SPRING RIDE WITHOUT LONG SLEEVES

It's a great time of the year, don't you agree? The time when nature gives you a freebie, a day of sunshine accompanied by heat, warmth, and sun burns. The time of year when we take off our jackets and expose our Lilly white arms to the warmth of the sun. Exposure of a sort that don't do much for the libido but sure helps us forget the gloom of the past few months of winter!


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Sunday March 10th was just such a day. I waited for the fog to burn off. I puttered about the house until almost noon, then started the bike and headed for my spring destination: The Snake (US-421). I took a round about way to get there. I live less than 30 miles from this semi-famous motorcycle destination in Shady Valley, TN.

The way I take is SR-37 to US-321 in Hampton TN. US-321 heads up into the mountains and around Lake Watauga. This is a nice little twisty road that eventually leads out of Tennessee and into Western North Carolina.


image caption: Into the mountains

Our winter has been quite wet. It's a rock strewn ride around mud and rock slides as I travel this road.



It's here the road becomes of interest to me! All of a sudden, even though I've traveled this road for almost 5 years, I realize there are some very cool back roads that need exploration. I decide to take one of them as I enter the valley floor near US-421. The road is called "OLD US-421". I decide to take it. How can ya go wrong? It was worth the ride.


image caption: A blast from our past ESSO

Not far into the detour I ride into a small town known as Sugar Grove, NC.
As I'm weaving down the road, I spy an old ESSO gasoline sign! "This is gonna be good!" I think to myself. I was right! Here in little Sugar Grove, across the street from the Library is a little museum. It's known as "D.T. Garage Museum".


image caption: Antique gas pump


image caption: Antique gas pump


image caption: D.T. Brown Garage

Leaving the Garage Museum behind, I travel a few miles down the road to discover these photogenic buildings standing next to a creek whose soft, misty undertones helped produce a hypnotic beauty in my mind. I hoped to capture that same beauty through the lens.


image caption: early 20th century architecture

I barely kicked the bike into 2nd gear after leaving the old buildings, then I came across this old steam engine. I've not a clue what it was once used for. Do you?


image caption: Vestige of a steam engine

I'm a fan of the old style country church. I saw one that caught my eye as I was riding down the road. I decided to snap my camera as I rode. I like the way the tarmac of the road gives way to the speed of the bike while the old church sits center frame in the distance.



All too soon, Old US-421 rejoins the new and "improved" edition of US-421 and I turn my wheel toward the town of Trade TN. Trade sits on the shared state lines of Tennessee and North Carolina. It has a fun festival every year which celebrates the old grist mill that still sits in town. Some time, I'll have to look for the photos I took when I attended with my sister a few years ago.

Just after passing the grist mill is SR-67. I turn right at this road and follow it up into North Carolina again. The road now becomes NC-88. A fine road for photo ops, but I don't stay on it long. I want to get back onto US-421 and head for Shady Valley via Mountain City. I was ready for a few technical twists and turns on US-421 known locally to us bikers as "The Snake".


image caption: the Mountain City side of The Snake.



In one shot I took (on the west side of Shady Valley heading toward Bristol TN.) I stopped to get a few shots. I never noticed my lens took a hit from a juicy bug, but it tends to lend character to the photo.


image caption: Shady Valley

I turned the bike around at South Holston Lake, retracing my ride back to Shady Valley. I didn't stop at the Shady Valley General Store, which is the prime destination for many riders. I came to ride, not socialize. No time for the hundreds of bikers standing around telling war stories. I like to make my stories as I ride, and I'll them to ya here. Much better this way. Don't ya think?

Old Ride revisited...something I wrote a while back

Hey folks. I am doing some revisting old blogs on other sites. Posting here, now, cuz it's too frickin cold to ride...14 degrees...and I'm in trouble with my jonesing....So, I'll relive the past and hope that keeps me satisfied for a while. I'll add pictures later...Jeff wants to drive to Kingsport...OK...anything to get the heck out of this house...can't ride bike, I'll take a ride in my boyfriend's truck!


Shady Valley and about

Off I go again...I left out of the house for Johnson City to do some work at the library. Got it done in an hour and twenty mins. and realized, it was still early. So I head back toward Elizibethton and jump on 91 North. This road will take you through the little borough of Stony Creek and beyond. God, I can't remember all the little unincorporated little towns you pass...but after about 12 miles, you come into the hills and the Cherokee National Forest.



91 winds up the hills with the cool twists and turns, switchbacks, steep drops to the edge of the road...and forest all around. It's late in the year for the greenery of the forests, the trees are wearing their finery, but it is becoming faded and worn. Ahhh but the aromas of the forest is still fresh and new, with honey suckle and other late blooming vines and flowers wafting their fragrance past my nose. It's a nice ride through the Cherokee National Forest.



Up to the pinnacle of the little mountain...back down once more into the valley...it's another three miles or so to Shady Valley General Store, and US421 and onto the section of The Snake.



Stopping at the General Store, I order a burger and onion rings, a Mountain Dew...and watch the parade of bikers going in and out...some watching me as I watch them...yes, we bikers are generally a watchful bunch.



Finishing my meal, I go out to the bike...light a smoke, drag on that till it's to the butt, then knock the cherry off it and deposit the butt in my pocket. Insert the key, hit the switch and she jumps alive once more. Leaving out of the parking lot...turning west toward Mountain City, I'm off.



Before I left, a large group of riders pulled out. I gave them about five minutes before heading out, as I knew they would be moving a tad bit slower than I like to ride. I guess, I didn't give them enough time, because I came upon them in about ten minutes time. Sigh...so I ride behind the group...and yawn...brake and yawn...I have never taken The Snake on the weekend...and I won't again. Too much traffic, and while I am not a knee dragger...I do enjoy just a little more speed than I got behind the bagger draggers! (No, I'm not giving you guys a bunch of shit...I like baggers, and if I was riding one on the Snake...I would be slowing down a bit too...)



On the other side of the Mountain, the state troopers were in action, they had pulled over a speed junkie from the group who left just before my bagger dragger group had...guess the little metric biker didn't know where the trooper Sits...he's there often, at any day of the week...Everyone slows down at that turn...sigh, bet he knows now!



Getting into Mountain City I decide to take US 421 toward Boone. The Bagger Draggers were from VA. and turned North onto CR 167 from US421...that is when I decided "heck, time to get lost again." I make a left, south onto CR167. This turned out to be a real good thing. I followed the Doe River to and fro...up and down little hills around rock bluffs, and down this holler and up that dale...it was a very good road. CR 167 dumps out right into SR 67 and Watuga Lake. The lake is up from the last time I saw it, but not enough for it to look beautiful. That would take another twenty feet of bank to give it the natural beauty of a healthy lake. But all the same at the altitude of this lake...it's amazing it holds any water at all, dam or no dam.





Now that I am on SR 67...I am back in familiar territory...it junctions into SR 321 and home to Elizibethton. It was a three hour ride, and only fifty five miles. But again, it was a good meandering path...used to take my mind away from the crap of daily living.
Another good day down.