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Hey Ya'll,
Myself and Bob arrived here 15 hours from RI. Great road trip no traffic the
whole way, we left @ 7PM Wednesday night and was at the house in Robbinsville
by 11AM. The only stops we made were for fuel, we grabbed munchies at the
same time and ate on the road.
Thursday May 10. After Bob and I got here we heard rain was on the way so we
skipped the idea of a nap and hit Deals Gap. After 22 Miles and going well
past the Dragons Tail we turned around to check if anyone else had arrived.
Randy had come and gone already, so we headed out and hit the Cherohala
Skyway. I think we did about 100 Miles that day on little to no sleep, but had
to with the chance of rain coming.
Saturday was a more productive day for riding. With a sad end seeing a new
R1 smashed up. See crash details below, I saw the after math, Bob Randy and Jon watched
it in dis-Belief!
It was a great day of rideing, doing 350 miles of good twisty roads along
river bends and I lost the group about two hours from home. I fell back to
stop and take some pictures of the river along the road. I got stuck behind a
few cages trying to catch the group, but never found them. They took a right
hand turn and I never knew it. I held up at the intersection for a while then
decided to get on the main route that went straight thinking they stayed
straight. Well I followed it for 7 miles and it turned into a wildlife
presservation scenic route. (One way only @ 20 mph) Every one was doing 5mph
looking for animals. there was no room to pass a few people moved over for me.
I saw about a dozen deer and 2 wild Turkeys. Well three counting Mupps! It
took me an hour to get thru that and back to the intersection where I lost the
group. No cell phone servise left the option of telling them I was ok and
where I was. Well after they searched high and low and I tryed getting back
they decided to go on to the house, and so did I. I
made it home fine and still had a great time.
For those of you that know the area here are the routes. 143 to 28N - 19E
441W - 73W - Foothills parkway (Great views of the Smokies!) back to 129
before the Gap section and home on 143.
I got home 15 minutes after they did.
R1CRASH DETAILS:
A couple of bike cruisers, Hondas or something came around a corner right in
front of the start of Deals Gap where the crossroads of time is. One of them
went into the opposite lane and scared the driver of a ford Ranger. the ranger
went in to a skid and crossed into the opposite lane past the cruisers right
into an on coming R1 that was coming back form riding the Gap and was staying
at Crossroads. The guy on the R1 locked up the brakes and went into a stoppy.
When fully upright he collided with the ranger , went over the bars head first
into the windshield , then flipped up and over the roof and to the side of the
truck. The R1 rider got right up and walked around the truck to see his bike.
The rider was shaken up , but Ok. 2002 BLK&SLVR R1 is broken up pretty good.
the whole front end was smashed off and the bike bounced backward after impact
and went down on the throttle/pipe side. Besides the front it doesn't look
totaled. The rider was checked out and cleared right there after looking him
over for 20 minutes. I am sure he will be real soar tomorrow. I just saw the guy yesturday and commented about
his bike.. You just never know when it's going to happen to you!
Well off to bed to start early and do a lot more riding tomorrow.
Mike (Sparky)
& (PJ, Jon Solomon, Randy Orvis, Mupps)