|
Rant Archive - November 2005
November 30, 2005 - REMEMBERING THE TAIL OF THE DRAGON
Any safe ride is a good one as far as I'm concerned
but each year there are a few that stand out as the best. Probably at the
top of my list for 2005 was a trip I made in August to Deal's Gap, North
Carolina. The small mountain
Nineteen of us gathered on that early August Friday
afternoon. The weather was beautiful, the forecast was "rain free" and we
were all looking forward to a weekend of riding. At 3:00 sharp, kickstands
were up and we started on our journey from Nashville to Deal's Gap. The ride
was almost euphoric with the warm breeze, the sunshine and the rumble of
nineteen V-Twins going down the road but about an hour out of Maryville,
Tennessee God decided to test our love of riding and opened up the sky on
us. In what seemed like a matter of a few minutes the sky went from clear
to cloudy and I suddenly found myself in the middle of nowhere, getting pelted
by rain, leading a group of nineteen bikes at a creeping speed of about 10
miles per hour on some of the curviest roads you will see. Just about the
time I was thinking to myself that this was not in the forecast, it got worse.
I don't think I've ever seen it rain so hard and as water started ponding
on the asphalt I spotted a little gas station/market just ahead on the left.
It was
By the next morning we were over it and ready
to ride again. The sky had cleared and the Dragon was calling us so off we
went. When you first get to the Tail of the Dragon it's almost like an out
of body experience. The scenery is breath taking and the road is incredible!
Gently ascending and descending 180-degree curves for 11 miles provides perhaps
the most amazing "I am one with my bike" experience you could have. You have
to ride it two or three times
From there it was onward to the northwest through small towns in Tennessee like McMinnville, Dayton, Fall Creek Falls, Sparta, Woodbury, Murfreesboro and then back into Nashville. The trip was complete and all of us were pretty worn out by the time we got back but as one of our guys said as he was leaving, "I'm ready to go again!" This one will be remembered for a long time. I'm thinking the first weekend in April is looking pretty good for my next Deal's Gap run!
November 27, 2005 - A WEIRD CO-DEPENDENCY I just took a look at the forecast for the week and it looks like after the short reprieve we will be back to winter weather here in the mid-south. Lots of rain throughout the week and Friday shows a high of only 39 degrees! I always dread this time of year. Don't get me wrong, Thanksgiving and Christmas are great times of family, friends and fun but this time of year also represents a time when I almost feel like my life is put on hold. Maybe I have some kind of weird co-dependency but when I can't ride, things are just out of whack. I guess I shouldn't complain since my buddy up in Wisconsin stopped riding weeks ago… but I can't help but wonder what it would be like to live in Texas or South Florida… January in a short-sleeved t-shirt sounds mighty fine to me! For now, I'll just have to drudge through another winter with the occasional polar-bear run and the annual January bike shows in Nashville and Louisville to help pull me through.
November 26, 2005 - I REFUSE TO BE A HARLEY BILLBOARD Had a little break in the weather today so I got about 100 miles in on the Harley. On the way back home I stopped in the local HD dealer to pick up a quart of oil and as I was leaving I saw a couple about to get on a Road King that I swear were posing for a Harley ad! They both had Harley shirts, Harley boots, leather jackets with huge orange Harley logos on the back and both of their helmets had Harley logos on them. I bet the guy had HD boxers on too! I almost wanted to laugh. I certainly appreciate the Harley brand and what it stands for but is anybody besides me getting tired of the poser fashion shows? When is someone going to tell these people how stupid they look? For those of you old enough to remember… It reminds me of the Calvin Klein craze of the late '70's where every idiot on the planet had to have CK jeans because they were the cool brand to wear. You know what I was wearing back then… plain old Levis. And although I do have a few Harley tee-shirts in my wardrobe now, you wont catch me walking around like a freakin' Harley billboard. Plain old blue jeans a white t-shirt and a black leather jacket work just fine for me.
November 6, 2005 - A SPIRITUAL THING I'm not really sure what sparked my initial interest in motorcycles. It might have been the nationally televised Evel Knievel jumps of the day or those cool Easy Rider posters found in every local dime-store at the time. I do however vividly remember the overwhelming feelings I had one summer afternoon when at the age of eight, I stumbled across a classified ad for a mini-bike in the local newspaper. I can't explain it but something began to burn deep inside me that day and I knew I had to have that mini-bike! After a week of begging and nagging, mom finally gave in to her fears and dad turned loose of the hundred bucks it took to bring that bad-boy home! I had no idea at the time that the little blue Briggs & Stratton powered two-wheeler with the rope-pull start and no shocks would start a life-long love affair with motorcycles. Many bikes and a whopping thirty-four years later, I find myself sitting in a parking lot in middle Tennessee with the same overwhelming feelings I had when I first saw that classified ad all those years ago. Tonight, twenty-three of us have gathered to ride the beautiful back roads of Tennessee and although I have graduated from a mini-bike to a huge V-Twin, the adrenaline rush is much the same as it was for that eight year old boy who used to tear up the fields on a blue mini-bike. Not only has the love-affair survived, it's matured and is stronger than ever! I still love riding for all the same reasons. The powerful feeling of freedom is still there, the rush of smoothly gliding through a hair-pin turn is still there and the exhilarating sensation of being one with machine is still there but lately there's even more to it than that. Riding has become a very spiritual event for me. Not in the "new age" sense that a lot of society has bought into these days but on a different level altogether. When I ride I feel very close to God. Maybe the constant purr of a V-Twin engine helps lull me into a spiritual state of mind or maybe the cool wind on my face helps remind me of how alive I am but I really think this focus is the result of just one thing. When I ride, I shut everything else in life out. Tonight's ride is no different. I see the awesomeness of God in the backdrop of the Middle Tennessee hills, I see that He supplies all of our needs in the mature corn field we pass on our right and I'm aware of His beautiful creation as we pass wild flowers in full bloom. This is what makes riding special for me. |
town
is home to a section of US129 known as
"
closed but
it did have a small overhang that would provide some shelter and a chance
to get off the bikes and relieve some of the tension of riding in the rain.
A quick tune of a scanner to the National Weather Service revealed that we
were smack dab in the middle of a thunderstorm and under a tornado watch.
The little market was home for the next 45 minutes while we watched the lightning
and trees bending over at almost 90 degrees! Finally it let up enough for
us to limp on towards Maryville. Stopping once for a tree that was blocking
the road and again for another unbelievable downpour, we finally rolled into
our hotel parking lot at 9:45pm, a full four hours behind schedule. Needless
to say, after a quick bite at the Road House across the street we all slept
very well in our warm, dry beds that night.
just for it all
to sink in. This is what riding is all about! But there's more to this
experience. Once you get to the bottom of the Tail, just before the North
Carolina state line you come across an amazing place. The Deals Gap Motorcycle
Resort complete with hotel, restaurant, souvenir shop and gas station is
a biker's paradise! We walked around for a long time just checking out all
the bikes. There were probably in excess of 300 on hand with representation
from every market including sport bikes, tourers, cruisers, customs, bobbers
and even dual sport bikes. It was like this big brotherhood of bikers from
all over the country with everybody talking about their bikes and riding
experiences. I could have stayed there all day just hanging out but after
a couple more times up and down the Dragon we headed on south into Robinsville,
North Carolina for lunch and then back to Nashville via Highway 143 and the
Cherohala Skyway. The Tail Of The Dragon is truly the most amazing road I've
ridden but I have to say that the Cherohala Skyway is a close second. I can't
even begin to describe how beautiful it is from a motorcyclist perspective.
For 15 miles you wind your way up and over the 5400-foot mountains of North
Carolina (at one point there were clouds below us) before descending another
21 miles deep into the forested backcountry of Tennessee. The route takes
you through both the Cherokee and Nantahala National Forests… thus the
name Cherohala Skyway
and if you make it to Deal's Gap you must also ride the
Skyway.