Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Gettin' Our Kicks: Chapter 37 – Day 37 and 38 Summerville to Vonore, TN

July 11 - 12, 2015

July 11th

Right down the road from the motel we entered the Chattahoochee National Forest – more two lane winding roads, but a little built up with homes on big properties.

All was good for sometime until we hit a nasty looking dirt section. I don’t think it was too long and would have connected us back to the paved section we wanted to be on. But it would not have suited Judith’s bike very well, so we l went for plan B – find a detour.

While we were looking at Google Maps and nice fellow named Corey pulled up on his Honda – Harley clone and asked if every thing was OK. He pointing us in the right direction for the detour, but he also had 30 minutes of stories to tell. Fortunately we were not in a hurry.

After getting back on route we continued through Chattahoochee National Forest on GA 2 and GA 5. These were super roads – more two-lane through pretty heavily forested areas. We had a rest stop at a visitors center somewhere (forgot where) and ended up talking to a local couple who were out for a ride – more nice people.

We eventually came to the Tennessee Boarder and on to US64/TN68 and through the Cherokee National Forest. We enjoyed this road a lot. Again, two lane, winding, different types of turns, great surface and little traffic. Right as we dropped down and out of the Cherokee National Forest we got a little rain, but not bad. We thought oh great, we are so lucky with the rain situation this entire trip. This did not last for long.

Just a few miles down the road was Tellico Plains. We stopped at a gas station for a break even though we were only about 20 miles from the hotel.

As we sat there, we watched the sky in the direction we need to go turn ugly dark. We made a break for it, but three or four miles up the road the heavens opened up, along with serious mountain style thunder and lightening. We pulled into a gas station to see if it would pass by quickly – it didn’t.

We bit the bullet and hopped back on the bikes and rode off to the hotel. Pretty sure the rain got heavier too.

The hotel in Vonore, TN was pretty odd. It was completely off the beaten path. There was nothing at all anywhere close by. They did not serve food and no one would deliver according to the lady who checked us in and did not like her job. I asked for room on the first floor, but was told that the first floor was not open – only the second floor.

The style of the hotel was pretty much like a Holiday Inn Express, or any of the others in that category, but it was missing something. For a while I thought we had checked into Hotel California or House on Haunted Hill.

Judith's bike continued to attract critters

We did get a nice parking spot

Not many guests at Hotel Weird - the parking lot was empty

We had intended to stay three nights here and ride some of the local roads. But, because the weather was being uncooperative and the hotel was strange, we decided to only stay two nights. I checked with the next hotel and we could get in there one day early – great. When I spoke to the guy at registration the next morning to let him know we would leave a day early he said you only have a reservation for two nights – great again. Actually when I checked the booking.com reservation it was for three nights, but there certainly was no need to discuss that any further.

July 12th

It rained and we basically hung out.

The original plan had been to ride The Tail of the Dragon (TN 129) – 11 miles and 318 turns. Very famous road, but actually a bit of a pain every body and their brother comes to ride the road and 90% of the people shouldn’t be on this road.

So, we did not ride The Dragon.

Hotel Weird did have a nice touch for motorcycle riders - towels to wipe off the morning dew

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