The importance of not being seen ...

I had made arrangements to ride with Mr. Schwab at least part of the way home on Sunday morning. I got up and started packing but, of course, he has likely been up since sunup.

I was packed in relatively short order and got yelled at while making my rounds for not making them quick enough. I trot back to the bike and gear up and we are off in short order. We has become Mo, Koos and Wilma, Tim, and I. The plan was to run south toward NC and then see where we would all split off.

Heh! plans! We burned some gas for a while and at one point before the curvy stuff we had a legal opportunity for all four of us to pass a line of cars, but we would have to be moving a bit to do it. Mo goes, by now Tim is second and he takes off. Koos follows, and I'm right on his tail. The passing zone is quickly closing and there is a vehicle up ahead that is also going to make this merge happen a little earlier. I may have been speeding at this time.

I get back to my side before the vehicle is a factor but just after the passing zone line (only by a little bit). As I merged back onto my side, I was able to get some detail out of the vehicle approaching. It's a cop. As I looked in the rear view mirror, I saw a flash of lights. Although, I think it must've been just the way the sun reflected off his light bar. heh!

It may have just been coincidence, but about this time there appeared an interesting little country road off to the right and Mo being the adventurously curious sort that he is ducked onto that as nonchalantly as you please. We all followed suit and never did find out if that was a blue light being flashed or if it was just a mere reflection.  ; )

So we're following Mo down this maze of interestingly curious county roads and find ourselves on gravel. Imagine that, with Mo and find a "goat path". Actually it wasn't challenging gravel, but I am not sure Koos was too pleased handling gravels two-up.

Me? I was ecstatic. That cop would've thrown the book at me because he wouldn't have gotten all of us, just me but that is, if, indeed that was him flashing his light and not a reflection. ; )

After a few more turns we found ourselves on US 58 just east of Damascus. Mo lead us down towards Shady Valley to introduce Koos to the Snake.

We grabbed dinner at the store there and I would suggest you not order their double burger unless you are seriously hungry. I ordered a single and it was HUGE! I'd never eaten there before so didn't know.

After lunch things got screwy! The idea was to head south towards Boone and then would break off there. However, as we pulled out of the store, Mo headed north. We all followed suit, but I was confused what was going on.

Mo pulls over into an empty parking lot, but Tim continued on. I pulled in behind Mo, then Koos rolls past. Mo takes back off but is at a crawl. I finally motor on around both he and Koos and get up on Tim's tail. We take off through there and don't see Mo and Koos again until we were stopped at a store and wondering why we were headed north. Mo and Koos rolled right on continuing north. We figured Mo has decided to hit 26 and start trying to get home as time was becoming a factor for him.

Tim and I plan to head back 421 and pick up 91 down to 321? I can't remember then into Boone where we would split company. By the time we got to 91, Tim motioned to stay on 421. I guess he was feeling the curves. He was too, because he checked out.

It was shortly after getting through Mountain City I started getting the "sleepy"s. I pulled up in front of him and ducked into a gas station parking lot and told him I was nodding. He agreed to hang out there for a bit, besides it would give the Sabre a chance to cool down a bit.

As we head out we say our good-byes as we are just above where we will be splitting off. He motions me to take 321 north. I thought that was wrong and as soon as I turned on it, I knew it was. That's okay I can get home a few different ways from here and it's all fun. 321 is fun and is a pretty run right next to the lake, so no worries.

I got on 19-E and turned south, figuring I would cut across Roan Mtn. but my eyes kept wanting to close, so I pull into a gas station and finish off my water. Feeling fatigued, and the fact that my knee was really beginning to hurt, I just wanted to be home at this point and was still a couple hours away yet.

The rest seemed to help, but at this point I had decided not to take the twisty route home. I found a nice 4 lane road with some traffic to help keep my mind busy and hopefully not nod off. It seemed to work and I rolled in about 7 PM after a couple more stops to keep away the nap bug.

I got home to the tune of about 1500 miles for the weekend. What an awesome time, thanks to all who came out and made it such.