Trip to the Smokies. It's 10:25am on Friday June 14th and we're almost ready to get on the road.. Took a bit longer than that though, and it was another hour before we actually got on the road. Our timing was pretty typical though. We had gotten about 4 miles down the road when we ran into a wall of rain. Pulled off under a gas station awning and waited about a half hour. Finally on the road (for real this time) shortly after noon.

Remember those "We Bare All" signs along I-75 in northern Florida? I'd never stopped at that exit, but it was time for gas so we gave it a shot. Looking for a restaurant we rolled down the road a piece into Micanopy and found an idyllic little place filled with antique shops where both the contents and the shops themselves were antiques. The town itself dated from 1821. Many MANY signs reminded us of that fact, but the buildings mostly dated from the early part of the 20th Century. Found a great little cafe and sat outside under the trees eating a Ruben and a Cuban.

The day was amazingly hot, particularly after lunch. Temps on the road ran to the upper 90s and the water-cooling on the engine was noticeably straining. Added about a half quart of oil just north of the Georgia line.

As we were getting oil, some nice folks warned us of a very heavy squall line "about an hour" to the north of us. Well, it had migrated a bit south of that and we met it right in between Sparks and Lennon, GA. Pulled over for an early night at a convenient Red Carpet Inn. I specifically asked and was told that they DID have the Weather Channel, but I certainly couldn't find it when I turned the dial. Yep, the TV actually had a manual dial. Didn't matter much since we were both asleep by 8pm.

Seemed like quite a long day, considering that we only actually rode a GPS-clocked 254.7 miles. I reset the Odometer at the beginning of the trip and have been resetting the Trip meter every tankfull. Refilling the tank after each 100 miles I noticed that we were averaging about 63mph or so and putting in about 2.6 or 2.8 gallons each time.

Saturday June 15. 2002

No coffee in the morning though. Looks like a good day for breakfast on the road, At least we got another 40 miles under our tires before eating. In fact, we went to Georgia Exit 82 - where we had intended to stop the night before. Breakfast at Shoney's really isn't bad at all. We knew it was a good place to eat because that's where the cops were.

Another tank of gas and we're back on the road again. Continuing northbound on I-75 made me realize just how much more comfortable it was on Saturday than it was on Friday. After all, it was 30 degrees cooler on the road. But my gas mileage was absolutely in the toilet. When we stopped for gas just north of Macon, I noticed a little oil-change place open across the street and drove on in.

It worked out pretty well actually. For fifteen bucks I got four quarts of oil and a 17mm wrench, something to catch the old oil in, and a funnel. Sure was a lot easier than trying to do it in the parking lot at the motel. Gas mileage went up considerably after that point, though a strong breeze out of the north still ate into it quite a bit. The old oil had less than 500 miles on it, but it was BLACK. I was really glad I changed it when I did.

Atlanta was it's usual mess. At least it flowed well on a Saturday around lunchtime. In fact, when I later looked at the GPS, I discovered that my max speed had climbed to 88. If I hadn't seen it I would never have suspected because traffic was passing me through that burg like I was standing still...

It eased up quite a bit once we got north of town and we took the I-575 spur just north of Marietta. This was actually a very straightforward way to get to Robbinsville, but it took several glances at the map to be certain of it - particularly when I-575 simply ended without warning. The GPS is great because it always tells you where you are; but it's not quite as good about telling you where you should be going... Real paper maps are still the best for that.

It turned out that we just needed to stay on the same road as it wet through several changes of identity - from 5 to 515 to 76. Then we took 60 north of Ellinjay and the 60 Spur over to US129 which of course took us right into Robbinsville.

I was afraid that rooms might be scarce in Robbinsville because of the Hoot, so we stopped just west of Andrews and checked out a hotel. At $70/night I suspected that we could find something else...

And so we did! Right in the middle of the first intersection in downtown Robbinsville is a nice little place called the San-Ray motel. For $40/night (cash price) we got a nice room with a fridge and a microwave and DSS TV. Finally we got to watch the Weather Channel again! We decided right then and there that we were going to stay several nights there.

Pity it's a dry county. Nearest beer is back in Andrews, though I was told that the Tapoco Lodge has just this week started selling package beer. Didn't matter in the end - we just fell asleep anyhow.

Sunday June 16. 2002

56 degrees and bright sunshine on Sunday morning! What a change from Tampa. I could really get used to this.

We headed north along US129 right up to Deal's Gap. The last time we went through here there must have been a thousand bikes at the little campground store on the North Carolina side. We didn't stop, opting instead to get lunch at the Tapoco Lodge (which I highly recommend!). This time we did stop at the Deals Gap campground and checked out the little store, picked up some t-shirts, marveled over the pictures on the wall, and enjoyed the company of the other bikers for a while. I also noticed that CR28 to Bryson City was right there too. We'll try exploring that another day.

Once on the Dragon's Tail itself, I was quite impressed by the excellent job of repaving which TennDOT did since I was here last June. They're still in the process of paving as of June 15,2002 but none of it was bad at all.

When we popped out the other side, we found ourselves at the pulloff with the beautiful overlook of Fontana Dam. We had stopped right at the dam on the way up to Deal's Gap so it was interesting to see it from both sides.

We continued on down US129 past Fontana Lake and got onto the Foothills Parkway. About 7 miles from the southern end of the Parkway is a place called Look Rock with a weather station and a live webcam. We enjoyed the view in person for a change.

The Foothills Parkway ended at US321 which we took on into Maryville looking for a cell signal. Found it and called home, called Dad to wish him a Happy Father's Day, and called Mad Mab who was going to meet us here. She was about an hour out of town so we cruised around town seeing the place. We found a lovely wooden 7th Day Adventist Church and stopped for a while just to admire it and sit in the shade.

After several false starts we finally found Mab, grabbed some pizza at Annie's Pizza in Townsend - it's really great stuff! She had to be back in Nashville that evening so we trotted on off to Cades Cove to find a field to just sit and enjoy the place.

But when it came time to leave, we were heading in opposite directions. Mab was heading back west and we wanted to go back to Robbinsville. Unfortunately I made the mistake of looking at the map. Right there on the Cades Cove brochure map it clearly shows Forge Creek Road turning into Parson Branch road and heading out to Highway 129. Perfect, yes? Nope... It was a gravel road, which was ok. Not great but nice and wide with very little traffic. We poked along at about 5mph for quite a while until we came to a turnaround at the very end. What the heck was this? Well, we had passed a trailhead just a bit before the turnaround so we went back to check it out. Sure enough, that was the road to 129. It was also listed as an "unimproved logging road".

We were already way the heck down there, so we decided to give it a shot. I really should have known better when the first thing we did - less than 200 feet past the trailhead - was cross a stream... But it was shallow and really ok. Then the trail started heading up... and up... Even that wouldn't have been so bad except for the huge ruts. When we got to a section that was really steep, I finally came to my senses and stopped the bike. Or at least I tried to. Gravity and a lack of traction on the gravel pulled us right back down the hill sliding on the tires. I was able to keep it upright at least. We got to a place where it leveled out a bit and I turned the bike around in a beautiful 15-point turn and I started easing it back down the hill. I figured that since I wasn't using it for anything anyhow, I'd turn off the motor and we coasted all the way back down to the stream. At that point I fired her back up. Well, at least I tried to. The battery was dead. Lovely. Out in the middle of noplace with darkness coming on and a dead battery... sigh.

Good thing it wasn't an automatic! A little work and with gravity helping for a change we got her pushstarted. I went back up Parson Branch Road and Forge Creek road. They seemed a lot easier going back than they did coming out. We got back onto the Cades Cove Loop Road and headed back towards the entrance - with the other 20,000 folks there that day. Took us another hour just to get out of the park and by that time we needed gas.

Of course the bike wouldn't start after fueling. Conveniently there was another hill handy to get it pushstarted again. With plenty of gas to make it back to Robbinsville we headed back south on the Foothills Parkway, but by this time all of the stress of the day was getting to me and I started to fade so we pulled over at a scenic overlook (first checking for that long downslope!) and I lay down to take a nap. SuzieQ says I was out for about a half hour before the dogs showed up. They smelled the two slices of pizza in the saddlebag, but when I sat up they backed off.

By this time I was feeling better so we climbed back on, rolled down the hill, released the clutch and headed off towards SR129. SuzieQ was optomistic when she asked, "we're through the hard part now, aren't we?" Nooooo... the hard part was going through the Dragon's Tail at night when I was tired...

Had a spot of luck on that one though. A rider on a Valkyrie with Michigan plates came up behind us, and passed us so I could follow him through. It sure made it a lot less dangerous to be able to see his lights ahead of me and follow his line through the turns. Unfortunately the reason he was driving through there was to get back to the Deal's Gap Campground to pick up his and his cousin's stuff. His cousin was in Blount County Hospital after the Dragon almost claimed him a few hours earlier. We wished him well.

Monday June 17. 2002

One nice thing was that though the headlights were pretty darned dim when we started off, by the time we got to the Dragon's Tail we were able to see pretty well again. That gave me hope that the battery wasn't gone beyond saving, so when I woke up the next morning, the first thing I did was to walk across the street to the Ace Hardware store and pick up a 12v trickle charger. I pulled out the battery and filled the cells back up with water, then set the charger on it and left it for six hours. After reinstalling it, turning the key, and whispering a prayer I pressed the starter and she kicked right over!

There's a new Motorcycle Service shop out along US129 between Robbinsville and Deal's Gap called Wheelers and I dropped on in to see if they had a specific gravity tester to see if the cells were really dead. But despite the sign saying they were open weekdays between 10 and 6, the place was all locked up. Someone else dropped by too and we waited for a time, but nobody showed.

Not a problem though. The bike continued to fire right back up and there were no further electrical issues with the bike. It sure took a load off of my mind as we headed on over to Cherokee that afternoon. It was a gorgeous ride across Stecoah Gap and through Bryson City. Incidentally, when you go through Bryson City the signs say 20mph... it's a good idea to do it... we saw several folks who didn't take that piece of advice.

It had been a long stressful day so we didn't hang around and went back through the gap in the lingering twilight with a first quarter moon lighting our way. There were hikers at the place on the top of the ridge. They were chatting about finding a big load of bear shit right in the middle of the trail. At first I thought it would be pretty cool to see a bear, but later on we discovered that this year the bears are particularly aggressive. There's just not enough food for them so it's even more of a good idea than usual to stay out of their way.

Tuesday June 18. 2002

The next day we decided to take two short trips. The first was in the morning and we went west on 143 our of Robbinsville out to the Cherohala Skyway just to enjoy the view. The day was gorgeous and it was simply outstanding. We stopped at a couple of overlooks - one at about 3500 feet and the other right at a mile in the air. At the high one we MAY have seen a bear. It was over on the next mountain resting in a meadow. Didn't even bother taking a picture since at full resolution and magnification it would only have been about a half a pixel wide. He showed up pretty well in the binoculars though.

That afternoon it was back through the Park and then on to Cherokee to see the evening production of "Unto These Hills" which is the history of the United States from the perspective of the Cherokee. If you haven't seen this thing, it's well worth the trouble to go. And pay the extra two bucks for the reserved seating.

It sure was chilly riding back home over Stecoah Gap though! Since the play didn't end until 11pm, it was past midnight before we made it back down to Robbinsville. But we could really feel the warm front once we crossed over the gap.

Wednesday June 18. 2002

The next day was Wednesday and we decided to take it easy. Just a day to relax before heading home. In fact the only thing we did was to run over to the next county for beer with a bunch of guys staying in the rooms next door to us. They rode up from Hickory NC for a break from work. It started raining hard on the way back so we pulled the bikes up on the porch and watched it pour down while listening to the church bells playing tunes in the late afternoon. Cosmo, Reggie, Slim and Beercan sat out there with us drinking with us into the evening.

Thursday June 20. 2002

The next morning we bid farewell to Robbinsville. Though it was only Thursday we decided that it would be much more pleasant to take our time riding back southbound, taking back roads most of the way rather than hammering straight down I-75.

It turned out to be a really good move. On Wednesday night Cosmo had suggested a nice road running straight through the Wayah State Game Refuge just north of the Georgia border. Though we were both keeping an eye out, we missed the turn and ended up taking SR28 south through Franklin instead. This was also a great road, with lots of tight twisties running through the southern Smokies and the Nantahala National Forest.

The road became US441 and straightened out as we went south through the Georgia Piedmont and eventually opened up into a 4-lane divided highway crossing I-85 and running through Athens. I must say that the loop around Athens had some of the most confusing exit signs I've ever seen, but in the end it wasn't really all that difficult to stick with US441 as it headed further south. We crossed I-20 and ended up in Eatonton, the county seat of Putnam county.

Putnam county has several distinctions, one of which is being the birthplace and lifelong home of Joel Chandler Harris. I confess that I wouldn't have recognized the name either until I saw the Uncle Remus images surrounding his name. He lived in the area from 1848 until his death in 1908 and created B'rer Fox, B'rer Rabbit, and the rest of the beloved characters. They even have a small theme park dedicated to the stories.

Eatonton also has a magnificent old-style courthouse in the middle of the town square. There are plenty of historical markers there too, outlining the history of the area including the roles it played in both Stoneman's Raid and Sherman's March to the Sea. There's also a stone memorial dedicated to the Confederate Veterans and containing a beautiful poem dedicated to the women of the Confederacy.

We had a good Mexican dinner along Route 441 just south of town and retired to a Budget Inn for the evening.

Friday June 21. 2002

I had wanted to make Eatonton the day before since that's where 441 and 129 split. We followed 129 over to I-75 at Macon and took that south just a few miles. I knew that we would be passing Andersonville and wanted to stop and see it. Well the road was certainly well marked. The place is a National Historic Site and the standard brown signs on the Interstate pointed us right over to SR49 which we followed right to it. Along the way there were Historic Trail markers pointing out the twists and turns the route took so it was a nice comfortable 44-mile ride through the heart of Georgia farm country.

I really had no idea of what to expect when we got there. Since I grew up in the northeast I've been to plenty of Civil War battle sites and figured it would be something similar. But it was really nothing like that. It was easy to tell when we'd gotten there because unlike so many battle sites the place is on a privately owned piece of land (since donated to the National Parks Service) rather than in the middle of the countryside. There was a beautiful entrance gate which belied what was resting behind.

I've never visited Auchwitz, but I suspect that the feeling evoked there is similar to what you get at Andersonville. Though the place is breathtakingly beautiful, you can't help but recoil in horror at what you see there. The stark simplicity of the place only further illustrates the experience. One more thing - though Andersonville was the most famous/notorious of the POW camps, the experience of the prisoners held there was not at all uncommon on either side of the Mason-Dixon Line.

We rode around the perimeter under lowering skies and took pictures of each of the illustrative plaques posted there. Though we missed the guided tour, the plaques did a great job of illustrating the history of the place. They run the tours at 11am and 2pm and I'd recommend taking it if you visit.

Because it was threatening to rain, I opted to see the grounds before going into the little museum, but we went through at the end of our circuit. A surprise awaited us there, since the place was not focused on Andersonville itself, but was instead the National Prisoner of War Museum, dedicated to all Americans who had shared the POW experience. I had thought that the grounds had been sobering, but this little museum was simply in a class by itself. I couldn't even have imagined the horror of what these folks experienced, and the museum did a superb job of illustrating and commemorating it. Every step was a new experience and there were two films, each of which moved me to tears. I've seen a lot of museums, but this one was by far the best single-issue museum I've ever visited.

When we left it was raining lightly. It was a fitting accompaniment to our mood. We followed SR49 down into Americus and turned east on US280 to head back to the Interstate. We ran southbound to Valdosta to get out from underneath the rain and spent a little extra money for a nice comfortable place for our last night on the road.

Saturday June 22, 2002

It was cloudy and rain was threatening as we got up the next day for our final leg southbound. Since we were just 200 miles or so from home we weren't in too much of a hurry to get started. Boy did THAT turn out to be a bad move...

At least we got a good breakfast. We pulled off I-75 at the Jasper exit and ducked into a little truck stop which we'd visited before. The theme is unabashedly Christian and the food is unbelievably good. A great place to fuel ourselves up before continuing the southbound run.

We made it as far as Gainesville before the weather really started to close in, so that's where we pulled off to get gas and wait under the canopy for the rain to ease up. An hour later we were back on the road but we only made it another 35 miles before it got REALLY bad, with the rain and mist thrown up by other vehicles so dense that I couldn't even see the edge of the roadway, let alone the lights of the car ahead. We pulled over under an overpass and waited out the worst of it before continuing to the next exit and finding another canopy to hide under. Though the wind had kicked up quite a bit along with the rain, I didn't realize just how bad it had gotten until we heard that a tornado had touched down within 10 miles of where we had taken refuge under the overpass.

The skies cleared up a bit after a while so we continued on down the road, only to see a very serious storm cell ahead after only another 15 miles or so. This time prudence was the better part of valor and we took shelter before we actually got into it and waited another hour. But by this time we were starting to run out of daylight. We had called home and discovered that the storms quit just south of Ocala. Since we were already south of Ocala, we figured that we'd risk it and just ride off into the rain.

It was a good bet. The rain eased up after only about 20 miles and we had a nice dry run out from under the clouds almost all the way to Tampa. Notice how I said "almost"... Another incredibly powerful storm cell loomed on the horizon as we entered Pasco County, but our luck held and we actually managed to skirt around the edge of that storm and didn't have much rain to deal with at all.

Afterword

We finally rolled up to the house around 7pm, soaking wet and thankful to be home. We put on 1,777.7 miles in 9 days, averaging just under 200 miles per day. It was a nice relaxing pace and beat the tar out of my usual method of pounding out as many miles as I possibly could before finally collapsing of exhaustion. Funny how the influence of a woman works, isn't it?

Gas mileage was great too, averaging slightly better than 40mpg in the mountains and about 37 for the trip as a whole. The only mechanical issue was the dead battery, which the trickle charger fixed nicely. The trickle charger also had another unforeseen benefit. Since I had paid 40 bucks for the thing, I wasn't about to just leave it behind. But since we were packed to the gills, I couldn't haul it either. So I went to the grocery store in Robbinsville and asked for a box, bought a small roll of duct tape, and we packed the charger and a bunch of dirty laundry into it before dropping it off at the Post Office to mail home. I'll bet I saved the $9 it cost to ship in gas I didn't have to buy.