FunDaMental Riding

This past weekend I entered the MinuteMan1000 24 Rally. (http://www.minuteman1000.com/ ) In this type of rally you are provided a rally book that contains numerous locations that you can travel to. Each of these locations has a point value. Each location has its own unique instructions that you must follow to successfully get the points value. The objective is to ride to these locations and the one with the most points at the end, WINS! Simple eh ? From an arm chair, I win all of them.


At the riders meeting the night before the actual rally you are given the rally book. After we are dismissed from the rider meeting everyone takes off for their rooms to plan the best possible route. Now the theme of our rally was Reading is FunDaMental. While riding is a very important element, thorough reading is just as important.


My self imposed objectives of my first rally were:A> Interpret and plan a route that is competitive B> Execute this route C> Finish D> Be organized with the documentation that I do not give up any acquired points E> Good place standing, but not as important as the first 4.


Back in my room I am busily putting in the 55 or so bonii (bonus locations) into MapSource. MS is the route and mapping tool that comes with my Garmin 2610 GPS. This enables you to plan a route on a computer and then download into the actual GPS unit. Each location is worth generally between 150 to 1000 points. With them all entered, I decide I need to get the overall picture of what's going on. Sitting back, I begin reading each description of the bonii. I finally come to the last page, which has bonus type bonii. These are special pots of gold. For instance there is a rest bonus worth 20,000 points which requires you to take a break for 2 consecutive hours at one location. At the riders meeting the point value for this was corrected to 5,000. This is still high enough that you must take advantage of it to be considered in the the top 10 finishes.

The Poison Ivy bonii. This is a progressive bonus. Contained in the rally book are locations of the Ancient Eights or the Ivy League schools. If you visited 5 of them you got and additional 1000 points, 6 was 2000, 7 was 4000 and visit all 8 got you a whooping 8,000 points plus the value of each location to boot.

I had this preconceived route I was going to take which took me up thru Vermont thru New Hampshire over to Maine and back to Northampton MA, the rally headquarters. However after reading the Poison Ivy, I created a route that takes me to all the Ivy League schools. North to Dartmouth, down to Harvard, south to Brown, then Yale, Columbia (ych Manhattan), cross the river to Princetown NJ, a little further south and west to the University of PA in Philly, and finally up to Ithaca for Cornell and back to HQ. MS says this is around 1066 miles or so.

Some mental math I realize I would have to stop at 22+ locations to capture this many points. It's easy to plot stopping at locations in the computer, but in the real world it takes time to stop and do what you have to do to prove you were there and this is against a real clock.

How do you get the points for a stop. Well this is in the instructions. Remember Reading is FunDaMental. One stop might ask you to answer a question about the location. Generally this is a question that is not common knowledge and requires you to ride there. The question might be what store is directly across the street from the Library. Most of the time you have to take a photograph of the location. In the photograph, your rally flag must appear (unless otherwise specified, reading is FunDaMental). I was rider Number 8, obviously.

In a 24 hour rally you have of 24 hours to complete the run without penalty. If you exceed 24 hours you are penalized 10 points for each minute over 24 hours up to the 25th hour, after that you are disqualified. With this being my inaugural rally, I allocated the time as follows: Rest Bonus 2 hours + Riding time for 1000 and 11oo miles 18 hours (I did a Saddlesore 1000 and completed 1066 miles in 18 hours, this is how I came up with this) +Gas stops 1000 miles with 225 to a tank 1000/ 225 = 4.4 stops figure 4 times 15 minutes = 1 Hour

Time left for bonii (24-2-18-1)= 3 hours or 360 minutes. Figure 15 minutes a stop. Remember you must get your rally flag in most of the pictures so this generally requires you stop, park and place the rally flag someplace that can be in the picture. With the 15 minutes that would equate to 24 locations you could travel to, but this is under optimal conditions. Traffic can get in the way, having to park a couple of blocks away from the bonii and walk takes time, so 15 minutes maybe a little on the light side. If you use 30 minutes this is 12 locations. In all my question of other people in rallies it seems 15 is a good number to use for planning purposes and this was my first one after all. There was one quote in a rally, "here is the menu, you may select as many items as you desire but if you select too many items and try to consume them all, you will die".

With all that in mind I created a route for the 8 Ivy League schools. Here is what the route basically looked like [ http://tinyurl.com/64bpdp ]. If after Cornell I had time there were bonii locations I could pick up on my way back to Northampton

First stop. Dartmouth College. Seemed like everyone headed for Dartmouth because a ton of us landed there. This is where I ran into Wayne and Robin on their K1200LT for the first time. What a nice bike. First stop went flawlessly. Off to the nest stop



Next destination was Harvard University. The instructions indicated it was acceptable to pull up and take a picture, No Rally Flag required. Rumor had it, it was going to be a very hot day. The trip down from NH was just about perfect and even had it's cool spots. I was pretty lucky with the traffic in Cambridge. Breezed in and out. I think I got here around 10 AM.

It is off to Providence RI to Brown University Book Store. (note the theme is centered all around Reading is FunDaMental). The heat is beginning to pick up a bit especially on the slabs such as I95. I arrive at the bookstore at around 11am . I was able to park almost right in front of the book store. How lucky is that? Get my picture and take a break to drink down some fluids. It is during this stop I recognized it was really hot out. I am guessing it is 95 or so. As part of the entrance fee we received a wicking shirt with the MM1000 logo on it. I had been meaning to buy one of these. I am sold on them now, this shirt was a life saver.





Next stop is Yale University in New Haven, CT. The journey to Yale proved to be more difficult than the rest of the stops. Traffic had picked up and the heat was becoming pretty intense. Requirement of this picture was to be able to see the Sterling in the photo. It is right over the entrance way. It is now about 1pm. It is friggin hot out !!






Columbia University is located in Manhattan, however if you carefully read the bonii descriptions, it offered an alternate location in Palisades NJ that would satisfy the requirement for the points. Now I am originally from Joisey but had never really been on the Palisades Parkway or 9W. 9W parallels the Hudson River and quite scenic. It is 3:30 or so.




Off to Princeton University in Princeton NJ. I have been here 3 times in my life all for the New Jersey State swimming championships back in the 60's. As I am driving to Princeton I have time to reflect back on my life in high school. I do not have a MP3 player or music on the bike, so I get to think about alot of stuff. Most of the stuff I can't remember what I thought about, but it must be good, because I never get upset about it. I had to walk abit to get to this location. As I was leaving a student on a bike stopped me and asked what I was doing. I explained the rally to him and made sure I reinforced it was not about speed but pace and long distance riding. It's now 5pm.


I had one really hair raising event on my way here. I am on Route 1 at a stop light. I look in my mirrors and see a red van about 1/2 mile back moving kind of fast for a stop light. At about 200 yards this van has not slowed down. I begin to release the clutch to get out his way. At about 100 yards, I start saying OMG I am gonna die. At a guess of 50 yards, this guy finally veers right to the berm and runs the red light and keeps going. Yup he did not see me and my guardian angel must of tugged on his steering wheel. This is first experience like this on the bike I have had in a very long time. Phew !

Man it's hot and the roads into Philly are junk. These roads have those lines which are dug up to put wires or whatever below the surface, which they fill with tar and other junk, which proceed to heave upwards and cause a bump every 1/10th of mile. Well everytime I hit one of these the GPS would shut off and come back on. Now this is not good because I have never been to Philly and I really need the directions. Just as the GPS would start to spout out another direction I would hit another bump, another shut off , comes back on, wait for the GPS to acquire the satellites again, repeat the process. Anyways, I was pretty darn hot and my eyes were killing me from riding for so long. It is around 7pm and I have been riding for 13 straight hours. I took a well deserved break at Dunkin Donuts, gulping down 2 things of water and had a granola bar. In the bonii description, there was no mention of taking a photo here, but we needed to answer a question. You had to be there to find the right statue of Ben Franklin with the words "Venerated for benevolence..." This bonii required a correct answer to a the question, Who said the quote on the statue about Ben. Well there were 3 names on this statue. So which person said it. The inscription of the words carved into the statue, seemed to been up against the elements and was well weathered and worn down, hence the actual inscription was very difficult to make out. As I was walking around I happen to look down and the picture at the right is what I saw. I must be getting tired at this point. Answer to question I wrote in George Washington. Remember reading is FunDaMental. I erased this entry and put in Washington, just like it said on the plague. For all I know it could of been Jeffrey Washington.

Up until Philly I was ahead of schedule by a whole hour, but I burned through this. I had trouble finding the statue and was just plain tired. All part of the rally experience. The sun is finally dropping down and it is beginning to cool off. Next stop is Cornell University in Ithaca NY, a mere 230 miles away. As I am leaving Philly there are alot of really neat bridges that have these huge arches in them. Sometime this summer I will be stopping back here for some INK. The ride to Cornell is actually delightful. We are deep enough into the season where the daylight is approaching the longest day. It is not getting dark until about 9pm at night. Estimated arrival time in Ithaca is 11pm.

The road off the interestate to Ithaca is a county highway (Rt79) which has gentle sweepers and dips and rises on the hills. It also seems (remember it is dark out) to be surrounded by woods and farms, just a perfect place for for deer and other animals to congregate. In these situations, I love to find a car that is driving at a decent speed to work as a deer and other animal blocker/catcher. I found such a car and pretty much followed them the whole 30 miles to Ithaca. They were moving a respectable 55 - 60 mph, which is faster than I could have traveled on this road comfortably without such assistance.

Requirement here is to get a picture of one of the statues of Ezra Cornell, one of the founders. I stop and ask a couple of people where I might find the statue and they point behind some buildings and say, "Right there on the quad". I park the bike in an reserved parking area, but it is behind a dumpster, so I am not taking any ones place and begin walking. As I round the building, I hear music and it is becoming louder as I walk. The campus also seems to be lit up. Yup there is a huge party going on. I am guessing this is a graduation party and there were tons of kids there. I walk to one statue and start to put my flag on it, when I ask a student who is sitting at the statue, is this Ezra Cornell. He says no, pointing across the quad says, "he is directly across from here. Just go thru the middle of the party and exit out the other side and he is right there". Well you had to have a button to get into the party so the campus police make me walk around the party. It's 12am and I get my final picture of the rally.

WooHoo, I have successfully captured all of the bonuses I had planned. Now all I have to do is find a 24 rest stop, take my Rest Bonus and make a run for Rally HQ. I have been running for almost 18:35:50 hours straight and looking forward to being off the bike for 2 hours. I remember passing a hugh Exxon station that appears to be a 24 hour place on my way to Ithaca. I head back out the way I came into Ithaca, this time picking up a pick-up truck that is really making some miles on Rt 79. I actually follow him right into the station that I planned to take the rest stop at. Low and behold I run into Wayne and Robin again. Oh how do I know I have been running for exactly that many hours. Well I pulled into the Exxon station and clocked my time at 12:38:50 and my start time was 6:03. Buts that another blog to be written

Connie has Harley Envy

The joke used to be that HD’s were like drip coffee makers. Front fork oil drips, engine drips, transmissions drips, but alas no coolant drips. This past week I completed a 3200 loop with my friend Steve, who has a 2002 Road King. He has tastefully applied the obligatory chrome in strategic spots, has made some parts and adapted others for a truly one of kind HD. Here's a pic of Steve's Road King.
Well every time we stopped, someone come over to compliment what a nice looking bike he has and questions him where he got a particular part or piece of chrome. Of course Steve puffs up his chest up and lists out exactly how or where to get the stuff. My poor 2006 Kawi Concours listens to the people eww and ahhh about Steve’s RK. From time to time I say to them, but what about this bike, isn’t it nice. The people would look up and say "sure sure" and go back to drooling over Steve’s bike.

Right around the 4th day into our trip, it was a cool crisp morning in Tellico Plains, TN. This town is where the Cherohala Skyway begins. I decided it would be good to give the Connie a good warm up, so I insert the key, pull the choke back, and it roars to life. First idling around 700 rpm and in about 30 secs kicks into a full 3000 rpm rant. I pull the choke back a bit to slow it down to a 1100 rpm purr. I go about my business putting stuff in the rear trunk, repacking some clothes and other such pre ride stuff.

The bike is warmed up enough and the owner at the Hog Pit comes out to talk, so I shut the Connie down. A few minutes later the Connie is dripping some fluid from the bottom. Hey wait a minute it has a greenish hue to it, hey hey hey it’s coolant. Sigh, shit, where’s my RVRoadHelp card, and I wonder where the nearest Kawi dealer is. I lie down on the ground, looking thru the various opening in the fairing to see, if I can spot a leak someplace. Nada.

Pull a screwdriver and remove the 10 screws that hold the bottom fairing panel off. Nothing. Start the Connie up and lie under the bike to see if I can spot anything. Steve thinks we are gonna have to remove the next layer of fairing. He just loves to take things apart by the way. Bike is running and nothing. Shut the bike off and all is ok. Go figa.

The Connie has been listening to this ewwing and ahhing for almost a week now. Who has been running 75 mph and just purring along with the RK bearly (slight literary exaggeration) keeping up on the hill climbs. I could hear this little voice saying, “Geeeez RK, you have to downshift to make it up this little hill. Hey Willie, give it a little twist, I want to spew some exhaust on the King. Of course I comply and we quickly pull away from the RK. I can just see the Connie grinning with a chesire type smirk.

At one of our stops a passer by notices there appears to be oil all over the back of the rear rim. Of course I have to lie down to see it. It appears the rear end is leaking that stinky 80/90W hypoid gear oil. Another sigh and I turn to Steve and say, let’s find an auto part store. We are just getting ready to jump onto the Blue Ridge Parkway for a nice afternoon spin to Front Royal. I have to buy an adjustable wrench to check the rear fluid. Up on the center stand, we spin the cover off and Steve spins the wheel. “Looks like there is plenty of juice in here”, he says. Steve really likes to do this stuff . I said, “Well just to be on the safe side I will buy some oil and we will check it”. Get the stuff, cut the top off with the knife I bought 2 years ago and never used until now and Steve bends down and shoots some juice in. One small squirt and the stuff is flowing out the side. It is full. Back into the store to get a bunch of plastic bags to pack the 99.97% unused portion of the hypoid stuff.

About 9pm we decide to get off Skyline Drive and ride the rest of the way to Front Royal on regular roads. We have seen 5 deer and 3 bears on the BRP and SD and it is dark out.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. Crisp morning, re do the start up sequence ala Hog Pit morning. Yup small coolant droppings, the rear rim is still got oil on it, with a fresh drip on the side of the tire, and now it decides to leave some regular oil on the ground. This is the first time for the regular oil thing. Not much, just enough to make you give a sigh. Check the oil and it is ok. Geez, I just got this bike in September of 2007 and it only has 14,500 miles on it at this point. Thank god for 4 year warranties.

I really think the Connie had Harley envy and wanted to be complimented just like Steve’s bike. So for the rest of the trip every time we stopped I pleaded with the people to say hello to the Connie and tell it how nice it was. No drips for the rest of the trips. Go figa.! OH BTW This is my Connie.

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 >