Country Ride Before Flat Tire

My riding friend Paul and I left out about 9:55 Tuesday morning, 3-4-14, for a short ride before lunch, taking in some roads north and east of Gatlinburg, TN.  Temps were in mid-40s when we left but warmed up during the day to mid-70s.  There are some pretty sites along the roads travelled and you will notice that most of them are rather curvy.

Some of the flatter roads.






Riding in the foothills.  Some roads are 1 1/2 lanes wide.




Since this was to be about an hour and a half ride we didn't fool around with stopping to much.  One place we did stop was in the town of Pittman Center, TN, a small community of mostly artisans NE of Gatlinburg.  There we stopped to look at a covered bridge (which happens to have a pedestrian walkway as well as for vehicles).  This area also has a lot of stone fences bordering the highway and separating property.  Don't want to wobble too much here or you hear scraping noises and feel pain.

 Covered bridge with
pedestrian walkway.
Stream flowing beneath
bridge is crystal clear.

 Stone fence row along the
roadway.  Since in the Bible Belt, there are a lot
of churches in East TN.

We ran back into Gatlinburg to have lunch.  It was one of those "bring 5 cans of food" and eat free deals at the Park Vista Hotel which is on top of the mountain overlooking Gatlinburg (owned by Doubletree).  It was a low budget Italian meal but nice and filling.  Oh yes, it was also a buffet but I only got one plate of lunch and a salad and a canoli for desert.  After lunch we took off for Cherokee, NC across the mountain and some roads there to ride.

 Road to Cherokee not too
far from the visitor
Sugarlands visitor center
near Gatlinburg.
Mountains in foreground
has thousands of pictures
taken from this vantage
point by visitors.
 

Several 180* turns on this
highway and a couple of
360* turns.  A great view
from almost any place
along the route, U.S. 441.

Now you can see why this is the most visited National Park in the United States.

 We crossed the mountain
and came to Cherokee, NC, a town on the Cherokee
Indian Reservation.  In the
summer it is teeming with
visitors but as you can see
it is pretty vacant in the
winter months.

Somewhere while riding through Cherokee, I picked up a nail in my rear tire.  I found this out shortly after we gassed the bikes up before proceeding on our planned route which would total some 260 miles for the day.  As I pulled out from the station I pulled over and asked my fellow biker to check to see if my rear tire was low.  He said "yes or it's flat".  So I turned around and limped back to the service station.

We aired the tire up, asked a local fellow about a tire shop and took off before it went flat again.  The tire shop told me they didn't plug any tires and didn't fool with motorcycle tires at all.  He did tell us where a NAPA auto supply store was which was fairly close by.  So off again like a flash we went.  Paul had a tire repair kit so we tried it first and second.  Neither worked.  And we tore up his air compressor.  So I went back into the NAPA store and bought a different type plug kit.  By then we had broken Paul's air compressor so we now needed air.  NAPA didn't have the 12volt type.  So we went next door to a pawn shop and they let us borrow a 110volt air compressor.  NAPA was kind enough to let us borrow an electric extension cord.  Two more tries with the new plugs and we had air in the tire. 

We thanked everyone that assisted and rode to a different pawn shop and where I purchased an air compressor as a back-up.  We then headed back to Seymour with me leading the way.  Just as we entered the Smoky Mtn. Nat. Park a bunch of elk was feeding on the left of the road and across the creek on the right were several more.  No time for pics, just ride cowboy ride.  I stopped a few miles up the road and asked Paul how the tire looked.  He said okay so off we sped again.  When we got to the top of the mountain, I pulled off once again to see how the tire looked.  Fine, let's ride.

This is one of the fastest trips across the mountains I've made in a long time.  It is not a high speed highway but we pushed the limits, in fact we were a tad over.  When we got back to Pigeon Forge I needed a pit stop so we pulled into a convenience store, used the rest room and crawled back on the bikes again.  Tire was still holding.  I thanked Paul for his help and pulled out headed for the house.  The 260 mile ride turned into a 160 miler with some excitement in between.  I made it to the house okay.  The nail was a No. 2 common that entered the tire at an angle.  Next day I went into the garage to check the air pressure but didn't need to.  Tire was flat.

Two new tires were ordered and are now in so Monday, 3-17-14 while everyone is drinking green beer or green tea (remember I live in the Bible Belt), I shall be at the cycle shop having new tires put on Sweet Thang.  So I hope everyone has a great St. Patrick's Day.  Happy Riding to all.