Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mothers who are reading my blog! I hope that all y'all had a GREAT day. I think that I have been in the South too long! I'm beginning to talk like them. Y'all is singular, all y'all is plural.
Once again, Chuck was my roomie. My alarm sounded at 6:30 AM and we both got up, got dressed and packed. We went to the breakfast and there were a lot of guests there. There have been a group of men and some of their wives staying at the hotel. Most of the men were having breakfast when we walked in. Chuck served himself breakfast while I was on my computer taking the pictures off of my camera and putting them into my computer. I soon finished and was also eating breakfast. The lady who cares for the breakfast and restocks for the guests was in the room. One of the older gentlemen wished her a Happy Mother's Day. She was gracious and thanked him. Another gentleman asked her if she was going to wish him a Happy Mother's Day and she asked, "Is he a Mother?" Another gentleman answered, "Well, sort of..."Everyone laughed. I told Chuck that the group of gentlemen is what our group would look like in a few years. I walked up to get more coffee, looked at them and returned to the table. I told Chuck that some of us were already there! Jan and C.E. soon walked in and joined us, followed by Bruce and Ken. We all finished our breakfast so we slowly got up and went to our rooms to get our bags. We loaded the bags onto our Motors, cleaned them up a little and we were ready to leave. We left Florence, ALA at 8:55 AM with Bruce leading.
Bruce led us east on Highway 72. We were headed for Tennessee. You know when you are driving a car, riding a bus, riding a Motorcycle, flying in a plane, you tend to daydream a little? Well, I was doing just that. A thought came to my mind that it had been a long time, since Day 3 (1,084 miles), that we had not stopped at a Harley Dealership! Not only have we not had the need, but we just haven't! That amazes me. Any way, we were riding and entered the city of Athens, ALA. As we rode through this city, we learned later that a tornado had come through this city last Wednesday. We saw about a quarter mile devastation on Highway 72. There were two or three homes completely demolished and splintered. I couldn't tell how many homes were in the rubble. Several large trees were downed and a construction crew was out working on the power lines. We stopped to make a pit stop in a Mini-mart at 9:47 AM after riding 52 miles. The front of the Mini-mart/gas station had 5 pallets of bottled water on the parking lot. The water was delivered a few days ago for people who needed water. It was free for them. The clerk of the Mini-mart told me that the pallets will be taken to another location sometime. The bottled water will be sold. We finished with our break and we left at 10:05 AM.
Bruce continued leading us on Highway 72. We rode through Huntsville, Gurley and after going through Woodville, we followed Highway 72 northwest along the Tennessee River. What beautiful landscape. Everything is so green! We continued following the River and soon exited the State of Alabama and into the State of Tennessee. We rode for 92 miles and at 11:43 AM, we stopped in Jasper, TN for gas. As we drank our water, Chuck took out the map and looked at the route that we were going to take. He got with C.E. and layed out the route. C.E. entered the city of Tellico Plains, TN on his navigation system. That is the city that we were shooting for. Chuck told C.E. that we would soon be coming to I-24 and we needed to go east. We would then follow I-24 to I-75 and go north. We left at 12:19 PM.
C.E. was leading, next Ken, then Chuck, Jan, Me and Bruce. We were on Highway 72 and two miles later was the intersection with I-24. The first exit was posted I-24 WEST. That is the road C.E. led us on. For a minute there, we all thought that C.E. was leading us back to Albuquerque! (See last years blog) We had to go 4 miles before we could make a u-turn and head EAST. We finally made the u-turn and headed EAST. We were on the right road now and the scenery was again, breathtaking! We were in an area that quickly dipped into Georgia and then back into Tennessee. We continued on I-24 and eventually rode into Chattanooga, TN. We saw the "choo choo" and not sure if it was on Track 29. There was construction on the interstate and it was "slow and go." Sometime soon after, we passed a sign that stated that we were now in Eastern Standard Time. We lost another hour! We made it to I-75 and now we were headed northbound. We exited at Exit 20 and rode for 7 miles before we could get on Highway 64. After riding 65 miles, we stopped in Cleveland, TN at 2:31 PM for lunch. We were at a Subway and there was only one employee on duty. She was very busy. There were two men in front of our group who ordered 5 subs. It was our turn and we spoke with her and made her laugh. She had been working all day and was waiting for her relief. Her husband was sitting patiently at one of the tables for her to get off work. While she was serving us, her relief arrived. She finished with us and soon left. We had a good lunch and then it was time to break out the map. We were looking for the route to take and then for a place to stay the night. I called Holiday Inn and was told of a property in Athens, TN. We felt better knowing that we could find a hotel there, close to the ride we want to do tomorrow. We left at 3:37 PM.
We continued on Highway 64 and at Copper Hill, TN, we turned northbound onto Highway 68. This was a two lane road with hills and twisties! This is situated in the Cherokee National Forest. We had fun riding this road and we followed the Ocoee River for a while. The Ocoee River was used in one of the past Olympics. I believe it was the 1996 Olympics. I'm not sure of the year, I was very young at the time. I took pictures and made a couple of music videos on this stretch of road. We rode for 63 miles and at 5:02 PM, we stopped in Coker Creek, TN for a pit stop and to stretch. We stopped at little store, however, it was closed. We wanted something cold (TOLD, as my Grandson, Connor, says it) to drink. We left at 5:11 PM.
We rode for another 10 miles and stopped at a Mini-mart/gas station in Tellico Plains, TN at 5:24 PM. We had something TOLD to drink and then looked at the map. We left at 5:46 PM.
C.E. and I entered the town of Athens, TN in our navigation system. We rode for another 24 miles and at 6:23 PM, we stopped in a CVS parking lot in Athens, TN...not ALA. We needed to get the address of the Holiday Inn Express. Out came the Droid and Chuck got the address for the hotel. Again, C.E. and I entered the address on our navigation system. Away we went at 6:34 PM.
We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express at 6:37 PM after riding for 5 miles. We checked in and took our bags to our rooms. We had decided that we would ride to the Applebee's Restaurant after a dip in the Hot Tub. We rode to Applebee's, ate and returned to the hotel. We parked our Motors and tucked them in for the night.
We rode for 313 miles today. We wanted to get to an area close to the Tail of the Dragon for tomorrow's ride. There will be several rides that we intend to do tomorrow. I will make sure to take plenty of pictures and videos. We are all excited for tomorrows rides. So, until tomorrow...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment