D
dbmg
Guest
Good luck on your trip. May you have a great trip. It will be great to spend some quality time together riding the bike. I too used to have those days before the kids.
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- Thread starter Backroad Rider
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Backroad Rider
Active Member
Thanks Amanda, after seeing you 2 on the tail, guess we will have to give it a go, heard so much about it, kinda hard not to think about it...Glad you and Jim had a great time. (23 hr 15 minutes +- before take off):small3d024:
Backroad Rider
Active Member
Lap Top died, have camera, hope motel has puter to keep all updated..rolling out in about 15 minutes and will try to keep all updated as puter availabilty allows...to all be safe, be happy and praise God....
Bill
Bill
bigdawg30125
Member
Stay safe and have fun man I wish I were going with you me and my better half had not had a mc trip in a long time due to little ones but hopefully it won't be long. Trips on the bike are the most fun you can have with your clothes on.:s have a great time and God bless you.
Backroad Rider
Active Member
The anticipation was well worth it, we left as planned at about 8am on Friday and proceeded as planned up 441, then deviated onto 129 (as Dr D suggested, let the ride take you where it will) rode approx 6-7 hours to just south of the Carolina state line, saw a thunderstorm appoaching and pulled into a convienence store just as it arrived, sat for 2 hours or so and watched a spectacular lightning show and it was very close. Upon it clearing we proceeded stopping at the Dillard House for dinner. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of dining there, when you see the menu, you don't specify what you want, you get it ALL and eat til it hurts.
From there we proceed to Franklin where we spent our first night, a total of about 9 hours in the saddle without the first complaint from the better half, she truly was a trooper for her first long distance road trip.
From there on Saturday we proceeded to Cherokee onto the BRP and rode the parkway and into Maggie Valley for lunch, from Maggie Valley we cut through the Great Smokey Mountains into Gatlinburg for night #2, gotta say this wasn't the best of nights, clerk at motel failed to tell us that it was under major renevation, no smoking other than on the balcony (room didn't have one) had to go to an outer balcony for another room to light up, went to dinner, ordered a coctail, first was right, second they tried to pass off another type and stated I didn't know what I was talking about....Wasn't impressed with night #2, though the weather was clear throughout day 2 with temps 95-98 with "feel like of 102"
Here's where we made our first error and planned day three, day three we decided to go to Nashville, forgetting about earlier floods, got into Nashville, temps of 105 and "feel like of 113) finally got to a motel, where we learned that you can't purchase alcohol on Sunday unless you're in a restaraunt, fortuneatly, there was an Applebee's in the motel with very friendly (and accomodating Staff)
Day 3 we went back to Gatlinburg, staying at the Best Western twin rivers, great Staff, had a creek outside our room and a spa down by the pool. Very nice, had dinner at a Mexican restaraunt located next door, they advertised that all food prepared fresh on premises daily....They did not mis-represent, we shared an appetiser and I ordered a tamale, that was the best tamale I've had since being in Mexico.
We got up the next morning and were thinking of taking the tram up to Uber Gatlinburg (Ski resort), I saw a road leading up and without giving it much thought proceeded to the top, not one of my wiser decisions...what started off as a gentle incline soon revealed a 180 degree turn into a 45-50 degree incline (can you say first gear), blind corners sharp turns and truly a nail biting ride up, but we survived...lol...got to the top and found a truly magificent resort with indoor ice skating ring, shops and a tram to the top of the mounain (and to think I thought I was at the top), going back down wasn't as bad as I was afraid it would be since I already had a clue as to what to expect.
Upon leaving Gatinburg on Tuesday morning we proceeded back across the mountain and wound up riding some truly awesome roads leading eventually to US129, better known as the Tail of the Dragon...stopped and got pix of the Tree of Shame which is full of parts from bikes that didn't make it (should be noted no Harley parts in evidence), we rode the tail from South to North to the Harley Dealer then turned around and rode it from North back to South (can you say 636 curves in 22 miles) man what a rush.
Finally back to Cherokee for shopping and return to Fla. on Thursday. Got within 60 miles of home before storm began moving in, delayed about 30 minutes but made it home safe and sound.
We were very fortunate in that other than extreme heat, had to come back to Florida to cool off) we had no rain during the trip and have to say it truly was a trip of a life time.
For those of you who live in that area, I jealous, Florida riding will never be the same.
Will post additional pix with a link as soon as I figure out how and where.
From there we proceed to Franklin where we spent our first night, a total of about 9 hours in the saddle without the first complaint from the better half, she truly was a trooper for her first long distance road trip.
From there on Saturday we proceeded to Cherokee onto the BRP and rode the parkway and into Maggie Valley for lunch, from Maggie Valley we cut through the Great Smokey Mountains into Gatlinburg for night #2, gotta say this wasn't the best of nights, clerk at motel failed to tell us that it was under major renevation, no smoking other than on the balcony (room didn't have one) had to go to an outer balcony for another room to light up, went to dinner, ordered a coctail, first was right, second they tried to pass off another type and stated I didn't know what I was talking about....Wasn't impressed with night #2, though the weather was clear throughout day 2 with temps 95-98 with "feel like of 102"
Here's where we made our first error and planned day three, day three we decided to go to Nashville, forgetting about earlier floods, got into Nashville, temps of 105 and "feel like of 113) finally got to a motel, where we learned that you can't purchase alcohol on Sunday unless you're in a restaraunt, fortuneatly, there was an Applebee's in the motel with very friendly (and accomodating Staff)
Day 3 we went back to Gatlinburg, staying at the Best Western twin rivers, great Staff, had a creek outside our room and a spa down by the pool. Very nice, had dinner at a Mexican restaraunt located next door, they advertised that all food prepared fresh on premises daily....They did not mis-represent, we shared an appetiser and I ordered a tamale, that was the best tamale I've had since being in Mexico.
We got up the next morning and were thinking of taking the tram up to Uber Gatlinburg (Ski resort), I saw a road leading up and without giving it much thought proceeded to the top, not one of my wiser decisions...what started off as a gentle incline soon revealed a 180 degree turn into a 45-50 degree incline (can you say first gear), blind corners sharp turns and truly a nail biting ride up, but we survived...lol...got to the top and found a truly magificent resort with indoor ice skating ring, shops and a tram to the top of the mounain (and to think I thought I was at the top), going back down wasn't as bad as I was afraid it would be since I already had a clue as to what to expect.
Upon leaving Gatinburg on Tuesday morning we proceeded back across the mountain and wound up riding some truly awesome roads leading eventually to US129, better known as the Tail of the Dragon...stopped and got pix of the Tree of Shame which is full of parts from bikes that didn't make it (should be noted no Harley parts in evidence), we rode the tail from South to North to the Harley Dealer then turned around and rode it from North back to South (can you say 636 curves in 22 miles) man what a rush.
Finally back to Cherokee for shopping and return to Fla. on Thursday. Got within 60 miles of home before storm began moving in, delayed about 30 minutes but made it home safe and sound.
We were very fortunate in that other than extreme heat, had to come back to Florida to cool off) we had no rain during the trip and have to say it truly was a trip of a life time.
For those of you who live in that area, I jealous, Florida riding will never be the same.
Will post additional pix with a link as soon as I figure out how and where.
Attachments
Sounds like a great trip! I hate getting into those situations like your mountain road excursion where you're nervous about continuing but you can't turn around - literally between a rock and a hard place!
Maggie Valley's become my favorite place within a day's ride from north Georgia. So many great roads and interesting places to see.
Glad you made it back safe and thanks for the posts!
Maggie Valley's become my favorite place within a day's ride from north Georgia. So many great roads and interesting places to see.
Glad you made it back safe and thanks for the posts!
Backroad Rider
Active Member
Thanks Dr. D, at the time I was obviously concerned; that being said, glad I did it, it was a rush and a half, especially since everything turned out well.
Gotta say once again, riding in Florida will never be the same after this week.
I have a lot of photos but can't figure out how to get the uploaded to share and can't link a facebook page where I have them up...Wife did a tremendous job from the back seat in gettin some real nice shots.
Gotta say once again, riding in Florida will never be the same after this week.
I have a lot of photos but can't figure out how to get the uploaded to share and can't link a facebook page where I have them up...Wife did a tremendous job from the back seat in gettin some real nice shots.
Join Photobucket and then follow Smitty's step by step advice in this thread:
Rusty on computer - Harley Davidson Community
Rusty on computer - Harley Davidson Community