Round and around

So while many folks were out fighting crowds trying to scarf up "deals" and boost the economy this Black Friday, I took the opportunity to jump on the bike and pad the pockets of the oil tycoons. At least that was the plan once I found that Melissa didn't intend to work since it would likely just be a waste of gas and time.

I hadn't been on the bike in 3 weeks and Kent Matthew mentioned on his FB page that his wife and kids were out of town for the weekend and he would be getting some "helmet time". Well, I like Kent so I invited myself along. Since he told me where he was meeting a couple other riders at and when, I took that as he didn't mind.

It was about a 2 1/2 hour ride from the house and Kent wanted to meet up at 11 AM. I layered up as I knew it would be a chilly ride as I was going across the mountain due to the temps here last night being almost at the freezing point and the sun wouldn't be very high at 8:30 AM.

By the time I dressed,  grabbed a piece of leftover pumpkin pie, a banana, and 2 pieces of toast, geared up, and pulled the bike out of the bike shed, it was about a half hour later than I intended to leave. Sh*t! late again. So I text Kent and let him know I was going to be about 30 minutes late. Somehow, I don't think he was very surprised.

I put the cell phone in my suit pocket and straddled the bike. I clicked the starter to hear a disappointing RRR-RRR-Rrr-TTT-ttt  ... which was promptly followed by "DAMN DAMN DAMN!" 

I pull the phone back out and call Kent to let him know there there was no sense in waiting on me as it would take too long to charge the battery. He asks, "You have cables, don't you?"   DUH! why didn't I think of that? So I tell him I will call back once it has started.

We formulate plan B and he says to plan on meeting him at 12:00 at the same place instead. This will be tight, but I figured I could make a little bit of time on the interstate. So I set out. Luckily, the tank was filled prior to coming home the last time, so that is one less time-consuming task to do.

here is a link to the roads I *think* we took (it goes to a googlemaps page) ...

http://tinyurl.com/7puvyf3

The ride down was mostly slab, so it wouldn't have been too difficult to make time so long as there wasn't much of a law presence -- and there wasn't. I made pretty good time and when I got to Brevard, NC (about a half hour away from our meetup) I topped off the tank and called him to touch base.

I then hit US 178. I had seen this on the map before and it looked fun, but I have never found myself in that "neighborhood" to try it ... until today! This was alright! *especially* since it was empty and I got to run my own race .... errr ... ride! I actually got my heart beating a little bit! Good fun!

I arrived just as the one rider (other than me, of course) they had been waiting on showed up. It was Kent on his FJR, a buddy of his, Terry, on a Ducati, a buddy of Terry's, Chuck, on a TL, and me on the big Sabre. Apparently at some point Terry's wife was going to join up with us. Terry was confident she would catch up.

Even though the day got off to a chilly start, it was now nearly the predicted high of 60* and not a cloud in the sky. Perfect riding weather!

We started out on a bunch of narrow two-laned backroads that were a nice bit of fun. However, I couldn't tell you the name of one of them, nor likely even find my way back to them. I *do* know we crossed SC-11 like four times as we zigged and zagged. This guy Terry knows the area rather well, and at a later stop I heard Kent say he didn't know some of those roads either.

The stop was a really nice overlook (along SC-107 I think?) and Terry stopped to let the shutterbugs use their cameras if so inclined. I    took advantage of the opportunity and took a couple of pics ....

(I believe they will enlarge if you click on them)

From here we wound our way to GA-28. I had never been on this stretch of 28 and I must say it is every bit as enjoyable as the stretch in North Carolina. We then took Warwoman Rd. Again a nice twisty arrangement of tarmac.

Knowing that I am still not 100% where I want to be, decided to be the anchor of the group -- meaning I chose to ride in the back so I wouldn't slow anyone down. Being in the back of the group and being a long time since we had passed any cars, I hadn't been watching my mirror. The road commanded most of my attention.

It was somewhere around here that all of a sudden I hear WWWWRRRRRREEEEEERRRRRRNNNNNGNG as some chick on an R1 just went FLYING by! I wouldn't doubt she hit triple digits as she blew past all four of us in one swoop. I don't mind admitting it scared the sh*t outta me as I hadn't been monitoring the rear view and never knew she was there until she had whizzed on by. It was Terry's wife, so now we are all assembled.

We pulled into Clayton, GA for a lunch at Wendy's and to discuss what roads to terrorize next. Terry mentioned that GA-197 was just down the road and it has been a few years since I run that. Nobody else really ventured an opinion so I guess my piqued interest may have influenced the decision a bit. 197 is not very technical but does have some nice curves and parallels a lake so it is scenic as well.

We took it over just north of Helen, GA and turned north on GA 17/75. 17/75 climbs a mountain and has a few switchbacks but they aren't as tight as many of the ones in the area, so you can be a bit aggressive. Once traffic was disposed of, we had some fun there too. I was getting down to 3 bars on gas so when I caught up to them (actually they were all waiting on me), I asked about when we were planning to gas up again. There was a station just up the road a couple miles so we stopped there.

We used this stop to communicate where I would be splitting off from the group. I decided to follow them back across US 76 to Warwoman Road (y'mean we have to run that again?) and then I would turn north on GA-28 where they went south. I had planned on taking 28 all the way up to the Dragon, then take 129 into Knoxville and onto I-40 as it was already 5:00 and darkness would be setting in soon.

I took 28 and even had a clean run at it (man! I love that road -- *all* of it). When I hit US 64 in Highlands, NC I missed the sign where 28 went and found myself going *EAST* on 64. Well, I didn't find myself going east until about 15 miles later when NCDOT decided to place a sign letting me know I went the wrong fuggin' way FIFTEEN MILES AGO!

I pulled into the next gas station and looked at my map to see what the next northern route would be to avoid backtracking and found that US 276 in Brevard was nearly the same distance away as it would be to backtrack and find 28. Not only that, but taking 276 would actually be a pretty direct route home from where I split off from the group. I love happy accidents!

By now it is, of course, dark and so I had to keep it pretty slow going up 276 as it goes slap-dab through the middle of the forest for about 20 miles and there is a river right next to the road. Perfect setup for forest rat encounters. Couple that with a sorry stock headlight on a 26 year old motorcycle and it is nearly a recipe for disaster.

I made it up to I-40 without incident and was still not too cold. Or if I were, I didn't really know it. Where I got on the interstate, I was only about 40 miles from home so I didn't have to cross the highest part of the mountain because of where 276 joins in. Sweet! that means I won't have to be as cold!

The miles started clicking away, but I was vigilantly watching the fuel gauge. I thought I had enough gas to make it back to Newport, but knew it would be close. I didn't want to stop until I had to because I was already numb enough not to know how cold I was. Again, I was chilled, but didn't feel cold.

The last 20 miles my arse was screaming. I kept trying to find a spot to sit that I wasn't uncomfortable with no luck. I hadn't gotten off the bike since the intersection of Warwoman Rd. and GA-28 which was about 140 miles ago.

I made it to the gas station just up the road from the house and topped off to the tune of 4.87 gallons. Yeep! I rolled into the house 11 1/2 hours after leaving having burnt off nearly 15 gallons of fuel, travelling through 4 states, and logging about 420 miles (acc. to googlemaps) cold, tired, and smiling.

I wanted a beer which seems to be a tradition after an excellent fun day on the bike, but my body temperature demanded a cup of hot cocoa and a warm blanket to allow myself to "thaw" out. (I wasn't in any danger of hypothermia, but I was certainly cold). Even after the "thaw", I could feel a grin still frozen on my face.

Good times indeed! Thanks Kent for allowing me to tag along. All the twisty turny roads I traversed today has my head still spinning.