It was a different kind of day in terms of motorcycling. I got up around 6:15 and sat at the picnic table at our site and wrote yesterday’s blog entry. About the time I got it done (these take about an hour), Dan was up and we decided to go out for a run since this is the first morning since we’ve been traveling together that the weather and location cooperated. I got my running gear on we ran out of the park to the Norris Dam, about a mile. We stopped to check out the dam and take some photos.
Across and above the dam there is a scenic lookout so we decided we needed to run up there. It was a good uphill grind that took us past the marina.
Up on top, at the 2-mile turnaround, we got a good view of the dam and the lake.
The run back was fun but the uphill back to the campground was a slog. We stopped to check out the shower situation at the bathhouse and it looked fine but the building could use an airing out. From there we could see our campsite up on the hill under the tower.
Dan went back to the bathhouse for a shower and I fiddled with transferring the few video files from the dashcam of yesterday’s ride on the Dragon. There is something wrong with either the camera or the SD card and it’s probably the card as many of the files are corrupt. However, I did get a few so there is that. I may invest if a dedicated camera system for the bike, one that shoots both front and rear and saves to a large solid state drive. In the meantime, I transferred the files from the SD card to the file space on my iPad.
I took my turn in the shower and then started the packing up procedure. It was after 11 am when we finally got on the road. The destination is La Follette, TN.
A divergence into family history
La Follette is my late-father’s hometown and I wanted to go find his original house. According to my mom, the family moved from the farm to this house in 1939 or 1940 and he lived there until he joined the navy in 1945. After he left, at some point the family lost the house and moved to another place on the main street just a block away and lived there until they could reclaim the original house. In about 1958, my dad had the opportunity to go to officers school in Providence, Rhode Island and since he’d be there for a while, we (my parents, my sister and me) moved to live with his family in that second house on Central Avenue. I don’t remember how long we lived there but I started first grade there under Miss Teague. My mom tells me that I was frequently reprimanded for forgetting to say “Ma’am” when addressing her. It was a cultural thing. My two cousins also lived with my grandparents so it was a busy household.
Anyway, after my dad came back from Rhode Island we moved back to California and at some point his family reclaimed the original house. I think it was in 1966 that we traveled there for a visit and I stayed in that original house during our vacation. So, I wanted to go find both houses and Dan and I did just that. This is the original one, at 802 Ash Street.
And, from a distance, the 2-story white second house. The elementary school is a short walk from there.
The next door neighbors on Ash were sitting on their porch and since I was hanging around taking photos I chatted with them for a few minutes. They’ve lived next door for 40 years and my grandparents were long gone by then so they didn’t know them. We talked about how much the city has changed as the downtown looks about the same but the miles of development west of there makes it look like any other city’s collection of chain stores and eateries.
[End of family history.]
I told Dan that the items I wanted to do on this ride were now completed: Skyline Drive, Blue Ridge Parkway, Tail of the Dragon, and La Follette. He said it’s “Plan Your Own Adventure” now so we headed to Cumberland Gap to hike to the gap and the Tri-Point where Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky intersect. We left the bikes in the parking lot and climbed the trail to the Gap.
We continued on to the Tri-Point monument. It was steep and about 1.2 miles one-way.
After that excursion it was time, (past time) for lunch and we rode to a nearby town for a Taco Bell: burritos and tacos. While eating, Dan had a message from home that there was a situation and he needed to come home ASAP. It’s not an emergency but he feels he needs to go so we separated and he headed for Pittsburgh, hoping to arrive before midnight.
I spent some time online looking for camping and most of it was 4 hours away and it was already about 4:30 pm and looked like rain. I found a Kingdom Come State Park on the map in Kentucky, about a hour away, but online reservations weren’t available so I decided to just ride there.
I did get a bit of rain but it looked like I missed the bulk of the storm as the streets were pretty wet. The ride was through beautiful farmland and I arrived at the turnoff for the park a little before 6 pm. The road up was really steep and curvy, but after the last couple days, I’m certainly used to that.
I found that the office was open and the nice young lady said there were tent sites left so I registered for one and felt better that I wouldn’t be searching for something after dark. There is a stone gazebo across from the office and lake that provides a great view.
I got my tent set up and checked Dan’s location and saw that he was heading into Ohio so he’s right on track. Since we ate a late lunch I’m not really hungry so I won’t be firing up the stove tonight and thought I’d just sit down and write this entry. The network access is slow so moving images from my phone to the cloud so I can pick them up with my iPad to insert here is trying. I’ll probably insert them when I get to Pittsburgh tomorrow.
It was a 126 mile day.
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