Great ride in East TN with the wife on the RT

[Lamonster]

My wife has been really stressed out here lately because she's starting nursing school next week and she worried she bit off more than she can chew. I'm sure she'll be just fine but her days of going on rides with me are numbered for sure. Next week she agreed to ride to NC about 100 miles or so to a friends house warming. I thought today would be a great day to go hunt down a gift and to give my wife a little stress relief.

Now you got to understand that before the RT my wife had no desire at all to ride with me. She still has a very real fear of motorcycles and she told me today that's she's even fearful on the RT but she knows this is about has safe as you're going to get and the fact that I've been all over the country several times on the Spyder and have always made it back is a big help. I'm thankful that's she's willing to face her fears and try and have a good time with me on the Spyder.

Before we left I took the time to setup the new Cardio Scala Rider G4 headsets that I bought a few weeks ago. I've been using them to listen to my iphones MP3 player hooked into the RT but I had yet to try it with rider to rider. That took a little time getting everthing setup but it turns out that was one of the best things I could have done. It was really great to talk to each other going down the road and to point out things that before we would just talk about after we stopped, or not. I got to say that this was money well spent and I like that they are Bluetooth and we weren't cabled up. This made the trip so much better.

I took the trailer so I could throw whatever we bought in it. Good thing I did because it wouldn't have fit in the RT very well.



It was pretty hot and my wife likes to drink a lot of water and the last trip we took was bad because she just couldn't keep enough water in her. This trip she dug out the Camelback she uses when she backpacks and that was the ticket right there. She still got a little hot but at least she had plenty of water this time.

We decided to take the back roads toward Gatlinburg and look for some wood carvings that might make a nice gift. My friends live in a Log home and that would go great in there. As we drove on the 321 my wife said something about this little place called the Apple House and how she always wanted to check it out. It's right off the road and you really can't see much so I decided to pull on in. We got a great parking spot and I was pretty blown away by the place.



They had a little candy store and a pretty good little market with all sorts of good stuff to eat. Pretty much anything to do with apples were there along with other fruits and vegetables. It's a great place to bring the wife, they love that kind of stuff.





They have a great place to eat and I can see this being one of my new stops to bring my biker friends. We both had the special and it was BBQ sandwich, fries, apple cider, apple fritters with apple butter, a drink and the best peach pie I've had in a long time all for about 7 bucks. I was so full I didn't even eat dinner afterward.

There's plenty of seating for a large group.


This was our view out the window.



One of the things I love about East TN is the people. We stopped by and met Peggy and looked at her wood carvings. They have some really cool stuff in there and as we got to talking with her she told us some great stories. Peggy and her husband Billy are the real deal Hillbillies. They were good friends with a famous Hillbilly named [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xi5a-QdF6U"]"Popcorn Sutton"[/ame] and we talked about Moonshine and how things were when they were growing up around these here parts. Chris and I both enjoyed that stop.

As we went to leave she saw the RT and said she loved it and that's what her and Billy wanted to get. I gave her a SpyderLovers card and told her to look us up if they had any questions. If nothing else we made some new friends today.

This is Peggy and my wife Chris.


This is Peggy's husband Billy. Now is that a Hillbilly or what?



Billy wasn't at the store but Peggy said he was down at the Pow Wow just about a mile down the road. We hadn't been to a Pow Wow so we decided to stop by. We did see Billy but he looked like he was pretty busy with folks so we didn't bother him. We did take time and watched some traditional Indian dancing, that was pretty cool.



They had some really cool wood carvings there. Check this out.





After that we headed up the road to another place I've always wanted to stop at and that's where we found the perfect gift. I'm not going to post it because I don't want to spoil the surprise but I'll post a picture of it next week when we make the trip to NC.

Here's the place we stopped. They had a lot of cool stuff to look and this is typical for East TN.







We had a great ride home and the whole trip was only about a 100 miles but it was a great 100 miles and that's a good run for the wife. I hope we can take more trips like this when Fall comes.

[tatt2r]

Awesome

[VaughnCat]

Sounds like a great adventure! Thanks for sharing the trip with us.

Cat & Vaughn

[SpyderSteve]

Looks like you and Chris had a great time, I have had my for about 15 months and my g/f finally agreed to go around the block tomorrow

[Lamonster]

Looks like you and Chris had a great time, I have had my for about 15 months and my g/f finally agreed to go around the block tomorrow

That's a start

[dancogan]

The intercom really makes the trip. When you don't have time to talk during the week, we find a nice ride on the bike is just what it takes to re-open the lines of communication and start sharing - not only what we see on the road but things that happened during the week that we didn't share at the time.

Anyway, a big for your wife and hoping you guys get to share many more rides.

[Big Arm]

Sounds like you two had a great time today

[Capt John]

As usual great post with pics! I know your were loving every minute of getting to ryde with Chris. I hope you two have many more memorable rydes.

[ynot]

happy you guy's had a good ride.

[SpyderWolf]

What a great way to spend the day together. Does that bluetooth intercom work bike to bike as well? I think it would be pretty cool to talk to my wife while we are ryding as well, instead of pointing at things and hoping she will ask me about what I was pointing at later.

[Lamonster]

What a great way to spend the day together. Does that bluetooth intercom work bike to bike as well? I think it would be pretty cool to talk to my wife while we are ryding as well, instead of pointing at things and hoping she will ask me about what I was pointing at later.

I haven't tried it yet but it's suppose to be good up to 1 mile bike to bike.
http://www.cardosystems.com/scala-rider

[SpyderWolf]

I haven't tried it yet but it's suppose to be good up to 1 mile bike to bike.
http://www.cardosystems.com/scala-rider

Thanks for the link. I will check it out now, and see how many of my pennies I need to start saving.

[NancysToy]

So glad Chris is still on the pillion. I know it means a lot to you, and it seems that in spite of her fears she is still enjoying it. That says worlds for the RT...and the Spyder in general.

We were intercom converts years ago..from our very first ride with them. They change everything about the journey! It is a delight to be able to carry on a conversation and discuss things as you go, it makes the trip go faster, and it eases the passenger's mind. Here's to many more rides together in the future.

[bikeguy]

Great trip and great write-up and pics. Thanks for sharing it with us. +1 on the intercom. I said for years, jokingly of course, that I had to listen to my wife at home and I wasn't gonna listen to her on the bike. But when we started wearing full face helmets it was so hard to say anything that I finally broke down and got a Cardo Q2. The intercom has made our rides much more enjoyable. It's a real pleasure to be able to talk while we're going down the road.

Cotton

[Mo Lee]

Great write up, and it sounds like a good time. Spyderfest Cuba the wife and I had a opportunity to try out our BT interphones for the 1st time and even during the last part of the ride on I44 we were able to communicate well at 85 mph. X- Joe and myself have used them a couple of time bike to bike with good results. Blue tooth can be a PIA sometimes and a little complicated to use but really add to the fun factor on the ride.

[dave01]

Sounds like a great trip and time spent together. I love the back roads thru Tenn and NC. Sometimes, I just get out and ryde and have no destination in mind but thank God my GPS has a go home button on it,,,LOL

[YPILOT]

Nice to hear that your ryde togerher turned out so good. My wife & I also use the G4's. We'll be leaving Peoria this mornig, heading home to TN. I plan to write about our visit later. Dennis

[fastfraser]

Great trip ! When we were down last year there was all kinds of little stores of the beaten track that had awesome carvings .

[G-Man]

I haven't tried it yet but it's suppose to be good up to 1 mile bike to bike.
http://www.cardosystems.com/scala-rider

They work bike to bike (or bike to Spyder) great. BumbleBee and I have been using them for months now. It's nice to be able to talk about the many things we see while riding. One of the best things though, is being able to warn each other of obstacles in the road, abrupt stops or slowing, and maneuvering lane changes without using arm signals. An added plus is the fact that BumbleBee can Bluetooth connect to the Garmin for directions and music. It will also allow you to talk hands free on you cell phone.

[katnapper]

wow, great story.. as always here we learn things.

[clueless]

I haven't tried it yet but it's suppose to be good up to 1 mile bike to bike.
http://www.cardosystems.com/scala-rider

great company headquartered here in Pittsburgh... I had their first model they put out about 3 years ago to use to talk to my cell phone on my sports bike... we went to hard wired cb/comm for the RT-S. just got tired of making sure it was charged etc... that out weighed the ability to just plug in and ride... plus we ride in a group alot so the CB was a definite need and did not want something to strap on to our waist to communicate.

but they do have their uses ... i guess if I really need to have phone comm will just wear a headset under helmet with inline mic that comes with the cell phone and put phone in my front mesh jacket pocket.

but back to topic, did she notice the improved shocks?

for me the GF actually is the driver most of the time and I am passenger on the RT. on the Harley its switched

[retired1]

It's great that you and Chris got to share in onr of your passions (riding). In my opinion, thr type of ride you took is the most enjoyable. You have a final goal in mind, but you don't worry too much about the way you reach it!

[mindman]

The intercom really makes the trip. When you don't have time to talk during the week, we find a nice ride on the bike is just what it takes to re-open the lines of communication and start sharing - not only what we see on the road but things that happened during the week that we didn't share at the time.

Anyway, a big for your wife and hoping you guys get to share many more rides.

I couldn't agree more. We have the Q2 Multiset and our rides have become highly anticipated events. They are "islands of privacy" in our very busy lives that really help us recharge and spend good quality time together.

[SpyderSteve]

They work bike to bike (or bike to Spyder) great. BumbleBee and I have been using them for months now. It's nice to be able to talk about the many things we see while riding. One of the best things though, is being able to warn each other of obstacles in the road, abrupt stops or slowing, and maneuvering lane changes without using arm signals. An added plus is the fact that BumbleBee can Bluetooth connect to the Garmin for directions and music. It will also allow you to talk hands free on you cell phone.

Just went to Niagara Falls and back with StanTheMan,We are using the g4. Stanley has a gps so when we needed gas on the way back he found a station, it was great talking to each other rather then pointing, Then my micron fell apart so i didn't have to worry about me stopping and him not knowing i just told him i had to pull over. Then when we were stopped Stanley helped a guy in a car with directions

[GypsyBill]

Thanks so much for sharing the ride... until the heat around here abates some and the wife completely recovers from some recent surgery, posts like these ease the pain of just looking at ours under its cover..