July 4th Ride to Sharps Chapel and .......

Between working on my deck, taking care of the yard, helping my son's family pack to move to CA, and tending to his yard, I needed a break.  So, Thursday night, July 3rd, I called rider friend Paul to see if he was planning to ride the next day.  He hadn't planned anything but since we haven't ridden much lately he called back later with a plan.  For me, any plan would do as long as it contained riding.  So Independence Day, off we go.

Friday, July 4, 2014, Fourth of July Holiday, temps were in low 60s, sky looked great, sun was just coming up and Sweet Thang backed out of the garage at 7:15 a.m. to meet up with Paul at the Exxon Station about 5 miles up the road.  Meeting time was 7:45 so getting off early allowed me time to top off the gas tank and grab a quick coffee before he got there.  And that I did.  Just as I was paying for my coffee he walked in.  So I paid for his coffee, we drank it while chatting about things going on and our route then tossed the empty cups in the waste container and cranked up.

Early morning sky was spectacular.  That long white thing in the right picture is not a grub worm, it's rolls of hay wrapped in white plastic to help keep them dry. 

Riding North on Boyds
Creek Highway.

We ran the back roads all the way to Sharps Chapel except for a short burst on a 4-lane every once in a while.  On the way Paul asked if I wanted to stop for a coffee and breakfast sandwich or do it later.  I told him it didn't matter to me so at the last minuted he decided to go ahead and stop.  Good thing about riding with Paul is that changes doesn't bother either of us.

Lots of corn and hay grown in this area.  Some very pretty old farm houses are also seen along these country routes.    






Along the way you can also
see some small communities that have dried up, stores boarded up, buildings becoming run down, etc.  However, life still goes on, you just have to go farther to a Walmart.

We stopped at Petticoat Jct. for our coffee and biscuit.  Paul found a biscuit that had sausage and ham in it.  Country ham, the kind that makes you want to find a water trough after an hour or so due to the salt it has been cured in.  There was three fellows sitting on a bench out front of the store.  Paul has been there so many times that they know him.  We just got off our bikes, said our greetings, and went inside, helped ourselves and walked out.  Later after eating and drinking we paid, or at least Paul paid, for our biscuits and coffee and rode off onto another country road.

 This old house is very unusual.  It's unique in its design and looks quite mysterious setting back off the road.  I can just imagine a yard full of kids many years ago because it is a large house with a number of out buildings.

 The house to the right is a standard size farm house for the area.  It too, is quite old.  There's some elegance in some of these old structures and who knows about how much history they represent as this part of TN was occupied in the middle 1700s.  Now I know this house isn't that old but it probably is a good 75 to 100 years old.

Since Eastern TN is
considered a part of the
Bible Belt, there's no lack
of churches in the area. 
The old style country
churches are pretty and
usually very near the
church is a cemetery.  

Lots of good curvy roads to ride and with all the rain we've had lately everything is lush and green.  In fact
there's a lot of things you
can't see in the Spring to
Winter time frame due to
the trees and bushes.   

 We were now in the Norris Lake area which is very beautiful.  The pic on the bottom left is Paul standing on the graffitti covered new bridge looking over at the original old iron bridge.  They have made it so that you can't ride on it nor walk on it unless you bring a very long board to cover the span where they took out the road bed. 

There are lots of nooks in
the lake and Paul is riding
down the dirt road to take
a better look.  You can't see them, but near the highway a couple is tent camping .    


After a few miles Paul's GPS, a planned route, took us into what Paul refers to as the 1% people's living area.  That means they've got some banks full of money just to purchase the lot much less build some of the large homes here.  We just rode in on a really curvy road and turned around and rode out.  I felt richer just riding among their homes.

It would be a grand place to live except it is a long way to a shopping mall or grocery store/gas station.   

 We continued on to Sharps Chapel which is a small community and then wriggled our way back toward the house.  Along the way we passed some old barns, the town of Sharps Chapel and a bunch of boaters on Norris Lake.  You could smell the hamburgers and hot dogs as you rode past many houses.  I didn't see any "Stop by and join us" signs.

The barn on the right was
almost close enough to ride through it instead of ride around it.

What's left of Sharps Chapel area. 

Back at TN Route 66 and Boyds Creek Highway we said adios and I gassed up Sweet Thang for a continued ride.  Left the station and headed into the stomach of the tourist beast, Pigeon Forge.  This time of year it is bumper to bumper and worse since it was a 3 day weekend for a lot of folks.  Managed to get through unscathed and headed for the Gatlinburg by-pass to the Smoky Mtns.

I love entering the park.  It's like running between canyon walls of trees, lots of shadows and flickering of sunlight among the trees.  Very serene.   

Entering one of several
tunnels as you work your
way to the top of the
mountain at Newfound
Gap.  Yours eyes barely
have time to adjust from
he darkness entering to the brightness exiting the tunnel.    

Looking East from the parking area at Newfound Gap.  This is the point where TN and NC split the mountains.

Who can stand here and say they don't enjoy looking at these layered rolls of rock and earth?  Not I as I've been here more times than I can count.  Some times I have been here and am the only human standing looking at this site.  Not often along, but occasionally.  Temp, 68* at 3:00 p.m.

 A nice shot at one of the tunnels.  They are very cool in the summer and can be very tricky in the winter as water tends to freeze near the entrance and sometimes on the inside.  Slick is the word.

Following the trail of tourists coming down the mountain.  Ahh, the smell of burning brake pads.  I could have a job by telling people how to use their engines and transmissions to slow them down which would save them a brake job.  But then, they wouldn't listen and we'd still have the aroma of burning brakes.

It was a very relaxing holiday for me and I hope yours was the same.  Good friends, nice scenery and riding the bike.  How much better could it have been.  So enjoy life, ride/drive safe.