Tn al ga sc nc

[kerrfunk]

Howdy yall

Wednesday Oct 17 I travel from Huntington WV to Knoxville TN, where I am staying with a friend for two nights.
I do not yet have Tennessee on my motorcycle map. +1

Thursday Oct 18 I travel from Knoxville to Chattanooga, to see Ruby Falls.
While in the Chattanooga area I will cross the border into GA (+1) and into AL (+1)
I'll return to Knoxville for the night.

Friday Oct 19 I travel from Knoxville to Statesville, NC (+1), where I will spend the night at an airbnb.
Along the way I'll pass through Greenville, SC (+1). I plan to ride the Tail of the Dragon Friday morning.

That's five states I'm adding, bringing me up to 18.

Saturday Oct 20 I take the Ride Like A Pro course for the third time. The first two times were in 2009 ish and 2011 ish, in New Jersey. This one is in Mocksville NC. And it's going to be raining, woo-hoo.

After the course I ride back home to Huntington WV.

I'm looking at north of 1,200 miles over the four day trip.

I'm excited!

 

[portdave]

That sounds awesome. Have a great time.

 

[cowboyup3371]

That will be a nice ride for sure; enjoy the time

 

[Redman]

Sounds Great, Kerry.

Four days out on the bike.

Do post updates.
Do give a report of the riding class.

.

 

[Baatfam]

Sounds like great fun...

If you have a free 60-120 minutes in Knoxville, let me know. Maybe we can meet up for lunch or something.

 

[kerrfunk]

Here's a map of Day One. https://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/fullscreen/2288565223/

Sixty degrees and full blue skies. I rode from noon to 8pm.
TN 66 approaching Rogersville from the west was the best stretch of road!

Thanks for the offer, Bob. It'd be cool, but a daytrip to Chattanooga just leaves time for supper with my host.

I'll post again Thursday night. Supposed to be lovely weather again.

 

[storm 64]

Looks like a fun ride. I particularly like your "Map my run" app. I need to look into something like that. Enjoy the rest of your journey.

 

[Baatfam]

Thanks for the offer, Bob. It'd be cool, but a daytrip to Chattanooga just leaves time for supper with my host.

No problem, totally understand.

Looks like you are staying down in Maryville, south of the airport. We looked at some houses down that way a couple years ago.

Have a great trip and post pictures.

 

[kerrfunk]

Here's the map of my day, or pretty close to it, anyway. I actually rode about 340 miles Thursday.
https://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/2289667426


I left my friend's home in Maryville TN and got on the road about 8:30. It was a tiny bit chilly but clear and beautiful. I found Ruby Falls cavern easily and bought my ticket at 11am. Access to the cave is by elevator, and then it was a simple and easy tour that just was very nicely done. Decent corny jokes by the tour guide, and the falls are just fascinating. A small waterfall of 145 feet in drop, 330 gallons per minute, with lighting and music. The waterfall cavern was about 150 feet in height, and maybe thirty feet wide and eighty feet long. There were other standard cave features, stalactites and stalagmites and cave bacon and columns. Again, nicely done.


After the tour I hopped on the bike and headed south into Georgia, and then east into Alabama. I went about 15 miles into AL and found a gas station in Flat Rock and had lunch. Turned around, rode back through GA to Chattanooga, and then back to Maryville.


Yesterday I rode in WV and KY and TN, adding TN to my life map.
Today I rode in TN and GA and AL, adding GA and AL to my map.

Friday I will head out to the Dragon's Tail around 9am before it gets busy. Then I'll ride towards Greenville SC (adding another state!) and then to the Charlotte NC area (another state!). I have an airbnb in Statesville NC, and then Saturday's Ride Like A Pro class is in Mocksville NC at 10am.

 

[kerrfunk]

Oh, I have oil leaking somewhere, "spraying" my right ankle. There were literally three drops of oil under the bike when I parked it overnight, and my boot and pantleg are soiled but not soaked.

And it's idling high! Like 2,500 rpm!

Both circumstances are new.

 

[dorkburger]

Glad you?re having a good time.
As far as the oil, two easy checks that I?ve had issues with - oil cap O ring, clutch shaft seal - tied a small rag around mine.

 

[kerrfunk]

So the rest of my trip was great. I told you about Wednesday and Thursday already.

Friday morning I loaded up to head from Maryville TN to Statesville NC.
First thing: the Tail of the Dragon. I liked it, and I think the roads of WV and southeast OH are pretty durn good, too. I think I'd get real tired real quick of the heavy mc culture around the dragon, though. I was glad it wasn't busy at 9:30am Friday. I also liked the photographers along the way, and I'll probably get a print or two just for fun. I think I did well as a rider.

Here's two draft pix from the dragon. Which do you like better?


After the dragon, I headed southeast into South Carolina, and rode probably 20 miles in SC before returning north. The morning was relaxed pace, country roads. Later in the afternoon I stuck to the fourlane, just to get to my destination.
Day three: about 340 miles.

Saturday when I got up it wasn't raining yet, but I knew it was going to rain, so I packed all my stuff in a garbage bag inside my duffel bag, then put the duffel inside another garbage bag and bunjeed it to the bike and rode the 20 miles to the meeting place for Ride Like A Pro.
There were six or seven of us students, plus the instructor Joey Redmon, and an assistant named Steve. Steve had a BMW GS1200 that had a 8.5 gal gas tank. Lord. One guy had a beautiful Indian something or other (it must've been around 15- or 1800 cc. Fully loaded). The other guys all had some kind of HD baggers. I was the only UJM, the only cruiser. I was also the only guy to have taken the class before. The instructor said he was going to keep his eye on me, see if I had the skills I should have after taking the classes I've taken.

I do. He said I kept the skills up. This class was a refresher, but I wanted the practice on a course, and the time with guidance and critique.

The course. We started out with slow friction zone stuff, followed by 15- and then 12- foot weaves, and 24-foot 360s.

My favorite was the offset weave:
We went through a 6-ft "gate". 15-feet forward and about 20 feet to the left was another 6-ft gate. Then 15-feet forward and 20-feet to the right was another gate. Repeat, repeat, repeat. About 8 gates, and we could end in the 24-foot circle.

After we did that a few times he let several of us do the circle simultaneously, even three at a time. That was cool.

Final exercise was U-turns (although my previous instructor called them "tear-drops") and a double-U-turn (see the video link). 24-feet wide.

I enjoyed watching the other guys pick up skills. Most of 'em did, although two let their hesitation get in their heads and they didn't pick up the skills well.

Taking the class once was great.
Taking it twice was even better.
The third time was cake.

It was raining a bit, but that was okay.

The class went from 10am to about 2:30pm, and then I had a 330 mile ride to go. I stuck mostly to the interstate going home. A tiny bit of rain near the end plus some heavy wind.

All in all: four days of riding; each day I rode in three different states; each day I rode about 340 miles. I added five states to my map (gotta update my map!). Total miles: 1,337. I had a great time.


Here's a couple of pix and a 25-sec video

Ride Like A Pro by Kerry Bart, on Flickr

Somewhere along the road in North Carolina


Somewhere else along the road in North Carolina


At a rest stop in Virginia:

 

[IanC]

Sorry I missed you. I live in Maryville.