Rides

Two Fathers And Three States

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Chris

Don’t let The Tail Of The Dragon get you!

Yesterday, here in the U.S. it was Father’s Day.  My friend Sean and I (the two fathers) wanted to go for a ride.  We didn’t want a short ride like a few weeks ago where we rode to lunch and then a short ride back home.  We wanted a real ride!   Sean planned a ride that would ultimately take us to Deal’s Gap and it’s 11 mile stretch of road known as The Tail Of The Dragon.  Sean’s wife, Christine had never been there so that was the reason for our destination.  We also wanted to ride some of the other roads in the area too.  Sean planned out a route that would take us from home in Georgia on up into Tennessee and into North Carolina (the 3 states) before returning home.  We met at Sean & Christine’s house early that morning for a hearty breakfast before the four of us (Donna & me and Sean & Christine) got on the road.  Sean’s route took us from Woodstock, Georgia on up the road to exotic places like Blue Ridge, Copperhill, Duck Town and then a stop in Tellico Plains where The Cherohala Skyway begins.  While at our stop in Tellico Plains we met a couple who was on a beautiful orange Harley Davidson Road Glide.  He asked me how to get to the Cherohala Skyway and I told him “Just turn right out of the parking lot.”  He asked “And then what?”  I pointed to the brown sign right up the road and told him the Skyway began right there.  We had a good laugh and we all looked at each other’s motorcycles and asked questions.  We got back on our motorcycles and headed for the brown sign but instead of taking the Skyway we made a left onto TN HWY 360 and headed for Vonore, TN and from there US 129 and The Tail Of The Dragon (sounds scary, doesn’t it?).  If you’re not familiar with that stretch of road, it boasts 318 curves in 11 miles.  Quite a number of the curves are sharp, hairpins and switchbacks.  You have to really pay attention on this road.  The road is not dangerous if you stick to the speed limit and stay in your lane.  The problem is that many riders go up there and treat the road like it’s their personal racetrack and then get upset when people get in their way.  The trick to riding it on a motorcycle like our BMW K1200LT is lower gears and high revs so you can really lean into the curves.  Now let me vent a bit.  If this kind of road scares you then stay off it.  We were part of a parade of motorcycles that was behind 2 cars with Illinois plates who were driving at the speed limit and often well below it.  When they’d come up to the roadside photographers they’d nearly stop!  They passed nearly every paved pull-off without using them until nearly the end of the road.  But I guess if I had my choice I’d rather have them being cautious and staying in their own lane than exceeding their abilities and crossing over into oncoming traffic, which is a common occurence up there.  I’d also prefer them at the speed limit instead of the speeding sport bikes using the public roadway as a private raceway.  Vent over.

Once we rode The Tail Of The Dragon, we stopped in at the Deal’s Gap Resort/Store/Cafe to look around, mainly at the people show and motorcycles.  Up in the cafe it look like a casting call for extras for the Sons of Anarchy!  We looked around and took some pictures before we got back on the motorcycles and headed for Robbinsville, NC using NC HWY 28 instead of US 129.  I will have to say that on this day, NC 28 was the much better ride than The Tail Of The Dragon.  There was very little traffic on it’s up and down twists and curves.  It was very fun.  In fact there were a number of times that I not only scraped the side stand and center stand but went even further and scraped my foot pegs!  WOOHOO!  When we made it to Robbinsville Christine said that even in front of us she heard the scraping!  We headed onto into Robbinsville for a late lunch at a Mexican restaurant the Donna and I have eaten at a few times.  We pulled into the lot and saw the orange Road Glide from Tellico Plains in the lot!  They had come across the Cherohala Skyway and found the same place to eat.  We chatted with them a bit inside and then outside again as we all left after eating lunch.  Our Day was now getting late so it was time to tell the GPS to find the quickest way home which took us through Andrews and Murphy North Carolina and then into north Georgia for home.

Our little ride took us 331 miles from Sean and Christine’s house (for us add the 12 miles from our house to theirs) and into 3 states.  Most of our riding was on two lane state highways and a few 4 lane state and U.S. highways.  It was a really good day to be out riding and I slept real good that night!

I tried out a new picture layout.  If you point at the picture you’ll see the caption for it.  If you click on the picture it will open it up to full size.

North of Copperhill, TN headed for Tellico Plains, TN.
The Magic Carpet and The Road Runner at Deal’s Gap.
Part of the parking lot at Deal’s Gap.
Sean, Christine, Chris & Donna (L-R) at Deal’s Gap.
Our GPS track for the day.
Around Andrews, NC while headed home.
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We Needed This Ride!

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Chris

Donna and I went on our first two-up ride in well over a month today.  With everything that’s been going on and trips to Florida we needed to just get out and ride for fun.  My Blue Knights Chapter was going to ride and go to lunch at Bigun’s Barbeque in Talking Rock, GA.  But they were meeting over near Cumming, GA.  Sean, who lives much closer to us wanted to meet somewhere closer to home and we’d ride up on our own and meet the rest of the Chapter at the restaurant.

Donna remembered how to climb onto the back of the motorcycle and off we went.  It was good having her back there again.  Sean led us on a nice ride up to the restaurant.  Our ride took us all the way up East Cherokee DR.  A nice curvy portion had just been paved (the equipment was still parked off the road) so it had that nice new, smooth and “grippy” asphalt.  It was fun!  We did meet the rest of the group when they arrived at the restaurant behind us.  The barbeque wasn’t all that impressive but it was more about being with friends.  Man, we needed that ride!

The Magic Carpet and its often riding partner The Roadrunner at Bigun’s Barbeque.

 

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A GPS Page

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Chris

We’ve added a new page to the blog!  It’s a page that contains some of the rides we’ve taken and they’re in GPS format so that you can download them if you like.  You can download them even if you just want a closer look at the route!  The files are in GPX (GPS exchange) format to make them compatible with as many GPS units as possible.  You find the page by clicking on the tab for “GPS File” in the menu above and to the right or you can just follow this link.

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A Mother’s Day Ride

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Chris

Yesterday was Mother’s Day here in the US.  Donna and her sister took their Mom to lunch and then Donna had to work later that afternoon.  I called my Mom who lives in another state.  But what did I do on Mother’s Day?  Why I went for a motorcycle ride!  Now some may think this unusual but Donna has even requested to that before on Mother’s Day and birthdays.  I guess I’m one lucky guy.

My Blue Knights Chapter had to cancel a ride the day before because of a forecast of a high probability of thunderstorms.  Those thunderstorms never materialized.  But there’s an old aviation saying about cancelling a flight that can be compared to motorcycling, “It’s better to be down here wishing you were up there than to be up there wishing you were down here.”  So on Sunday a friend, Sean, and I went for a ride.  We were going to pre-ride a route for an upcoming Blue Knights ride.  We met in Jasper, GA under a nearly cloudless blue sky with temperatures already warming into the mid 60′s.  We took off and headed for Talking Rock before heading up over Burnt Mountain on GA HWY 136.  I don’t know what it is about Burnt Mountain but it’s always significantly cooler up there.  Along the top, the temperature dropped down to 51 and when Donna and I were up there about 2 months ago there was snow on the side of the road when the mountain tops in the area hadn’t seen snow for over a week!  We headed on through Dahlonega passing Rider’s Hill and making the turn at the Rock Mound for Turner’s Corner and US HWY 129.  Turner’s Corner wouldn’t be our lunch stop today as we were going to have BBQ in Blairsville.  But now it’s time to vent.  Some people shouldn’t ride motorcycles.  Or if they do, they should pull over and let the line of cars and motorcycles pass them.  On US 19/GA 9, between GA 60 and US 129 we got stuck behind a couple on a Kawasaki Vulcan cruiser, a “Harley-A-Like” bagger.  He had highway pegs mounted high up on his crash bars. He had the pegs angled so his feet pointed to the sides of the road.  This guy literally looked like he could’ve been at the gynecologist’s office for an exam!  That was just to paint a picture.  He would go along at 45 mph or higher; until he reached a curve.  When he reached a curve his brake light would come on and he would slow dramatically.  Come out of the curve and he’s speed up until the next curve and repeat it again.  The entire stretch of road is probably a no passing zone and there was car between us, so I didn’t pass them.  Then I noticed (because I had nothing better to do while creeping along) that when he would brake in the curves that his feet were still up on those highway pegs!  He was braking hard using only his front brake in curves.  When we got to US 129 to go up and over Blood Mountain, this guy on his Kawasaki sadly turned left.  Great, now we were going to be behind him on a really curvy road!  He started his routine all over again.  But luckily, it wasn’t long before we got two lanes on our side of the road with a nice sign that reads “Keep Right Except To Pass”.  So I drop to 4th gear, pull out into the left lane give the gas; good.  I wanted to pass this guy as quickly as we could!  Then to my amazement as I’m parallel to him, he begins changing lanes into me in a curve to the left.  I saw the shock and panic on his face.  I’m sure that if I had hit my horn he would’ve wrecked.  But we put him in our rear view mirrors.  It wasn’t until we stopped for lunch that Sean told me how close that Kawasaki had gotten to me.  Since Sean and I were both riding solo, we rode a bit more “spirited” than if our wives were with us.  The BMW K1200LT is an 850 pound touring motorcycle can that do a pretty good impersonation of a sport bike at times.  We got to a nice sweeping, angled and sharp right curve and I was really leaning into to it, “motor officer style”.  That means pushing the bike over while your body is upright.  Suddenly I felt my right foot peg scraping the road!  I guess I was leaning a bit far!  Usually when riding 2 up and we’re leaning like that, the side stand on the left or the center stand on the right will scrape first as a warning.  I didn’t get that warning being solo and it surprised me a bit.  I got to thinking later and realized that those foot pegs are pretty high off the ground to begin with.  In the same spot Sean drug the right floorboard of his Victory Cross County Tour through the whole curve.  We had a really good time going up and over the mountain.  If you’ve been in the area you know what a well maintained, curvy and fun road US 129 over Blood Mountain can be.  We stopped for lunch in Blairsville before getting back on the motorcycles and taking a more sedate and leisurely route home.  As we were getting ready to leave the BBQ restaurant, a group of 5 Triumph motorcycles pulled in just in time to take our parking spots as the lot was full.  I even made it back home in time to kiss Donna before she headed off for work.  But I did cook her a dinner she wanted when she got home.  Now Donna wants to go for a ride because it’s been a while.  Where should we go………..

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Were Those Snowflakes?

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Chris

Today was my monthly Blue Knights lunch and meeting.  This month it was held at Poole’s Real Pit BBQ in Ellijay, Georgia.  Our Chapter Officers hatched an idea to have 2 different groups ride to Jasper, GA where we met and then ride on up to the restaurant in Ellijay.  The forecast was decidedly chilly, being in the mid 30′s for the ride up.  Three of us rode up from Woodstock to Jasper where we met eight more motorcycles and members.  We met a few members at the restaurant who went ahead and rode up in their cars.  The plan was that after the meeting our Vice President would lead a ride across Fort Mountain from Ellijay to Chatsworth and then on south towards most of our homes.  We thought we had a total of three members who decided to go on the ride and then it dwindled down to just two of us.  As we were preparing to leave, I asked “Were those snowflakes?”  Sure enough they were.  A slight chance of snow flurries was in the forecast had come true.  Sean and I headed across the mountain where the temperature did drop to 31 degrees for a while as we rode through more snow flurries.  Nothing stuck to the ground, the motorcycles or us and the road never got wet.  It was fun seeing the snow while riding though and Sean and I had fun, both making it back home by mid afternoon.

One thing I tried out on this ride was using my Window Phone with the Scala Rider Teamset Pro.  I previously had an older Windows Mobile phone that I used easily with it to make and receive short calls by voice.  But my Windows Phone 7.5 has the ability to read me text messages via Bluetooth and even let me reply.  So, I sent Donna a text message before we left.  She replied and when the intercom gave me the choice to “ignore or read” I said “read” and it read me the message.  I then said the “reply” option and spoke my reply and told it to send it.  I’m not sure if I’d use this a lot but it’s nice to know that I can when I don’t have the Scala Rider paired with the GPS.

The video below is of members leaving the restaurant after our meeting.

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Santa Rode Up On A Beemer

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Chris

Or actually a few Beemers!

Today was the BMW Motorcycle Club of Georgia’s 10th annual toy ride and the beneficiary was the Towns County Sheriff’s Office Empty Stocking Fund as it has been the past few years.  The club collects toys at the two Atlanta area BMW Motorcycle Dealers, BMW Motorcycles of Atlanta and Blue Moon Cycle and then transports them by van to the Sheriff’s Office just before Christmas.  Then beginning on Christmas Eve, the Deputies begin delivering toys.  While the toy box was full, the actual number of riders to deliver the toys was down a bit, probably due to the heavy rain and wind that was moving into the area.  We’ve made this ride before with more than 50 motorcycles!  The riders will head for Hiawassee, Georgia followed by the van full of toys.  It’s always a fun and rewarding ride.  And yes it did rain!

The full toy box.

 

The toy delivery vehicle.

 

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70,000 Miles And A Great Ride With Friends

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Chris

The Magic Carpet reached a minor milestone today.  While in Dahlonega, GA and returning home from a ride with friends the Magic Carpet’s odometer reached and passed 70,000 miles.  No, I didn’t ride 70,000 with friends today!

My Blue Knights Chapter held a “Hooky Ride” today and 5 of us met and rode some crooked north Georgia roads and then stopped in at the Batesville General Store for lunch before heading home.  A “Hooky Ride” is a weekday ride where you take the day off or are already off from work.  Well almost everybody as two of us today were retirees.  We did run into an issue on Georgia HWY 17 though.  Just as we were ascending the mountain and the road was getting twisty we found that a truck or a motor home had leaked a nice trail of diesel fuel all the way up the mountain in the curves.  This was not fun as diesel fuel is basically oil, doesn’t evaporate quickly like gasoline and is very slippery.  Luckily none of slipped and went down.  It was a great day to get out and ride 200 miles with some friends and then watch the odometer roll over to 70000!

 

The Magic Carpet came home with 70,072 miles on the odometer today.

Categories: General, Rides | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

At Least It Didn’t Snow

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Chris

We spent the weekend with my Blue Knights Chapter on an overnight trip to the Iron Horse Motorcycle Lodge in Stecoah, NC.  We had 8 motorcycles and on car make the trip for a total of 13 people.  For us it was a 359 mile trip this weekend.

We left Canton, Ga on a cool Saturday morning and headed for the Iron Horse.  Along the way while going through Andrews, NC we saw the clouds and fog “spilling” into the valley and between the mountains.  We made it to our lunch stop at the River’s End Restaurant at the Nantahala Outdoor Center.  After lunch it was a short ride to Iron Horse where we spent the afternoon on the deck for some of our rooms just sitting around and swapping stories.  There may have been a few adult beverages consumed too.  Donna made some seasoned oyster crackers that seemed to be a real hit.  If you eat dinner at the Iron Horse on Saturday night you have only 2 choices; prime rib or salmon.  After that dinner it was time to sit around the communal campfire with other guests where there was a lively discussion about what the right around the moon meant.  The Saturday night temperature was forecast to drop to 47 degrees in the valley there in Stecoah along with the chance of drizzle or a rain shower.  I woke in the middle of the night and checked and it hadn’t rained but the temperature was 43 degrees.  On Sunday we enjoyed the “Biker’s Breakfast” before packing up to head home in the cool mountain air.  Just as we were getting ready to leave, it started raining.  The rain was something that wasn’t forecast.  We waited for the rain to quit or let up before leaving but it became apparent that it wasn’t going to happen.  It started to rain again just as we left.  We spent the first half our trip home riding in 45 degree temperatures and rain.  It made for a chilly ride.  Let’s say too that the heated seats and the heated grips got a good workout too.  You wouldn’t believe what a difference a warm butt and warm hands make in that kind of weather.  The riding jackets and pants with rainguard liners really were worth their weight in gold too.

We came home on different route than usual too as we knew the Cherohala Skyway would be in rain and quite cold.  Once in Andrew’s, NC we worked out way to “old” US Highway 64 and Young Harris, Ga.  It it wasn’t raining, it would’ve been a much better ride.
In spite of the cold and wet ride home, we had a great ride and a great weekend with friends!

Donna & I at a rainy & cold pit stop in Andrews, NC on the way home Sunday afternoon.

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A Great Autumn Day To Ride With New Friends

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Chris

A while back I met a local member of BMWLT.COM who had a repair need and was asking questions on the forum.  When we met we did what most motorcyclists do and talked of getting together for a ride sometime.

Today was that day.  Donna and I met Mike and Carol and we headed up to northern Georgia for a short ride.  The weather and the company was great.  We had a cloudless blue sky and temperatures just above 60 degrees.  Mother Nature is also in the middle of putting on her annual show of the changing leaves.  There was a collage of red, gold, yellow and brown in the trees along the road and in the mountains in the distance.  To break up the ride a bit, we stopped for lunch at the Dawsonville Pool Room before heading back for home.  Out in the parking lot there was a bloodhound in the back of parked pick up truck and he howled every time a Harley Davidson started up!

The only negative to the day was a GPS issue.  I mapped out a couple of routes using Garmin’s BaseCamp and sent them to the GPS.  When we left, I got the normal on-screen message of “Would you like to navigate to the start of this route?” and punched “Yes”.  Of course the GPS wanted us to use the highway but I wanted to go a different way to the beginning of the route.  Of course the GPS kept “recalculating” because it wanted us to go a different way.  But then, even when we were on the route, it started trying to re-route us!  It appeared that it kept wanting us to go back to the start of the route.  This is now the second time I’ve had this problem using BaseCamp and have never had this happen when creating routes with MapSource.  One thing I’ve noticed is that when you click on an intersection with BaseCamp is that it usually selects a business at the intersection and not the intersection like MapSource does.  I tried using BaseCamp but it looks like I’m going back to MapSource.

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In The Blue Knights It Really Is “There are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met.”

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Chris

A friend of ours, Sean called me last week and told that there was a Blue Knight from England Chapter VIII who was touring the US on his Honda Goldwing with his wife.  Sean and I are also Blue Knights.  The motto of the Blue Knights is ”There are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met.”

Doug has recently retired as a police officer in England where he was a canine officer.  He and his wife, Sandra,  had their Honda Goldwing shipped to the United States and are on a 12 week tour of the US.  Their trip actually started in Calgary, Canada before they entered the US and they’re currently in about week 10 of their trip.  On Sunday Doug and Sandra were scheduled to be in Canton, Ga for the night before heading up to Robbinsville, NC on Monday.  While in NC they planned on riding The Tail Of The Dragon, The Cherohala Skyway and visiting Tennessee before heading to the Blue Ridge Parkway where they’d head north, ultimately going back into Canada from New York.

On Sunday night Donna and I along with Sean and his wife Christine met Doug and Sandra at a BBQ restaurant in Canton.  It was like we all knew each other!  We dined, laughed and heard stories about the their amazing trip.  Here’s where being retired is yet another advantage.  Donna and I made plans to ride with Doug and Sandra the next day on their way to Robbinsville.  Why not show another retired police officer who was passing through the area some nice roads to ride?

On Monday we met for breakfast before heading out on the road.  I had a couple of routes in mind to get us up to Blairsville, Ga where we’d say our goodbyes and then send Doug and Sandra  on to Robbinsville.  Doug was kidding when he said he had his Goldwing loaded down!  I made the decision to eliminate the rides with the really crooked and twisty roads.  We spent a great morning riding up Highway 5 from Canton, through Ballground and Nelson before making the turn on Georgia HWY 53 headed towards Dawsonville.  We went through Tate and Marble Hill before making the turn north headed for Georgia HWY 52 which we’d take back out to Highway 515 in Ellijay and then headed for Blairsville.  In Blairsville we chatted some more, said our goodbyes and watched them head up US 129 for North Carolina and the rest of their trip.  Later that afternoon they were already at the Two Wheel Inn and sharing more pictures on Facebook!

There are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met.

Categories: General, Rides | Tags: , | 5 Comments

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