Gimme a brake!

Earlier in the week, a buddy of mine who oversees a group I used to ride with, pings me on the FB chatbox and asked if I would be able to join him for a ride anytime Thurs.-Sun. After conferring with Melissa and checking her schedule, I got back with Dan and told him Sat. would be good for me.

He was planning a twisty route that included Shady Valley, Damascus, and New River (not the one in W(BG)V) and thought of me. Aww!   ; )  

I told him I would likely break off at some point so that I could spend time with my new toy as I don't really have many twisty miles on it yet. Hell, I haven't even hit the power band as things start happening real fast at 5K and 7K is when it really starts singing.

The first hour would be slab time to get to the good stuff. Since they were headed in my direction, I told him I would meet him at 8:15 AM (which should be 5-10 min. earlier than they arrive if they left on time).

I showed up not only on time, but EARLY! At that time of day, there wasn't hardly anyone out and I made good time getting to the interstate and was kickstand down and waiting at 8 AM sharp (which was their planned departure time from 20 miles away).

After sitting there a couple minutes, I noticed a person get out of a car that was parked about a 1000 feet ahead of me and start walking back towards me. When she approached me, she greeted me and asked if I knew how far it was to Virginia. I told her it was about 80 miles and then asked "What state are we in?"

Initially I wanted to say "confusion" but behaved and politely informed her that we were indeed in TN. Then she turned around and walked all the way back to her car -- and sat there.

About 10 minutes later, Dan waved as he rolls by followed by 8 other bikes. Wow! big group this time! I fired up Cloud9 and took off to file in behind them. That goofy woman was still sitting there, not sure what was up with her, but whatever.

Here is the route we (and after splitting off -- I ) took ...    http://g.co/maps/s77kz

We slogged along for an hour and then pulled into a gas station. That was all the slab for the day -- the rest would be good stuff. Bring on the twisties!

We fueled up and shot the bull a bit. There was a nice mix of bikes -- 3 Harleys, 3 Goldwings, a Suzuki Intruder, my Bandit, and a three-wheeler called a Stallion, made by Ford.

It was a four cylinder automatic fully enclosed trike with steering wheel and gas pedal with a Mustang rear end. Pretty interesting looking machine.

Dan told me to go ahead and jump in behind him and when we got to the good stuff, he would motion me around to go run my own pace instead of the group pace. Cool, I can do that! That was pretty awesome of him!

So anyway, I do just that! I am cruising along and there was practically no one on it! a rare, free run at the "Snake" (aka US 441 through Shady Valley). This is a sweet stretch of twisty tarmac.

I encountered two cages but was able to scoot around both of them rather quickly and easily. Man! this Bandit is a freakin' rocket! Adrenaline .... is .... FLOWING!  Yeah baby!

Near the end of the run, I got slowed by a cruiser who was doing his part to save lives with his loud pipes. He had no interest in pulling over and I never had a comfortable sight line to slip past him, so just cooled the jets a bit. I knew I had put some distance between me and the group, so figured I could turn around and run it again until I saw everyone then turn back around.

Well, they must've been enjoying themselves as well as they weren't as far behind as I thought. Maybe I wasn't as fast as I thought I was, either way, I turned around and we all met back up at the store. I'd never stopped at the store before. They had a lawn tractor powered by a V8 Ford engine and had a snake on the top of the cowling. Pretty cool.

Here is a link to the pictures Dan took ...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.386576718052308.83732.102742376435745&type=1

After checking everything out and more BS-ing, we were soon mounted back up and headed north. The road headed out from the store was a first for me, and I really enjoyed it! It paralleled a meandering creek/river through a shaded valley (hmm ...) and brought us up into Damascus on US 58.

I had been on this one once before too. It is quite fun!

Once we got out of town and away from some traffic, I found a passing zone and zipped past Dan to have some more fun. I was scootin' along nicely until I came up on a van hauling a trailer filled with bicycles.

I soon got enough of a sight line and zoomed on past them. A couple corners later, I encountered another one, with one more in front of it! Yeesh!

Luckily there was enough of a gap for a Bandit to fit comfortably so  the first opportunity I got, I did just that. Then hopped around the next one. It was kind of like leap frog!

Cool! now I am back up to speed and grinnin' from ear-to-ear until ... I came up on ANOTHER van hauling a trailer full of bikes. GAH! I got past this one  and was in a good rhythm.  I had already hit the power band and things were going well.

Then I approached a hard right and realized I was going a little quicker than I wanted and grabbed for the front brakes to scrub off some speed when the lever went nearly to the bars before engaging anything. What it did grab wasn't much, but I was committed at this point, so just leaned it over hoping it would stick (already have lost traction on these shitty Conti tires a FEW times powering out of a corner).

Well, it did, but from there I backed down. Apparently the front brakes got some air in them somehow at some point as the second pull would be pretty solid.

I stopped in a pull-off to await the rest of the group and then filed in behind everyone. My day of haulin' the mail was done. No problem, smelling the flowers is good, too.

We stopped at a little Mom-n-Pop cafe that I wasn't too impressed with, but the company was great.  After lunch we started turning south and west headed back homewards. We picked up NC-88 and this was another good pick.

I had never been on this but it was a nice winding ride through the countryside, kind of deal. We soon are back in Mountain City and fueling up. I decide at this point I am going to jump on 321 south and head towards home and see where the road takes me. I let Dan know and a couple others in earshot I said Goodbye to and headed out.

I figured I would just take 321 into Newport. Newport is to the south so I grabbed 321 southbound. 321 is great fun too! It twists and turns next to Watauga Lake and I am kickin' it nicely.

I noticed the lake was "on the wrong side" but figured I was remembering it wrong and kept on going. Not so much! If I wanted to go to Newport, I would've had to take 321 northbound.

I found myself in Boone, NC, and for some reason thought my buddy, and fellow maggot, Tim Schwab lived there. He lives close but not IN Boone. I have no service on my cell but carry it in case I need to call 911.

I have Tim's number saved so I search out a pay phone. Good luck with that!

I finally find one (that works) but have no cash, only plastic. I figure I can make a purchase and get cash back. The storekeeper says, he could do it but it would cost me $2.50 service charge to do it. Well I need to make the call.

He asks if it is local. I show him the number and he dialed it for me and Tim answered it. I asked if he were home only to find out he is in Sylva this weekend doing Guard duty. He tells me he is only about "2 hours away" and I am welcome to come visit if so inclined. I'm out and about so what the hell?

Two hours my ass! Maybe ... MAAAYYYBBBEEE two hours *ed-time*! He told me my best bet would be to take 321 down to 40 then head west. I missed 321 at some point, but found the Blue Ridge Parkway. Cool! It's a rough life!   ; )  

Again, I am enjoying myself. This time of year there isn't much traffic to deal with so I am zipping right along.

I come across 321 and jump off it so I can get to 40 and make some better time. Even though there is little traffic, there is enough to bring the average MPH down below 70 so, I figured I could do 80 on the interstate and opted for that.

It took *forever* to get to I-40! Once there I was pissed when I saw I had another 100 miles to get to the exit then it was another half hour to Sylva. Two hours? BAH!

I slogged through it and by now the predicted rain showers had made their way far enough west that I am being spat on. Not hard rain, just annoying.

I arrived in Sylva and put a dollar in the first phone booth I came across to get more specific directions from Tim. I sure do miss the days when a phone call cost a quarter! I could hear him, but something in that phone was inoperable so he couldn't hear me. I have about had it by now!

There was a guy walking by and he could see my frustration and heard me mumbling something like "that was a wasted dollar, now what?!?" He asked if I needed to use a phone and offered up his cell. Very cool!

Tim knows where I am and graciously comes to get me to escort me back to where he is. He asked me to stay the night there with them. That was tempting as I was kinda beat at this point, but I have to see what Melissa's schedule for Sunday is.

She tells me she can make arrangements to have someone cover for her Sunday school class and we hang out and tell lies until our eyes got heavy.

I hung out for a bit in the morning before taking off. As luck would have it, by the time I am ready to leave, it started raining harder. Oh well! I knew the weather was going to be bad so fully expected I would be getting wet on the way home anyway.

I got back to the interstate without issue and dealt with a steady drizzle the rest of the way home. I arrived at the house damp, but not soaked, and I call that a win. Especially since it was almost 60* as opposed to the 40s it would've been had I made the trip home last night.

Always great to ride with Dan and that group and this time was no exception. In addition, I got to hang out with my good buddy Tim for a while. I would ride through a deluge to be able to enjoy those things again.

Tomorrow -- bleeding brakes and re-lubing a chain!