It kind of snuck up on me that Thursday was going to be a widespread
rainy day. Thursday's the day I rode to Knoxville to meet up with
The Cool Kids. It is spring, but still, I got chilled in that way
that makes your jaws tight, I was thinking: Self? What was it you
liked about riding motorcycles?
I got to Wimp's house, we headed out to meet the rest of the gang... to
eat outside. I'm glad we went in his car. There's something about
riding behind Wimp, or in his car, that makes you feel like you need
to scream "LOOK OUT"...
We sat around talking about motorcycles for an hour or so after we got back and
I sat in front of the heater
...
The next morning was bright and the day was warm. Soon
I was riding through the hilly roads behind a line of seven or
eight mostly Valkyries, DDT directly in front of me and several
more behind me. And I started remembering what I liked about
motorcycles...
On the way up to Pikeville, we rode on some nice uncrowded mountain
highways...
And also some snakey little backroads... there was a flaw in some of
the little backroads where there'd be a rectangular piece missing from
the road, just a void beneath. This is a small one, there were some
large ones that took up some of the road...
We ate some good BBQ and here's the motel... I liked it...
Gig arrived around 7:00, but they'd already hidden the sign.
Eric and the fender guy arrived after dark. I think they traveled
100 mph the whole way until they screeched to a stop in our midst.
The next day we split into a fast group and a not so fast group. Reb and
Eric and Herb and JimmyT scouted off in one direction, and the rest of
us scouted out a good biscuit place for breakfast. Then Joe lead us
all to this weird tunnel that takes two minutes to go through. Near
the end there's some kind of goo that makes you feel like you're riding
on ice. I think Gabby said it was algae.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0on_kW4jEyw&feature=youtu.be
It seems like every valley has a stream and a road, maybe a railroad
track. If there's any other flat land, there's houses on it. We
went down a bunch of curvy little roads through the mountains, but
there was always a population density...
Here's where an interstate sized road cut through an older little community,
the standards have foot prints about the size of a house...
Here's where some of them had to stop to put on their hats...
We had a good long "scouting" ride on Saturday, it was supper time when
we got back to the motel. A handful of us headed right back down the
road to the Walmart section of town. We thought we were going to
find a Longhorn Steakhouse, but had to settle for an Applebees. My
Applebees meal hit the spot... I learned later that the Longhorn Steakhouse
is there, but is hard to see from some areas...
Numerous ones of us ate at the same biscuit place as the morning before,
and headed out the same way to get home afterwards. 23 is a
fine mountain highway that connects Johnson City Tennessee with
Pikeville Kentucky through Virginia. I wanted Johnson City so I
could head Back to SC on 26, another good mountain highway until
you get over the mountain to Asheville, then gridlock for a while.
Everyone else stayed on 23 only about halfway through Virginia
and headed west towards their various Tennessee home towns...
I got home, fully remembering why I like to ride motorcycles, to
a supper of fried chicken and macaroni and cheese and tea, what
a great trip...
-Mike
