up into the North Georgia and NC mountains.....
I left out at 10:30am heading for my favorite chili burger place up in Tiger....man was it delicious!!...the darn thing was so big I couldn't wrap my mouth around it and it was falling apart on me...the Lady working there gave me a small bowl of extra chili to eat after I was still craving it after eating the burger....yummmmmy!!.....
Then it was off with no real plan in mind....just decided to head North and West.....I ended up in Murphy, NC.....I took a few roads I had always wanted to explore....the Valk was running sweet but it did backfire 3 seperate times coming down off the mountain just coasting.....a loud POP each time that sounded like it was coming from the left side of the engine??....oh well, the old girl has been sitting a couple of weeks and may have soaked up some moisture with all that rain we've had in the last two weeks....
I headed back South and down through Blairesville, GA and took a right onto Wolf Pen Gap road.....about the same length as the Dragon but with a lot less traffic on it....I got behind a SLOW delivery truck so pulled over at a pull-off and took a pic....it said it was a "Wild-life" viewing area, but I was the only thing "wild" in sight!!...
I headed South on Hwy 60 at the end of Wolf Pen Gap and took these pics at an overlook....there's not too much color right now, but these mountains in the pic are about 50ish miles South of where the FCR is being held in a couple of weeks.....I did notice some reds from the Sweetgums, a few maples, and the Sourwood trees are red/purple also.....not many orange or yellow colors yet...
From there, I took a left at the "Rock Pile" and headed back East for a ways, but decided to take another road I always wanted to explore....."Frog Hollow Road"...that HAS to be a good road ....right??....it sure was.....I burst out of the woods and found this large vineyard out in the middle of nowhere.....there was a LARGE house in the distance that I'm sure was the Vineyard Owner's.....there was also a small windmill out in the middle of all of it...
Ok, it was getting close to suppertime, so I moseyed on down to the Texas Roadhouse Grill in Gainesville.....ate a cup of chili, a small Ossum Blossom onion, and sirloin kabobs...yummy.....place was packed....
by this time, the sun was getting WAY low in the sky and time to head for home...I rode some backroads to Commerce and stopped at the DQ for an ice cream....ummmm, ummmm!!...by then, it was dark outside....turned the old green LED's on and headed for home about 25 miles due South.....the temps had dropped with the sun, so I closed the Baker's up and basked in the warmth of the engine.....the moon was full and bright in the sky...I enjoy riding at night in the cool temps, but there are a LOT of forest rats to look out for around this part of GA....
I had a most excellent ride....passed at least three Festivals, saw many places decorated for the Fall/Halloween season, passed a lot of road kill....most I've seen in a while, foxes, dogs, skunks, squirrels, and some unidentified critters.....I love the smell of woodsmoke in the air, freshly mown grass even when there's the scent of wild garlic in it, the smell of laundry on the line....watching leaves scatter in your rear view mirror as you zoom on by....it was an olfactory extravangza today...the only unpleasant smells were of the fresh chicken litter spread over cattle pastures.....ewwwww....
Got home with just under 300 miles on the old Girl.....not very far considering it was a 10 hr day...I just wasn't in a hurry today....it was good for the soul!!.....
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