May 10, 2024
It was a day of firsts and quite good ones. I got up about 6 am and went to the game room next to our campsite and did yesterday’s blog update and when that was done I had a hot shower. Now I’m ready for the day.
We didn’t hurry but had breakfast as we got packed up and were ready to pull out a little after 9 am.
It was short ride into the town where we stopped for gas. The station was busy and we had to wait our turn behind some vintage Porsches.
Dan picked up some water and some of it got poured into my 1/2 gallon container. The ride to Deals Gap is about 45 minutes and takes us on a highway before we got off onto some curvy backroads that warmed us up for what was coming next.
Deals Gap is nothing more than a gas station, a couple stores, and a small “resort” which was a row of cabins. The place was full of motorcycles, all types of motorcycles. There Harleys, crotch rockets, BMWs, and I even saw two other FJRs. The Tree of Shame holds parts off bikes that supposedly didn’t make it successfully through the run.
We hung out for a while but then geared up and made the run ourselves. It’s 11 miles with 318 turns and some of those turns are labeled 15 mph, and for good reason. They’ve been working on a repaying project but there were no workers there and we could see major sections a had already been done.
OK, the road IS curvy and many are traveling it at the fastest speed possible. They do warn to stay in your lane and to not ride above your skill level which, for me, meant taking my time but pushing the bike the best I could. For the most part I was in 3rd gear with the occasional drop to 2nd to pull me up out of a tight turn into an uphill. Only once or twice did I shift to 4th when the road straightened for a few hundred yards.
It was intense and I was aware of the danger and risk involved which kept me riding conservatively, after all, this bike is a my ride back home. The one scare was when hitting a right hand broad curve there was a batch of 3 Harleys going by in the other direction with two Harleys passing them and coming over into my lane.
I should also mention that there are a few photographers stationed along the route. They take your photo and you can then go to their web site and buy copies. Of course, it’s also possible to poach one with a screen shot. Here’s some of me.
Dan also took one of me as I came back to the end of return trip which is on the state line.
I met Dan at the parking area at the other end and, as planned, headed back to Deals Gap so we get to ride it again in the opposite direction. Dan pulled ahead and I enjoyed the ride, even pulling over twice to let sports cars pass me. There are frequent pull outs along the way. There is also a law enforcement presence, on motorcycles, to enforce the speeding laws.
Back at the Gap, even though I’m not a souvenir person, I bought a t-shirt before we made our plan for what to do next. That plan took us through that 11 miles again so 3 trips through the Tail of the Dragon makes for a good day. A group of women riding Harleys asked Dan to take their photo. Their club is called “Stilettos on Steel.”
We continued on our way, stopping for lunch in Townsend, TN. Over Subway sandwiches we decided to head for a campground at Norris Lake which is north of Knoxville. Dan set a route that would avoid that city but would also take us to Buc-ee’s. I thought that was a city and just popped it into my Google navigation tool and followed. The route was partially highway but mostly lots of backroad, HOWEVER, then we got to Pigeon Forge.
I’d never heard of Pigeon Forge but evidently everyone else has. It’s the home of Dolly Parton and now Dollywood. It seems that every other over-to-top attraction has opened there as well. The range of them is quite stunning: wax museums, horse shows, dinner shows, and on and on. All have really big buildings, each trying to outdo the other with its striking architecture, some actually looking like a building that’s fallen over. The traffic was really heavy and we worked our way through, stop light to stop light for 30 minutes or so. As we got closer to the outskirts the type of venues changes to tattoo parlors, fortune tellers, and “adult” toy stores. Overall, I would describe the whole place as “crass.”
The next stop was Buc-ee’s which turns out not to be a city but a, well, a place in Sevierville.
It is a gas station, a car wash, an EV charging station, and a huge store that has everything from a deli, a bakery, rows of snacks, as well as clothing, and on and on. I guess they are a chain out of Texas and like many things in the South, they do it big or not at all. Even the restroom was something else with about 20 really nice urinal cubbies in a long row. (Sorry, I was tempted, but no picture.).
Many, most of the products in the store are branded "Buc-ee’s" and they even have Buc-ee himself there posing for photos. Dan and I took advantage of that.
After having that experience we rode lots of backroads that skirted us around Knoxvile. It was about 6 pm and there was lots of traffic going in the other direction so we just enjoyed looking at all the farms and the various housing developments. One, consisting of single-wide mobile homes, was call “Plantation Acres” and that kind of made me go “Hmmmm.”
We arrived at the campground and since we didn’t have a reservation we had to ride around the tenting area looking for one that’s unoccupied. The lower part, in the woods, was pretty busy but there were a few open sites on top of a hill under power lines that gave us a great view and the plus that there is no one else up here.
We got our camp set up and then rode our bikes to a brewery that sits just outside the park, near the dam. We had our beer outside next to their pond and enjoyed the 3-piece combo playing live inside.
We stopped by the dam on our way back to camp and shot some photos just as it was getting dark. They have a huge solar panel there and free EV charging.
It was now dinner time and, as is usually, it was dark.
Then, sitting out with these clear skies, Dan spotted a row of satellites flying overhead. He said that these were Starlink satellites that were launched yesterday. The photo shows them sort of right center as line. The photo also picked up the edge of the Northern Lights.
It was a 195 mile day and some of those miles, 33 of them, were of the intense variety.
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