Hooked up with my main riding buddy ,Dwayne and his Gal ,Mindy on thursday after work. Got on the road about 5 or so and headed the fast way ( big road) to Gatlinburg. Yea we hit some big rain ,but only for a few miles between Abington and Bristol .Rolled into Gatlinburg around 10. My Sis was already there with cold beverages waiting.
Woke up Friday AM to more rain so we piled into sis's truck and rode to cades cove ....where along the way we found out that that the road thru the park is not wide enough for a 2500 dodge 4x4 and a super duty f450 ford 4x4 to pass without the mirrors being destroyed.
On to the cove where we saw 30 or more turkeys several deer and three bears...one of those up a tree that we were 10 yards from.
Got back to the hotel around noon and with the rain gone saddled up on the bikes. My sis is a new rider on street bikes but was wanting to see what all the hype was on the "Dragon" ..so off we took towards the Maryville end of the Dragon . The morning rain had detered some of the sport bikes so we had a good pass to the other side. All was good as Sis bought a "I survived the dragon" tshirt. It was the first time for Dwayne on the dragon as well. We started talking about our route back to gatlinburg and after talking to some locals ,I decided to ride back across....Dwayne was all smiles but you could see a little ..OH NO look on Sis's face LOL . We told her to just ride her pace and we would wait on the end. This pass was more aggressive ...."Not Smokin Joe style" but still drug the pegs a few times....sad to say that Dwayne on a Shadow pulled away and was waiting for me at the end with a huge grin on his face. All in all a great ride on a great road.
Sat. AM Debbie and I had to sit thru a Time share sales pitch...hey it payed for our rooms. Then with Sis and her friend going to Dollywood Dwayne ,Mindy ,Debbie and I rode thru the park to Cherokee and did the tourist thing...hitting Maggie Valley on the route home...Another great ride across Rt.19 .
Sunday we headed out and after riding the big road for aways we peeled off at Bristol and rode RT. 421 "The Snake" stopping at Shady Valley for snacks and stickers. From there Rt. 133 I think thru the Backbone to Damacus and up Rt. 91 to 11. on to Marion Va. From there we headed towards Highbinders and Lady Draco's neck of the woods over the curvyest road in Va.....Rt. 16 over three mountians to Tazwell. Right turn on Rt.61....yea Tracy we saw the ostrich but no go on the camels. 61 ran us to Narrows Va. and a short jaunt on 460 got us to Rt. 219 in W.Va....only 50 miles till home. So a Dairy Queen stop and Gas then home by dark.
One GREAT weekend ...not a huge amount of miles but 857 miles riding two up the whole way for both bikes was a good time
