I know, this is a motorcycle site but hey I did ride down there right? Also Barber’s is a motorcycle museum that has tons of great bikes.
I started off the weekend with a nice 250 mile ride down to my brothers on Saturday (April 18th) through what looked like potential bad weather but it turned out okay. A few drops of rain never hurt anyone. I decided before I left that I wasn’t going to use the interstate at all on my way down so I mapped out a route and took back roads and state highways all the way. It was nice not to get on an interstate and have all of those great roads and scenery at my disposal; it helped that the roads were a little twisty and not boring super slabs of mind numbing concrete. I arrived at my brother pretty late thanks to leaving the house around noon and stopping off at my cousin’s place up near Huntsville.

For those interested; I took TN HWY 48 to Dickson, HWY 46 until it turned into HWY 7 and ran that down to US 31 in Columbia. I ran US 31 until it joined Interstate 65 and ran TN 110 to AL 53 until getting close to my cousins house. Once I left there I was on US 231 running through Huntsville straight down to where it joined AL 79. I followed 79 to Locust Fork and my brother’s place.

A few highlights of the trip down; just north of Dickson is a historic little town called Cumberland Furnace. It was once the site of a large Iron furnace that produced cannonballs for troops under Andrew Jackson during The Battle of New Orleans. There are a few historic building left in the area, maybe someday when I have more time I will stop in and do a little sight-seeing. Another part of the trip that I enjoyed was going up the mountain that is just south of the TN River on US 231. Most of my family was born up there (I was too, as a matter of fact the same doctor who delivered my mom, delivered me) and for some reason every time I get there I feel home even though I only lived there a few years when I was first born. Going up the mountain at night is serene. With low traffic you can almost feel like you are alone in the world. Then look in your mirrors and you can see Huntsville lying out below you a few miles away. Another thing to note is TN HWY 7 crosses the Natchez Trace Parkway. One of these days I will try and run it. I have seen a few articles written where other riders have ridden it and it look and sounds like a great ride. 

That next morning at my brothers we got up and headed out to check out some bikes and Mustangs and see the late model Mustangs run on the road course at Barber’s Race Park. There was a nice selection of vintage Dearborn iron there with just a small helping of the later stuff. I was in Mustang heaven there for a little while wishing I had the dough to build my dream Mustang (68 fastback with a 428 Cobra Jet).

After a while we decided to head into the museum where we were treated to a great selection of motorcycles. There seemed to be a little bit of everything there. If you are a motorcycle lover then you need to visit this place. There is something for everyone, from super bikes, Harley Davidson, Indian, and even some British bikes. They also have two nice displays that I really enjoyed; one was a board track with some early board trackers on it and the other was a few super bikes that were displayed like they were on a speedway. There are approximately 600 or more bikes on display at any given time and they have somewhere around 1200 bikes there. If you plan on going, go early because there are tons of bikes to see. I was only there about two hours and I felt extremely rushed. I probably missed a ton of great motorcycles.  The price for admission into the museum is $15 for adults and $10 for children. A little steep but it is worth it. I plan on going again, maybe October 7-9th 2011 for the Vintage Festival. There will be plenty of antique motorcycles out on the raceway tearing it up that weekend and also a swap meet. You never know what kind of great motorcycle parts you can find. All in all it should be a pretty good weekend. Hopefully the weekend after that though will be spent in Daytona at Biketoberfest with my brothers and sisters in SHDC.

Until next time; be safe, keep the wind in your hair, the sun to your back, and get out and ride.

On my way back from Virginia I thought I would check an item off of my Bucket list, hell I actually knocked two off but more on that later. I ended up spending September the 4th on the Tail of the Dragon. The ride was awesome but getting there was just as fun. I had planned the trip to take advantage of as much of the scenery and roads in the area as I could. What a great way to spend the day after leaving a month long army school huh? The only bad thing about it was that had to be back home that day and the day was already halfway gone. Hell I still had 340 miles to go with a few hours of it on back roads.

I left the Wheels Through Time museum earlier that day (I have an article in the works for that one too), headed south/west on US 19 to Cherokee NC which was a fairly nice ride in itself. It had a nice set of twisties going up and back down the mountain with some awesome views. After passing through Cherokee I jumped on US 74 (Great Smokey Mountain Expressway) for some smooth riding and some great vistas. I pulled off the road a couple of times to take in the views and snap a few pictures. From there I hit NC 28 running alongside Fontana Lake. Now if you are going to do the Tail of the Dragon you really need to do this road too. There isn’t as much traffic, the twisties are just as good, and talk about views. There are a few pull offs where you can look down onto Fontana lake and you don’t have to worry about being run over when trying to pull off the road. Another thing I really enjoyed was being able to ride it my way. The only vehicle that I caught was a vette. He was going a little slower than I would have liked but he soon pulled off at a little store. I didn’t have to worry about me slowing anyone down either, not really sure why though. When I finally made it to the Tail I constantly had to slow down for others. Plus there are more cops on the Tail than on some of the other roads leading into it. Towards the end of NC 28 you cross over the river leading from Fontana Dam. About 6 more miles from the bridge you will run into US 129, the Tail of the Dragon, and Deals Gap.

This is what you came for right? The Tail of the Dragon, the ultimate twisty road in the US of A which seemed to be made just for riding is there for the taking.  Just imagine, 318 curves in 11 miles running through the Tennessee mountains.  Before we get into my ride though I want to give you a few pointers on riding the Tail of the Dragon;

• Ride your own ride. If you get nothing else from this remember, ride within your own ability. If you can’t keep up with those around you, then let them go. They will wait on you at the end (maybe). The tail is a bad place to make a mistake.
• Ride it once at a lower speed and take it easy to get a feel for the curves. There are some curves so tight that you can almost kiss your own ass. There are some curves that I could barely do 15 mph in and the suggested speed limit for them was 10mph.
• Use your engine to slow you down and stay in the proper gear. That’s not saying not to use your brakes, you are going to have to, just let the engine do some of the work and by all means brake carefully.
• Watch out for cops! They will have 3 or 4 cops on that 11 mile stretch on busy days. Remember, this is a public road not a private racetrack, traffic laws apply.
• If you are in a group, do not ride in formation and understand there will be people who will want to pass you if you are going slower than them.
• Last but not least, if there is someone on the road that has moved up on you fairly fast and wants to pass, let them. Pull to the right side of the lane as far as you can, slow down, and let them go by.

With that out of the way we can get on with talking about my ride. I spent a short amount of time inside the store there at Deals Gap; you know I just had to buy a shirt. Not sure why a person has the urge to have so many damn t-shirts, but to my defense the Army says we have to wear long sleeve shirts when riding on a motorcycle. A long sleeve t-shirt isn’t going to do much good but it meets the letter of the law, just not the intent. I left out of there and headed North on 129 (The Tail of the Dragon) and cruised along at a good clip for just a few minutes until I fell behind some riders enjoying the scenery. Not that I didn’t enjoy the scenery, I just wanted to watch it go by a little faster so I passed ‘em up. It was just a few riders at first, maybe two packs of two bikes and then I ran up on a slow moving car which was a little troublesome to pass. By now I have probably knocked out only a mile out of 11 but it wasn’t too bad. I had a few minutes without following anyone but then after knocking out about two more miles I ran up on a pack of riders. There were probably 7 or 8 bikes and a few of them were riding two up. I passed the last two bikes no problem. They saw me coming, slid over for me, and let me squeeze in but after that it got a little more difficult. The next few riders weren’t paying any attention and it took me a while to get around them. So here I am, about 4 bikes in this pack left to pass and they start giving me trouble. I go to pass one of the guys and he sticks his leg out like he wants to kick me off of my bike. His woman on the p-pad is shaking her fist at me and yelling what I am sure were some pretty tasty words at me but hell I couldn’t hear her over my pipes. I pass another and this one decides he is going to pull back up alongside me and try to get me to pull over. Well, I don’t claim to be a badass, and I sure wasn’t going to see against a possible 8 others so I ignored him, passed the last two bikes left in their group and moved on out. The sad part about it, I only had about two miles left once I got past those guys. There was one cop sitting on one of the cutoffs flashing his lights at bikers when they went by and then I met another right as I was finishing.

Another thing to note, there are people parked taking pictures. Some of them are for websites where you can look up the picture they have taken of you and your bike while it passed and pay a fee to get it printed out. They have a neat little service if you want to pay for it and you’re not a cheap bastard like me. There are also others out there taking pictures that don’t appreciate all of the traffic and are making a case against us using the road for recreational purposes. 

The scenery is awesome, the road runs beside a river part of the way and you will see a few dams as you go. Just beware; this is not really the road to sight-see on. There are nice embankments on one side and rather steep drop offs on the other. Some of the curves are blind and diminishing radius. If you are unskilled and still wet behind the ears you may want to get a few miles under your belt before tackling it. Just search Deals Gap or Tail of the Dragon on Youtube and you will see a few videos of people making mistakes.

Last but not least, if you plan on going, build a little time into your trip for stuff other than the Tail. There are so many attractions within 50 to 100 miles that you could spend days there and not do and see everything. A motorcyclist must see though is the Wheels Through Time Museum but you have to plan ahead because they are only open a few times during the year so try and plan around that. Until next time; be safe, keep the wind in your hair, the sun to your back, and get out and ride. 

( This ride took place in September of 2009, sorry I just got around to writing it)

Northern Indiana Ride for Kids
10 July 2011
Pinhook Park
2801 Riverside Dr
South Bend, IN 46616
Registration open at 8:00am EDT
Ride starts promptly at 10:00am EDT
www.NorthernIndianaRideforKids.org

Join us for an escorted charity motorcycle ride through the beautiful Northern
Indiana Country side and support the Pediatric Brain Tumor
Foundation. www.pbtfus.org

After the ride stay for a lite lunch and the Celebration of Life and meet the
Stars(young brain tumor survivors) who will join us for the ride.
www.NorthernIndianaRideforKids.org
Contacts
Bobby Newman
219-324-0706 H
219-363-6071 C
bear.kitten@frontier.com

John Zepik
219-363-3256 C
jwzvtx@gmail.com

Ej Ford
219-324-3459 H
EjFord@frontier.com

This is the time of year when bikers get together for charity runs or other motorcycle events such as toy runs. If you have any events you need to advertise let me know and I will try to post them. Get them to me fast though, I know there are a lot of them out there.

Keep on riding,
36 Special

The beginning of the ride for me was the Victory Monument in Yorktown. I hopped of the bike and took a shot of my bike with the tower in the background. The monument was commissioned in 1781 but construction didn’t start on it for another 100 years. Just on the other side of that monument is the York river. Not a bad view but it would have been better if they would keep it all trimmed up on the hill back there. Probably 150 yards to the left of my bike there was some of the buildings that made up Colonial Yorktown.

From there I rode down by the beach a little and on down the parkway just taking it easy and taking in the sites at an easy 35-40 mph. I tried to take each little parking cut off and read the signs telling me what interesting thing that certain spot was know for. At one spot (overlooking a pier for an old Naval Yard) I pulled to the side of the road and turned the 4-ways on so that I could snap a shot without getting off the bike and I happened to notice that one of my blinkers had went out (note to self, stop by walmart and pick up a bulb). Lucky no one pays attention to turn signals anyways huh.

I passed through Old Williamsburg and all of the people that work there to show a recreation of the life back in those times were closing up shop and heading out but hell I wasn’t planning on stopping anyways. Maybe next weekend when park passes are free I will stop in and be a tourist for a little while.

After passing through Williamsburg the James River decided to show up beside me and ride along to my left for a little while until the road dead ended a few miles from Jamestown. Not sure why but they had it blocked off so I turned around and went and took a few pictures of the James River and walked on the Shore just a little bit.

All in all it was a fairly nice little ride. I would almost consider moving the family here if I could get stationed at Ft. Eustis for a little while but the land is just a little too flat here for me and I am sure it would be a little expensive to live here full time. If you want to see more pictures of the ride just vist the Colonial Parkway album in the gallery. Until next time get out and ride, and enjoy it while there is still time.

1. Tail of the Dragon (Deals Gap). Just getting to this one will be a days ride. I will probably leave from Clarksville early one morning (real early) and head down to my dads house.  There my dad and brother will join me and we will head up to choo choo (Chattanooga). From there we will take some back roads over to the Dragon. After the dragon we will probably cut through the woods back to I59 and head home. Not sure of the mileage but I figure once I get back to my dads on that day I will probably have racked up 600 or more miles. There will be no way I will head back home, heck that would be another 250 miles.
2. Museums; I want to hit a few of the big motorcycle museums out there. The first is going to be Barbers. It is in Birmingham so that will be another long little ride and another where I will pick the brother and my dad up (the house is on the way). The museum has a ton of old bikes and a raceway. Maybe I can plan my trip around when they have the vintage races.  Another museum I want to see is wheels through time but it looks like it may be closed, I am going to get more info on that as soon as I can but the site says that they are closing on November 30th 2008. The next one I will try to see is the new one, the H-D museum but I also want to try and tour the factory when I go. Milwaukee might be a little bit of a trip to just spend a few hours in a museum.
3. Iron Butt; Don’t know what my route would be but I want to try and knock this out in ’09. Nothing like trying to ride 1000 miles in 24 hours to give you a sore ass.
4. Octoberfest; I am not sure if I will be back in time for bike week in March and even if I am I might not be able to go at that time but I am going to still try and catch one of the events in Daytona this year.
5. Last one I want to do and have been wanting to do for a while is Jazz Festival, New Orleans in April. I figure I could ride down on  Thursday (23d) and stay through Sunday. That weekend Drive-By Truckers, Etta James, and Robert Cray will be playing. The bad thing is the next weekend that have a bunch of other artists playing that I want to see too like Aretha Franklin, Buddy Guy, and John Mayall. Now believe me there are many other groups playing, it is just that there are so many I couldn’t even read them all before my eyes hurt much less write them down here. looking at the prices though I may have to save up for a little while to be able to afford it. I guess we will have to see.

Well that’s my list. That is not all of the riding I am going to try and get done but it is some of the big ones that I want to get knocked out. I may even try and take another trip to Beale street with a few friends and spend the weekend listening to blues and swilling beer. Head on over to the forums and tell us the rides you have planned for 2009. Until next time get out and ride and when you can come back and tell us about it in the biker forums.

So in one weekend I got roughly 1000 miles. I usually prepare for the cold fairly well I guess I just failed this time. No harm, no foul I guess but from now on I will be ready. All it takes is stuffing a sweatshirt, some glove liners, maybe even some type of skull cap in a bag. For all of you that do ride in the winter, make sure you go out prepared. You never know what kind of weather is around the next bend or when you will be out longer than planned.
Until next time, get out, ride, and be safe.

Clarksville Toy Run

There were a lot of people there, not sure what the final count was but I have talked to a few people who had to wait for all of the bikes to pass while at a light and they said the bikes stretched for miles. If you want to check out future Bikers Who Care (BWC) events here is link; Bikers Who Care

That is all for now folks, now get out and ride some and get off of that damn computer!

A few months ago the movie “Bucket List” came out and just from the few previews it got me to thinking. What would my bucket list look like (you know, kick the bucket)? I started thinking about all of the things that I would like to do before I pass on. Not all of it is motorcycle related mind you but hey they are what I want to do right? So here it goes;

1. Hike the Appalachian Trail. I have always loved the outdoors. Hiking, camping, fishing, hell I just like to be in the woods. Maybe it is the country in me, I have no idea but since I was young I couldn’t help but explore my backyard and further. I think the best thing that ever happened to me is when my family moved back to the woods after I had got a little older. Why the AT you ask? For the hell of it why not? I really am not sure but it has just been something I have always wanted to do but I have never had the 4 to 5 months to do it in. I think maybe to accomplish this one I just may have to do it a few weeks at a time. Heck with the military keeping me gone for a year at a time and then only giving me 30 days off it will be an accomplishment just to scrape together the time to do it much less do the trip itself. So I guess the likely hood that this one gets done before I retire may be fairly slim so this may have to be put off until then (9 more years).

2. Ride the Mother Road. Who hasn’t thought about taking off on Route 66 and following it from start to finish? Now this is a item I just may be able to check off of my list one day. I may be able to do it in 3 weeks (Tennessee to Illinois to the west coast and then back to Tennessee). Maybe even have it coincide with The Stampede that The Horse Backstreet Choppers puts on every year. I would take Route 66 out and then meet up with the Stampede guys and roll back with them. That may be something to plan for June 2010.

3. Climb Denali. Yep, you are probably thinking I am crazy now, hey I already said I loved the outdoors. Mt. McKinnely is one of those been there done that things that I would like to claim. I will probably plan a trip up Mt. Rainier first though to get a little training. I haven’t done any technically difficult mountains but I have climbed Pikes Peak in the early winter. Instead of taking the trail me and a friend went straight up the side climbing hand over fist through the snow. What would make this one hard to plan is trying to find the money to do it (fairly poor person here) and getting the time off during climbing season. The season is fairly short and preparation would have to start early but what I may do, and I have thought about this a lot, is try and get the Army to station me in Alaska. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about travel as much and I could train a little. Heck I may even get to spend a little time in Denali national forest that way. I guess that is one of those things I will have to wait and see about.

4. Sturgis. This one is self explanatory right? I mean who doesn’t want to do Sturgis? This one though may just happen August 2009. Me, my dad, and my brother have it planned. I will probably roll down to Alabama and we will all ride the whole way. Take about 3 days there and 3 back and then stay for a few. I also have a few friends that may join the ride as we pass Missouri and Kansas. Stumpy, DZ, here is your invite.

5. Ride through Europe. Well I had my chance to do this already but I didn’t take full advantage of it. I spent three years living in Belgium and managed to ride in France, Belgium, England, Ireland, and The Netherlands. I still missed trips to Germany, Italy, and Austria. The next chance I get though I am going to do it right. I will hit all of those spots that I missed plus I may try and do Fokker see (spelling?) and a few more Super Rallies. Maybe the Army will send me and my family back so that I will have another shot.

6. Ride U.S. Highway 11 from the south to the north. This is another one that could be with in reach. Just a little planning and I think this one may be easy to pull off. I am not sure exactly where it starts but heck that may be a trip all by it self. I know that it runs up through eastern Alabama through Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia and follows some of the greatest parts of the South Eastern United States. I think I started dreaming about doing that road sometime in 1996 when I started driving a truck (back in my civilian days). I may even take the Blue Ridge part of the way but either way I think that it would be a great trip.

7. Jazz Fest and Mardi gras. Both of these hold equal weight for me. I have wanted to visit The Big Easy during those two times since I took my first trip to New Orleans to deliver stuff. I just happened to turn it to a NPR station and they were advertising Jazz Fest in between the Blues, Jazz, and Zydeco that they were playing. I have a few friends that have talked about heading down with me. This could be another one of those trips that if planned right could be done easily. Maybe I can even find that little Po Boy shop on the Nashville wharf again.

8. Manufacturing Tour. I am not sure why but I have always wanted to go to Dearborn and see a Mustang built and then slide on over to Milwaukee and see a few two wheeled creations roll off the line. I may even take in the HD museum while I am at it. I worked in a manufacturing plant from the time I was 18 until I was about 24 or 25. I built utility beds for a place called Altec. Ever since then just to see how different things were built has interested me. Maybe one day I will be putting together a car or motorcycle every year or so just to keep the bills paid after I retire.

9. Go to Austin. I would get to see The Alamo, Austin City Limits (TV show), and stand underneath the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue. I would get to see some of this great countries history, take in some great music, and see the statue dedicated to a modern blues legend. Now on the way to Austin though I may just have to stop off in Memphis and visit Beale Street and Graceland. That would be an awesome trip. You may just see me writing about that one soon after I get back (a year from now).

10. Now to wrap this up I will list a few other things that I would like to do that I am sure on other peoples list; sky dive, bull riding, circle track racing, write a book, and if I get lucky grow old enough to see my boys grow into confident, honest, good men and have children that do the same. Maybe there will be a few generations that will be able to ride together.