Thursday morning was another crisp pre-Fall day. A ride had been planned earlier and the meeting place was a convenience store at the corner of Chapman Hwy. and Boyds Creek Rd. for 7:30 a.m. Dressed appropriately for the weather (in layers as it was going to warm up later) I met rider friend Paul and we headed South to Vonore, TN to meet up with Marc, a rider Paul knew who lives close to Chattanooga. We rode some back roads that had back roads and then hit the main highway, US 411 for a short run to McDonald's in Vonore. Marc was already there. Paul and I grabbed a quick breakfast and coffee, gulped it down while talking with Marc and then mounted up for the day's ride.
Heading East out of Seymour, the rosy pink in the morning sky just improved the ride another 10%. Mountains in background are hazy from morning mist and natural effects that give them their name, Smoky Mountains.
Not too far down the road the sun started poking itself from behind the mountains and high fluffy white clouds. Another good sign for a good riding day.
On our way South toward Vonore, the sky seemed to clear faster and early today. However, you can certainly feel Autumn in the air, low humidity, cool and fresh with an earthy smell. The trees are getting dull and in places some of them have leaves changing from green to yellow.
This particular highway ran through some rolling hills and farm land. Still lots of tree growth enabling you to see very much except in places where they had been removed. Sweet Thang's pipes had that deep mellow sound this morning. She lets off that low rumble when you accelerate. Love that girl.
The three of us are running well through some of the straighter areas of highway. Later this straightness would change considerably to "hanging in the curves, turning and burning" as they say. By the way, the highway width changes also and not for being wider.
One of the many beautiful old churches in East TN. Beside it is another one of those areas that need to be fenced in as people are just dying to get in there. I know, old joke but it's still funny to me. Of course, I'm getting closer to that place than I really want to and it's not because of riding a motorcycle.
Notice the difference in the road width? My driveway is wider than this road and vehicles travel up and down it every day from school buses to farm tractors and yes, even a few bikes.
The TN River along with numerous lakes make naming waterways a bit difficult. However, this is one that is a finger off the TN River and a lake. Notice the reflection in the smooth water and the funny shaped clouds.
A few more curvy roads, that's Paul in front and Marc in the middle, and since Paul and I had CB radios I played tail drag today to keep Marc on the straight and narrow. And these are the easy ones to ride.
The curvy roads like this can make you tighten up a bit on the bike seat as a lot of them not only make sharp curves but can do so going down hill or up hill making it even more exciting, especially if you've not prepared for hitting it. Like being in the right gear with the motor still revved up.
And finally we came to our group's first destination and first rest stop since McDonald's, which was about 1 1/2 hours later.
Our first destination was Potter's Falls, a very scenic area with multiple waterfalls. A short hike takes you from the small parking area along the highway down to the lower falls.
People had definitely been doing some littering along the pathway to the lower falls but this litter made me guess somebody had to get away from there in a hurry or, Big Foot came out of the woods and scared them.
A picture of Potter's Falls.
In the summer this place will have numerous visitors that play around in the water and swim in the pools at the bottom of the falls.
Marc and Paul pondering how those big boulders got where they are. Notice the one in the upper right is being held up by a smaller one beneath it. Who knows, may have been aliens.
After Potter's Falls we headed for Lilly Bluff Overlook where two rivers join up. Centuries ago a canyon was formed and then got wider after the two rivers joined up. On the way we passed another one of those places that needs a fence erected.
Some of the roads would fool you as they could have some small crushed stones on them which are the same color as the rock in the asphalt. Makes you not trust the road just on the basis that it is the same color. Loose material can put you down hard if your bike slips on it.
We arrived at Lilly Bluff after a bit and I noticed the conifer trees, that's pine trees to most of you, all had very small pine cones. Years ago my Grandmother would have had us gather them up so she could make Christmas decorations out of them.
Lilly Bluff Overlook. The growth shades the meeting up of the two rivers but take my word for it, there is a river to the middle right of this picture.
We later stopped and grabbed a burger in Wartburg, TN. It's another small town but has some nice places and a small Visitor's Center run by the National Park showing all the materials and uses for the rivers in the area. After lunch we hopped back on the bikes and headed for Harriman, TN to stop by the General Store there.
On the way out of Wartburg we ran by Nemo. This small town was washed away by the flooding river around 1929, losing lives and a couple of miles that were waterdriven. All that is left is the old iron bridge. A new bridge was built some years ago and the iron girder bridge is only used for scenic purposes, no vehicles allowed.
This is the Nemo Bridge spanning the river.
After the Nemo Bridge our next stop was at the Rocky Top General Store in Harriman, TN. This is one of those stores that has every thing you can imagine. Including a couple of old codgers visiting and getting a bag of free fresh popcorn.
Before we were allowed in the Law had friend Paul displayed across the hood of their cruiser to check him out before allowing him to enter the store.
This is just one shot of the store's inside display area. There's rooms of stuff in this place. One area was new gardening implements. There I found a first for me, an onion hoe. It is a gooseneck hoe but the blade is only 2" long and is used to scrape the dirt away from the bulb of an onion. We just used a regular gooseneck hoe, but apparently some people had a special hoe for that purpose. By the way, scraping the dirt away makes the onion bulb grow larger.
After the General Store we went in separate directions, Marc back to Evansville, TN and Paul and I back to Seymour. It was starting to get later in the day so we hooked it up on I-40 Eastbound and down, hello Seymour.
Approx. 230 miles door to door for me. A great day for riding and then I found this at the end of the day. While talking to another friend I looked back at the garage and saw some white stuff on my rear tire. It wasn't there that morning as I check my tires. But during the ride I removed some rubber and was now down to cord in several areas. One friend said for me to run on roads where I only turned right so I could stretch more mileage out of the tire. So I ordered another one and it will be in Sept. 22. Hopefully mounted Sept. 23 as this coming week is going to be another good biking weather week.
So comes the end to another Valkyrie Adventure. All rode safe, had a good time, saw some old and new things, and most of all, had fun. Until the next ride, be safe and enjoy life.
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