Coalfield and The Devil's Triangle

Monday, September 28, 2015, 7 a.m.  Don the riding equipment, push out of the garage and fire her up, it's barely daylight and time to ride.  Meeting Paul and Jim (fellow from WI who now resides in FL) for a good ride.  It's a rather warm high 60s start off, humid, and rain on its way.  Meet up point, Weigel's at corner of Boyds Crk. Hwy. and U.S. 441(Chapman Hwy.) for 8 a.m.  I wanted to get there a little earlier so I could scoff up a egg/ham/cheese yeast biscuit and a cup of coffee, decaf stuff.

I had gassed up the afternoon before so all I needed this morning was to take care of myself.  About 7:30 Jim rode up on his Red Goldwing Trike, gassed up and parked next to me.  He then left to grab a bite before take off.

His 2014 model bike already has 37,000 miles on it so he hasn't let it stay parked very long.  He hauls it in a trailer with his wife's trike back and forth from FL to WI.  Says he can't stand those cold winters so he makes it down to FL in late September or early October.




Just before 8 a.m. Paul rode up on his scooter, The White Rat.  He said he felt safer riding it on a potentially wet day than his bike.  And it definitely looked as if we were going to get damp today.

This was a look at the gloomy sky in the direction we were heading.  That dead looking field there is full of soy beans ready for harvesting.  And a week's rain is also predicted.  Won't be good for these beans as they need to be dry to harvest.

For my FB friends, I will be sending you some of the Kudzu on the left and some of that yellow stuff on the fence row on the right for Christmas presents.  You ask why?


Well, the Kudzu will drive you crazy trying to keep it from taking over your estate and that yellow stuff is Golden Rod and will drive your sinuses crazy every day.  And there are fields, I repeat, fields of Golden Rod here this year.

Farther down the road the sky's appearance did not get any better.  In fact, it kept getting darker and the clouds seemed to be getting closer to the ground.  Nah, don't stop yet to put on a rain suit.  Tough it out as it's not raining, yet.

I know it's difficult to see but just right of center and near the trees are two well fed horses.  This area we were riding had a number of horse farms.  Beautiful animals.  Seems to be a lot of Pinto horses in this area of TN.

This was one of the straighter pieces of highway we rode today.  You can notice a bit of color especially in the leaves of the Dogwood trees turning red.  The hardwood tree's leaves are starting to get that yellow/green look.

And let's not forget the leaves that are falling.  On this one lane road when you meet another vehicle you have to remember that wet leaves are to a motorcycle tire as is a banana peel to a shoe sole.  Both are slippery.

Nice rolling hills through the area.  We went South of Seymour and then turned Westward heading over toward Oak Ridge, TN.

Remember, we never travel all the distance on the same highway nor do we always go in the same direction.  A quick turn here and you're on a totally different road, some marked and some not.  And very few have pull-offs.  In fact, very few have a shoulder.

We rode by Melton Dam and Lock which is just Northeast of Oak Ridge.  Oak Ridge is where the Manhattan Project (Atomic Bomb) was made.  This dam is a TVA generating plant as well as a lock for boats.

An ominous sky if I ever saw one.  But beautiful in its on way.

Another turn later shows a light area sort of in our direction but that will change with the next road change.
The point is to go from one place to another taking as many different routes as you can with rarely ever traveling on the same road twice.  That about sums up Paul's riding plans.  It's like giving a kid a crayon and telling it to draw on the wall in every way imaginable.

We have ridden over this area several times but only recently found out we were just feet from a water fall.  Here Jim stands near the edge of the water just above the top of the falls.

Here are the falls which look like a giant sinkhole.  The water drop is about 30 ft., give or take a foot.  Looking at the rock you can see it is in layers which means shale.  There were several large slabs that have one end that has fallen into the pool at the bottom of the falls.

After the falls we continue on westward to go through Coalfield, Petros (where Brushy Mtn. State Prison is located), Fork Mountain, Briceville, Fraterville and Rocky Top.  This is one leg of the Devil's Triangle.  It also goes through a coal region which is now mainly idle as the mining operation has shut down.  Rocky Top is the new name for the town known as Lake City.  Hwy. 116 is a great curvy mountain/valley road.

The highway and scenery are forever changing as you ride the miles.

 

Huge rock walls on one side and next you are running along a stream on the other side.





Hairpin turns are plentiful as you can see in the left picture Jim entering a turn and now he's below me as I start to go into the same turn.

This is a portion of a shut down coal operation.  Now weeds are growing up where coal mining activity once was.  The communities around such facilities become devastated as they rely on the job for existence.  The area quickly becomes a welfare area as there are no other good jobs to be had.

No noise except the birds and the wind.  No movement except the brush and trees in the wind.  No money except what is expended through welfare, and a bleak future for it is miles to the next town and then there's not much there either.  An ever changing industry in an ever changing society.



 

Yes, Fall is coming for there is color
changes to the leaves in places.  And it won't be long before the artist's paint pallet will be covered with a plethora of colors to choose from.

Here you can see the layered rock formations like growth rings on a tree stump.

What it looks like when it
is not raining and what it
looks like when it is raining.

This is a good time of the year to ride as you can sense the feel in the change of the weather, see some changing in the tree leaves, and knowing that soon you'll be putting on extra clothing to make the same run.

There were about a dozen horses in this pasture but only three near the road, two Pintos and one Palomino.

Red red dirt atop these granite and limestone mountains.  Someone needed some dirt so they just scooped it from the bluff.  You could see the teeth marks from the back or trackhoe.

The Little Chapel in The Woodlands.












A pretty farm house with a nice distance from the highway.

A nice blue sky in this area of our trip with some rolling hills along the sides of the roadway.  In many areas they just carve a road out of the side of a mountain/hill leaving some of the houses well below the roadway.  Hate to think about someone losing control and running off the road.





Some sit right below the side of the roadway.  This one is far enough away that it would probably not get damaged.  Some would have a vehicle in the living or bedroom.









The color of this house reminds me of a Dreamcycle, Pinkish Orange ice cream on a stick.  Maybe they are University of TN fans.

Once it was but not it's not.  It would take more than a "little" fixing up to make this a dwelling again.

And we won't even have to get into the subject of fixing up the barn, it's way to far gone.

Two small showers, ugly black clouds, white puffy clouds, blue sky, sunshine, we had almost all of it today.  No sleet, snow or icing nor did we have cold temperatures.  But regardless of the weather, the chance to ride was just too much to turn down.  And what's it doing today?  Raining, all day long.  And probably tomorrow also.

Good friends, a good route and rather decent weather made for a nice day on the wheels.  Hope to make another ride with Jim before he departs for the Sunshine State.  Maybe Thursday.  Paul is already planning the trip.

Door to door for me was 206 miles.  Not bad and was back at the house before 3:00 p.m.  Then ran a couple of errands and was completed by 4:30.  Not a bad day if I do say so.


Until the next Valkyrie Adventure, take a few minutes to mull over how fortunate you are and then thank the Lord for giving you what you have.  Not everyone is as fortunate.  Drive/ride safe, my friends.