Smokey Mountain Ride

We got together with Stu and Froggi Donna today for a motorcycle ride through the beautiful countryside. What a gorgeous day for it ! Temps were in the high 60’s, when we got together for lunch at our place. Linda grilled turkey burgers and veggies, and we had that along with deviled eggs, beans and potato salad. After lunch we jumped on the bikes and headed out. We went up over the mountain and at the overlook, could see Gatlinburg down in the valley. The nearby mountain peak (the highest one in the picture to the left) is about a mile higher, in elevation than Gatlinburg which sits below it. This contrast is the biggest of any town on the east coast. That was pretty impressive.







Lots of folks out on bikes and in their cars taking in the beautiful foliage and great weather. Our route took us  through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, along Little River Road and back Wears Valley Road, which brought us back to the campground. Lots of curves and switchbacks in the roads around here. Not sure I’ve seen a part of the country with such winding roads as around here. We stopped at lots of neat pull offs and overlooks to take in the sights.






Donna bought this little guy at a shop that we stopped at. He became Stu’s backseat driver for the trip home. It was a hand carved bear and he fit so nicely in Stu’s back seat. We all had ice cream at this shop, while we walked around and checked out all of the neat items they had for sale. They had moonshine jelly, which I’ve never seen before. I told my mom about it tonight when I talked to her. She had never heard of it either. It was a clear jelly and didn’t seem very solidified. Hmmm..not sure how that would taste. Reminded me of the fuel you put in tiki torches..(probably tasted like it too…haha)


It was a great day for a ride…especially with new found friends Stu and Donna. Supposed to be cooling off over the next couple of days. Rain in the forecast for tomorrow afternoon. Linda and I want to get back out again on the trike and check out some other roads. Not sure if we’re going to do the Dragon or not….with the stiff turning radius of our trike, it would be a heck of a workout for my arms to do 318 turns in 11 miles. Lots of other great roads to explore.

Bye Bye Bike....

We got a call this afternoon from the insurance guy that he had gone to look at the bike. I thought he was going to go to see it tomorrow but we got the call this afternoon that he had already been there. He said it's totaled. When he told me, it was another one of those surreal, "punch in the stomach" moments that we've had too many of lately. Linda and I have both been riding motorcycles since we were young (I started at 17) and riding was one of the common interests that brought us together. She had purchased this bike just before I met her and oddly during our first in-person chat, when she asked me what would be my ideal bike, I said a Yamaha V-Star Classic and that is the one she had just purchased. We've put in a lot of great rides on this bike and it's a weird loss for us. We are so thankful that we didn't get injured, trying to get it off the road or that it didn't wreck us as it skidded but we're still sad to lose it. We've taken it all over the country these last two years and dang it, we just put a brand new tire on it three days ago. We don't plan on buying another for a while. We're gonna wait to see where our job takes us and how much time we'd have to ride. If our job takes us to large cities (such as where we are now) we wouldn't get a whole lot of riding in. We'll wait and see what happens....

Tomorrow we start work at the Union, NJ location. We are excited. We went in this morning to test out the route, driving time in rush hour traffic and pick up our key. It's a busy site and very large (over 900 units). We found out today that the President of the company will be here next Tuesday for a site visit so we have much to do in a short amount of time. Gonna be a busy couple of weeks !

The hits keep on coming......

Our life lately has been playing out like a bad country song and we're getting really sick of it. First our dog dies, then our septic tank springs a leak and then today, we lose our motorcycle while rolling down I-78 near Newark, NJ. In two years of hauling the bike safely on the lift, all over the country, and now to have this happen. Talk about sheer terror coursing through our veins....

Anytime we stop we always check the bike to make sure the tie-downs for the bike, on the motorcycle lift, are tight. We checked them at our first stop this morning and then just a few minutes down the road we stopped and filled up with fuel but I didn't check them then since we'd just stopped a short while earlier.

We're driving down I-78, approaching the off ramp for Newark, NJ. We had just gone over a bridge and there was a considerable bump going onto the bridge and coming off of it. We'd just gone over the bridge and I hear a grinding noise. I asked Linda what that noise was I was hearing. Simultaneously I looked in the side mirror and I see the bike skidding on the highway behind us, still tethered to the rig by the tie-down straps. I told Linda to stop...the bike had fallen off. Luckily we usually only drive around 58 m.p.h so we quickly pulled off the side of the road and came to a stop. Keep in mind this is a four lane highway and the traffic is just whizzing by. As we pulled off the road, the straps released from the rig and the bike was left laying in the far right lane. As fortune would have it, traffic was able to veer out around us as Linda I ran to the bike laying in the road. We always load the bike with it in gear so it doesn't roll forward or back so consequently, even though we were able to lift the 600# up, we couldn't roll it off the road. Slowing by dragging it and me kicking it into neutral (the gear shifter had gotten severely bent into the side of the engine) we got it off the road and us out of harm's way. Very scary !!

We called our insurance company and was in the process of getting a tow arranged when a state policeman stopped and came up to my window. He asked if we had arranged for towing and said we needed to get off the road ASAP as some horrible things happen along this stretch and we were in harm's way. He said the state police contract with a towing company that has to respond within 10-15 minutes or they lose their contract with them. Our insurance company said that was fine....they could come to wherever the tow company would take the bike. The roll back arrived and I helped the guy roll the bike up the ramp. Once he had it under control, Linda and I continued on to our campground. We were only 10 miles from the campground when all of this happened !

The damage is pretty much isolated to the right side of the bike. Handlebar is bent, right mirror busted, front fender scuffed up, back tail light bent, gear shifter bent really bad into the engine and side of gas tank scuffed up. There could have been so many more worse outcomes to this. If the bike had let loose sooner and gone into the traffic lanes, it could have created a pile-up. We are really thankful that we are safe. The bike can always be replaced....

Making Good Use of Our Time...

We're still in Amissville (a.k.a Abyss-ville).I call it this because our broadband card won't work on our computer and no TV reception. Wow, talk about a dead zone. We are trying to make good use of our down time though. Currently we are sitting in the parking lot waiting for a new back tire to be installed on our motorcycle. After a couple of calls we found a bike place in Culpeper that had the correct tire. Cute name...Culpeper. Makes me think of Barney Fife, Opie and the gang. Figure while we are here in Virginia that it would be cheaper to get a tire put on than it will be just outside of New York city. ya think ? So that is our current task.

I gave up on trying to install the converter box. Without any reception it was hard to tell if I had anything connected correctly or not. I usually leave the tinkering of electronic gadgets to my son. Thank God we don't have a VCR to set or anything too complicated. I just don't understand all those "Video In", "Aux out", plugs and do dads. Must be a guy thing that he knows and better yet, understands what he is doing. I figure since our next stop is a park right outside of New York City, we should be able to pick up all kinds of stations. If we don't I'll take a crack at it again. I have it strapped in and ready to go in the tuner compartment for when I try it again.

Still waiting for the parts for our rig to arrive. Should be here today or tomorrow. When we came back to the rig, we discovered that they have water and 50 amp service available next to us so we are hooked up to power and very comfortable. Just not using the water since we don't want any weight in the grey tank for when they need to strap it up. They haven't strapped it yet but we've cut the vinyl tubing for the guys to use to "soften" where the straps will intersect with the plastic of the tank and eliminate rubbing.

We're in downtown Culpeper now and going to a place called Frost Cafe for lunch. Looks like an old nostalgic place from the outside. We'll see if that is how it really is once we go in. More later....

Fort Morgan, Alabama

Today Linda and I took the motorcycle to Fort Morgan, which is down near Gulf Shores....way out on the tip of the coast. As a coastal fort it was designed to control the main ship channel into Mobile Bay. With its star shape it could put a heavy concentration of artillery fire on an enemy fleet as it approached. There are only a few structures that remain of the 100 structures that existed in its heyday. Construction on the fort began in 1819 and it was completed 15 years later. The fort was even used during WWII but after that was deactivated in 1946.

It was a gorgeous ride out to the Fort, which is 37 miles from our campground. The temps were in the 70's today...blue skies and a light breeze. Since the fort is located on the coast, we walked down to the beach after we toured the fort. This is not a public beach so no groomed white sand....actually there are still washed remnants of recent hurricanes on the beach. As you look off the coast, there are lots and lots of oil platforms as far as you can see.Standing on top of the fort I counted at least 20 platforms that I could see. I wonder how many of them are operational since I know some of them were impacted by the last coastal storm to come through here.
When we left the fort, we headed back towards Summerdale and stopped at the Coleman camping Outlet, The Old Town Pottery store and the Gulf Shore tool store. Had fun looking at gadgets and gizmos in all the different stores we went in. Got home around 5 p.m....
Tomorrow our friends leave so we got to spend a little time with them this evening before they pull out in the morning. We wish them safe and wondrous adventures ahead !!