Long Overdue Face Time and Saddle Time

So I got an email a few weeks back from my good buddy Christopher with “Sept. 7^th?” in the subject line.  I opened it and the text was “ride?”

OH YEAH! I haven’t rode with CMac in a looong time. I got home and asked the wife if she was available to be here in my absence and got a definite “Yes, I’ll be here.” Bless that woman! she knows how long it had been since I had rode with him.

We were having a hard time trying to setup a meeting time and place. So I had the idea that I could make it easier by meeting at his house after he got off work Friday night so we could hang out. Then we could leave whenever we wanted or needed to Saturday morning.

Christopher was totally on board and now we had a plan of sorts. He told me he would be home about 6 PM.

I checked GoogleMaps and found that he was right at 2 hours from me. I left the house right around 4. It would be close, but should be workable.

What I hadn’t considered was that leaving at 4, would have me hitting the heat of “rush hour” in Asheville. Sure enough as I got to Asheville, at the split of I-40 and I-26, it was a parking lot. DAMN!

Christopher had told me not to worry about grabbing any beer as he would have that covered. Well, if I am going through Asheville or Knoxville, I’m hitting the beer store because what’s offered here in NASCAR country leaves a LOT to be desired, so I never pass up the opportunity to score some good beer!

 After seeing the “parking lot”, my want to go to the beer store was only reinforced. I checked the clock when I split off, and made the left turn to the beer store instead of the right turn toward Christopher’s.

By the time I got back to the I-26 and I-40 interchange, it was again, a parking lot. A quick look at the clock showed that the detour “cost me” about 45 minutes. However, taking the detour allowed traffic to lighten up some and me to cruise through the parking lot at about 30 mph instead of sitting still (as I likely would have done 45 minutes earlier).

That’s a win for me, and I’m sure Christopher *expects* that I won’t be there AT 6. He *knows* me.   ; )

To make matters worse, I still had to stop and get some ice to cool down the beers I got. A couple of them were stocked in the cooler, but not all of them.  So an ice stop cost me a few more minutes (to go in buy the ice, undo bungees to get to the cooler, load the ice, and re-secure the cooler).

I showed up at his place just a little prior to 7. I joked that it was six o’clock somewhere and we exchanged warm, heart-felt greetings.

It turns out that my grabbing some beers and costing me that “extra” hour, was a good call as Christopher couldn’t secure what he had hoped. However, mine weren’t cold yet as they hadn’t been on the ice that long yet.

He told me that if I wanted one there was an Ed beer in his ‘fridge. He had one of my porters that I gave him. Hell, I didn’t know any of them still existed (in original form). Mine were gone long ago.

That porter had been in the bottle for almost two years. It should be fantastic! I poured it, and … it was!

We hung out and told some lies for a bit before heading to Barley’s. About 5 or so years ago, Christopher and I placed a bet. My Magna had to be rebuilt due to some left-turning (likely drunken) idiot that cut me off.

At the same time CMac was dealing with a leaking clutch seal (which requires engine removal and splitting the case – unless you know a shortcut). The wager was that should I fix my issue first, he would come to Knoxville and buy me a beer at Barley’s. If he won, I had to go to Greenville and buy him one at that Barley’s.

This bet was made right after Mo’s *first* wrenchfest in SC. Shortly after this I got another bike and had fell SOOO in love with Pearl (the 600 Bandit) that I never had any inclination to do anything with that Magna ever again, and had actually wound up selling it.

Meanwhile CMac bought an ST1300 and didn’t look back much either. It had seemed neither of us would win the bet.

Well, last year, Christopher got his leak fixed. I have been to Greenville since that bet culminated, but haven’t had the opportunity to make good on it. So the plan was that after I got there, we would head to Barley’s to fix that. When asked what they had on tap, Christopher had quite the reaction to hearing they had Sculpin’s IPA on tap.

I *know* that look. Make that two! Yeah the look was merited!

We split a pizza and had a couple more very fine brews (including a very awesome Stone Enjoy By IPA [for those that don’t know “Enjoy By” is a freshness date]  ….* on tap* … WOW!) before heading back to his house for quite a few more very fine brews.

At some point after getting back to CMac’s house, he got a text from Kim saying that if we showed up at their house in the morning they would ride with us. So now we DO have a plan.

It was about 2 AM when C said, if we’re getting up in the morning we should probably crash now. I had no idea what time it was and when he told me, I had no argument.

We left his house around 8 to a very crisp dampness of the morning air, but it felt good. I had to stop for gas and so did he. While fueling I asked if we were going to make it on time? He told me “No”. I told him to blame it on the fact he was with me.

Heh! with Christopher leading, we made good time – and even saw the ton a couple times. We were late, but not “Ed late” when we arrived. There was an extra bike in the yard. It turned out to be a friend of Scott’s, Kyle, who would be joining us today.

Sadly, Kim had a sore throat and didn’t go with us. So, the four of us, Scott (on his Goldwing), Kyle (on his Harley), Christopher on his (non-leaking) Sabre, and me on Cloud9 (the 1250 Bandit) headed out to breakfast.

Scott lead us on a very tasty little twisty backroad that you won’t find on any map. Once at the restaurant service was slow, but the company was good, so no matter. After being fully sated, we got the wheels rolling again.

Scott suggested NC-151? which dead-ends on the Blue Ridge Parkway but is plenty twisty on the way up. As soon as we hit the good stuff he motioned Christopher and I past.

The road was well-shaded by the trees lining both sides, but where the sun was at this point was enough of a menace to force a differential between shadow and light and occasionally that played into entering turns. Christopher was “feeling it” at this point and flat-out left me. I was having fun but knew I didn’t want to go faster because it was beyond my comfort zone – especially fighting light and shadow.

We took the BRP north for a while. What a road!

At one point there was a bearded, older gentleman on his Harley goin’ ‘round the turn(s) with an ear-to-ear grin. The grin was so wide that I noticed it as I was cornering MY turn. That ol’ boy was enjoyin’ his ride and that made me smile too.

We then ducked downhill on NC-215. OH MY! it is fraught with nice sweeping curves!

Again, Scott motioned Christopher and I by and …. ZZZZOOOOOM! We enjoyed a free run almost all the way down. I stayed on his six this time and we came upon three bikes that weren’t together but were all riding about the same pace. They soon motioned us on by and CMac and I resumed attack-mode.

After a while we found a pull-off and awaited Scott and Kyle to show up. Well apparently, they got waved by as well. They were the next to show up and C barely had time to get his kickstand down.

Christopher had an ulterior motive for stopping … THERE! It was at an intersection of a “shortcut” that he knew of. He warned us pavement was sketchy at parts of it …. and it was. Early on, I was tentative.

I couldn’t tell if it was the (dis)coloration of the pavement or very fine gravels lining the lanes of the curve. Nonetheless, I had no inclination to find out and kind of tip-toed my way through.

Then it went to clean, black asphalt. The speeds picked up -- CMac leading and me on his tail. I tell ya my eyes went WIDE open, pupils dilated, and heart racing. WHOO! *this* is what it’s all about – and, again, I am right on C’s tail. Yeah baby! Good times! Damn I miss riding with him. It’s been far too long.

Then it was {sigh} US-64 for a while. This road is greatly designed, but boring as hell because of all the traffic you typically find on it. We were doing well (traffic-wise) for a while, but then some pompous idiot in a Lexus pulled out in front of us crawling along and was too proud to pull off. We followed along but that stretch could have been much more enjoyable without that intrusion.

It’s now past lunchtime so in Cashiers we stopped at a BBQ joint (on NC-106) and did lunch and more face-to-face time. I skipped lunch (due to my “diet”) but Christopher had me try a piece of his brisket, and I must say, those “boys” KNOW what they’re doing. What he had me sample was damned good. They also offer a great beer selection.

From there, it was a run DOWN 106 (better coming up from the GA side, but still fun), to US 441. We stopped to top off on fuel, and the plan was to take NC-28 and split from there. The stretch from US64 to US74 is one of my all time top 5 roads. GREAT STUFF!

However, when we got to NC-28, Scott kept on along US 441 north. I figured he missed it and would turn around shortly. He didn’t.

UGH! This put me in slab-tacularness the rest of the way home. The fun was over. Nonetheless, instead of turning around, I hung with them.

So now, for me, it’s across Newfound Gap (from Cherokee, NC to Gatlinburg, TN) – YAWN! nice road, sure! but so riddled with traffic, it’s … just … slow! Compound this with the multitude of classic old iron cars I had seen in the preceding week heading towards that area ... DAMN! I’M SCREWED!

Sure enough! I found myself in the midst of the Rod Run traffic. GRR! Eventually, I got out of that mess and arrived home a little after 7 PM with about 450 miles on the odo. … and was uncontrollably happy.

It was so good to get to spend some time with CMac. It's been a long time. It was also good to meet Kyle and hang out with Scott again, too. There's no substitute for good company.