Daily Journal

Day Nine: Saturday, Aug. 19, 2000

  Fog, fog and more fog! Any direction we look there is nothing but fog. Beth and I miss the breakfast and riders meeting because we sleep in a bit longer than we had planned. We get out to the parking lot at the same time everyone is suiting up. Today we are going to run with Richard and Lisa White, and also Jim Huber. We gas up the bikes and head out.

  Richard is leading, I am second, followed by Beth, Jim and Lisa bringing up the rear. Richard and Lisa have communicators too. The first leg of the ride is down the Parkway heading for US 276. Then down the mountain we go, in the fog, whipping back and forth. Things are going pretty good until I hit a tight right handed descending corner loaded with gravel and I blow the turn going wide into the oncoming lane. There is no traffic, but it still annoys me. I follow Richard the rest of the way down. He is smooooth and quick.

  As we descend down the side of the mountain we come out of the fog, which turns out to be clouds hehe. Once we get down, the sun starts shining and it turns into quite a nice morning. The valley is clear and everything has a soft hue to it. Richard and I stop to wait for everyone else to catch up to us. When they come along we head into Waynesville and pick up US 23 west to US 74. We head west on 74 until we reach NC 28. By this time our group has hooked up with several other groups bringing the number of bikes up to around twelve or so, including a few other VFR's! When we stop to check our directions, Beth and Jim swap bikes.

  She has been itching to try a Sprint and he wants to try the Legend. He is thinking of buying one for his wife. He rides a beautiful blue 2000 Sprint ST, the exact one that Beth likes. She gets to start her ride on the highway so it is pretty smooth and she gets used to the bikes handling. Then we turn north onto NC 28 and make a run through the country side around Lake Fontana. During the ride, Beth cannot stop talking about how much she likes the bike and how she cannot wait to get one... oh boy. Highway 28 eventually drops out on US 129 at the Crossroads of Time also known as the Dragon or The Gap.

  We all pull into the Crossroads and dismount. It is nearing noon and it is getting pretty warm when walking around in a full riding suit. By this time our group has picked up two other VFR's, a 99 and a 96, both very nice. Beth and I decide to sit out the gap ride since there is such a large crowd present today. The VMax rally is in full swing and there are some sweet looking and awesome sounding VMax's sitting around the lot. After everyone takes a short break, they head into the Gap. We hang out and talk with other riders and I take several pictures. While we are hanging out several more VFR's pull into the lot and others just go by. I talk to a few guys on new bright yellow VFR's, one with barely 2000 miles on it. I turn them onto the VFR mailing list. We can never have too many members hehe.

  Eventually, everyone starts to trickle back into the Crossroads. I place myself to get shots of them coming through the last turn. Later in the parking lot they all have huge grins on their faces. We hang out while everyone revels us with the description of their runs. Then we decide to run down 129 back to Robbinsville for lunch. I suggest the Black Knights Cafe, the place we had breakfast earlier in the week.

  Since I know the way, they make me lead. The first part of 129 heading down the mountain is not much fun. If it gets repaved, then it might be more fun. As it is, there are patches on the asphalt that have wide grooves about a quarter of an inch high and about 2-1/2 to 3 inches wide. The grooves run parallel with the lane so my tires track in them. They are worse than any rain grooves I have ever encountered. Typically they appear in middle of sharp curves causing the bike to wiggle all over the place. It is really quite unnerving. I am so focused on the grooves I miss seeing a small suicidal turtle dash under my front tire until it is too late to miss him. POP! What a sick sound. Thank God the front end did not wash out from under me on his slippery remains! Without further incident, we make it to the cafe and chow down. I use the stop as an excuse to get a shot of the VFR's.

  We are running short on time and decide to take a different route than the preplanned route. While we are heading south on 129, Dave has to pull over for some reason so I hang back to wait for him. When he comes around the corner we take off to catch the group. This is a fun road and we really zip along at a great pace. As I come around one corner I spot about four of our riders stopped at a stop sign waiting for us. They are not sure which way to go and want me to lead, great, like I have any idea where we are going! So we head left, north on US 19. Unknown to me, we are supposed to go a few miles and then take a side road, we miss it and keep right on going. We keep going right into the middle of tourist central and horrible traffic. After thirty minutes of this I pull off and we have a pow wow to figure out where we are and where we are going.

  It turns out that we are on US 19 basically north. So we decide to just head for Cherokee and to pick up the Parkway and ride it all the way back to the Inn. It takes us forever to get to Cherokee, the cars should be banned from such fun roads! We stop to gas up for the final run. For a while I get to lead again. I set a pretty fast pace, typically 50-70mph. I stop at the occasional overlook to wait for Beth to catch up. I don't like to get to far ahead and out of communicator range. We all pull in at one overlook and take a quick break. When we get back on the road, Dave is leading, followed by Ken, then Richard and me. Beth is bringing up the rear.

  As we start to pass another overlook point a few miles down the road, the road curves to the left and descends around a blind turn. It takes everyone of us by surprise and we have to lean even further over to make the turn without running wide. It scares me enough to force an, "OH SH__!" out of my mouth. Unfortunately, I said it loud enough for the voice activation to kick in and Beth heard me. The next thing I hear is her saying something I can't understand followed by an indescribable sound, one that convinced me she had left the road and gone down.

  I cannot even begin to describe the feeling and thoughts that are going through my head. I have to force myself not to panic so I can get my bike stopped and turned around without crashing myself. I haul back to the curve. As I come back around the corner I see Beth standing by the road, her bike over on a grassy embankment and a car stopped to help her. I pull into the overlook parking lot and park the bike. I run over to make sure she is okay. We are both shaking pretty bad. A quick once over convinces me that there are no life threatening injuries. Just a minute later, Richard comes hauling back around the corner and pulls into the lot beside me.

  Beth is covered in dirt and a bit shaken. After looking her over more thoroughly, I get her to sit down so she can calm her nerves a bit. Richard and I go take a look at the bike to try to figure out what happened and what kind of damage has been done. The ground is pretty torn up where the bike dug in and went down. There is about a fifteen foot long skid mark in the road heading into the turn. We can see where she left the road and headed up a grassy embankment. All things considered, this is the best place for this to have happened considering that most of the turns we have been riding the last few days have a run off that drops a few hundred feet soon after you leave the pavement. The bike has cosmetic damage mostly to the left side. The windscreen brackets are going to have to be replaced, the head light bracket fractured completely through in two places and the left signal is broken off. The controls are all fine. It seems that by the time she left the pavement, she was only going 10-15 mph. The sound I heard in my communicator was that of hers being ripped from her helmet after her head hit the ground. We both say a prayer of thanks that the accident is not more serious.

  A few minutes later Dave and Ken come hauling back around the corner. They got a feeling that something bad happened when we all vanished from their mirrors so soon after that curve. We sit around for a few minutes trying to figure out what we are going to do with the bike. First we start to just put a lock on it and leave it in the parking lot while we ride on to the Inn to get a truck. Richard puts a heavy duty lock on the rear wheel. We stand around talking for a few more minutes and then I decide that I don't feel comfortable with just leaving the bike and that I will stay with it. Beth wants to stay with me. So Dave and Ken take off to the Inn to get someone with a truck headed back our direction. We are still about thirty five miles from the Inn. After a few minutes, Richard leaves also. It is about 5:30pm.

  Beth and I sit down for a while and talk. She feels terrible and is embarrassed by her mistake. It turns out that when I had almost blown the turn she heard my comment. She thought I had gone off the road or something and hit her rear brake hard enough to lock it up going into the turn. When she locked up the rear tire, the bike stood up and shot right out of the turn. This is a hard lessoned learned for both of us, but one that definitely will not be forgotten. I take some pictures of the crash scene and of the bike. We wait and watch as the sun sets behind the mountains. It is getting pretty cold. After about two hours, a truck pulls into the parking lot. It is a fellow with our group by the name of Carl. He has tie downs and a ramp. Unfortunately, Richard did not return with him and he knows nothing of a key for the lock. UH OH!

  By now, it is getting dark and we are wondering how we are going to do this. We get the truck backed up as close to the bike as we can get it. Then while Beth holds the front end to keep it from tipping over, Carl and I lift the back to spin the bike around to face the ramp. Right about the time we start trying to figure out how to get it up the ramp without being able to roll the rear wheel, a group of five bikes pulls into the parking lot. They are with the Triumph group and are happy to lend some strong backs to the cause. While Carl and I hold the front and steer, two other guys lift the rear and we all push it up the ramp. We get it strapped down and it is now quite dark. The clouds have descended onto the mountain tops. It is cold and getting foggy. Beth rides back with Carl in the truck.

  By now it is around 8:00 pm. We are still about and hour from the Inn. Myself and the five other bikes set out behind the truck and start back to the Inn. It is not a fun ride. It is dark, cold and clammy. It is hard to see the edge of the road with my peripheral vision, making it hard to keep a clean line through the curves. I can see that everyone is having the same problem. I have to use the lights of the bike two places ahead of me to see where I need to be going. Carl is hauling incredibly fast, the bikes are having a hard time keeping pace with him. After what seems like an eternity, we finally reach the Inn and pull into the parking lot. We are greeted by Lisa who is very relieved to see all of us back safe and sound.

  After a quick debriefing, we head over to the restaurant to join everyone else and to eat some dinner. When we walk into the restaurant, everyone lets out a round of applause because they are happy to see us back safe and unhurt. Beth is mortified hehe. Beth has a few new bruises here and there and she will be very sore tomorrow. After dinner there is the rally stuff like awards and speeches. Then we break up into groups and start chatting. I speak with Jack and Dave about seeing if they can put Beth's bike in their truck and take it back to Dallas with them. Our other alternatives are to ship the bike, rent a U-haul or wait an extra day until the bike shop is opened to see if they can get the bike road worthy. The other issue is whether or not Beth is going to be road worthy... The next few days should prove to be very interesting.

  We head to bed early, tomorrow is going to be a long day!


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