Smoky Mountains / Deals Gap Narrative

Hey .. we're baaack in the saddle again …

What a blast this was, but just like last year, time was too short. And HEY .. I was LEGAL this time .. didn't outrun one cop the whole trip !!!!

Day 1 (9 Aug)

We started from Chesapeake around 7am and we made it to Asheville NC around 3pm. I tried to keep an average speed of 70, but when we hit the Greensboro and Morganton areas, the highway speed moved up to 80/85 mph.

We found the Comfort Inn West in Asheville with relative ease. It was conveniently located off the I40 / I19 intersection. After unloading all our stuff off the bike and into the room, we made our way to Barley's Taproom & Pizzeria for dinner. Barley's had great food with matching atmosphere. The beer selection was more than the average beer drinker can imagine. They had 42 on tap, that ranged between US (East/West Coast) and Imports. I had the Anderson Valley ESB (extremely hoppy with a clean finish) and Karen, the Carolina Blonde (very mild hop bite). The calzones were the equivalent of a medium pizza rolled in half. I highly recommend Barley's for one's dining pleasure. Downtown Asheville was pretty cool too; it had the flavor of an old whaling town mixed in with a lot of earth tones.

Day 2 (10Aug)

As we were packing the bike getting ready to leave Asheville, we met Ron and Beverly, a very nice couple from New Hampshire. They too, were in the touring mode and were on their way to Nashville. It just so happened that their route overlapped ours for part of the way, so we ended up riding together until Gatlinburg TN. We rode to Clingmans Dome (6,643ft elevation). Actually, we rode to the parking lot and then hiked a mile to the Dome itself. Unlucky for us, the fog was so thick that we couldn't see a thing. But there were pictures on the Dome that gave us view of what we would have seen if there hadn't been fog. After we came down from the Dome, it cleared up. Continuing on to Gatlinburg, we stopped for lunch at The Burning Bush, a rustic, yet elegant restaurant. As we had lunch, the rain finally came upon us and it looked like it wouldn't let up. We were in for a wet ride for the rest of the day (and WET it was !!). Ron and Beverly headed off to Nashville while Karen and I made our way west to Cades Cove and then on to Alcoa TN. It rained so hard that it did not make any sightseeing enjoyable - yeah .. that included driving too.

We found the Hampton Inn at Alcoa TN with ease. Its right off Highway 129, just opposite of the airport. When we arrived, we looked (and felt) like drowned rats. Nightlife/dining was far and few between, yet I did find a place called BelAir Grill on the internet. It was touted as a 50s style diner and was located across the street from the hotel, so dinner at BelAir's it was. My rating on this place ... 2 Unhappy faces; I orginally awarded it 3 Unhappy's but they served Killians draft. The service was good but the food and atmosphere were not. There was half of an authentic '57 Chevy mounted to the wall .. now that was cool, but it didn't make up for the food or the lack of a 50s atmosphere. Even though there was a few 50s tunes playing from the Rockola jukebox, I kept hearing Dueling Banjos playing with the visions of Bubba Teeth dancing in my head.

Day 3 (11Aug)

Since we had missed the ride thru Cades Cove the day before, we decided to catch it before moving south on 129 into Deals Gap. Cades Cove was beautiful but was filled with traffic. Its an 11 mile ride around the area with a 20mph speed limit. Its definitely worth the ride thru but if its bumper to bumper .. don't go .. its murder on your clutch (clutch in .. clutch out). People just aren't considerate of others and pull over when they see something they want to take a picture of - they just stop in the middle of the road and tie up traffic. It took us over 2 hrs to travel 11 miles; what was a really nice ride in the woods turned into a tourists ride from hell. Once we finished with that, it was off to Deals Gap to Slay the Dragon. Karen continued to snap pictures from the back seat as we rode the Dragon. A quick stop off at the Dam Overlook to buy some shirts and take some pic's, then we continued. We ran the Tail cautiously, due to the weight and center of gravity being off balance from the pack strapped to the backrest. I did leave some more chrome on the road, but not as much as last year. We stopped at the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort (aka Crossroads of Time). Bought more stuff and took more pictures. We jumped back on 129 and headed south to the hotel in Franklin. It was a good ride until we were about 20 miles into Wayah Road. We almost found out the hard way that the Highway Dept made some road repairs (about 10 miles of them). It wasn't until I was leaning into a turn when the bike almost went out from under us, there was loose gravel all in the middle of the road. It was too bad too, most of the curves were textbook, not as good as the Gap but close to it.

Made it to the Microtel Inn in Franklin NC around 7pm. Franklin is a small town with not any night life or good cuisine. We found a Peking Gourmet in the WalMart shopping center, so we had the seafood buffet. Hey .. it was better than nothing .. !

Day 4 (12Aug)

On the road heading back home .. we left the hotel around 9am and made it home around 5pm. Highest speed attained was between Mocksville NC and Hillsboro NC at 95mph. Any slower than that and one became an obstruction in traffic.

That sums up the trip .. until next year …

Plans for next year (2002) will be made for a July trip. I'm going to include Deals Gap, so if you want to ride, give me a yell ... Tom.