Back from the Gap - Pictures & reports tomorrow!

[lobo10s]

Back from the Gap - Lots of Pictures!

Jackie, Rob, Jamie and I just got home, 2300+ miles on the GPS and a great week of riding. i will be posting pictures and a ride report tomorrow. Right now I am going to take a shower and have a beer and day dream about the last week.

 

[Vrn_james]

Welcome Home... Can't wait till Friday, then I'll be heading that way...

 

[Tourmeister]

Glad to hear it was a great trip! I look forward to the report and pics!

 

[Tracker]

We're all jealous.... and waiting .......

 

[Humblekat]

We're all jealous.... and waiting .......

+1

 

[Vrn_james]

Come on... Thes suspence is killing us...

 

[lobo10s]

Saturday May 24
Plano to Greenville Mississippi

The day had finally arrived and we were set to hit the road. The Trophy was LOADED down. We had camping gear as well as all of the things needed for an 8 day trip. Jamie was really good as she got most of her things in one side case.

We met Rob at the local Race Trac and then headed over to 80 and hook up with Jackie. We got to him around 8:15. After a quick hello we were all anxious to hit the road and start the journey.

We hit the road and made it over to Minneola for a quick bite of breakfast. We wanted to eat at the La Waffalatta but they did not open until 10AM. I thought it was kind of strange for a breakfast location but it all worked out. We walked across the street to the out Kitchens Deli & Restaurant. This is a nice breakfast place, attached to a hardware store. It was a very cool place.

We then headed up north thru Gilmer and up thru east Texas. The ride was a nice one. I always love the change of scenery in that part of Texas. It looked like it could rain, but never did. It kept things pretty cool for the day in fact. We did the little slab across Arkansas going thru El Dorado, Hamburg and finishing up in HOT and HUMID Greenville MS.

We stayed at the Days Inn. Speaking with the girl behind the desk, we learned that 92 degrees and 100% humidity was a nice day. She told me in her own southern way, that it would get so much hotter during the true summer. She said she stays inside all of the time as it gets **** hot later in the summer. I thought to myself, that this was **** hot hehehe.

We did get to see the new bridge across the Mississippi around Greenville. It is a high tech bridge and looks pretty cool. They have a bunch of casinos in that area, it seems to have brought some money to the area. The town itself seems pretty depressed.

I will post Day 2 in a little while

 

[ekms377]

 

[jhansen]

I like the older bridge. Looks like it has "character".

 

[Tourmeister]

I am gonna go out on a limb and speculate that your back rack is loaded a teeny bit over the recommended load limit...

By the way, I love the blue on those Trophies...

 

[lobo10s]

I am gonna go out on a limb and speculate that your back rack is loaded a teeny bit over the recommended load limit...

By the way, I love the blue on those Trophies...

Lets just say when I started the Trophy up GVWR flashed on the dash hehehe I was worried about the weight but the bike did well. I guess it is used to having my big ***** on top of her, so a little more weight is not that big of deal.

 

[Tourmeister]

Lets just say when I started the Trophy up GVWR flashed on the dash hehehe

Are you joking or is there actually a warning device for the weight?! Never heard of that

 

[lobo10s]

Sunday May 25
Greenville, MS to 29 Dreams in Leeds Alabama

We woke up in hot and humid Greenville. The AC was blasting in the room. Jamie was a little chilly when she woke up, but that changed quickly when she walked outside. We ate a quick breakfast and headed out into the humid heavy air. Rob and Jamie were fight allergies so we stopped at a Walmart in Greenville. They all look the same hehehe.

The ride to Birmingham was un-eventful. I love how green everything was. It started to get warm by mid afternoon. We wanted to get to the campground so we could eat and take our time setting up for our first night of camping.

We stopped at this little town to take a break. We pulled up to the covered gas pumps, where a group of Harley riders were parked to avoid the heat. When we pulled up, they looked at us like we were aliens. We started to peel off our gear and they just rolled their eyes. They were all in short sleeves and jeans. Of course the women were not even in that. They asked us where we were from. I told them Dallas… They responded TEXAS?? I said yes and they again looked at us again like we were from another planet. A few minutes later they fired up their machines and after making the earth rumble and making my ears bleed they rode off. One took off so fast that if his girl had not had a sissy bar she would have been on the road as she was not paying attention. The people in the gas station just frowned and made comments. One old man said to us, that he liked our bikes, they were quiet.

Rob even had his own pump at the station.

We arrived at 29 Dreams right at 5PM. When we pulled up, it looked like the crowd was thinning out. Being that is was a holiday weekend; they seemed to have been busy. We walked inside to check in. The staff was really friendly. They offered to make us dinner and box it up for us, before the grill closed. They also made us a cooler of beer and water. They said to use what we wanted then return the rest for a credit. They were so out going and made us feel very welcome. We went down and staked out our camp area. When we walked up they had dinner ready and a nice cold beer on ice. It was awesome! I will say it again, they were fantastic!

I even had to do some minor wrenching when we arrived. The latch on the side bags had lost a screw. As you all know I am a great mechanic so it was not a big issue. Ha Ha

We set up camp and then ate dinner in our shaded camp area. It was only 90 degrees out! The restrooms and bathrooms were state of the art. These were best restrooms in a campground that I have ever seen. **** they even had motorcycle mags in the bathrooms for your reading. We will stay there again if we are in the area. We highly recommend the place.

Rob set up his mansion of a tent, while Jackie and I were using our little tents. Rob had a harder time setting up, as the pool table was hard to move into the basement. Hehehe I got a picture of Jackie and Jamie at their best.

We hung out with another couple from Alabama that evening. Mike and Karry were a lot of fun. He was riding a full bagged Harley with a very cool trailer. It was made from an old fridge. It was very cool.

We hit the sack around 10PM. It was really warm when we laid down, but cooled down nicely during the evening. Tomorrow the trip really started as we would visit Barber and hit some nice roads in the afternoon. Day two was a good one. We enjoyed our stay at 29 Dreams.

 

[lobo10s]

Are you joking or is there actually a warning device for the weight?! Never heard of that

No.. I was just joking

 

[Tourmeister]

No.. I was just joking

Well... I kind of thought so... but you never know now days with all the idiot lights, buzzers, and disablers they put on everything

 

[lobo10s]

Re: Back from the Gap - Lots of Pictures!

Monday May 26
Barber Museum – TWO campgrounds

We woke up early on Monday morning. It was already starting to get warm. You could feel the humidity in the air and we knew it was going to get hot later in the day. We decided to break camp before it got any warmer. This was a good plan.

We were packing up tents and getting things back on the bike when we heard Jackie in a louder than normal tone yell…… OUCH! He then looked down to see that his wonderful wife left in some sewing needles when she was doing some work on his pants. Jackie is a little vertically challenged so she had to hem up his pants. I guess she got side tracked and forgot the pins… all THREE of them. Hehehe The rest of the packing happened without anyone getting injured.

We ate a great breakfast, said goodbye to the great people at 29 Dreams and then headed down the road to the Barber Motorsports Museum. I love this place and have been a number of times but it still is a great time. Jackie had never been, so we knew he would enjoy the visit. We took a ton of pictures and here are a few of those. I will feeling a little artsy, so some of the pictures may seem strange. They had a track day going on as well.

We left Barber and headed up to northern Georgia and TWO campground. We took back roads and just enjoyed the day. We did stop at Amicalola Falls State Park. I have always loved these falls and the break was nice as it was a little hot and the falls seemed to cool things down for awhile.

We shot over to a little town named Dahlonega GA. this is the all American town. We went thru on Memorial day and they had flags all over town with names of fallen veterans from the area. It was very touching. Jamie took a great picture of the courthouse while we rode by.

We arrived at TWO campground [http://www.twowheelsonly.com/] a little past 7PM. The little store on the corner was closed so we did not get to have much of a dinner. I was more worried about fuel, as I need to fill up. I figured I would get gas the following morning. We set up camp in a slow downfall of rain. It was actually nice as it cooled things down some.

Tomorrow we would tackle the Dragon.

 

[lobo10s]

Re: Back from the Gap - Deals Gap baby!

Tuesday May 27
TWO Camp – Deals Gap Resort & the Dragon.

The next day we woke up to thick humid air. You could almost cut it with a knife. Jamie had a great idea, so we decided to break camp and spend a couple of days at the Deals Gap resort. That way we were closer to the roads that we wanted to ride. We broke camp and were thinking about where we were going to eat. Jackie and Rob walked over to the little store to grab some coffee. They came back with the news that the store was out of GAS. I thought they were joking. The problem was they were telling the truth. We would have to go 28 miles to get some fuel. I knew I was close to being out. The good news was TWO opened for breakfast so we did not have to go anywhere to get some grub. We were all pretty hungry since there was not a dinner the evening before. Jackie made me laugh out loud when I asked him if he was hungry. His reply was something like “I could eat the *** out of a rat or something like that” It was funny, guess you had to be there. We ate breakfast and met some very nice people from Florida. We talked bikes and cities and then parted ways.

It came out of the fog. A large figure..sporting riding boots

We headed down the rode and we made it the 28 miles for gas. I put 6.2 gallons into the Trophy it holds 6.5 gallons. The roads were great and the excitement was building as we approached the GAP. The scenery in that part of the country is awesome!

We pulled onto US 129 and headed up to the Dragon. We stopped to take pictures at Fugitive Dam (this is the dam that Harrison Ford jumped from in the movie the Fugitive) this is the last stop before the roads get really fun. Whoo hoo..

Jackie Trying to hide

We made our way up this beautiful road to ride into motorcycle mecca. The place was full of bikes and a few LEO’s as well. We knew the LEO factor would be heavier since we were there last, but it was all good. They were only writing tickets for anything 15mph or over. **** on those roads that is doing something. We set up camp and then walked over for lunch. We then jumped on the Dragon and rode the Gap a couple of times. We had no incidents and did not get passed so life was good.

This was one of the first bikes we saw after arriving. The Dragon got him..

It was a great day. We hung out by the fire and just enjoyed the evening. Life is good!

 

[lobo10s]

Killboy & Zee Photos of the gap

Pictures from The gap.

Killboy.com:
Blog: http://killboy.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.killboy.com/destiny.html

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbPage.aspx?e=3825654&g=05&s=225
Jamie and I are on this page

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbPage.aspx?e=3825654&g=05&s=250
Jackie and Rob are on this page

This was on the way back, we are all on this page
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbPage.aspx?e=3825654&g=05&s=300

Zee Photos:
http://www.zeefoto.com/

We are all on this page
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbPage.aspx?e=3823676&g=02&s=150

You can see all of the pictures here. They are low res. I will post the high res when they send them out to me.
http://lonestarlobos.smugmug.com/gallery/5088222_fS9Sv#306606457_Licgb

Jackie looking smooth

This is a great picture as well

 

[lobo10s]

Rain Rain go away!

Wednesday May 28
Rain Rain Go Away!

The rain started around 11:30PM the previous evening and it was still coming down pretty well as we woke up. We knew crawling out of the tent that things would be wet! The ground was really damp. The tent was dry and that is always a great thing. We got up and went and had breakfast. We decided that we would kinda hang out and wait for the rain to go away. We had some great roads on the list for today, but wanted to do them when the roads were dry. I find them much more fun that way  Jamie and Jackie decided to take a nap after breakfast. It was still raining and we told them we would wake them up if the weather broke.

Rob was a tad bored

Jamie came wandering out of the tent after a 4 hour nap.

Rob and I hung out and chatted with the few brave guys that rode up to ride the dragon in the rain. It seems like a bunch of cruisers came in that day. I guess they do not attack the dragon like some sport bikes so the rain did not seem to bother them. I do have to say that the people that rode into the Gap were all very nice and friendly. The people are there to enjoy one thing and that is a wonderful road. I had a nice day of relaxation.

Rob had some time and took a few pics as well. Please turn away as the next picture is not pretty. He did not catch my good side.

Jackie and I did find some time to take a few pictures and I tried my own hand at some action photos. Killboy I’m not! But it was a fun way to pass some time.

We did get a break in the weather around 2PM. We hooked up with our new Buell friend named Ray. (We also ran into another person we met at TWO on a Buell). It seems like they are becoming more popular. I know one thing, Ray rode the wheels off of his. He was from Maryland. He camped right next to us. We all headed into Robbinsville to get some pizza and hit some of the curves. It was a great plan as the roads cleared and the pace was pretty brisk. We ate pizza and decided to take 143 over to 28 thru Fontana Village. We wanted to get some beer for hanging out by the fire later that evening. We got the beer and then BAM.. the skies opened up and we road the last 10 miles in a hard driving rain. We were soaked by the time we got back to camp.

The ground could not take more rain and our site became a swamp. We decided that tomorrow we would ride the roads we wanted to hit, instead of heading out of TN. We knew this would make for a long day later in the trip, but we wanted to enjoy all of the cool roads. We just hoped the rain would go away.

This was Jackie’s first long moto camping trip. Jamie and I love doing it. I think he was getting tired of the rain, as were we… but hey what can you do? We enjoyed the camping and will do it all over again.

The fire pit at the resort is awesome. They supply the wood and all of the people hang out and chat motorcycles. We met some cool people while we hung out and drank some beer. Here are a few things that struck me as odd, cool or something else but I thought I would mention them.

We spoke with a German man that came all the way over to the GAP to live his dream. He explained that he had always wanted to ride a Honda V-65 Sabre on the GAP. It was a simple dream, but he was so happy. You could not get the smile off his face.

There were two guys, from Rhode Island hanging out and telling stories. They rode down on a GSXR 1000 and a Yamaha Warrior. The kicker was they had no bags. They carried everything in a back pack. They left on the morning that it rained. They could only go 100 miles at a time as the Yamaha needed fuel with such a small tank. They rode off with a smile and back packs that had to weigh 50lbs each. I hope they made it home safe.

We spoke with a couple of people from Wisconsin. They had ridden down on a couple of Harleys, a Honda Black Bird and a Honda 600. Two of them were two up. They decided after having a couple of beers that they would run the dragon at NIGHT. We tried to stop them but they said that they did it all of the time. Man I guess I am just a wimp, but those curves, that road and all the critters that could jump out and get you, I would not ride that road at night for any amount of money. But hey that is me.

We went to bed hoping the rain would go away.

 

[Boxercup Dave]

Looks like you had fun. It does make your bike look small

 

[Vrn_james]

Re: Rain Rain go away!

Wednesday May 28
Rain Rain Go Away!


Rob had some time and took a few pics as well. Please turn away as the next picture is not pretty. He did not catch my good side.

Were you checking for a hernia..., turn your head and cough…
Do you have to check that when the GVWR light comes on???

 

[lobo10s]

Leaving the GAP – Riding great roads

Thursday May 29
Leaving the GAP – Riding great roads 28, Wayah Road, Cherohala Skyway.


We woke up to the strange silence. It was not raining and the sun was actually trying to come out. Today would be a great day!

We broke camp and had breakfast. We were ready to hit the road, ready to attack a few good roads before heading back west across TN.

This bike was unloaded as we were packing up. Gotta get the Trophy painted in that scheme.

Ray was taking our picture as we loaded up to leave.

Jackie had to run out of the mud that morning. Got his RT some GS time

We stopped at Fontana Dam on the way. It was a nice place. The skies looked like it could rain but it only sputtered some. The riding was great.

The roads are wonderful and twisty! The tarmac is top notch. We did not take enough pictures as we were too busy riding. We did take Wayah Road and that was a visual treat. The pavement was not the best, but it was scenic. It started to rain while we were on it, so we just motored ahead. Thanks to Scott for pointing that road out to us. We did a good high speed pass of the Skyway. No one was on the roads, and there were a few times, that we were 30-40 over the recommended posted MPH. We did not see one LEO all day on those roads.

Jamie takes some great shots from the pillion seat.

Rob caught Jackie and I setting our timers

We got this wet damp picture out of it. The overlook was fogged in.

A guy on a triumph Sprint rode up behind us and followed us into Tellico Plains. We stopped at the same place to eat and he said he had a ball following us as we were having some fun. Jackie called it the speedway instead of the skyway hehehe. Good fun and great roads..

The diner in Tellico Plains served good food. We chatted with some guys and girls on bikes and enjoyed our lunch. The great riding was behind us now. We would head as far east as we could before it got dark. It was a sad moment, knowing the trip was starting to come to an end.

We stayed in the small town of Manchester TN that evening. Tomorrow we still had 300 Miles to Memphis and a couple hundred more to Clarksville AR, it would be a long day.

 

[Eltee]

Thanks Jerry, for the great ride pics and roads Jamie, Rob, Jackie, and you enjoyed. Reminds me of riding there 2 years ago and needing to do it again. By the way, one pic also reminded me my refrigerator needs a tune up by a qualified tecnician! Neal

 

[welshmike]

What an awesome trip!!!

Rob, I did think about ordering saddle bags for the TY, but, could not see it all fitting in your top-box, maybe next time.

 

[Tourmeister]

The first time I visited the Gap, we came in on the Cherohala Skyway, then up 129 to the Crossroads of Time. We got there just after midnight. I love riding at night

Although I don't do it after a few beers