Day 1 - Rocky Mountain Campout
Saturday morning - May 26, 2012 @ 7:15AM
Suches, GA
Elevation: 3000 ft
Temp: 77
Planned Miles: 610
Our small group converged at Dan's cabin in the N Georgia mountains last night. Lane arrived via KLR from Pensacola and Joe from Winston
-Salem on his 990. I arrived around 9pm after clearing out the last Walmart before Suches of all their freeze dried camping food and granola bars. It was a typical night before liftoff with Dan busy with his preflight wiring of his "farkles"... XM radio, scala rider Bluetooth headset, heated gear, cell charger, and radar detector, electric shaver.... you get the picture. I don't think an ADV bike could have any more tech goodies ziptied to the bars. :-)
The view from the cabin is spectacular. I can't wait to hit the road.....
Well we made it to Batesville! Man, what a great day. Staying up until 1:30 took a toll on the group today. We were all dragging a little but the adreneline kicked in as soon as the kickstands went up.
Highlights:
- Some of the best twisty roads in the country for the first 20 miles leaving Suches.
- Dan treated us to a nice dirt road around mile 25. It was cool to put the Super Tenere in the dirt for the first time with the new K60 dualsport tires. The bike did great. She is built for this type of terrain.
- We let the Garmin guide us towards Selmer where we will pickup Dad. I turned on the feature to avoid Interstates and we were treated to some awesome flowing ribbons of ashphalt south of Chatanooga. I believe it was 41S.?.
- Dad was waiting for us at the Mickey D's with a surprise. My step brother, Boo Ennis, and half sister, Rylee Ennis road up to meet us on a beautiful Road King. It was great to see them but a little too short.
- Dad was making the Intruder rock. When we left Selmer we planned to get gas in apx. 100 miles. I thought to myself, "I hope we don't have to get gas in Memphis". Guess where we got gas? Right smack in Da Hood. We didn't get any warm fuzzies from the locals.
- I got to see the Intruder get a airborne over an unexpected kicker on I-40. Dad is a great rider so it didn't do anything but get some fist pumps and thumbs up from the group.
- We were swarmed with small flying insects as we headed into Newport. They were so think it made the headlights dim and the faceshield nearly blacked out.
- We had dinner at one of my old favorites - US Pizza in Newport, AR.
2 Responses
J,L, McDaniel
looks like a great ride. Be safe. Tell dad to slow down. Next bump in the road could be big.
Spyder riding saturday jumped from another good airplane.
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Larry Skidmore
May 29, 2012
Jason, Have a safe trip! Go up hwy 550 from Durango to Montrose over the million dollar highway. Best scenery in Colorado