A buddy of mine was coming up to visit this past weekend. He used to be one of my psych. professors and the first day of classes (was a night class) he walked in with his helmet and leather jacket in hand. Alright, I gotta talk to this guy. A friendship was immediately forged and we have been able to keep in touch over the years.
He recently accepted a position northeast of Atlanta and is now "close enough" that we can get together and ride periodically. He has lived in Louisiana the past few years and the riding down there just sucks! He was needing a "good roads" fix and thought a visit to Knoxville was in order. I convinced him to come crash here for the night.
It was arranged that I would meet up with him on the ride up and we could ride together. It's been six? years since he and I last rode together, so this will be great.
The plan was to be in Tellico Plains at the Hunt's Lodge around 1:00 so we could make a lunch date he had with a former colleague of his (who also is a former prof. of mine) at 2:30 at the Downtown Grill and Brewery in Knoxville.
I got up on time, grabbed a snack bar, strapped my cooler to the bike (after all, I was going to be in Knoxville, I can get some good beer), and was rolling earlier than necessary. I planned to arrive around 12:30 hoping that Lori would be around and I could hang out and visit with her. The early departure would mean that I would have more time to visit.
Something about riding on a bike staring into a cloudless, blue sky makes me smile! Paired with some fun roads, I'm quite the happy camper.
I was rolling along at a fairly spirited pace and enjoying myself and wound up on 321 west of Gatlinburg when I fell in behind a guy riding an R6 or R1 (was hard to tell) following a line of cars. Eventually he got tired of droning on and pulled a DY pass on a long straight. It was long enough and Cloud9 has enough power that I was able to easily follow suit.
When the road went to four lane, traffic got us shuffled and I wound up leading. Once it got twisty, I cranked back on the throttle and he didn't seem interested in playing. We split off when I came up to the Foothills Parkway.
I had the Parkway all to myself. There was traffic coming from the other direction, but nothing in my lane the *whole* way. It was odd. I like this early morning riding!
Again, a spirited pace was maintained and I quickly find myself on 129 and run down to the Dragon. Again, this early morning deal, ain't so bad!
I'm cooking along pretty well and all I encountered was a guy on a Vmax poking along. After a few turns, he waved me past and I happily obliged. Then came up on two other riders who were out for a stroll and they promptly pulled into a pull off and again I scooted past. That was it! no other traffic!
A half mile or so later I am preparing to enter a right turn and there is a guy standing next to his bike just off the other side of the road, but the bike is facing the "wrong" way (the same direction as I was headed). The bike looked fine, the rider looked fine, I waved and he returned it, but something didn't seem right.
I turned around and saw why he was standing there. He now has parts to contribute to the tree of shame and his riding day was finished. The left side of the bike was all tore up. It was a Suzuki-something. I didn't pay too close attention to that. He told me he felt the exhaust bottom out and it was surfing time.
The rider was fine as the gear did its job. He had a good outlook as he said "I was going to make this a track bike anyway, I guess now I definitely will." Heh!
By now, the riders that had let me by also stopped and there were 5 of us to get his bike out of the ditch. Once we got him squared away, I offered him a ride back to the resort where his truck and trailer was, but he said he doesn't "ride bitch" and would wait until someone in a car came by to get him back. Okay, nothing more I can do, so I headed on my way.
Soon I am at my favorite road. Ahhh Cherahola Skyway! what absolute asphalt bliss! So much fun!
Sadly, I see that Killboy is now up there taking pics too. Damn I hope they don't kill that road like they did the Dragon.
I arrived at Hunt's Lodge shortly after noon. Wow! even with the stop to help the guy on the Dragon, I made darn good time! Sadly, though Lori was not there, nor was anyone else.
I waited around and figured Brian would be along shortly as he is usually rather prompt ... and waited ... and waited. It is now nearly 1:30 and I'm getting worried. Again, this is very uncharacteristic of him and all the "what if's" are going through my head. Of course, my cell is out of service for now and I cannot call to check on him.
He showed up shortly thereafter cursing the traffic that is the urban sprawl of Atlanta. I was just glad it was a traffic issue. We catch up a bit, look over his GS and my Bandit, and then head towards Knoxville. TN-360 is a nice run and he is holding right to my tail. By the time we get to 411 and he is grinning ear to ear! (as am I)
We got to the brewery a little late but not fashionable and Brian did call the guy we were meeting to let him know, but he was nowhere to be found. Ah well! we ordered a beer (their porter is quite good!) and he calls another buddy to see what he is up to and if he wishes to join us. Turns out, he was just up the street at another bar and they came right over. I hadn't seen either of them in a long time either so it was a great session getting caught up.
After lunch and another delicious porter we head over to the beer store where I grabbed a couple beers he hadn't tried before, loaded them in the cooler, got some ice at a nearby convenience store and we're off to take the long way to Newport.
We got caught in a light, 10 minute spitting rain shower, but it was rather welcomed as the temperature was quite warm. What was really neat (and I should've stopped and snapped a picture, but didn't) was the rainbow that appeared. You could see the whole thing. Only once before have I seen the whole span of a rainbow. Additionally, on the end closest to us, you could actually see where the colors "touched" the ground. That was really cool! but never spied a pot of gold.
We were on TN-131 for what seemed like, well, forever! Good Lord, it just went on and on and was a mostly straight boring stretch. I had to abort the route I had put together as it had gotten late and neither of us are particularly crazy about night riding. We got to the top of Clinch Mountain and took in a million dollar view and decided to just take the quick way back to the house as daylight was getting scarce.
We beat the darkness home and both had an interesting path up the driveway. I had just graded it the day before because it was pretty rutted and washboard-like. Problem is that the gravel is getting thin. You can only spread it so far.
When I came in, I accidentally downshifted into second, not first. I figured it out about halfway up, but by then it was too late. I kept momentum and let the bike dance around under me on the loose gravel. I made it up it okay, but it was interesting. Brian also had his bike dance on him on the way up but no drops, so it's all good!
Once home, we sat back and drank some good beers (both mass-produced and from skipp'n rocks brewery -- that would be my homebrews ;j ) and great conversation for the rest of the night. Good times!
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