Catching up

The weekend after our epic 800 miler was a little more quiet.  The Indian dealer in Knoxville was having "Demo Days" as well as giving a free bandanna for every demo ride taken.  Now, I do not EVER want to take advantage of our local dealer.  The guys there are great, but I know no one likes a "tire kicker".  We are DEFINITELY not tire kickers, but we're also not able to spend tens of thousands of dollars, either.  David will be getting a Chieftan within the year, and whether we get it from Knoxville or not greatly depends on our interactions with the staff.  For the Demo days, you just pick any bike in the store and they let you take it out, unguided.  One time, they actually had 4 different bikes parked outside that they had READY for you to take out.  To take a demo bike, they take it down and check it, put a tag on it, and gas it up for you ... it's a lot of work!  But dang it, Indian corporate gives you free stuff as incentives for doing demo rides, so we join in the fun!  I also am for sure a future Chieftan customer ... just very, very far in the future, lol!  Which is ok ... after this weekend, I need a few thousand more miles and a couple more years on my Scout before I graduate up in size, anyway lol. 

David's beauty is in the back

Anyway, Will the salesman was happy to hook us up, and David took out his beloved blue Chieftan Limited, and I took a Dark Horse (which I am TOTALLY not interested in, black bikes bore the heck out of me).  I was able to try the bike with the Reduced seat, which I was excited about.  This was the first time David and I were able to ride Chieftans together ALONE.  He has a pretty good demo route figured out; it's different than the lead rides b/c those are supposed to be 100% right turns.  We found ourselves plenty of left ones, and fun ones at that!  There's this road right down from the dealer that has a long, twisty downhill followed by a long, twisty uphill.  Super fun!  The seat got my feet a little closer to the ground, but still not flatfooted.  I actually felt a little cramped sitting because it pulled me closer to the gas tank and put more of a bend in my knees, which I don't need in the "riding" position.  So, undecided on the Reduced seat!

48th time at the Dragon! (made that # up)

  Anyway, we pulled into a pull off to wait on a SUPER slow car to move out of the way, and it was definitely an awkward stop for me.  The bike is soooo heavy, but I was also being so super careful.  We pulled back onto the road with no issues, and I thoroughly enjoyed the light as a cat feel of the front end of the bike through the twisty road!  It actually rides lighter and more comfortable than Khaleesi due to the positively neutral, upright riding position.  My arms are in a PERFECT spot on the handlebars, I love it so much!  As we neared the end of the ride and got closer to the dealership, I had a moment of mild panic.  The shop is in a HORRIBLE spot off a HORRIBLE busy road.  If you come in needing to make a left turn, you have to go down and make a U turn to turn right into the driveway; there's no straight up left turn in.  I am DEFINITELY not ready to fire off a U turn on a busy highway on the Chieftan yet.  David had me covered, though, and we took backroads with traffic lights that put us on the highway going the proper direction to make that right back into the shop.  I was relieved to pull to a stop and have David come up and put my kickstand down for me.

2018 Bandanna

Anticipating our next Chieftan rides to be at the Demo truck in September, when there's ZERO guilt to get out and ride them!  Wow, didn't mean for this blog to turn into such a detailed account of a "test ride", but it always morphs into what it's meant to as soon as my fingers touch the keys :)  Our demo ride on Saturday was our "ride" for the day, but we did head out again once the baby went to sleep around Sevierville.  We were again going for ice cream at this cute little private store, but we got there too late.  So DQ it was!  Fun, safe ride for about 3 hours; we left out around 8:30 and got back just before midnight.  The following weekend dawned HOT.  David almost didn't even really want to ride; I talked him into it by tempting him with the Cherohala; the temp difference up there is CRAZY!  And it's south, too!  I just knew that even though it was a hot day, it would be a nice ride.

We hit the road heading south down 411, then took our usual backroads to Tellico Plains.  He had ME lead the Cherohala and he filmed it.  The first part of the ride involved a slow yellow Mustang that didn't know to MOVE OUT OF THE FREAKING WAY.  As SOON as we were able, I passed them and enjoyed the long sweeping curves of the Skyway.  And I was soooo right, it was about 15 degrees cooler. 

There were some threatening clouds hanging around, but all they did was threaten.  We made our way to The Hub in Robbinsville, NC and enjoyed lunch, then hit 129 to do the Dragon to FHP.  It was actually my first time to do the FHP after the Dragon.  I've done FHP FIRST, but never after.  And we've always stopped and taken a break.  We did stop in Deal's Gap to wander up to the Killboy store and make sure they didn't have any new stickers (they didn't) first, but then we hit the road.  And let me tell ya ... it was crazy slow.  We got stuck behind a group of riders/cars going so slow ... we actually horsed around for one of the photographers, which I NEVER do.  I told David we needed to stop, because the Dragon will bite you when you're not expecting it!  So we straightened up and focused on finishing the ride. 

I hate posting screenshots, but this is an ugly pic!  Went with my short boots due to the HEAT

Enjoyed cruising up and over the Parkway, enjoying the cooler weather up there too (although not as cool as the Skyway) then to our favorite Winery because David wasn't ready for the day to end.  Fun day!  Absolutely zero issues or problems, we completely enjoyed our time together.    I give ALL the glory to God!

That may or may not be a wine slushy!