Hobnobbing with the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s

It’s Friday and the week is over the hump unfortunately. Rolling into La Follet late last night, we found Sharps Motel. Now this isn’t really that much different than most other cheap motels, other than in addition to renting out rooms they have a breading pool for mosquitoes, frogs and whatever else is on the bottom of this thing.



We are headed for Cumberland Gap, KY, Bramwell Depot in WV and New River Gorge, WV as our stops for the day. Cumberland Gap was the Gateway to the West and all early travelers passed thru here on their way westward. Pinnacle Overlook is very reminiscent of riding up Mt Greylock in MA. You can see KY, TN and WV from up here.

Back on the road to that motorcycle nirvana called West Virginia. Like the NC, I don’t think there are any bad roads in WV. Bramwell Depot is a turn of the century coal mining town. At one time Bramwell boasted the highest per capita millionaires in the US. Rumor has it the bank’s janitor used to use a wheel barrow to transport bags of money from the bank to the depot.

The Bramwell Café is owned by a couple from California. For 9.99 I had one very outstanding meal and when the opportunity knocks I will go back for seconds.

One amusing event (it wasn’t at the time); we stayed in this house on top of a mountain. We were this older couple’s first guest in a house that is located on their property. He met us at the bottom of the mountain and he said, “You guys don’t mind traveling on a dirt road do you?” We said no problem. What he failed to tell us there was about 100 feet of freshly laid crushed stone that was about a foot deep. Let me say it was a challenge to traverse this and we actually crossed this POS 4 times. The last time on the way out, I got about ½ ways thru and the front wheel just decides to hang a right. We with this I had to stop and I felt the bike going over. I managed to hold the bike up at about 22 degree angle and the time yelling back at Steve to come help me. After what seemed like 5 minutes he casually gets off his bike and comes over and says, “You got a problem”. To this day I don’t know how I held the bike up. No pictures to memorialize the event.

We stopped at the Beckley Mine for my stamp, but found more interest in the local Bombardier Can Am dealer

New River is one of the oldest rivers on the continent. This bridge reduced the travel from one side to other from 45 minutes to 45 seconds. This phote really doesn't due justice to the enormity of the bridge.

The end goal for the day is to make it to Front Royal, VA and stay there for the night. On the way out of Beckley we headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway, which then runs into the Skyline Drive to Front Royal. On the BRP, I saw my first bear in a non-caged environment and then there were some more and even more of them. The deer are very arrogant along both of these roads. I came around one bend and there stood a deer right on the turn and it just looked at me. I really think it wanted to put its leg out and trip me. About half up the Skyline; we exited because it had grown to dark to be on this road with the critters all over the place. The road we took to Front Royal wasn’t much different. We arrived in Front Royal around 9pm and found a room at the Blue Ridge Motel.

Starved we headed for this place. Now these guys made one of the best pizzas I have ever had and if you are down this way it is a must eat.

Click here to watch "Hatfields-and-McCoys"

Two Strokin Smokin Smokies

Today is going to be a leisurely type day. We have only one scheduled stop in Robbinsville today at Junaluska Memorial, which I have already published a word or two on. (See Junaluska's Revenge. ) The day is bright and sunny. Steve and I are loading up the bikes, and I decide to start the bike up and warm it up a bit. Well I wrote about this, as well. (See Connie Envy ). So after the beginning of day tribulations, we are off to the fill up at the gas station about mile from Hogs Heaven. The fill up is done and I hang a right out of the parking lot and head for the Cherohala Skyway. I got the GPS and I see Steve heading off in the wrong direction. I see him slow down and pull into the parking lot across the street. I figured he figured out he was heading the wrong way. Then I see him get off his bike. A bit exasperated, I head over the parking lot as well. As I pull into the lot I see a Tellico Plains cop. Hmmm. Well Steve pulled into to see this thing. We ended up speaking to the guy for about ½ hour or so.




Finally back on track for the Skyway. North Carolina has some of the nicest roads for riding that I have ever been on, and the vistas you see from the saddle are unbelievable.

Click here to watch "Cherohala-Skyway-99"


Onto US 129 which takes us into Robbinsville at around 1pm. I have just gotten over my little ordeal with Junaluska and it was time for lunch. Across the street is Snider’s Store. Inside the store, it was like stepping back in time and if you find yourself at the Dragon, this is good place to visit while you are stretching your legs. Don’t forget to read the handwritten signs around the store.

Click here to watch "Snider-Dept-Store"

The road to the Dragon is every bit as good as the Dragon itself. Of course one most stop to see Harrison Ford leaping from the top of Fontana Dam. Fontana Dam is the highest dam east of the Rockies.

You can tell you are in motorcycle country when you see stuff like this.

Finally at the Dragon resort and low and behold there is a 2 stroke getaway 4 day weekend going on. There were some really nice classic bikes there. We ended talking to a bunch of the guys as they were repairing each other bikes. You know riders are really friendly type people.

Well it was time to ride the Dragon. There was a large group of rockets, so we let them go ahead of us. The last time I was here I just cruised down the road, not riding it fast but not slow either. This time I was on the Connie and this bike just ebbed and flowed from turn to turn. As I was riding along, I started to watch the other riders. Some of them were crossing the yellow, which irked me a bit. You really cannot look thru the turns on the Dragon and know exactly where the road goes approaching the apex. The line of vision is simply blocked. Then it dawned on me one of these yoko’s could be coming the other direction and plow right into you. Not a great feeling. About 8 miles into the Dragon is an overlook which everyone seems to stop at. We were no exception. I still can't figure out why there are balls on the electrical wires.

Click here to watch "Dragon-89"


From here we high tailed it thru Knoxville and called it a day in La Follette, TN

Miles traveled around 162 miles

Junaluska's Revenge

In Robbinsville, NC lies Cherokee Chief Junaluska and his wife Nicie. Junaluska, befriended Andrew Jackson, saving his life at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend with the Creeks. The battle with the Creeks was one of the fiercest battles between the white man and the native Indians. Junaluska was instrumental in winning this battle with his Cherokee braves against the Creeks. Andrew Jackson was quoted as saying,

"As long as the sun shines and the grass grows, there shall be friendship between us, and the feet of the Cherokee shall be toward the east."

After the defeat of the British in New Orleans and Andrew Jackson became President, he ordered the Cherokee to be moved from the TN and GA area to the West. This became what is know as the Trail of Tears and not particularily a high point in our early American History.

Junaluska was purportedly quoted as saying,

"If I had known Jackson would drive us from our homes, I would have killed him that day at the Horseshoe."

Junaluska was driven to the West with his people. He escaped during the drive of the Cherokee and other Indian tribes to the west and returned to the area of Robbinsville, NC to die. The Trail of Tears commerates the hardships and suffering our native Indians have endured by our country.


So how does this fit into my trip. Well at the Junaluska site is a museum that has INK. I visited his grave, took some pictures and as I was coming down the very very steep driveway to the grave which turned into the museum, all of a sudden I found myself lying on the ground with all of stuff from my tank bank spewed all over the driveway.

It is my guess the Chief threw me off my bike as payback to what Andrew Jackson did to his family and the folks of the Cherokee tribe. He spared my bike and my body, just made sure my ego was bruised and shook up. Sure glad I was wearing my riding jacket at the time and the tip over bars have proven to be a worthy farkle.

Chief may you and your wife rest in peace and I apologize for Andrew's misguided decisions.

For more on the Chief >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junaluska

And on the Trail of Tears

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

Lookout for Clay and Caves

I woke up to a glorious sun filled day. Steve is trying to sleeping in, but that will come to an end, we have places to go. Today will be a relatively easy riding day, but we will still cover 3 states, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.


First Stop is Red Clay Historical Park for the Trail of Tears ink. When we arrived there was one pickup truck in the parking lot, the gates were open, the lights were on in the visitor center, but the doors were locked. We are out in the middle of nowhere, well it appeared that way. Since it was just past 8 (when the park is supposed to open) we decided to hang a bit. About ½ hour later 3 cars pull in and unload. It was the park personnel. My guess someone has a really easy job that no one ever checks up on and they were all home doing something else and someone called them and told them they better get their asses in gear and get down to the park.

On our way to Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park we stopped at one of two Harley dealers in Dalton, GA. This place had a ton of bikes; there must have been over 100 bikes




Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park is a Civil War site. The battles here were considered the key to the railway center to the heart of the Confederacy. Lookout Mountain is also part of this military park, know as Point Park.




Steve was sick of getting his boots soaked when it rained and like the pull over I had for my boots, so we stopped at the Kawasaki dealer in Chatanooga. Harley dealers would never have the Tourmaster boot covers. Now it you read my "Beginnings" we just happened to run into one of the these. I still get a rise when I see one of these.





In New Hampshire we have firework stores, so I assume once you purchase them you have to set them off in the parking lot. In my travels I have seen plenty of these stores, but none this big. Can't you see this place being a scene from a movie like American Graffiti or Bueller's Day Off.

Two roads lead to Russell Cave National Park. Of course I took the hard one. Well Garmin picked this one, remember I simply follow the purple line. This road was one of those roads that goes deeper and deeper into the woods and just gets a little worse after every ½ mile or so, steeper grade, tar turns to gravel with patches of grass and narrows as you go. You know the kind of road I am talking about. After traveling this road down the side of a mountain, I just knew we were gonna get to the end and there was going to be a gate with the park right on the other side of the gate and no way to get there. I am sure glad I am wrong most of the time. One of the grounds keeper asked if we came from down the mountain, which we said yes, and he simply chuckled. I guess we are not the first to come here that way

Russell Cave was home to prehistoric people and is the most complete archeological site in the Southeast. This is a NP worthwhile visiting. The following is a 1 minute slide show of Russell Cave.

Click here to watch "Russell-Cave"

Russell Cave was the last scheduled stop of the day, so we had time to stop into Thunder Creek Harley. Now this place is owned by the same folks who own the Dalton dealership and has about the same amount of bikes on the floor. According to the people behind the counter, this is the better of the 2 dealerships. What say you Dalton, GA ???

Remainder of the day found us wondering thru the hills of Tennessee until around 9pm finding the Hog Heaven Resort. This place is in Tellico Plains and is owned by a couple from Florida, who is catering to the motorcycle community. They have 3 cabins built and plan to build about 15 or more as the years move by. The accommodations are very nice and comfortable. Price wise they are on the high side but not off the wall. Oh they have food on-site and it is pretty darn good and cheap.

Map of the Day >

Carl’s Kings and Cows

Today was a pretty easy riding day. Not many miles, so this enabled us to spend more time at the parks. http://tinyurl.com/63hwu4


First stop was Kings Mountain National Military Park which was turning point in the Revolutionary War. We essentially beat the crap out of ourselves here. Way back then there were individual that wanted their independence from Britain and those that were loyal to the British rule, hence only Americans fought at this site. This battle was unique because the Patriots (those that wanted independence) used rifles where the loyalist used muskets. Rifles were highly accurate and could hit a target 300 yards away, whereas muskets were good for 100 yards. Rifles were slow to load, muskets much faster.



Next stop was Cowpens National Battlefield is another Revolutionary War site. Now being from New England, it was my assumption that most of the fighting was done in the Boston area, but that simply is not true. I simply grabbed INK here and moved on to the next stop





Carl Sandburg Home National Historic site is a pretty neat place and it just about killed me walking up to the house. Ok I should be in better shape. I bet Carl drove his car up to the house and did not walk. I watched the movie here, which was an interview with Carl by Edward Murrow. While I had always known his name, I really didn’t know who he was. I now know a little more than I did.



The next stop for grabbing INK would be in Chattanooga and Chickamauga, so we had the rest of the afternoon with no time pressure to get somewhere. Steve had a hankering for BBQ, so off we were to this place. http://www.muttsbbqonline.com/ Mutts. This required some back tracking and was probably 50 miles one way out of way, but with no time constraints who cared. Mutts turned out to be great. Now anybody can cook pulled pork and stuff. I judge BBQ places on the sides they have. Mutts had some of the best macaroni and cheese that I have ever had, homemade to boot.





Some days feel like that train sign, but this was not one of them.


It looked like rain so we pulled over to don our rain suits. Since we preempted getting wet, it only rained a little bit. Mother Nature was so disappointed.

The Smokies we coming at us fast and the sun were settling in for the night and with the moisture in the air it made for some really beautiful scenery to watch.





Doesn’t this picture almost look like a picture at a studio like Sears or JC Penny. You know the one. The one you have pictures taken of yours kids or had to suffer thru your parents going gittche gittche goo to make you smile, but you showed then. you just sat there and pouted.








With our little diversion for BBQ we rode til about 10:30 and decided to call it a night

say Good night John boy..stayed tuned for tomorrow.