DC and TotD; Smoky Mountains!

In looking at the last two posts, I realized I haven't been true to my word.  I've been blathering on quite a bit.  Well, here's where things straighten out; here's a shyteload of pics for ya!  I started to sort them in the order/days I took them, but then realized I was mixing things up.  So, the ones that were easy to determine, I listed on the correct day.  After identifying the easy ones, I realized I had a ton left over so I 'm just going to post them all and add little snippits if anything strikes me.

Ready; go...

We came in at the bottom end of the Dragon, about 6pm.  It was late in the day for the Tail, and there weren't a lot of riders so I wasn't expecting any of the photographers to still be out.  But, in one of the turns, sure enough; one of the guys was there and as I rounded the corner, I saw him bring his camera up and start snapping pics.  Damn!  I wasn't ready!  I'd been enjoying the Dragon, not trying to slay it, so my lean wasn't great.  Dammit.  Oh well, it's only Sunday night, I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to get a better shot.  No need to turn around and try again, let's just keep on moving.

No sooner had we arrived at the Kalliavas homestead, then Steve realized he had something he had to put up on the mantle.  I give you; the prank that won't die...

A fine looking lineup...

The pic loaded sideways, but if you expand it (and tilt your head), you'll see Steve's collection basin for his spring, at the top of the hill.  He cleverly disguised it as a still.

First attempt out on the KLR's.  Jan's was sputtering (they'd warned me ahead of time that it did this), but then it died completely.  So, John headed back for the truck and soon the bike was deposited at Wheeler's for fixing.

After dropping the sick bike off at Wheeler's, John, Steve and I went back and grabbed the street bikes and salvaged the day by riding down through SC and into Georgia.  Those pics will be in the following post, as I wasn't able to easily discern what was from what.

Here's Tuesday morning; Steve and I took the two remaining KLR"s that were working and hit some high spots for some views.

A quick shot into town for fuel.  Hmmm...rocket, or jet?

Cruising the mountain roads!

An old, official homestead...

Complete with mesh bed supports (gotta tilt your head again for this one)...

And here we get to the infamous crash.  The backstory here is that I was following Steve down a decline and the "road" (I use the term loosely - just about as loosely as the gravel on the surface was packed!) turned to the left.  I saw Steve grab his handlebars and then his bike started skliding (I made that word up but it's a combo of skidding and sliding - you get the idea), where both tires were jumping side to side.  I thought for sure he was going over the edge, and my impulse was to slam on both of my brakes to prevent me from sliding into the back of him.
But, I shoulda known better.  Steve brought the bike under control without issue.  Me?  Not so much.  It was my first time dirt-biking!  I'm used to the 4" rear brake pedal my Street Glide has, not the 1" brake pedal the KLR has.  Needless to say, my foot completely missed the lever, meaning I got nothing but front brake, which of course meant I washed the front end, and down I went. Hard.
I remember being tossed when the bike hit, and then rolling.  I also remember feeling my helmet go flying off, too.  When I finally came to a stop, the bike was on it's side and had stalled.  My helmet was about 20' down the path, and my shoulder was yelling at me.

Oh man...forget the shoulder...what the hell have  I done to his bike!?!?!?

I felt (and still do) horribly that's I'd banged up his bike.  In addition to the scrapes, the handlebars were skewed to the left a bit, the front fender was off kilter, and the radiator guard was all bent out of place.
Steve assured me over and over again that he didn't care about the bike, that it was much tougher than that and would be fine.  He even said he'd been wanting to paint the thing rattle-can black, and now he had an excuse to.  (I hope he was serious and not just saying that to make me feel better.)

Sure enough, after bending things back into workable positions, the bike fired right back up and off we went.
To Steve's credit, he did say "I hope you're not gonna go all gun-shy on me now, are you?  Not gonna be all scared to ride, are ya?"  LOL, hell no.  The bike works, my shoulder works, let's go!

Scenery shot, post-crash.  The bike didn't seem fazed at all...

Steve, off to the side.  Probably contemplating why he took me out on the mountain in the first place.

After we'd ridden most of the rest of the day, we returned to the house and put the KLR's away.  It was getting close to dinner time so Steve headed inside to take care of some things.

I jumped on the SG and headed out to toward the Dragon, but just before reaching it, I turned right, onto Rte 28.  You see, when I was down here two years ago, I'd been following Jan and Steve (on an ice cream run - woo-hoo!) and had spotted a plaque mounted on the face of a rock wall.  I didn't have time to stop and look at it, so it's been in my mind ever since then, to go find it the next time I was down here.  Not only did I find the plaque, but there was a second one as well.

Two riders, two different fatal crashes.  I found some info on the second guy  (Keith), but wasn't able to find anything on the first one (Ahwin).

Per a buddy of Keith's; "Keith was a very experienced rider, MSF instructor & friend to anyone that met him. He was the one guy in the group that would talk to you like he had known you his whole life even if it was your first time to show up for a ride. He was extremely active in all realms of sportriding organizations from the AMA to the HSTA to our local MSSR club & will always be considered a true leader. He drifted wide on a blind turn & crossed the yellow into the path of an oncoming car. He grabbed too much front brake, washed the front end, and the car ran over him. It should be known that in addition to Keith being a highly experienced rider he also preached rider safety & never did anything even remotely stupid. Crossing the yellow line in our riding group is a sin and will result in you being ridiculed for weeks so I can only assume that he drifted wide for a reason other than just carrying too much corner speed. He was a founder of our club slogan 'make the turn'."

While there at the turn (a very sharp, 10mph turn by the way), I'd pulled my bike well off into the grass, out of the way.  It seemed like a decent shot to take (sorry, I don't know why some of these pics are loading sideways).

I think this was a different night - Steve and I were coming back from somewhere, and I peeled off to go check out the cemetery that he'd shown me back in 2013 when I was down here.  The cemetery is located OVER 1.5 miles off the main drag, at the end of a dirt road which slithers along the side of a mountain and seems to get darker and darker, the further in you go.
And the thing about this cemetery...this CREEPY, Stephen King-esque cemetery, is it always looks like it was decorated RIGHT before you arrived.  As if there had been throngs of people caring to the grass and markers, then they heard your pipes and ran and hid, and any second they're going to jump out and scare the bejeezus out of you.

Wednesday.  Steve, John and I hopped on the Street Glides and headed down into Georgia.  When it was lunch time, Steve brought us to this little town called Helen.  It was a very cool place; very German-esque.

This place had great food.  The waitress talked me and Steve into the Reuben and it was a good call.

Damn...another sideways pic...

After we got back from the day of riding, John and I decided to hit the Dragon.  This shot is from the Outlook, about a mile and a half from the southern end.

The Kallivas clan (sans Steve Jr).  This pic looked great on my phone with the contrast between the green and browns and yellow...but when I expanded it, the clarity is pretty lousy.  Oh well...it makes a great pic on the phone.

And there you have it - my best attempt at organizing the day's pics.  What's next?  Another large batch of pics from the trip, in no particular order...