Spring Ride to Shady Valley, TN

Saturday morning I turned off the alarm clock, donned my winter/summer riding clothes, pushed Sweet Thang out of the garage into a low 40s crisp beautiful morning.  This morning I was to meet up with Dan "Big Dan" Harvey and others at the 407 Exit McDonald's for a leisure trip to Shady Valley.  Sweet Thang has just gotten out of the shop after having a new water pump installed so this would be a crazy way to do a shakedown ride.  However, who said that I was totally sane anyway.

The morning view from the house at 7:40 a.m.

Passing my old School House on Boyds Creek heading for the meet up.

Nine bikes total with two Ladies and 7 hairy legged old men pulled out for a day of fun.  The temp was to get up into the 80s by mid afternoon and they did.

East TN does not lack a church to go to if you're interested.  All sizes, shapes, colors and denominations.  Choosing one is not difficult.

We wriggled our way through some good back roads and finally hit a nice run up into Green County, known for its delicious tomatoes.  Fields are being prepared for planting, however, Mother Nature can't decide if it's Winter, Spring or Summer yet.

Tomato hot houses used for starting the plants later to continue growing in there through the late Fall.

We skirted along the edge of Cherokee Lake on our way up.  Just a tad low.  Must be drawing down for repairs.  It's not due to the lack of rain around here.

I'm sure going to miss these old steel structure bridges.  They are slowly replacing them with the newer concrete bridges.  Lattice work is a lot prettier than scuffed up concrete.

The first break of the morning.  Pit stop, coffee stop and Bulldedeaux Stop.  Dan's wife, Janet, rides behind him and when not asleep, takes pictures of the group and places.

After the break we're off and running for the mountains just below the VA line.  In fact, we will pass near the Bristol Speedway.  It's quiet there today.

The Bradford Pear trees near home have mostly lost their blooms and now have green leaves.  Up here, about 100 miles north they are still blooming.

Rolling hills and mountains in the distance.  Nice big farms and ranches in this area of TN.

Did I mention that the Pear Trees were in bloom?

An old railroad bridge crossing a river.  Getting old, can't remember the name of the river.  But it has water flowing anyway.

 Never get tired of this scenery.  Country roads, mountains and plenty to look at.











Crossing another river.

Some of the group is ahead of me and these are some that are following.  We had a mixture of bikes, HDs, Indians, Honda, Ducati, Victory, 

A nice scenic river setting.  You can almost picture a canoe slowly riding the current.

I caption this pic "Keep TN Clean".  Some places are really in need of TLC.

This ride involves a lot of curves.  In fact, it could be listed as a serpent ride.  One road was "The Snake", one section "The Rattler" and a lot of areas were as crooked as a snake's trail.  But all were a lot of fun.

A nice sweeping curve.  You can just lay into your groove and hang there as the curve is a continuous curve but always be prepared for a change.

There are some really nice homesteads in this area.  Big pastures and fields.  The tractors used here are a lot larger than those around where I live.

One of the many old farm homes in the area.

With the various lakes and rivers there seems to be no lack of RV Parks or boat launching areas.

Remember, I said some of the road were as crooked as a snakes trail.  Well, this is just a better stretch of that kind of road.

It's still winter in this area.  No green, just gray.

Riding alongside Lake Wautauga.  It is a reservoir for another lake that has a hydro-electric plant.

One of the many marinas around the lake.

And Spring has sprung.  This is a beautiful Cherry Tree in full bloom.

A simple but pretty old farm house.

Lots of soil up in this area.  Where I live the soil is red clay and rock.  Here it is really a nice loamy soil, good for growing.

A curved bridge.  Now the new section of the Foothills Parkway has a lot of bridges that are curved and that hang off the side of the mountain.  Will have to do a story on that area soon.

Nice pasture for some grazing horses.

Pretty Spring flowers alongside the highway.

And the flowers seem to come in all colors, these are very vivid.

As with most rides, they come to an end.  We've had great weather with great friendship, great food and a great country to travel.  Here on the bike the world's problems seem to disappear but sadly it's not that simple.

So if possible, stay positive and believe me that is somewhat difficult to do.  But well worth a try.  So until the next Valkyrie Adventure, be thankful of what you have.  You could lose it.