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So there I was . . . once again thinking about a new bike and talking myself out of it.  My wonderfully perfectly operational and smile producing 1150 GSAdventure was still low mileage and pleasing to ride. I don't need a new bike.  Why, just a few days earlier Weirdrider and I were out goofing off having a great time and I was plenty happy.

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So why do I keep going to my favorite dealer and test riding his water cooled GS's. And then it happened.  That rat DanRider calls me up and lectures me about not getting any younger and we should be riding anything we want cause . . . . we deserve it.  I think he had an Old Fashioned or two in him, but the message took hold.

And then it happened. . . . I found an Adventure in Georgia.

A 2014 1200 Adventure that is. 7,700 miles on the clock, and after a few convo's with the seller I put money down.

Now a thinking person would just ship the darn thing for $500 bucks or so.  But who wants to wait around for a dang semi to show up 30-60 days later.  Not me.

So I went online and burned a few American Air miles for a next day flight to Atlanta.  I mean why not?  It was July 3 and the banking industry would be closed pretty much until Monday.

6am wednesday morning found me here . . .

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to be continued. . .

 

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✈️🛵

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And you made it home in one pice. Is the old one gone?

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51 minutes ago, Mr.JAJA said:

And you made it home in one pice. Is the old one gone?

Sold but in my garage until next week. 

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i checked a bag with a minimalist camp kit and my riding gear. No, it wasn’t the pink one. Then I scurried to the curb as fast as I could, anxious to confirm I’d make the right and fairly expensive decision over a phone call with a complete stranger. F2E73F21-5CBA-4F83-8FC1-53C00D95F9D5.thumb.jpeg.f91ab51f2ae5c35121609253b9b88586.jpeg

i snapped a pic of me and the gate and texted it to him. This fellow behind me, who i’d never met or spoken with is obviously good at judging character. CA19EC41-CA63-44CC-A7DF-515C27AEC564.thumb.jpeg.89c6b0a4ba31de9bf5fc4d3bf488c407.jpeg

a little inspection upon arrival, a call to my banker confirming the funds are good and lickety split I’m heading north to find a camp site just 30 miles away. 

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and there it is. 

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I wanted to train her in proper to her new owner. Introduce her to the tent and hobbled her in place while I had a celebratory beverage. 

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no Starbux for this kid, straight to the ol BBQ shack   

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Nom nom nom . . .

Tomorrow, the Cherahala Skyway, Deals Gap and Tail of the Dragon. I slept with a massive Cheshire Cat grin all night. 

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What the heck did you do with your suitcase?

 

 

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11 minutes ago, Oracle said:

What the heck did you do with your suitcase?

 

 

I tried to give it to that man behind me. He just kept shaking his head and saying get away from me. 

Actually I used a large duffel bag and just rolled it up and stuffed it in the top box. 

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7am and I’m locked and loaded for the day. Just one thing left to do. I rode over to the cabin at the entrance to find the box to drop my $20 in for the night. And as I rode around to park on the side, a fairly drunk hillbilly, in a rocking chair, on the porch, starts saying he’s gonna kick my ass over something. He looked a lot like TNTMO now that I think about it.  Well, I didn’t see a shotgun laying around so figured it was safe to see if I could help this guy.  So I took off my helmet, pulled my earplugs and asked if I could help him. He pointed to the ground and said ‘you get dust on my ham and I’ll kick yer ass’

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seems as though yesterday this ham was grunting and squeeling in the pen next door. By 2am it was sitting on this grate getting slow cooked for today’s feast. Apparently my new friend John opened a bottle of tequila to start the  process and the bottle was now dead and he’d turned to bourbon n coffee. Or something like that. He did his best to convince me to stay for his 4th of July lunch , but I had dragons to slay. 

A few miles later and I’m in North Carolina stopping for breakfast. 

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and just like that I realized I’m not going to get anywhere nearly as fast as I’d thought. Because you can’t stop for gas, a meal, or to look at a map without folks coming up and having a half hour conversation with you.  In a good way. People in the south are different. In a really cool way.  I loved it and now have a hundred new best friends because of it. The Christmas card list this year is gonna be huge. 

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My only disappointment with the bike thus far were the tires. As I rode on I knew in my gut there was not 2800 miles of tread on them. And here I am, on a holiday weekend trying to get home to work Monday. Finding a bike shop that would have  tires and mount them was a long shot. Especially on a Sunday. So I couldn’t really gamble to see how much tread was left late Saturday or Sunday cause I’d be laying over to a Tuesday to get them on. I figured I’d have to gamble on Friday finding a shop that was open. Had my tires. And was willing to drop everything and get me back onto new rubber. Oh well, I’ll sort it out as it comes along.  

North Carolina didn’t last long and suddenly I’m in a Tennessee  

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I  decided my bike was army green since this was the 4th of July  

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 Since I was hunting the Dragon, we bolted this pea shooter on for awhile because we could, since I wasn’t in California  but later though it best to leave it here in the free states  

Hmmmm, this could be useful ...

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Back on the road, and next thing you know ...

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1 hour ago, Zubb said:

And as I rode around to park on the side, a fairly drunk hillbilly, in a rocking chair, on the porch, starts saying he’s gonna kick my ass over something. He looked a lot like TNTMO now that I think about it.  Well, I didn’t see a shotgun laying around so figured it was safe to see if I could help this guy.  So I took off my helmet, pulled my earplugs and asked if I could help him. He pointed to the ground and said ‘you get dust on my ham and I’ll kick yer ass’

 

 

 

 

 

Never mess with a drunk hillbilly's ham.  Never! 

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I think dust on his ham was the least of his sanitary concerns!

What a cool adventure (so far); congrats!!

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The Skyway is everything you’ld expect given its fame. I in fact expected a real sh*t-show on the road that day given it was the 4th of July. Instead I think the sports car and bike count was actually low for the season. I rode as fast or slow as I wanted with no traffic to speak of. 

I’d already decided to ride this bucket list road in sight seeing mode. No sense tempting fate on a new bike, on a holiday, on the other end of the country from home. 

So I came around the corner and holy smokes, there is a God and he loves me! 

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Here’s a tire shop, they are open on the 4th, and they will stop everything and put new shoes on the beast! Bonus..... burgers and chips and lots of great stories while I’m waiting!

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I need this machine in my garage. 

And then... down the road to find Deals gap somewhere in this mess of spaghetti called a map  

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22 hours ago, Zubb said:

 

And she has this little Gremling remover gingell bell already installed.

 

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3 hours ago, Wierdrider said:

Come on Kelly, quit working and get to posting! 

Dang it Jim, I'm trying!!  Mortgage rates are down and I'm swamped with wonderful work.  They actually pay me to do this stuff.  But it sure gets in the way of goofing off with all you yahoo's on here.  🤣  I hope to shut down the office work  later tonight and post up another chapter here before the mid life Alzheimer's steals the memories from me.

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22 hours ago, Mr.JAJA said:

And she has this little Gremling remover gingell bell already installed.

 

Yep.  Seems to be working so far.

But I like your "little" gremlin bell.  It's a keeper!

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Do you mean this? Its a original Swiss COWBELL. 

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21 minutes ago, Mr.JAJA said:

Do you mean this? Its a original Swiss COWBELL. 

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Call it what you want, but I haven’t seen a gremlin or a cow near your bike in years. 

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Soon after leaving Wheelers, I passed the dam and then turned left into this gorgeous little resort for bikers and sports car freaks. The place had ‘bring your gold card’ written all over it. Very posh in a charming way.  For the life of me can’t remember the name of it. But hey, the gas was cheap. 

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then Deals Gap and the famous start to Tail of the Dragon. 

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Place is pretty cool. They’ve definitely commercialized the heck out of it. 

So I bought a burger and beer and sat around chewing the fat with various people who were all just as happy as me to be here. On 4th of July. Cars and bikes rolled through you’d seen in pics but maybe never in person. Great vibe to just hang out and watch. And talk, cause hey, your still in the south ya know. 

Over time I chased lunch down with 2 more bottles of water cause I knew it was gonna sweat out in about a half hour. Humidity. Ugh!  And then wandered across the highway to Killboy. 

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They had a couple Yamaha Nikkens for rent. An answer to a question nobody asked.

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I also parked under the Tree of shame just long enough to to burn a little incense and offer up prayers  for protection on the next 11 miles of riding the Tail. 

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After buying the required STICKER or 3, I proceeded with caution, smelling of fried onions, sweaty under garments and a little spilled gas on my boots  

 

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It is nice when you can go solo,  It is just good for the soul and mind when you can ride, camp, and getaway by yourself.

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My goodness Zubb..... you're making me drool over here! Did a cross country on my Street Glide but this takes it to another level. As soon as I can convince the little lady I need a fourth bike it's adventure time!!!! Can already tell you guys are gonna be bad for my wallet...

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20 hours ago, danrider said:

It is nice when you can go solo,  It is just good for the soul and mind when you can ride, camp, and getaway by yourself.

Yeh there's definitely a time and place for both.  I have an absolute blast riding/camping with my buddies.  But my most treasured memories all seem to be in the solo category.  Almost anyway.  

The exception being, riding with my son.  He and I have ridden so many miles together and are so like minded that we are pretty much the perfect duo.  Fast or slow, street or dirt, 800 miles or 150 miles, camp or motel . . .  it is truly one of my lifes greatest pleasures.  It's bitter sweet that he lives in Seattle about 1300 miles away.  We each get to ride 700 miles toward each other on day one, Ride 'around' for 3 days or so, then each ride solo back home.  Good lord those first 100 miles of riding home leave a hole in my heart knowing I won't see him for awhile.  But then the therapeutic effect of just being in my helmet and watching the miles click by . . . .

It's really good stuff man.

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Is it ok to go off topic on my own thread?

I couldn't resist. Here’s what I’m talking about with my son. 

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we now both have GS’s. Perfect weapons for our get together each year. 

Now back to our regularly scheduled program. 

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The day ended having ridden in GA, NC, TN, AL, and then back in to overnight in Kimball TN. I forget the mileage but think it was under 500 due to dinking around at Deals Gap, and of course a couple hours of tire change and BS at Wheelers. 

from here on out it’s no more camping. Too many miles to cover in too little time. 

Heres the local Point of Interest in Kimball TN  

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I awoke to realize my super awesome hot weather riding gloves had been swiped off my bike while I had dinner last night. <grumble>!  So I hit up the Lowe’s to do a @Mr.JAJA thing which is to use sturdy leather work gloves. I’d asked a clerk where to find them but a few minutes later was told to go look on my bike. The clerk had gone out and given me his pair of used gloves. 

People are awesome. 

Today would be an Iron Butt attempt. Long days require the occasional 20 minute nap on a table at a rest stop.  And some map work to see if you can detour around road construction areas. 

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And of course. . . Mountain Dew. 

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