Day 1: What goes up, must come down!

It has been a most amazing and unreal weekend!  David and I are off for the next week for vacation.  After waffling back and forth about a weekend in Nashville, or a weekend in Virginia, we decided to brave the weather forecast and ride the bikes to Marion, VA.  Marion is up in southwest VA, not far from Bristol.  We've been dying to ride the Back of the Dragon up in that area, but it's just a hair too far to do as a day trip (unless we wanted to iron butt it, and frankly, we're just not that hard core!)

We've never done an overnight on a motorcycle, so we were happy and excited to be doing something new.  In preparation, I decided to take one of Tiki's old sheepskin saddle pads to cushion my hiney.   I barely used the pad on him, as I think it really was too thick under his saddle.  I cut off the billet straps, sewed them to the center edge of the top of the pad, and stitched a piece of grippy drawer liner just under the wither cutout.  Flipped it over so that the seat of my bike just slid through the straps and sat on the bottom of it.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  It worked absolutely perfectly.  I didn't get those seat bone "hot spots" at all, but the extra thickness of the pad did create a little bit of pressure on my knees.  Overall, it was totally worth it!  And it REALLY does keep your seat warmer in cooler weather, and cooler in warmer weather; crazy!

5:00 am came way too quickly, especially since we didn't get in bed until midnight!  Strapped the duffel to David's sissy bar, loaded up the saddlebags, and North we headed!  Stayed off the interstate and took Hwy 33 to 25E to Cumberland Gap.  Cumberland Gap is right at the state lines of KY, VA, and TN.  It is some of the most breathtaking, beautiful scenery I've laid eyes on in the south.

We headed up the mountain to the Pinnacle Overlook.  Um, we just kept climbing up and up!  Much to my delight, most of the tighter switchback turns were to the right, which meant that coming back DOWN, they'd be on the left!  Relief, lol.  I have thought about how I approach the tighty righties; I get WAY to the left, look way over my shoulder, shift my hips to the left, and think more about pushing forward with my left arm vs. pushing down with my right one.  It's working pretty well because I had not one bad right turn this weekend :D

It was peaceful and quiet on top of the mountain.  Only one other family was up at the overlook and they were friendly.  We gawked and took pics, went to the restroom and hiked up a small hill where we saw some deer, and then it was time to go back down the mountain.  DAAAAAANG!  It wasn't quite McCloud Mountain, but it was close!

Yes, this is a real sign at the bottom of McCloud Mountain resort!!

Rolled down in mostly 1st gear so I didn't have to burn up my brakes, and headed to our next destination; Tazewell, VA and the start of the Back of the Dragon.  There was this one road.  I had 2 ... um, incidents.  We had turned onto this small, country backroad, and my tripodometer was at 130 miles.  I've never gone beyond 150 miles on a tank of gas, and of COURSE, we had no cell signal.  We'd gotten part ways down the road, and David got nervous that we'd get too far gone and no gas stations.  He decided to cut back over to the main road, get gas, then go back to the back road.  He had his GPS ... that LOVES gravel roads!  The driveway we picked to turn around at was a freaking booger.  It had a sharp drop down with a gravel bottom.  I normally don't have any problems with starting out on a hill, but it rolled back on me so bad since I was at such an angle I almost choked it.  Rolled back more and snatched the brake; foot slipped and almost went over on my right side.  Saved it, breathed deep, held the rear brake with my foot so I could concentrate on coordinating the throttle and clutch to get in the friction zone, and pulled out very drunkenly and awkwardly back onto the road.

Made a right hand turn on the 'cutover' road, and it was GRAVEL!  And this gravel road was NOT the nice, hard packed gravel road leaving Cade's Cove.  THIS gravel road was rutted, washed out, and poured over with what seemed like a recent load of gravel (cue grimace face emoticon here).  Hit 1 or 2 bone jarring pot holes, and made it UP and over the MOUNTAIN, then as we were coming back down hill and we could SEE the main highway, I hit this rut that nearly yanked the handlebars right out of my hands.  I have never been that close to falling down, but I was able to save it, and we got back down to pavement.  Holy Smokes, I was so glad I lived!!

We throttled our way through the curves to the Back of the Dragon store in Marion.  There was a huge group of bikers parked outside.  Much to our surprise, we hardly passed any motorcycles.  Yes, the morning started out cool.  Yes, the clouds were threatening at TIMES, but for the most part it was a beautiful day.  Saw 2 lady riders with that group.  Not sure if they'd already ridden the road or not.  Went inside and was taken aback by how TINY it was, lol!  About 4 racks of shirts, then stickers by the register.

Turned opposite the BOD to head into downtown Tazewell and parked with another group of bikes.  As we walked into the swanky restaurant, the gentleman were standing outside and asked us how we liked all those curves.  Told them we hadn't ridden yet, and they just said to be careful.  Enjoyed a crazy humongous club sandwich, then off we went!

As our tires began the coveted journey up the Back of the Dragon, I was actually surprised.  The road was NOT that challenging!  We pulled over to grab a picture or 2, and I had another ... incident :o  I choked Khaleesi TWICE!  And I've never choked her.  Again, I sort of internally panicked and thought something was wrong.  There was.  I was in 2nd gear (cue rolley eyes emoticon here).  Kicked her down into first, pulled out with no further issues, and continued our journey down the 32 miles into Marion.

My assessment of the BOD is that it is fun.  It's beautiful.  It reminds me very much of the series of roads we rode about a month ago called the Copperhead.  There were a few curves, but to my recollection, not anything under a recommended 20 mph curve.  Definitely no Tail of the Dragon.  Definitely no Devil's Triangle.  Harder than Foothills Parkway, but certainly rideable for all levels.

Our hotel in Marion was fabulous. It's called the Francis Marion and I HIGHLY recommend if you're ever in the area.  It's a charming old hotel decorated to keep the decor of the 1920's.  Rooms have actual keys.  No hideous carpet.  Hardwood floors in the rooms, and tile floors in the bathrooms.  Every room is different.  We crashed on the bed for a few minutes, changed clothes, then walked the streets looking for dinner.  Ended up choosing a pizzeria called 27 Lions and highly recommend that place too!  VERY good pizza and VERY reasonable prices.

You've reached the end of Novel #1, congrats!  Even though we were missing our boys, we also were enjoying the company of just. us.  It's been YEARS since we have had more than 24 hours completely and utterly alone.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I'm SO happy and excited and blessed that David and I have discovered riding motorcycles together.  It's an activity that really brings us together and it's something we totally enjoy separately as well.  Riding TOGETHER is the best, and it has enriched our lives in countless ways.  

In part 2, I reveal what is a GAME CHANGING tip that David taught me this weekend.  Tune in!