Day Seven: Thursday, Aug. 17, 2000
Beth decided the night before that she wanted to go riding with me and the other Triumph folks rather than go to the Biltmore. So bright and early, actually very foggy and early, Beth and I saddle up and head for the Parkway. It is about 7:15pm, cold, damp, and foggy. We head south on US 276 out of Waynesville. It is hard to see due to the condensation build up on the helmet visors. So we go slow and soon it begins to clear as we move farther south.
Highway 276 wanders along the bottom of the valley and then climbs up the side of the mountains to meet up with the Parkway. There are all sorts of small farms growing tobacco, tomatoes, corn, and other assorted veggies. Everything is coated in a fine film of dew, including the road. The sunlight coming in over the mountain causes everything to glimmer and sparkle. It is really quite serene. Once the climb up the mountainside starts, the road becomes very twisty and fun. No brakes here, just roll on, roll off, roll on, roll off, up and up. My ears are popping as we gain altitude. I do have to be extra attentive because there is lots of loose gravel in the corners. Soon we reach the top and find the Parkway and begin our run east to the Pisgah Inn where the Triumph folks are staying. The view from above the fog shrouded valleys is very serene and peaceful. Unfortunately, I did not have time to stop and take any pictures.
After a few fun minutes we roll into the parking lot of the Inn. We find every one in the restaurant waiting for their breakfast so we decide to eat too. The restaurant has floor to ceiling windows that look out over the valleys below. I think the elevation here is somewhere around 5500 feet. We do all the introductions and the Triumph guys decide what route we are going to run. Beth and I are just going with the flow today. Eric Sheley is the guy that seems to be in charge of the actual rally. That is tomorrow. These are the guys that came a day early to get in more riding. True diehards! I can tell already I am gonna like these guys. They are Jack Hays, David Viosca, Mark Hanke, and Ken Pickett.
They decide to make the westward run of the Parkway back to Cherokee at the US 441 Parkway junction. That is the stretch we had just completed when we met these guys yesterday, IT ROCKS! Mark mentions that they are going to make a brief detour on US 23 to visit with his Dad for a few minutes. Then we will head up US 441 to the other side of the Smokies and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. From there we are going to cut over east on US 321 and I quit paying attention after that. I warn them that we had done the US 441 route the day before and the traffic was horrendous, nice road and all, but not when you are sucking exhaust fumes and overheated brake pad odors. They nod and decide to go there anyway. Oh well.
After breakfast everyone migrates to the parking lot to get ready. A few folks gas up their bikes and then we are on our way. There are seven of us, five Sprint ST's, Beth's Legend and me on my Jap bike hehe. Beth rides ahead of me, third from the last, I am second to last and my new friend Jack Hays is bringing up the rear. A few miles down the road we make a quick stop at the scenic overlook that is the highest point on the Parkway, somewhere just a hair over 6000 feet. I take pictures of all the pretty bikes. One in particular is quite nice, Eric's. He has a red ST and he had someone paint a beautiful Union Jack flag on the entire side of the bike on each side. The quality and finish is excellent. Everywhere he stops, a crowd soon forms around the bike. Very nice! Dave Viosca's bike is also really sharp looking. The chromed rims and underseat exhaust are a fantastic touch. I'd like to have the exhaust on my bike! But for $1300 I'll have to pass.
Once again I am awed by the scenery and have to take another tree picture. You can see now why this place is called the Smokey Mountains. And now we finally find out why we are seeing so many dead trees. A few of the other guys take some pictures and then we head back out on the Parkway in the same order as earlier.
A few miles down the road I notice that Jack is no longer bringing up the rear. We had just come through a series of fairly tight corners. So I slowed to see if he would appear soon. He didn't. I told Beth to continue on with the group and I would wait for him, then she could tell them we were coming at the next stop. I pull over into one of the many scenic overlooks to wait. About the time I am getting ready to turn back to look for him, Jack comes around the corner, much to my relief. He pulls up next to me and informs me that he just had a very personal encounter with a bee in his private area, OUCH! He had to stop to dislodge the stinger but is fine now. So we take off to catch the rest of the group with me leading the way.
One way to describe the Parkway is to call it a motorcyclist's wet dream. I run in 2nd and 3rd gear keeping the revs around 6000 to 10000 rpm and no braking. This puts me and Jack clipping along at around 60-70mph, occasionally slowing for the really sharp turns. We are having a blast, but we never see the group at any of the overlooks waiting for us. So we just keep going... all the way to US 441 and the end of the Parkway, still no sign of the rest of the group. Jack and I check the information station just up the road on 441. While I wait there, chatting with tourists about the bikes, Jack runs back to Cherokee just down the road to see if they stopped for gas. He comes back and reports no luck. We know they are coming this way so we figure even if we passed them without seeing them, they should be along any time and we'll see them then. No luck. Finally we decide to gas up and just head back to the Inn. Having had so much fun ripping along the Parkway with just the two of us, the prospect of doing it again is very appealing. We get about five or six miles up the road and guess who comes steaming by the other way? The rest of the group. It seems that they pulled off at US 23 to see Mark's dad... oh yeah! I forgot about that part of the plan hehe. But they did not wait for us at the turn off, instead they went down to the bottom of the exit ramp, a circular road, and we could not see them. Oh well.
Undaunted by the delay and confusion, we head up US 441 as planned. The traffic sucks royally. I get lots of, "guess you were right," comments when we finally get to Gatlinburg and stop for lunch at No Way Jose's. The food is great. Now we are all tired and stuffed. We force ourselves back out into the heat and head for the nearest gas station to fill up. Then out to US 321 and we head east. This is a pretty good road, but again... the traffic sucks. We spend the whole time behind cars and trucks. Even if you pass, you just get to sit behind the next car or truck, whoopee! Finally we reach I-40 and pull over. Surely we don't need gas already? Guess who we find on their way to Asheville? The Triumph group from Houston with Richard and Lisa White, what a coincidence. Richard and Lisa are totally surprised to see us hehe. We get some drinks and cool off. Then a group of six of us, the original seven minus Jack, head down I-40 back to Asheville. Jack took a short cut earlier. We are headed for the Ducati/Triumph dealership.
I-40 could be one of the coolest rides. It winds through the mountains with long graceful sweepers and even has tunnels. The only catch is that it is one of the few north/south freeways in the area and thus all the traffic funnels through the mountains at this point. In layman's terms, that means butt loads of fast moving weaving eighteen wheelers whipping along far in excess of the posted speed limit. This is not a fun situation when you are on a bike. We endure the 60 or so miles to Asheville without incident and find the dealership.
From the outside you would never realize that the dealership was even a place to get bikes, or anything else except maybe junk parts off old vehicles. But when we pull into the loose gravel parking lot and go inside we are greeted with the sight of quite a few new Ducs and Triumphs. Beth starts sitting on a nice 2000 red Sprint ST, not good. Guess what she wants for Christmas...? Hmmm... After the guys find what they want and we all drink lots of water, we get ready to leave. The lady working at the dealership had to go outside for something and then comes running back in too get the other guy working there, "you have got to see this bike!" Guess which one she was talking about... the VFR? NOT! The Union Jack bike hehe.
We get back on the road and head to the Parkway. Pisgah Inn is 20 miles out on the Parkway south of Asheville. As with most drives on the Parkway, it is a blast. When we get to the Inn, there are already other folks showing up for the rally. Everyone starts kicking back in the parking lot, cleaning their bikes, drinking a cold brew and B.S.'ing. While we are all standing around, huge thunderheads brew up on each side of the inn. Thinking it might rain on us, I suggest we head out. We don't because we just can't seem to quit chatting with everyone. We decide that we are going to change our plans and stay Friday and Saturday with the Triumph group and participate in their rally at their urging. There is only one room left and that is for Friday only, we grab it. Hopefully someone will fail to show for Saturday so we can get a room then too. By now the thunderheads have moved on and we suit up to leave. We say goodbye and head west back to US 276 for the run down the mountain and back into Waynesville. Guess where it did rain?
A mile or so from the inn, the road is wet. We slow down and take it real easy. Almost none of the curves on the Parkway have guardrails. When we get onto 276, the road is worse. It is a very steep downhill run with tight curves. And on the inside of all the curves, there are now rocks that were washed onto the road by the rain. Also, the humidity is now quite high and it looks and feels like we are in a tropical jungle. The woods along the road are very lush and damp. The combination of rocks and water in the road makes the descent a slow and precarious one. We drop down into second gear and just grind our way down to the bottom. The remainder of the run back to Waynesville is no problem. The sun is setting and is casting a warm glow over the valley as we wind along. Very nice.
We get back to the house and find Shane and Steph starving and wondering what we are doing for dinner. These guys finish one meal and start thinking about the next before they have even left the table. Amazingly enough, neither one of them is fat! Although Shane is working on a spare tire hehe. They fill us in on their tour of the Biltmore estate and we give them the skinny on our day of riding. We probably covered just under 300 miles. So far, since leaving Huntsville last Friday, we have put about 1800 miles on the bikes and we still have five days left on our trip. The pizza arrives and we chow down. We have to check out early tomorrow so we get to packing. Shane and Steph are headed to Nashville to see her younger sister and then heading back to Dallas. We are staying on for another two days before heading back. Tomorrow the rally, and Saturday back to the Gap. Another great day under our belt, we head to bed after a few hours of goofing off in the game room.