Daily Journal

Day Ten: Sunday, Aug. 20, 2000

  Today is the day everyone is packing up and heading home. A few fanatics got up and left by 4:00am for the long haul back to Houston, we are not in that group! When we finally get up and emerge from our room, we find that several of the guys have been working on Beth's bike to determine the extent of the damage. Very cool folks! Jack and Dave graciously offer to attempt loading Beth's bike in the back of Jack's truck with his bike. Dave's bike is to be pulled behind in a trailer. I am the lucky soul that gets to do the iron butt run back to Dallas in two days. Dave is wanting to spend the afternoon at the Biltmore but when he finds out that it costs $37 to get in the door... well, he decides it might be better to just load up and leave for home. We manage to get Beth's bike in the truck with Jack's with no problems. Dave decides that he wants to ride some more and that it would be fun for he an I to just meet up with Jack and Beth at our destination. I agree.

  It is pushing 10:30am and the fog is only getting thicker, not thinner. We are told that it clears soon after leaving the area of the Inn. Wrong! Dave and I head down the Parkway back towards US 441. Our plan is to work our way back over to NC 28 and then to cut across on NC 143 to Robbinsville for lunch. We leave the Inn and the fog is so thick we have to crawl along the mountain side at a roaring 20mph. Occasionally I wick it up to 30mph! The road is slick and the fog so thick that it is collecting on everything and getting me wet. I feel all my muscles getting tighter and tighter as I clench the bike between my legs. Going through the tunnels is very eerie. There is no fog in the tunnel, but I cannot see outside the exit of the tunnel. It is just a white wall at the end of the tunnel. Scary.

  I pull over when we reach the turn off for US 215. I am thinking that perhaps if we get down off the mountain the fog might let up a bit like it had yesterday. But after looking at the map for a minute, we decide to go ahead and try to make it to the exit for US 74 and run south to NC 28. The fog lets up a bit when we get going again and I get us up to about 45mph. This is not to bad even though I have all the GIVI luggage on the bike. Dave lets me lead so I can set the pace since I am carrying the heavy load. When we reach the spot where Beth had gone down the evening before, I pull in and we take a break. I have to stop and walk around to loosen up my muscles. It has been raining off and on the last few miles. Did I mention how little I like riding in the rain, and even more so on twisting winding roads with drop offs instead of run offs at the corners? The new front BT 010 tire is great and very confidence inspiring.

  We eventually reach US 74 and start heading for NC 28, the rain is getting more frequent and a little heavier. Now we are riding at about 60mph on a wet highway. I am a little nervous but the bike seems to be handling fine. I just go as smooth as possible with no sudden control inputs. It works pretty well. After a while, we turn off on NC 28 and head north. The first few miles are all a construction zone. No sooner that we hit the construction, the bottom drops out of the clouds. I had been fairly dry under my Tourmaster riding suit until this point. Now water is puddling in my seat and I can feel it all inside my pants. Not fun! The temperature on the Parkway was in the mid sixties, here it is about seventy. Put that with the wet gloves and undies and things get pretty uncomfortable in a hurry. The mud and slime from the construction zone is getting all over the bike. I am not happy.

  We take NC 143 and head west to Robbinsville. Fortunately, this is only a nine mile shot. We make short work of it and pull into the Black Knights Cafe for lunch. Needless to say we get some funny looks from the locals. After lunch as we are getting ready to leave, I grab a glove and wring it out. It drips water everywhere. As I look up I see a lady looking out the window at me and laughing after seeing the water come out of the glove. I am not amused. We are getting ready to make the run across the Cherahola Skyway to Tellico Plains and the elevation reaches more than 5000 ft at points. I grimace in expectation of numb fingers.

  The first 12 miles of 143 heading west out of Robbinsville lead to the Skyway. This stretch of road is pretty twisty and the woods come right up to the asphalt on the side of the road. I take it pretty slow through here because the road is pretty wet and there is gravel in many of the corners. When we reach the Skyway, I open it up and start riding more aggressively. Even though it is still pretty foggy up here, most of the fog seems to be on the sides of the road so visibility is not to bad. Occasionally we have to slow down because of the fog. The scenic overlooks are moot points. So we just keep cruising.

  When we hit the Tennessee border the road becomes Tn 165. As we start to come down off the mountains, the visibility gets very good and the roads become dry. This stretch of road is phenomenal! Even with the full load of luggage, I have the VFR cranked up and hauling through some of the most beautiful clean sweepers you can imagine. I hit the zone on this section of road and smooooth becomes my middle name. I reach the point where I quit thinking on the conscious level about what I am doing and I just flow down the mountain. I cannot describe what a fantastic experience this is. When near the end of the road, I pull over at a stop point next to the river. We are both psyched and it takes us a few minutes to come down off the experience. Dave comments that he is amazed at how I got the VFR through this section of road so well with all the luggage on board. I chalk it up to the bike! We rest for a while, I take some more pictures of the bikes, take a nature break and decide where we want to go next.

  Rather than try to catch a freeway back up to Nashville, we decide to run across the southern portion of the state hoping to see some good scenery and more fun roads. We stay on Tn 68 until we reach Cumberland. From start to finish, 68 is a great road. There are a few straight sections, but not so long you get bored, just enough to let you stretch your legs before the next twisty section.

  At Cumberland we pick up US 70 and run west. There is really nothing spectacular about this road, but nothing bad about it either. Eventually we hit Tn 96 and head for Murfreesboro. This is a very nice town. It is clean, neat and has many nice homes. The place is crawling with law enforcement! We are very careful to go the speed limit at all times hehe. We stop at a place called McAllister's. It is basically an upscale Jason's Deli chain restaurant. But the food is much better!

  We finish our meal and think, "Too bad this is not where we are spending the night!" We still have at least another 150 miles to go to get to Jackson, Tn. We call Jack and Beth to let them know where we are and when to expect us to get to the hotel. They got there at about 5:00pm. It is now 8:00pm. Stuffed and sluggard like, we crawl back onto our bikes and head west again.

  It is now dark and we have to slow down to at least the speed limit. We don't really mind as we are tired and a slower pace is less demanding. Finally, we get to Interstate 40, which runs to Jackson. But we still have 90 miles to go. Now that we are on the open freeway we take off. The traffic is light, so Dave pulls into the left lane, I stay in the right and we both flip on our brights. We crank it up to about 95mph or so and cruise. Oddly enough, about an hour later we arrive in Jackson, tired and numb, but pumped from a great day of riding! All told, 475 miles.

  We find that Jack and Beth have been hitting the frozen drinks of the alcoholic kind. We humor them while they help us get the luggage in to the rooms. I tell Beth about the great ride, take a hot shower and promptly hit the bed and konk out.

  Tomorrow I ride alone. Dave is going to trailer the bike and ride in the air conditioned truck with Beth and Jack, weenie! Dallas is just over 600 miles from Jackson. Did I mention that it has been getting steadily hotter the farther west we come? Oh man....


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