This time around we just dropped down directly to route 90 and headed across to the KY border where it turns into route 74. The ride was just as fantastic as I remembered, except once we got to route 74, it started raining. On with the raingear again. On the maps, route 74 looks friggin amazing. It would be, if the road conditions weren't utter crap. This road has been seriously neglected. It has the potential to be one of the greatest motorcycle roads in the country except the pavement is uneven, heaved, cracked and otherwise difficult to ride. The scenery was great, but it was ruined by spending all my time paying attention to the road conditions. Fortunately it never really rained, just a sprinkling that stopped before we hit the real hairy parts of 74.
Once we got near Cumberland Gap, the road straightened out and the blacktop got smooth. Boo. Should have been smooth like that a few kms back the way we came. We stopped in at a gas station and fuelled up, got some advise from the locals and headed out to see Cumberland Gap. I had no real knowledge of what Cumberland Gap is, now that I know, its pretty impressive and I am really glad I got a chance to see it. We stopped in at the park and looked for shot glasses. None to be found. Amy and I collect shot glasses from wherever we go. At current count, I believe we have around 300 of them. We headed up to the pinnacle to see what it was all about.
At the top in the parking lot. Had fun riding up that road!
Amy! Half in Kentucky, Half in Virginia.
A giant rock that is being held in place by a little rock.
The town of Cumberland Gap. You can see US25 emerging from the mountain.
The city of Middlesboro. You can see US25 entering the mountain.
In this picture, you can see 3 states. Down the middle of this pic, the border is divided like a T with the bottom facing the left. The joint of the T is just about right in the middle of the picture. Right under us is Virginia, to the right is Kentucky and straight ahead is Tennessee.
This is me on a giant rock! There is a pretty steep drop off the edge.
Amy infront of the sign with the history of the road up to the pinnacle overlook. What a fun road! I can only imagine what it must have been like when it was a dirt road and you would drive it in a Ford Model T.
My 96 1100 ACE infront of the sign at Cumberland Gap. Back at the bottom of Pinnacle road. Lost a bit of metal off the footpegs coming back down.
We were pretty hungry after going to the top of the overlook, so we decided we would pop into Cumberland Gap, TN and get some lunch. We headed back down US25 and went through the tunnel. This was pretty cool, I just wish I had the camera out. Before entering the tunnel, we were stopped at the signal lights and I was about to pull it out of the case when the light turned green! Once through the tunnel, we pulled into Cumberland Gap, TN. We needed the mandatory shot glass. Walked around the booming metropolis of Cumberland Gap, stopped in at the Old Drugstore and Antiques. We found ourselves a shotglass and had a bit to eat. There really isn't much in the way of food here. Had a hotdog and Chips and Cheese. This was a new one on me. A bag of freeto's, flooded with nacho cheese and chili. Interesting and heartburn inducing.
This is the overlook where we took the earlier pictures.
We looked in The Cumberland Gap general store but found no shot glasses.
The scenery is amazing here.
From here we got back on US25e and headed southeast. Jumped onto route 33. The ride down 33 was pretty much uneventfull, nothing too exciting, but the scenery was nice. Rode that down to i640 to i275 to i40 to US129. This is a pretty hectic ride as there is a ton of traffic and it moves pretty briskly. Once on US129, things get worse however. This section of it is called the Alcoa Highway. It is not a nice place to ride. The traffic moves way too fast and aggressively and there are stoplights all along it. Not a fun ride at all. It belies what is ahead. Once off the Alcoa highway, we stopped in at a gas station Wellsville. We stopped because the sky was extremely dark up ahead and to the right. Looked like it was blowing right over where we were going! A nice guy on a bike asked us if we were heading that way (towards Deal's Gap) and said "it's pouring rain down there!". We stayed a while, had a snack and waited for the clouds to blow over. I definitely did not want to be riding the dragon in rain. Better to wait it out than to waste a run through the dragon due to wet roads. I wasted a few bucks on the crane. Managed to win myself a nice stuffed Batman doll though. I strapped him onto the back of my pack and had a passenger for the rest of the trip.
Once back on the road, the sky was clear and you could see the water drying up off the road. Got down to the Calderwood Highway and the roads were dry! Sweet! We get to the dragon and immediately see 2 cops with bikes pulled over. Uh oh, looks like it might be a cop fest along the dragon like it was last year. The roads get a little wet again due to all the trees casting shadows on the road. Ah well, at least it wasn't totally soaked, lots of traction still. Scraped the pegs a bunch of times and got shot by Zee and Killboy. The road was almost completely dry so it was a good run and not totally wasted. No cops through the length of the dragon. Stopped in at the Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort at the crossroads of time and grabbed a 2008 deal's gap shotglass (number 5 now) a patch and a sticker. Headed down to Robinsville and checked into the Microtel. Fortunately they had rooms. They were pretty booked and we ended up having to take a suite. Nice to have the extra room, not nice to pay more than you wanted.
Bad news in Robinsville is that the Brushy Mountain restaurant next to the Microtel is closed! They had a pretty kickass breakfast. I'm gonna miss the deep fried creamed corn! We ended up walking up to Lynn's place for dinner. Had the Cherohala Chicken, grilled chicken covered in Jack Cheese, bacon and saute'd onions. Nice. Back at the hotel I spend some time outside drinking a couple of beers and shooting the breeze with some other riders. All kinds of people from all over the place there. Mass, Ohio, Mississippi and Florida. Hit the sack fairly early in preparation for what will be an awesome day of riding tommorow.
The only really unfortunate thing about this day was that we didnt get to see Glacier Girl. She is a P38 Lightning that they dig out of the ice in Greenland. It was restored in Middlesboro, TN. It was sold last year to a private owner. Grr. I am a WWII aviation buff and this would have been a highlight of the trip for me. I heard it was on display in Middlesboro, planned to go there this trip, then a few nights before we left, found out it is now in Texas. :(
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