Brentwood (Nashville) TN
Last
night I realized that tomorrow I will have to return to Deal’s Gap to acquire
my ‘Tail of the Dragon’ T-Shirt and decals.
So my plan will be to load up, have breakfast at McD’s then ride to
Deal’s Gap.
While loading Sophia in the morning I made new friends with the motel support staff and folks from MS from the room a few doors down. I believe their names were Mike and Patty Campbell…but I’m not sure. Once again I can’t find where I had written their names…if I had. They were in a Miata riding the Dragon for fun and then will head back to Diamond Head MS where I had stayed with my buddy Neal while doing the Four Corners on my way to Key West. They also recently bought some propertyThe ride there went quickly, about 25-30 minutes, and I’m glad that I went there. I bumped into Doc, who I had met back when I met Dennis at The Dragon Inn yesterday, and got a pic taken with him and his wife.
The person taking the pic was Scott whose son is in the Marine Corps so we chatted about that and the rack I designed for Sophia. Hope to hear from him in the future and get the pic he took of me with his camera.
Then
it was off back towards Robbinsville and onto the Cherohalla. Shortly after turning onto the 143 I came
upon the Thunder Mountain General Store, cabins, and Gas station. I met Mark the owner and then outside met
Bryan Bates, Sherry Porter, Pete Stokes and Abbie. We had fun swapping witticisms and took a pic
of all of us. I got some gas for proof
of visit then headed out on the Skyway
I
wasn’t sure what to expect on the Skyway but everyone told me it was totally
different from the Dragon. And indeed it
was. The road was similar to the BRP and
well maintained. I don’t think the
altitude ever exceeded 3500 feet, but it often felt like I was up around 6000
or so. View from lookouts always presented
mountain peaks just a ridge away whereas the BRP had huge valleys in many
instances. The Cherohalla runs all along the southern border of the Great Smokies. The clouds were very high today so there weren't too much 'smoking' but that was a good thing...cuz the views were gorgeous looking out on all the adjoining ridges completely covered with trees. The ride is very similiar to the BRP in that the climbs were not excessively steep and the turns were fun in their gentleness allowing riders to keep going at a good speed between 30-50 mph.
The
weather was perfect until about halfway through the ride when rain clouds swept
in bringing a lower temperature; so I put my wind breaking rain jacket on for added
warmth. At some point the Garmin gave up
and quit on me….I think it was at the TN/NC line where the NC143 changes to
TN165. I had programmed the Garmin only
for 143 so at this point it no longer showed me a highlighted route…but it did
display the road continuing. I began 2nd
guessing myself wondering if I had missed a turn or something so I stopped at a
viewpoint and consulted the map. Nope,
there was really no road to turn off onto…I was heading the right way, and to
my estimation I had about another 10 miles to go. So, back on Sophia and off we went.
Took a pic of the Cherokee NF. There
was another lookout point where I snapped a pic of hills I just rode down
from. Then I came upon the Harley Store
at Tellico. They were selling a large
decal for trailers so I bought it and arranged for it to be shipped to El
Toro. And of course, I had to buy
another T-Shirt…damn, I gotta stop doing this….somehow. Well, there are only three more places I plan
on buying a T…Deadwood, Vernal and Durango.
Anyhow, I also mailed the new ones home.
With
that all done and accomplished it was a quick bite at the Hardee’s place at the
junction with TN68. The next leg was the
long run to Brentwood, just south of Nashville where my buddy Neal lives. The route I’d be taking is the US68 to I-75
to I-40 into Nashville. I got in at 8:06
and Neal greeted me with a “You’re one hour early buddy!” Somewhere along the ride I crossed a time
zone. Cool.
Am
looking forward to my visit with Neal and working on a coupla bike projects.
C ya mañana,Gonzo
Twitter: @GonzoCrossUSA
Email: GonzoCrossUSA@gmail.com
Cell: 949-433-0761
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