DAY 6 JUNE 7 HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF

Left the motel and drove to a Honda shop so Al could get his bike checked for damage after the great Tennessee pot hole incident of 2013. While the bike was being checked several of us used the opportunity to catch up on laundry before heading out for the day.


I was starting the day in a less than wonderful mood after two days of too much food and not enough sleep. I just wanted to be moving. Finally, everyone was ready to go and we jumped on the interstate for a few miles to quickly get out of the city. We were soon eastbound thru gorgeous forest with very little traffic. The road was running parallel to a river full of rafters and kayaks weaving back and forth as we made our way the 150 miles over to Deal’s Gap and the Tail of the Dragon.

When you pull into Deal’s Gap, a motorcycle only store and motel, on a Friday afternoon you are immediately surrounded by several hundred other bikes crowding the parking lot. The center of the parking lot is taken up by a large tree covered in motorcycle parts; if you wreck your bike you can hang a part on the” Tree of Shame”. Your hearing is assaulted by bikes going up the hill in front of the parking lot where the “Tail” begins everyone trying to prove something with the speed they assault the first curves. The noise ranges from the Formula 1 race car sound of the sport bikes, the growl of the Italian twins, the almost silent hum of the Gold Wings, and the out of sync rumble of an American made v-twin. In between bikes you listen to the accents and languages being spoken in the parking as you wander around talking to different bikers or listening in on their conversations.

After the mandatory t-shirt purchase it’s time to mount up and make our own assault on the road. We change leaders of the group at every gas fill up and the last time we were here it just worked out that it was my turn to lead the group as we went from north to south. With a little luck and careful fuel management on my part I was in the lead again for our run from south to north. We made the run safely at a comfortable speed stopping a few miles beyond the end at Highway 129 Harley. Eventually continued on finally stopping for the night still somewhere in Tennessee the last half hour in a light rain. We hope to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway tomorrow but are currently dealing with the remnants of the hurricane that hit Florida.

At one point today a car pulled up next to me and I looked at his license plate it was from North Carolina and my first thought was; boy he’s a long way from home! Quickly corrected it to, we are a long way from home and a long way from Maine, still think Maine is our goal, time will tell.