Trying new things

So, we have been trying to step slightly out of the "Jen and David" bubble, and try to ride with other people!  It's tough because many of the contacts we've made are several hours from the Knoxville area.  So to "organize" a ride is a little bit of a pain because you try to find an area convenient to "everyone", but then something happens to throw a wrench in the plans; and by "wrench", I mean the weather!  I'm not complaining because it's November 25th, and we just got home from our 4th ride over the last week, but it is very unpredictable right now.  So mainly, David and I just go whenever we feel like it, and ride wherever the bikes happen to take us.

Fun ride with friends!

Last week however, a friend from Murfreesboro had a ride planned for the Cherohala Skyway.  That's less than an hour from us, so I threw our hats in the ring as ready and willing to ride!  The ride hinged more on them because it's around 4 hours from west Tennessee to the Cherohala; and last Sunday was in the THIRTIES.  Um, that's freaking COLD, lol.  And no, I still don't have any heated gear!  But all was well, and we bundled up in roughly 9 layers to head south and meet.  Our friends met up with us, and we hit the road!  Cherohala to the Dragon to Foothills Parkway.  It was cold and had salt residue on the road, but nothing slippery or too dirty.  The Dragon actually had photographers even though the resort and the Killboy store are shut down for the season!  Stoked about that.  It was my little Khaleesi/2 Chieftans/1 Roadmaster ... so I was the odd one out, lol!  190 miles of perfection :D

4 little Indians

For Thanksgiving day, my evil master plan worked perfectly and we were able to have a "Biker Thanksgiving".  There were a few tense moments as we reached the apex of the mountains; there were full on icy patches ... and that road does NOT get salted, it simply gets closed.  So it was deemed passable to cars; I swallowed my trepidation, slowed WAY down, and we made it safely through all 3 spots.  As we weaved our way down into Cherokee, NC, it actually got colder.  I'm happy to say that just my finger tips and my toes got a bit chilly.  We did see Elk in NC, and the ride back home boasted NO ICE, yay!  We did Foothills Parkway for the 3rd time in as many weeks, but this time we did it from Wears Valley towards Maryville.  We like it better TOWARDS Wears Valley, you get better views that way.  But this was the first time we got to ride it with NO stop and go traffic at all.  So beautiful, VERY fun to ride!

Riding into the GSM National Park

Elk in Cherokee, NC

Cherokee has these beautiful bears everywhere

Today was a very educational day for me.  We finally got to meet up with some friends that we met last year, at the Mystery Dinner Ride.  They have a pretty good circle of friends, and had arranged to ride with several other people, and us.  It was around the Big South Fork recreation area.  That is a FUN area, and lots of challenging roads.  The rec area itself has 2 10 mph switchbacks that I've progressively gotten better at.  As those of you that have followed my riding journey thus far know, if there's anything I struggle with, it's right hand switchback turns, especially uphill ones.  Let's just say they're an experienced group of riders.  I mean, we're experienced too in the sense that we've ridden so much in the last year and a half ... but our riding experience IS roughly a year and a half of saddle time.  David did ride as a kid, but not for the last 21 years.  I have NEVER ridden the "steel horse" before 3-17-17. 

Can you see all those CURVES??

Today, I rode on what felt to me to be the very edge of control.  I am not a "hard twist of the throttle" type of rider.  I don't fiddle-fart around, but I don't lay rubber either.  10 over the speed limit is about my comfort zone.  Throw a curvy road in there, and I tend to be more of a 5 over to the actual limit kind of girl.  In fact, David will sometimes get in a forward rhythm through curves and will kind of leave me in the dirt.  But ... you don't LEARN when you never push.  It's important to ride in all types of conditions, and it's important to push the boundaries of your riding so that you can improve and grow as a rider.  I was super impressed with our leaders; They were both on Chieftans; he on a Darkhorse, and she on the gorgeous red Chieftan Elite.  They can RIDE; she stayed right with him staggered slightly just how David and I ride, and she matched her hubby curve for curve.  There were times they both smoked us.  Let me be clear, they did wait for us.  But they had to stop and wait for us, lol!  I tried as hard as I could to keep up, but as we hit the switchbacks, I had to give that up.

Made some new buddies today!

The familiar roads gave way to new ones; we were cruising along soooo much faster than we normally do, and the curves were AMAZING!  They'd rise and fall with a twist and a flick, and it literally felt like we were on a roller coaster; so damn scary!  Haha, I was beginning to have fun, though.  I think the 1st 3rd of my ride, I was terrified.  I was gritting my teeth and having to take deep breaths to keep my arms loose so I could just let the bike follow the road.  The middle 3rd was unreal curves.  The fun rollercoaster road gave way to z shape curves going uphill.  As I approached, I let off the throttle, downshifted all the way to 1st, and turned my head over my shoulder.  For some of the turns, I actually drug my rear brake and feathered the clutch, they were THAT steep.  I felt bad for the guys behind me, as I'm sure they could have stayed up closer with our leaders.  That section was a combination of the Copperhead road and the Devil's Triangle!

East Rim overlook; gorgeous!

The final 3rd, I was finally digging twisting that throttle!  I leaned forward, shoved my heels down off the edge of my floorboards, and breathed deep.  I pushed out my destructive visions of David going down, and I pushed out the news that one of the lady bloggers I follow went down this morning, totaling her bike and breaking her pelvis in 4 places.  That crap messes with your mind!  The road was GREAT, and I looked up past David to my friend in front; I just watched how she didn't even touch the brake coming into the curve and just leaned into it.  So I quit hitting my brakes, concentrated on my lines, and trusted that my girl was going to go around the corner at speed.  Slow.  Look.  Press.  Roll.  I slowed enough to evaluate that I was fully under control, I looked as far through the curve as I could, I pressed the bars at speed, and I rolled harder on that throttle coming out than I ever have.  As we thundered to our final rest stop, David and I kept up perfectly with the leaders.  He too was getting a feel for the new ride, and trusting those tires to grip the road.

Gee, I feel like the baby of the group!

At the end of the day, you HAVE to ride your ride.  But also at the end of the day, if you never step outside your little box, you will never grow and learn and gain experience, either.  So yes, I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone.  At times, I had to tell myself to relax my jaw and stop gritting my teeth.  But my reward was a renewed faith in myself, and in my bike that we can both be aggressive and forward thinking.  I had a BLAST, and we were invited to tag along again, so we must not have lagged too badly!  I was once again the odd one out; 4 Chieftans, 1 Roadmaster, and my Scout, lol.  That's ok, I love her so much, and I love that she's not too much bike for me.  We're about 500 miles away from 20,000, HOW did that happen???  So I will 100% meet my goal of another 10K miles during year 2 of riding.  Again, year TWO.  I have to remind myself that technically, I'm still a beginner with lots left to learn.  I still have plenty of things to work on before I figure out a way to get myself a Chieftan.  I don't NEED a giant bike right now.  I think a minimum of 5 years with the Scout is what I need to gain the necessary experience to graduate up to a larger motorcycle.  As I've said since day 1; I will keep my Khaleesi forever.  I was asked today what my first bike was, and I was proud to say it's my Indian.

6 little Indians

So grateful and blessed to be able to ride roughly 711 miles since last Sunday.  We did a quick ride on Friday up to the Indian dealership so David could demo a Mustang seat for his bike; we did our "test ride" loop, and went right back so he could drop it back off, lol!  Not what he's looking for.  We then took the long way home :)  This upcoming week is going to be miserably cold with temps in the low 40's as the highs.  Not sure what the weekend will look like; if we ride at all, it will be Saturday.  Preliminary forecast looks pretty good, but that can change on a whim.

I'm sorry, was I drooling?

Finally got a NEW FHP pic