Tuesday, 4-18-15, 43 degrees, blue sky, no rain predicted. Time to ride. At 7:15 a.m. I backed Sweet Thang out of the garage and rode down to the entrance to my subdivision to wait for fellow biker Paul. Meet up for 7:20. He arrived at 7:15 so off we went, heading south today to Vonore, TN to meet up with friend biker Randy. Today's ride was going to take us down some back roads, as usual, to one of the three most noted motorcycle roads in the eastern part of the U.S.A. They are the Cherohala Skyway (crossing from TN to NC), The Dragon (crossing from TN to NC) and the Blue Ridge Parkway (going from NC to VA). At the end of the Blue Ridge is the Skyline Drive which is all in VA.
Met up with Randy at Hardee's in Vonore at 8:15 and decided to have a bite of breakfast as it would be a full day of riding. At 9:00 a.m. we pulled out of Vonore heading further south to Tellico Plains, TN, the southern end of the Cherohala Skyway. Here we stopped, had a coffee and topped off the gas tanks. Temp was about 54 at this time.
No filters, no recoloring, just Mother Nature at it's glory this morning.
Even the weeds are pretty this spring. Those yellow flowers are not planted by man, it's not a crop to be harvested, but a wild clover. Makes a sea of yellow.
One of the TN back roads on our way from Vonore to Tellico Plains. Like riding through a tunnel of trees.
The covered bridge crosses a river and is the entrance to a resort. Very pretty construction and serves a useful purpose at the same time.
We seemed to follow along streams of one size or another for a lot of this morning's journey. The sunlight reflecting off the water was really bright.
A little farther along another river and up a few miles it had ripples of small rapids as it raced down the mountain.
Changing in elevation was very noticeable. In the valley Spring is here and a lot of the shrubs/trees have lost their blossoms and are now full of leaves. Climbing higher on the mountain you could see trees just starting to put on their summer leaves.
At this pull out you can see the valley below from which we came. At or about 4,000' elevation it looked like winter with the trees still bare of leaves.
A real nice "sweeper" along the Cherohala Skyway.
At higher elevations you get a good look at the ripple effect of the mountains. Just row after row pushed up like pleats in a piece of material.
Paul remembered a grave along the route of "an unknown man killed by the Kirkland Bushwackers". It seems that shortly after the Civil War this route was known to have roaming bands of robbers and the Kirklands were some of the worse.
History goes on to tell that the man had a very pretty horse and the Kirklands wanted it. Thus the man's demise, the loss of his horse, and now a gravestone marks his final resting place.
This lone puffy white cloud was practically standing still as we were riding through the area. I kept waiting to see if there would be more as that would mean the Cherokee's were on the warpath.
Dead? No, just still winter here at 4,000' elevation. Will have about two or three more weeks before they turn green.
Paul, a.k.a., Scooter Trash, Randy and Sweet Thang on the edge of Cherohala Lake.
And here's the Money Shot, Sweet Thang by the lake.
Santeetlah Lake from a distance.
After cruising around Santeetlah Lake we came to Fontana Village, NC. This is a rather large resort area and is on Fontana Lake. It is also an area where car clubs and bike clubs hold rallies. The white tents are vendor tents going up for a Mini Cooper rally this weekend. Lots of cabins can be rented for vacationing.
No, that's not a UFO, it's a power line marker so that if aircraft decide to fly over the lake they won't get tangled up in the electric power transmission wires. Hopefully they won't be trying to land at night.
After Fontana Village we stopped off at Deal's Gap, NC, the starting point of The Tail of The Dragon on the NC side of the mountains. This photo was shot shortly after we left Deal's Gap. Stay tuned to FB for a video of the 11 mile ride consisting of 318 curves. Not much time to take pictures while riding The Dragon as you need both hands on the handlebars flipping from one curve to the next.
When the major portion of The Dragon ends and the road flattens out you will be riding along the side of Chilhowee Lake which is rather large and long.
We're still on U.S. 129 but heading north to take an exit onto the Foothills Parkway.
You can notice from the pictures that the clouds are moving in. A nice shot of them, a pine tree and Chilhowee Lake.
Rows of clouds or close flying planes and their contrails. It's really just the clouds. Shows how the air currents at high elevations move them around.
Finally we hit the Foothills Parkway. There are actually two Foothills Parkways in TN. This one goes between U.S. 129 and U.S. 321. The other one is northeast of Sevierville and runs between U.S. 321 and I-40 toward Asheville, NC.
We dropped Randy off just north of Maryville as he lives in Knoxville and Paul and I continued on to Seymour, stopping off at a convenience store to gas up and drop in next door at McDonald's for a $1.00 cone of ice cream. The end of the ride always warrants a treat. Ending temp was 68. Have to make sure you dress in layers in the Spring and Fall as the start offs are cool and it warms up during the day. Peel off a layer or so to keep body cool as the temp rises.
Two great guys to ride with, two great roads to ride on and a heck of a day for a bike ride. Couldn't have asked for more. Total mileage door to door, 204 miles. Total amount of fun, unexpressable. So until the next Valkyrie Adventure, live life fully but remember, at the end you have to pay your dues. Love your family, enjoy your country, and love your friends.
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