As promised, here's my ride report from our trip. It was delayed for a few days because of work and catching a bug that's kicking my butt. Hope you enjoy!
My wife and I decided that to ride down from Ohio to Eastern Tennessee to visit BajaRon's shop. I contacted them ahead of time and made an appointment to change all 3 tires on Weds, which was their first opening of the week. We kenneled our senior wiener Dogs, Sammie and Snickers, then packed our bags for the trip. The doggers are 12 & 14 years old and we worry each time we take a trip, hoping that they don't get sick or hurt and so far, it's been good. They're always excited to go for a ride, then promptly poop next to the walkway at the kennel when we drop them off. Maybe they aren't so excited after all.
We've taken a couple of trips already this year, and we feel like we're getting better at deciding what we need and perhaps more importantly, what we don't need. We use compression bags for our clothes, which work really well. I took the advice of a friend to separate my daily outfits into grocery bags before packing them and I think that worked out really well. We each took swim trunks/bathing suits but never used them, although there were a couple of nights when a hot tub would have worked wonders on achy muscles.
We left home at 7:30 Monday morning and drove down to Ashland, Ky, where we stopped for coffee and breakfast around 10:30. There wasn't much traffic, roads were in good shape, weather was good with overcast clouds. Using the GPS, we saw that there were scattered rain showers ahead, but we found that they were dissipating as we drove further South. Ashland, on the Ohio River, is a nice way point with plenty of restaurants, shops, and businesses. We stopped at Bob Evans and had a nice breakfast of coffee and pastries.
We continued down US-23 through Kentucky, and really enjoyed to ride. The road is in great shape, and the curves kept us engaged. Having grown up in the South, I am familiar with Kudzu, but it was still amazing to see how it affected the landscape, swallowing up farm silos, barns and homesteads along the way. In places it resembled the human form as it climbed up power poles and along the power lines, appearing as scarecrows hanging in corn fields.
We stopped in Wise, VA for lunch. One of those scattered showers found us along the way, but wasn't really a factor... until we stopped at a traffic light.
Twice. For like 5 minutes at a time. By the time we pulled into our lunch stop we were pretty soaked. We had a good lunch, then high tailed it down to our first overnight stop in Athens, TN. We were fortunate to miss most of the rush hour traffic around Knoxville.
Tuesday morning, we packed everything up, headed down the hall for breakfast at the Hampton Inn, then off to Tellico Plains at 9:00. We stopped at the Cherohala Skyway Visitors Center and met a wonderfully cheerful and helpful young lady named Ivy. She answered all of our questions, then gave us a sweet, warm Southern Tennessee smile and a wave as we headed out. We mounted up and drove the magnificent Cherohala Skyway. The 40 MPH speed limit is perfect, as it allows both the driver and rider enjoy the scenery as we wound up and through the mountains. We stopped along the way to take in the Smokies in all their glory. For the most part, the traffic obeyed the speed limit, and we were most fortunate that we were visiting on a weekday morning. The road was wide open for us. I can see why this is a highly desired drive in the fall, the view must be magnificent.
As we left the Cherohala, we rode down to Robbinsville, where we stopped for lunch at nice little diner called "Lynn's Place". There were plenty of locals there followed by groups of riders. The service was good, the food was great!! My wife asked if Lynn was still involved on the day to day, and we learned that they were in the process of selling the place. I secretly hope they keep the name, as they clearly have a following.
We continued down the road to Deal's Gap, where we stopped and shopped the gift stores. After watching all types of vehicles head up the conquer the Tail of the Dragon, we decided it was time to do it ourselves. So we mounted up on our fully loaded RT S2S and rode the Tail. The road is fantastically maintained. Not a pothole to be found, plenty of pull-off areas where needed, lines clearly painted, and a super smooth surface. We had a blast riding the Tail, then turned around and rode back to Deal's Gap. We were able to maintain the speed limit quite well and weren't passed by anyone on the initial pass, but we surrendered in the curves when we were being overtaken on the 2nd pass. We stopped for a beverage and enjoyed the scenery for a little while before deciding to head out. We topped off with 93 octane and rode the tail a 3rd time, then drove the Foothills Parkway headed towards our next stop.
The Foothills Parkway is beautifully maintained ride that mostly runs the ridge line of the mountains. Plenty of scenic pull off areas offer views of the country side and Smokies. Traffic was light, and the road was fun to drive. We eventually worked our way through Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, and DollyWood as we drove to our next overnight stay in Newport, TN.
The following morning we rode to Greenville, TN. We pulled into BajaRons shop 10 minutes before our appointment and were met by a very pleasant young man named Adrian. He had our information, asked for confirmation on which tires we wanted, and asked if there was anything else we wanted them to do while we were there; so I asked them to check the brakes and the anti-sway bar (to make sure I'd secured it correctly). Adrian walked us down to meet Paige, another wonderfully pleasant person who offered recommendations for coffee, breakfast, and sight-seeing while we waited. We walked up to the Catalyst Coffee shop for a nice cup of joe, then toured the Andrew Johnson Museum and Home. We made our way back to the shop just as our Spyder was being returned from a test drive. We paid our bill, shook hands with the crew, asked for lunch recommendations, then made our way up the Biggies Sandwich shop, which was very nice surprise!!
Prior to the day I had reached out to Spyderlovers Forum member Dasmoetorhead. He had written a great ride recommendation, and I asked if he'd be willing to ride with us and he eagerly accepted. We met this wonderful gentleman a little before 2 PM, and he described the route that he'd chosen for us. We followed behind as he guided us through the hills east of Piney Flats, TN on Hwy 321 then over to Hwy 421. Along the way we stopped at a monument to the old School Country General Store. This was an obviously old building, but it was packed with everything you could think of; from clothes, shoes, hats, cookware, pocket-knives, board games, and ice cream, to Coca Cola in a bottle. It was so cool to browse though, and to take it all in. As we walked through store, I talked to Tom about his service in the Coast Guard. He's a humble but proud retired "Coastie" and we were honored to spend the afternoon with him. Being a US Marine with sea service time under my belt, I found our "lingo" very familiar and enjoyable.
As we left the store, he told us the next leg would be the first half of The Snake, Hwy 421. He led us along and we hit the curves! What a great ride, and it was awesome to watch him ride ahead. Being very familiar with the road, his confidence was apparent. And it wasn’t hard to see that he was easing up so that we could keep up. We then stopped at the 421 Country Store. This is the meeting place for riders to find refreshment along the ride, however we learned that the store is not open on Wednesday's! We walked around and talked more as my wife climbed the flag stand tower to take pictures. Over the 30 minutes or so that we walked and BS'd there were probably another half dozen riders pull in and to their surprise also learn that the store is not open.
We left the store and took on the 2nd half of The Snake. Super twisty, and downhill switchbacks that were a blast! Our tour guide then led us out and onward to Bristol Motor Speedway, where we drove through the parking lot like we owned the place. There were haulers in line going in, apparently for an event that week. This is where we said goodbye to Tom and thanked him for taking the afternoon to show us around. What a great guy!
We rode back to Greenville the following day to see the guys at BajaRon’s shop again to work on a problem that had developed. It’s described in another thread here:
https://www.spyderlovers.com/forums...deas-to-help&p=1717354&viewfull=1#post1717354
Since it was late afternoon, we got a room there in Greenville at the General Morgan Inn, a very nicely renovated historic hotel. Earlier in the day we had lunch at The Tannery, then in the evening we visited the Nickle Ridge Winery; afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and stopped at the Brumley Bar where we met Tim the bartender. We had a fun conversation with Tim, as he shared a lot of local history and recommended riding areas.
The next morning we loaded up and drove across I-81 to Hungry Mothers State Park and rode the Back of the Dragon, another wonderfully winding, twisting, and exciting road in SW Virginia. We stopped for lunch and souvenirs at the Back of the Dragon Visitors Center. Before we left on the next leg of the trip, I let the Garmin chose an adventurous route up to SE Ohio. We rode through some very rural areas, way back in the hollers. At one point for about 10 miles, we were on a single lane, twisty, patchy, road with blind curves and hills. My wife was not liking this path (at all), and when we emerged on the other end and stopped for gas, we rerouted to a quicker route that travelled much better roads. We made it to our last hotel of the trip in Gallipolis, OH, and we had dinner at a great little Mexican Diner called Toro Loco.
The next morning, after breakfast, we rode US-35 back home. Overall, we had a great ride and enjoyed some beautiful scenic roads. We are hoping to hit WV, VA, and NC areas again soon.
Total ride distance was 1,479 miles.
Avg mpg 32.2.
Avg speed 45 mph.
