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Thursday, May 04, 2006

A Shot and a Beer



Thursday, April 27th



I left the house on the Vision with all my camping gear, tools and extra parts, stopped at the A&A Market in Callaway and filled the bike with Gas. Then it was off to Deal’s Gap via the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was to meet Bill (AKA Mutt) in Deep Gap, NC at 12:30 PM.


The entire ride to Deep Gap was wet. Although I didn’t hit any actual rain, the roadway was very wet and the sky was quite dark. I saw a lot of turkey on the parkway. At one point, I could see blue sky to the West, but it didn’t last long.


I arrived at Greene’s Grill (Now known as The Blue Ridge Diner) right at 12:30 PM. I thought to myself that it looked like I beat Bill to the rendezvous point. I waited for an hour or so and he still wasn’t there. I know from weather reports that he was going to be riding his Vision through a lot of rough weather, so I wasn’t too concerned. After the second hour went by, I called my house to see if there were any messages from Bill and there were none. Somewhere near the third hour, I called Bill’s house and talked with his Mother-in-Law who hadn’t heard from him. I went into the Diner and had a BLT and some Fries, trying to pass the time. I went back outside and waited some more and then somewhere near 4:00 PM, Bill rolled in on his Vision.

Apparently, he had to wait out some thunder storms and had one heck of a ride across North Carolina. Bill grabbed a bite to eat and we were on the road South before 5:00 PM. The weather had completely cleared by this time.


We continued on the Parkway until about Little Switzerland where we ran into some detour signs advising that the parkway was closed until Ashville. We ran into a guy who advised that he drives the parkway a lot and he gave us some better directions than where the detour was sending us. So, we decided to follow his directions and head East on Rt. 226. Well, I immediately made a wrong turn and ended up on Rt. 226A. It may have been a wrong turn, but wow was this Rt. 226A an incredible motorcycle road. Perfectly paved with tight twisty curves. We eventually made it back to Rt. 226 and then South on Rt. 70 and West on I40, back to the parkway.


Now, we are on the parkway, heading south from Ashville and it’s starting to get dark. We put a couple of miles behind us and after the sun went down, it got quite cold. We decided to take a break at one of the overlooks and try and figure out where we were. It turned out that we were at one of the highest points on the parkway and the temperature was a very cold and windy 39oF. I have heated grips on my bike, plus I had on my winter coat over my mesh riding jacket and I was cold… Bill was considerably colder than I was. Bill tried to get warm, but it wasn’t working, plus it was getting very late. We got off the parkway to get gas at the next exit. After getting gas, we decided not to get back on the parkway and look for an alternate route to Stecoah and The Kickstand Lodge.


We made a quick run down Rt. 441, to Rt. 19 and then to Rt. 28 and finally arrived at the Kickstand Lodge at 12:30 AM. When we arrived, we found a note on the door to the store that read "Fred & Mo are out back". Bill and I walked around Back and couldn’t find anyone. While we were walking back to our bikes, Mo walked up behind us and introduced herself. She invited us into the store and asked if there was anything we needed. Bill, joking around, said "A shot and a beer would be nice". Mo then walked us into a second room, where Bill and I thought she was going to check us into the campground and assign a campsite. But instead, she pointed to a refrigerator and advised that the beer was in there and then pointed to a shelf outside the back door and said that there was some Crown Royal and other liquors there and to help ourselves. I guess we found the right place.


Bill and I then proceeded to set up our tent in the dark and then went over to the campfire and met some of the Yamaha Warrior Riders. We had some good talk and some fun jokes and then finally went to bed, sometime before 4:00 AM.


Friday, April 28th



Bill and I woke up from our little tent at about 9:30 AM and found that when we had set up the tent in the dark, we set it up on an incline. We also found out that we were sleeping facing down hill, with our feet higher than our heads. This turned out to be quite uncomfortable. We wandered over to the store at about 10:00 AM to hunt down some coffee and found that Fred had cooked everyone breakfast and we missed it. I guess you snooze, you lose.


The Warrior Guys had rented a drag strip for 5 hours today. The drag strip was somewhere in Marysville, so Bill and I were going to head over to the Dragon and then head to Marysville and try and find the Drag Strip. Apparently, Yamaha was going to do a photo shoot of the Warrior bikes at the drag strip. We thought this was cool and wanted to watch.


We got to the Deal’s Gap Motorcycle Resort, where we stayed last year and putzed around the gift shop for a while and watched some of the stupid people (For example, a stretched ‘Busa on the Dragon has got to be just about worthless). We then took a spin across the Dragon and stopped at the overlook. While at the overlook, we saw a guy eying our bikes pretty hard. In talking with him, we found that he had just given away an ’83 Yamaha Vision to his neighbor. Turns out, his neighbor wants to sell it as he doesn’t want it either. We told him about the Riders of Vision website (That he didn’t know about) and he asked what we thought our bikes were worth. He lives somewhere in Pennsylvania, I don’t remember where.


Off to try and find the drag strip in Marysville. We asked several people if they knew where it was and nobody knew. That is until we met a postal employee who knew exactly where it was… "Right down this road, about a mile on the Left, Big sign, Can’t miss it". Well, it turned out, that postal employee was a liar. He had no idea and wanted to have some fun with us… Asshole. Bill and I decided to go back to the Dragon and run that again.


We ended up back at the campground at about 5:00 PM and found that Fred and Mo had cooked a huge feast for all the campers. We had BBQ Chicken, Ziti with Sausage, Salad, Garlic Bread, Potato Salad… Oh man did we eat! All Fred and Mo asked for in return was a donation in the tip jar. One of the campers had his birthday on this day and Fred and Mo provided a huge birthday cake with a motorcycle on top. This Kickstand Lodge is incredible! Then off to the campfire for some more motorcycle chat and some far fetched stories.


Saturday, April 29th



On Saturday, we woke up early enough to take a shower; clean ourselves up a bit and still make it to one of Fred’s great breakfasts. After breakfast, Bill made the mistake of joking around with his Vision and said to her "come on baby, please start for me". He then put the key in the ignition and pressed the starter button and got nothing but a click. Yup, that’s right, Bill’s starter filled with oil or the brushes had gotten worn down beyond use. In trying to remedy the situation, Bill grabbed a rock and started tapping on the starter, Vroom, the bike started. Bill now had the official "Starter Rock".


Bill and I then went geocaching in search of the Sacred Visions of the Cherokee geocache. We found the caves and the geocache and appeased the "Little People". We then started Bill’s bike with a rock that we borrowed from the Little People and then took the long way to the Dragon.


Back at the campground, Bill was complaining of a slight head shake on his Vision. We removed the gas tank and started looking at the head stock when we found that his ignition switch had come loose. We swapped some bolts from my bike and securred his ignition switch. We then put a couple of ¼ turns on his head lock nuts. After a test ride, Bill advised that his head shake is a lot better.


Saturday night, most of the Warrior Riders had left to go home. Apparently, they are allergic to rain and they heard a rumor that it was going to rain on Sunday. With a smaller group in the campground, there was no massive meal prepared by Fred, so Bill and I rode into Robbinsville and found a place called Lynn’s Diner. The food at Lynn’s Diner was pretty damn good. I had the Teriyaki Chicken and it was exceptional.


Back to the campground and early to bed after a short visit to the campfire.


Sunday, April 30th



We woke up early enough, again, to have a nice hot shower and another great breakfast from Fred. We worked on Bill’s bike again and got rid of the head shake completely. We spent some time around the campground this morning and then wandered up to the Motorcycle Resort to do some people watching for a while.


We decided to head to Marysville to grab some lunch. To get to Marysville, we had to run through the Dragon. This was one of the slowest runs we had. We got stuck behind an RV towing a trailer. We spent the time rolling through the Dragon, sight seeing… Did you know there is a waterfall somewhere along that road? All the times I have been through there, I never noticed. It’s actually a pretty place when you go through slowly.


We had lunch at a place called "Backyard Burgers"; this is a good place to eat. Fast food that doesn’t taste like fast food. We realized it was getting later and we were on our way to Dave’s house (DaveTN). We got to Dave’s house at about 4:30 PM (or so). I stopped to take one last look at the directions, when Bill spotted the bright yellow Vision in the driveway two houses away. Dave made some… I mean Dave’s wife made some pretty damn good burgers. Wow, another great meal! We sure did eat good on this trip. Bill, Dave and I talked Visions for a couple of hours. Lucky, from the ROV Forum, called while we were there. We all talked for quite some time. We talked in the kitchen, the computer room and the garage, it was great.


Bill and I decided we had better head back to the campground as it was starting to rain. So about 10:00 PM, we left Dave’s house and ended up running the Dragon at night in the rain. This was not fun! It was the type of rain where you couldn’t see the lines in the road, man that sucked. We took it real slow and got back to the camp at about midnight.


Monday, May 1st



Monday was the day to head home. Again we got up early enough to get our last taste of Fred’s breakfast. We hung around drinking coffee and shootin’ the shit with Fred for a while. Then we packed up our camp site and loaded our bikes. We gave Fred the one beer that we had left and he said he would put it to good use. Bill and I stopped at the closest gas station and filled our tanks, then said our good byes. Bill then headed east toward Raleigh and I went north looking for the Interstate.


I slayed the Dragon one last time and then hit I40 East to I81 North. About 6.5 hours later at 70 -75 MPH and I was home. Watched my Son play a scrimmage little league game and thought life is pretty good. My little Yamaha Vision ran flawlessly and carried me everywhere I wanted to go.


Comments:
Nice right up and great pictures. It was great meeting you guys. But you forgot the best image of all. I laughed my a$$ off all week, but this was the cherry on top.

http:www.sangathor.com/Pics/bench.JPG
 
man chris sounds like i missed a good time. well i guess it is true what they say about visions when they get together. looks like mutt's v lost this time.

ps2
 
I'm keeping the "starter rock". It's good luck. I logged a total of 1,150 miles for the trip. My V ran fine as long as I used the rock to start it. No more messing around with the gremlins. Ran between 65 and 80 mph on the way home with no problems.

Mutt
 
Why is your bike trying to kill you in the first picture?
 
PS2, last year when I came by there on the way home there was a guy (dummy) sitting on top dressed in helmet boots and all. I was thinking the picture could be cropped so that you can't see me sitting on the ground. This was a little store with very resonable prices close to the kickstand camp ground.

Mutt
 
When we went to apologize to Fred for his bench, he said "It finally broke? I was meaning to get around to fixin' that." I was in that pic and I couldn't stop laughing my a$$ off!! We'll have to come up with something to top that for next time! It was an awsome time and it was great to meet you all~!!
Shar
 
Saw your link from Gymi's place and I enjoyed your pics and write up. I had never heard "geocaching." Thanks for the link. I'm going to have to look into that. The Sacred Visions of the Cherokee geocache sure sounded like fun. With all that rain, glad everyone got home safe.
 
Sept 06 - return to the dragon ---you goin? We need to come up with something better than the bench!! Do you keep up with the warrior site??

Shar...
 
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