records, I know I will never rival Valentino Rossi for my cornering skills, but I had fun. I mean the kind of fun that you just don't know how to describe. I have heard and read this kind of road described as a rollercoaster. That does not do justice to this kind of thing. Being in control of a high quality, big bore, sport touring motorcycle on this kind of road is a thrill that goes beyond the feelings that normal people experience. I have thought about how to express this but the ordinary life does not have anything that compares to this feeling. Please don't judge me too harshly, this is what I came up with.

Flicking the ST back and forth, back and forth, the throttle was controlling my happiness as surely as it was controlling engine speed. The weight of my thought would be enough to lean the bike over, the back tire painting a dull gray stripe on the pavement exiting the tighter corners. The FJR in my mirror was a dark red shadow, mimicing my every movement. With Dad's laughter ringing out of my headset I felt like I could control the bike like never before. As I watched him in the mirror, I wondered if the blue Honda was anywhere nearly as graceful as he was and decided that for once it probably was. The white snout of the Hondapotamous was growing ever smaller but this was not a concern. My every sense seemed to be suddenly calibrated to allow a fluid perfection of movement and coordination.

Have you ever fired a really accurate rifle? Felt the trigger as it releases the sear, seen the orange blossom of fire in the scope and you knew, I mean really knew that the round was going right where you wanted it to before you even felt the recoil against your shoulder? Or maybe felt that special shiver from your lover that let's you know you touched all the right places in all the right ways and made her happier than you made yourself?

That is how I felt for 6 miles of hwy 28 just north of Franklin, North Carolina.

To be continued

 

[Monty]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck, Redfish. Glad you and your Dad are OK and trust your cousin gets healed quickly and is able to ride again.

 

[HPTuner]

I guess this means we're gonna have to dodge the greasy spots on Hwy 28 now, huh? :lol:

 

[Chuck35]

Nice job describing the feeling of those mountain roads!

People look at me both weird and sympathetic when I try to describe it.

 

[Uncle Hud]

Here's how I describe it: "WOOOOHOOOO!" as loudly as a southern college football fan on a good Saturday!

 

[Redfish Hunter]

I wish the best for cousin Byron... even with all the right gear a hard blow is still going to break ribs.. hurts just thinking about it. I enjoyed your RR very much.. I to don't seem to have a "good" eye for photography so try my method.. can't have quality -- givem' quantity. I find it interesting hearing of others impressions of roads that I have ridden and roads I wish to ride some day.. I read all the west coast RR's because the Pacific Coast Hwy. is on my bucket list. Thanks for making the hard decision to continue the ride and taking us along. Keep us posted on Byron's condition.

Boomer, I am glad to see you took the time to read some of this too-long, too-mushy report. I sure enjoyed your reports on your Sturgis and EOM rides. I shared your line about how you like the curves better because you stay in them longer with my Dad and he really liked it. Thanks for the input.