Fall Color Ride...

[hubcapsc]

I got my bike and myself ready to leave by 3:30 Friday afternoon... a little later than I'd hoped, lots
of last minute details, plus I helped Carolyn get ready to trailer her horse somewhere...

Went over the hill to Clayton and up 441 towards Franklin wearing just a Tee shirt under my
vented Joe Rocket, sun was shining... passed a Valkyrie rider who turned out to Tom from Atlanta
and he caught up beside me "Are you going to Robbinsville?" Yep, I nodded, and fell in behind
him and off we went...

At Franklin he got in the lane to head east to Cherokee, I yelled over "Do you know where
you're going?", I figured he did. Fortunately it's easy and quick to get to Robbinsville on
28 from Cherokee  

About 70 miles into our ride my Tee shirt quit being enough clothes, so we pulled off to
this gas station, I pulled to a stop and Clunk! my lift adapter fell off. I'm glad I'm here to type
this, we had just been zooming 70 mph with traffic through a curvy mountain hiway... I swear
I'll never put that thing on again without some kind of reminder string or something to make it
impossible to neglect to take it off...  OK enough about my moronic stunt...

It was chilly and misty in Robbinsville, but it didn't matter with the whole crowd standing around the
fire pits... we stayed out there until 11:30... a couple of people past that... Joe got the call
about Sugarbee while we were there, I don't know her personally but some of the folks there
do... prayers for all involved...

There's a restaurant in the Phillips motel now, good dinner, good breakfast, just a
walk away.

Nasty clouds hung over us Saturday morning, waiting to burst loose as soon as we took off. We
headed out towards the Dragon (I've never ridden the Dragon). The further we went the
harder the rain came down.





We decided to turn back at the Deals Gap store... so I've still never ridden the Dragon.

We didn't go straight back though, we headed South on 28, and as we did the weather got
better, and we got to dry roads, and had a real good ride down to Franklin. We stopped for
gas at Wayah road and everybody headed back to Robbinsville... everyone but me that is...

I decided to head back home, we were pretty near Dillard, and I had begun dreaming about
the Dillard House. Man alive, there's nothing like coming in out of the 45 degree mist and rain
to be seated at a giant picture window and be brought ribs and fried chicken and baked chicken
and country steak and country ham and fried okra and green beans and corn on the cob and
field peas and acorn squash and other stuff I don't remember and coffee and desert with ice cream
and all of it as good as Grandmaw might make it... why didn't I bring my camera inside for a
"Strider picture" of the awesome spread...???

Anyhow, I'm home safe in my comfy chair, most everyone else is standing around the fire now.

It was great being there with everyone, and a great-though-weather-abbreviated ride.

-Mike

[KY,Dave (AKA Misunderstood)]

Glad you got the bike together and made it Mike. Sorry I didn't get to meet you. I met Joe and crew at Hardees on Friday in Clinton and road with them to Tellico to meet a bunch more. We road the Cherohalla in rain and 38 or so degrees with zero visibility in spots, but was a fun time. On the other side of the Cherohalla I took 129 to Deals Gap with ChromeDome (Tom) following to get to Wheelers for some new treads. I had to be home that evening for a previous engagement. Stopped at Deals Gap for a Dragon bacon Cheeseburger and then rode the Dragon home with wet roads and leaves everywhere. Was great to meet and ride with soo many people, I can't remember all the names and who they were. Hope everyone had a GREAT time and gets home safe today. Dave

[hubcapsc]

On the other side of the Cherohalla I took 129 to Deals Gap with ChromeDome (Tom) following to get to Wheelers for some new treads.

Me and Chromedome ate at the same table Friday night, he told us about his smoking worn-out
tires... our group passed Wheelers on Saturday - it's pretty handy to have a shop like that
out in the woods where you can get a set of Metzler's for a Valk mounted at 4:00pm on
Friday afternoon...

Tom from Atlanta rode over that Dragon in the rain after (all? most?) of the rest of us headed
back down. Usually when I think about "the Dragon", all I think about is police hiding around
every corner, I guess that's why I've never been there, but now that I've almost been there,
WOW, I can see why people go back there over and over...

Too bad you didn't get to stay Dave...

-Mike

[Normandog]

Sorry to hear the weather was so lousy. The FCR is one of our favorite events of the year. It always draws a great group of folks and that's what we like about it.
It was tuff for me to make the call not to go but with rain gear that keeps the water out about as well as fishnet I couldn't see riding in a cold rain. Then when I woke up thurs. morning the fllu I had been tryin to get over for 3 wks had made a helluva comeback. Didn't get out of the house 'til friday afternoon and that was to walk to the mailbox.
Mike, I didn't realize you had never ridden the dragon. 1st time I rode it I couldn't wait to get off of it. Now I like it better each time I ride it. There are roads I like much better but when I want to work on my ridin' skills the dragon is hard to beat.
Thanks again for the ride report.

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

About 70 miles into our ride my Tee shirt quit being enough clothes, so we pulled off to
this gas station, I pulled to a stop and Clunk! my lift adapter fell off. I'm glad I'm here to type
this, we had just been zooming 70 mph with traffic through a curvy mountain hiway... I swear
I'll never put that thing on again without some kind of reminder string or something to make it
impossible to neglect to take it off... 

Mike,
I’ve ridden with my lift adapter on more than once. First time was an “after wrenching” shake down. I saw 100 a time or two, came home and saw the adapter hanging there. That scared me.

My air force bud Jim told me about the “remove before flight” tags they used when working on aircraft. I bought a big one for the adapter and a smaller one for the handlebars and all was good. Then this spring I skipped the handlebar tag once but still used the adapter tag.

Next thing you know I’m meeting the Duc Man in the parking lot where he works and notice the adapter and tag hangin’ on Little Martha’s belly.  From now on I use both tags. Here is a link to the tags if anybody is interested. I don’t know that this is the same place I bought mine from so I can’t speak for the website.
http://www.aeroconsystems.com/misc/beforeflight.htm

Wish I could have made the ride. We just put all our spare money into remodeling Mom and Dad’s house so we can sell it now that they are gone. No play money now till the house sells and I can settle the estate.
Happy Trails,
Frye

[T-Bird]

Mike, it was good meeting you and talking at breakfast on Saturday morning. I decided to go back home after that meal. I was only 2 hrs away from a nice hot shower, maybe next year we will have better weather & plumbing....LOL

Terry

[hubcapsc]

Mike, it was good meeting you and talking at breakfast on Saturday morning. I decided to go back home after that meal. I was only 2 hrs away from a nice hot shower, maybe next year we will have better weather & plumbing....LOL

Hey Terry... I hope they tell us what the water problem ended up being... it worked great
down in the lower rooms down the hill... I took a good hot shower Saturday morning and when I
got up to the fire pits people were asking me how my hair got wet...

Anywho... I failed to take a Strider picture yesterday at the Dillard House, but I had the
leftover's for lunch just now, here's a sort of second generation Strider picture...



...that square yellow thing was a slice of the country ham on a very good biscuit... I thought that
was baked chicken when I wrapped it up yesterday, but it was smoked... mmmm....

-Mike

[Dave Weaver]

It was nice meeting you Hubcap.  Don't worry about missing out on the Dragon, you will have more opportunities.  Miss Reba said there was a ruptured water line and it was fixed by the time we returned from the wet ride.

[T-Bird]

Dave, It was good to see you guys again, I hope to have my "Twinkie Bagger" done the next time we meet. I will give you a call in a few weeks when I come to Indiana.

Terry

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

Glad you made it Mike I enjoyed talking with you . This without a doubt was the worst weather we've had on this ride in the last 5 or 6 years. Hope you join us next year and hope the weather cuts us some slack as well .

[woefman]

Glad you Guys had fun great picts thanks for sharing.