Deals Gap Update

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)
:twofinger:twofinger:twofinger:twofinger:twofinger

MUtha FUcka:twofinger

Yo dude great to see things are going well.. sorry I couldn't join you this year.. perhaps next year Jen and I will take the trip with you again... have fun.. if ya run into Ray n Mary tell em I said hi... assuming they're not just blue blurrs as they fly by.... :twofinger

Another great day riding! But herd news of another 2 R1's losing the battle with the dragon. One was acually last week, the guy never even made it thru the gap once. He was ripping a wheely up wheely hill into the first turn of the gap, se tthe front end down and thought there was gravel in the road so he locked up the brakes and skided off the road and off the first corner down a large embankment. (Same corner the guy went off the first night of our trip last year. The other accident was another R1 , he was a local that just ripped thru the dragon and was running down the other end of 129 in TN. I guess he stopped at the overlook and was talking crap to the owners of the house we are renting of how these guys running the gap are idiots if they crash, well he spoke too soon, because 30 sec. later going away from the gap he lost it into a tree.

Anyways are day was awesome, we left the house @ 9 and started on rt 143E, then to the BEST road rt28 down to 64 and tryed a bike route which turned out insane! Rt 1001 then to another chance road that did not turn out for the best, rt 281 which had an 8 mile section of dirt. After the dirt the road was great. From 281 we got back onto 64W/28N then to Wayah Rd( Where Derek killed his RC51) I di not remember how good that road was!!! I guess after D's crash the rest of the day was kind of a blur, we where to worried about him. From Wayah road we got back on 129 and home by 143. I was tired and went right back to the house. PJ & Jon hit the gap for the last time, because they are leaving first thing tomorrow. We may also head out, the weather man is calling for T-Storms all day tomorrow. We only did about 250 miles today. We left @ 9am and returned @ 5:30.

All of the roads and new ones we found thanks to Randy O, he is a walking Atlas!

Off to bed, might not be any more to report unless we luck out with the weather.

Sorry guys no video will be available from this trip, but I will have some pictures. If anybody wants to see I can forward you the link once I get time to download them this week.

Mike:twofinger:D:):P
If you dont do this trip your crazy! You should do this-:bash

The roads , the scenery, I just cant find words that can describe how great this place is. I would move here just for all the incredible riding there is to be done here.. There is always one sick twisty linking to another! Unreal!! This even blows away the roads in western MA that go to 116/8A/9/100

yeah yeah boy.. lets see them pics! And get practicing those launches for the drags when ya get back!

Well we are back, 4 of us anyhow. Randy is still on the road. He Iron butted it down there, but was mozy'n back. I hope the weather is good for him.

Bob and I got back to R.I. @ 2Am and I was back at my house @ 3AM and up at 8:30, dam I am tired!
It took us 15 hours to get down there, and 16 to get back. The serious rain we hit from Pennsylvania all the way home slowed us down.
We had a great time, and definately looking forward to it again next year.

I have some pictures, but not as much as last years trip. Anyone that would like to see them let me know I can send you the link to my CVS photo page.

I think I need to go back to sleep now..

Mike

Yeah mikey post the link.. would love to check out the pics... also..did you guys take a different route? Didn't it take us like 18-19 hours last year to get there?

Yeah we took a different way down there. And on the way home we tryed something else. I think next year on the way down I will have to route throu the smokies early in the morning, so everyone can get all syked up as we are driving on these twisty roads with unbeleivable scenery! That is the way to go, plus it is a little faster, as long as traffic agrees. thats the way mupps took up back to the 81 highway.

I will have to look at the Atlas to write down the route #'s in order. Mupps chose the route, and did a great job. Another big advantage was that it was only the two of us with the bikes in the back of his Chevy. = Less stops for gas and lees weight to pull, so we could fly! Oh and not as many pee breaks! Us men can hold it longer!

Cool.. but apparently you've never gone anywhere with Stoner ie "baby bladder" because we went 19.9 miles between piss stops with him :twofinger

Once you fuck, ONCE!!! :twofinger

Mike I'm reserving a spot next year for sure and I'm putting in for the time off this year. I hate my job!

one thing I liked better about this years trip was the group was smaller, certainly there is nothing wrong with filling the house up, it would be better however to split into 2-3 riding groups, having been down ther 3 times now, I have ridden most of the numbered state highways, I recommend riding them before you start hitting the much less predictable county and local routes