01/22/06 Sunday afternoon Had a small break in the weather.
So the wife and I decide to hop on the bikes and take the run.

So we headed out... 12:30 we are cruzin down 411 we stop to
top off the bike's at a weigles gas station and git a bottle of
water to go..We git back on the road after we decided to run
down to the Telico Plains area as we turn on to 165 east it starts
to drizzle.... I'm thinkin about the wife,She has never riddin in
wet weather.... Luck has it , it stops as we enter Telico...We
turn onto the charahala skyway... Jen (my wife)twists the throttle
up to about 85mph, comes to the first turn... Like a pro she rolls
thru w/ the right knee out.. She rips thru as do I.. Further on we
git towards the top of the skyway...Let me tell ya ,The clouds come
in hard... Zero visability.. I pass her w/ the flashers on so she can
see my manuvers...Doin about 5-10mph 20 mins later the road
clears ,we press on to the bottom where the skyway meets sr 129..

We rest for a moment,stretch and take a drink of water..The time is
now 2:18pm.. The weather is still overcast but not raining... Off we
go,Down 129 to The DealsGap motel were the tree of shame is.
We stop for a moment to see all the scrap parts for fallen riders on
the gap... Just a good reminder. that the Dragon cannot be tammed,
The weather seems to be clearing... Thank God.. We say to each
other as we are puttin our helmets back on... Off we go.. As we
proceed up the NC side the road is awful... Lot of loose gravel and
leaves, We ride w/ care up to the boarder of NC and TENN.. The road
is freshly paved.... It was a beautiful thing... Jen takes off goin thru the
curves like she was painting a picture or dancing to a classical song..
We are moving thru the turns amazingly.. A mazda miata goin the
other direction has his thumb up as we pass each other...We come to
the top of the pass.. We pull off at one of the lookouts to rest... The
first thing that comes out of Jens mouth is .." That is the best drug I
have ever done" She had a smile as big as the mountains them selves.

We realize at that point we forgot the camera...Man were we angery
We had planned to take the 4x4 out to the trails but the county had
closed them cause of the weather... The camera was in the center con-
sole.... Damit...... Any way we press on down the Gap to Alcoa the
road had opened up to a long sweaping left turn around the little Tn
river.. Jen passes me like I was standing still.... I rolled onto the gas
She still was pullin away.... So I better do something about this....
I dropped down from 4th to 2nd gear and I waylaid the throttle hard
brought the front tire off the ground.... Rollin thru the gears I pass her
on just my rear tire.... Musta been something to see a ZZR1200 on its
rear tire...Any way I hear her drop a couple of gears ...As I drop down
the front tire she comes flying past again w/ her front tire about 1 ft up
off the road.... As we come into town we slow up.... Kinda weird to see
no traffic on the hwy.....So back to the shack we go the time now is 4:40
pm .. Now the weather is not lookin to good we were running 411 back
home we are doin a little over a 100mph we come up to Maryville to the
first light it was red... luckely we had slowed to the speed limit cause thare
was a Officer sittin on the side of the rd...We pass w/ no problems..

So on we go thru town... We git back on 411 extention to Seymour Tn
Weather dosen't look good....Anyway 5:15 pm we are at the entrance to
our home when the skies open up..... We were drenched,but atleast were
weren't riding.....So that was our Sunday.....

 

How cold was it at the top of the Cherohala? I was there in Sept and froze my *** off at 2:30 in the afternoon.

 

Around 51 deg...

 

Now all that was missing were pics!! But you made up for it with your detailed account of the ride! Glad to hear you had a good time, sounds like you and your wife like to 'play'

 

Cause of the lack of pic's I tried to use great detail....


Don't think I ever wrote something that long in my life
but I felt I owed it to ya'll.....

 

Darn right you owed it to us!!! j/k, that was awesome! Thanks again!

 

No problem..... End of april I'm gonna be shooting some foto's
on the dragon for a bunch of friends for the Busa bash

We need to git some Kaw's up there and show those Zuks
how its done......


So anyone who can mk it... P.M. me and I'll give the info for
the last week of april....

 

Let me know I'm just over the mountains in Asheville NC. And I have a few bodies with some Kawis that might be interested.