Oak Ridge and Beyond

Thursday, March 6, was a beautiful day for a bike ride.  In fact, any day it is not raining, sleeting, snowing or freezing is a good day to ride.  Paul, my riding buddy, and I met up at Food City Deli for breakfast at 8:55 a.m.  After a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits with gravy and coffee we suited up and rode toward Oak Ridge, TN.  At the small town of Solway, TN we met up with another biker friend, TerrE, and rode the short distance on to Oak Ridge.

For those that may not know, this was one of the secret cities during World War II.  Oak Ridge was developed to assist in the making of the atomic bomb.  Part of the uranium 235 needed was finished here.  The bomb was actually put together in Washington state.  Now Oak Ridge Laboratories does a multitude of things and not all associated with atomic energy.  They also have the OR Museum of which we visited.

The museum has a very unique sculpture form
at the entrance which is shown below with Paul
and TerrE in the foreground.  Inside are photos of the beginning of Oak Ridge, the various living and working areas as well as some good films on the dropping of the atomic bomb.  There's a lot of reading with a few hands on type displays that you can fiddle around without getting scolded.

The entry fee is very economical and you can spend several hours there looking around.  They even have one of the pre-fabricated houses that people lived in on site.  Not very large compared to today's houses but sufficient for a couple of people.  The house originally cost about $6800.
It didn't have a lot of storage space but it was sufficient.  Even had indoor plumbing.

After the museum we hit the road out of Oak Ridge and headed for route 116 better known in these parts as The Devil's Triangle.  It is a twisting two lane road that crosses two mountain ranges before coming out into a valley.  You travel through some tough looking coal country on the way and the roads don't have many guard rails.  That way if you run off the road you get an extended excitement trip added to what you have already traversed.  It really pays to stay on the asphalt.

 As you can see, there's little room for error when riding or driving on these roads.  And just figure in some areas you will be meeting large semi-rigs and very large dump trucks.  All of this helps to keep the adrenaline flowing.  And besides that, the scenery is very pretty.  Often there's a flowing river or stream along side of the road.  You'll notice there are no shoulders on the road.  And this is one of the good ones to ride on.

Along the way you run across all sorts of things.  This little grocery store is in the middle of no where, is well stocked with food the locals like, you can get a sandwich, and I purchased a RC Cola for $0.50.  Friendly folks operating it and lots of history to discuss.  The floor was three inch wide flooring well oiled from many years of service.  And the honeybun's are good too.

We traveled a few more such roads and then TerrE split for a different route home.  Paul and I made it to the Mountain Motorsports motorcycle dealership for a quick cup of free coffee and onward to the house.  A great day to ride, 34* to start and 54* at the end.  About 160 miles for the day.  Another day in the life of a biker.