All the things ...

Well.  Life has taken an interesting turn for us.  You know how I've said, several times, how I sure would love to get David's Chieftan before the end of the year?  Yeah, in reality, we had NO idea how that was actually going to happen.  And trade in vs. selling outright ... well, our dilemma was solved by  Mufasa getting totaled.

The prior Monday, we were given the opportunity to do fun, touristy things in Pigeon Forge!  Tuesday, we were in the ER.  And by "we", I mean David.  It was a beautiful day, and he'd decided to take his bike out and about a bit.  I'd driven b/c the morning was just a hair too cold for me, which turned out to be a good thing.  We'd JUST had lunch together.  I was back at work, working, and he called me and said, "So, it seems I've had a little motorcycle accident".  I jumped out of my chair and ran out the door.  He still doesn't know what happened.  He was on a road we've traveled on many times, it was not in a terribly curvy part, and he was in traffic.  His rear end broke loose and threatened his control, so he moved it over to the side.  When he hit the grass, the bike did a 180 and flung him off in a ditch.  He was knocked unconscious for roughly 30 minutes; the cops woke him up.

By the time I got to him, he had been given a provisional "clear" from the ambulance EMT's.  He was most definitely concussed, but not much else was going on.  That day, he was fully dressed in all his gear, gloves included.  We swung by the house so he could change, and made our way out to the ER.  Thankful for a great staff that didn't keep us there all night.  Once the CT scan pronounced his head and spine clear, we went back home.  In the ensuing days, it was determined that Mufasa would be put down.  I think I was more sad than David!  It hurt my heart to see him there in the "boneyard".  Unfortunately, Kawasaki Vulcans are a dime a dozen, and the cost to repair them with the overpriced OEM parts quickly overwhelm the value of the bike.  

He hit on the right side

RIP

We'd come to grips that our riding season was over.  Figures, because I'd JUST put the last piece of the puzzle on Khaleesi; pipes.  My friend that sold me her floorboards still had her pipes, and I bought them off her.  David gave me his blessing to ride by myself some, but I was sensing a trend; his dad was riding alone BOTH times he went down.  David was riding alone when HE went down.  So, my thoughts of riding alone weren't so favorable.  But I did go on a short ride, and had a blast.  A week later, we were frantically getting off work and running into Knoxville so we could bring home a new family member; Viserion.

RC Components exhaust!  Soooo loud!

Everything just fell perfectly into place for it to happen.  It wasn't something we were planning, to be sure, but it all worked out.  Viserion turned out to be David's birthday gift; he brought her home the day after his birthday.  Well, almost, lol!  We'd JUST pulled out of the IMOK parking lot, and the check engine light came on followed by a very obvious engine cutting in and out.  We hooked a quick U turn and booked it back to a closed dealership (6:05), but thankfully, we were able to grab our sales guy as he was leaving.  Will unlocked the doors, wheeled Viserion back inside, and said he'd give us a call the next day once they figured out what was going on.

First ride!  Heading down to GA

I can not tell you how much my heart flutters to see 2 Indians in the garage!

Riding the Trail of Tears

Turns out it was just a fouled spark plug, so they replaced both and we were good to go!  My heart was racing as I followed David home; IMOK is off a very busy highway, and the traffic around town right now is so bad with lots of tourists in for the leaf season.  My heart was in my throat until he finally pulled her into the garage.

That gray paint is gorgeous; it's so sparkly, like mine!  NOT a matte finish.

The next day, we left out to ride the beasts down to GA.  It was a lovely ride; very windy and blustery, but we were properly layered up, so no big deal.  David did great; his back was HUGELY bruised up and very sore from his fall, and he did skin his knee.  His jeans were flapping around and irritated his wound on the knee, but other than that, he did great on the ride.  We did 347 miles.  Already, it's time for the 500 mile break in service!  Time flies when you're having a blast!

Yesterday was FREEZING, but today it actually got up to low 50.  We hit the road to ride the NEW section of Foothills Parkway.  They have been working on that 16 mile stretch of road between Walland and Wears Valley since the 1960's.  They FINALLY finished the connecting bridge; yesterday was opening day.  Today, it was sooooo crowded!  We knew it would be, though.  I wanted to do it 1.  Because the weather was ok enough to ride for an hour or so.  And 2.  Because the Fall color is still beautiful!

Foothills Parkway

The missing link series of bridges

Viewing Townsend

We were on the uphill side ... in traffic.  FUN, lol!  Very unique challenge to keep it in 1st, moving along about 2 or 3 mph up a mountain, on an off camber road.  My clutch hand got pretty tired, but I wasn't dying or anything.  We got to the end and came home through Wears Valley instead of turning around and coming back over the Parkway, like our original intention. 

This costume garnered more attention than any other!

We'll have to capture the bikes with the views NEXT time

My thespian acting again!  A Midsummer's Night Dream

The day she came home ... a mini tribe!

The "usual" side of Foothills

We've reached full on "off season".  This week is going to be rainy with highs in the 40's.  We will keep the girls gassed and ready for a ride at a moment's notice.  HOPING Thanksgiving day will be decent; we're going to Harrah's Casino in Cherokee for dinner; it would be awesome to ride the bikes since the in-laws will be available to drive the babies!  We'll just have to see.

Happy birthday to me :)

It was SUCH an awesome weekend.  I wish I had 2 more days ... then 2 more days after that ... then 2 more ... you get the point.  Yesterday was raining and miserable, so we drug the teenager to the range and he FINALLY got to shoot for the first time.  Now ... my son has been into/out of a lot of things, and guns is one of them.  He has watched videos of how to clean them, load them, shoot them, what brands/models are for what ... he's definitely a Youtube expert on such things.  We rented a 9 mm Beretta cop issue.  He shot the first round beautifully, then the 2nd bullet jammed.  Instantly, I felt a small panic rise up inside me, but oh so calmly he ejected the bullet, lined up his next shot, and pulled the trigger.  That round fired off fine, but then the next bullet jammed.  Again, he super calmly ejected it, then shot again.  His entire "turn" went like that; fire, jam, fire, jam.  I took the gun for my turn, and same thing happened to me.  Head scratch, the range officer had no problem, and David had no problem, so I think the issue w/ Kody and I was that our wrists were moving too much.  We traded that one in for a "civillian" issue of the same gun, and had no more jamming issues.  I am so proud of Kody; he shot like he'd been doing it his whole life.  He loved it, thanked us profusely for taking him.

3 Muskateers

Today, we sent the baby with his grandparents for "their week" down in GA, and we headed off to Cherokee, NC!  We were eating at the Casino to celebrate all the fun February things; Valentine's Day, the 20 year anniversary of our engagement, and my birthday (which is next week) and the 1 year anniversary of owning Mufasa.   It just so happened that today was the first warm and non rainy day in a week, so of course we hopped on the bikes!  Khaleesi was purring like a kitten and rode as smooth as a baby's bottom.  Last week she got an oil change and a new front tire, both of which were sorely needed.

We hit 321 and rode through the National Park up and over the mountain to Cherokee.  It was a slower and uneventful ride as there really was a LOT of traffic out and about today.  We barely saw any bikes, it was 98% automobile traffic.  I swear all I have to do is look where I want to go, and Khaleesi takes me there.  Every curve felt like it was on rails, and the slower pace meant much of the ride I actually rode with one hand, b/c when I'm like that I can sit up straighter and relieve some of the pressure on my back.  All too soon we arrived at the casino and parked in the garage.  We locked our helmets and jackets to the bikes and went in to stuff our faces.

After rolling ourselves out of the casino, we decided to head back through Bryson City and down 129 to go home.  This way was a bit higher speed, as there was hardly any traffic!  I practiced holding different lines as we swept through turns at 60+ mph; it was exhilarating!  Once we got into Deal's Gap, both the resort and Killboy were closed off completely until next month; we took a super quick break, and David let me lead down the Dragon.  He was wearing his Go Pro for the first time, and he filmed me as we drove down it!  As per usual, my arms and upper back got a little tight.  I ALWAYS respect the Tail; I know there's plenty of highly experienced riders that have accidents on that road, and I never want my confidence to put me in a dangerous situation.  Thankful to God as usual, all was well and I SLAYED those 11 miles!  Despite consciously pulling my heels up in some of the steeper banked turns, I still dragged one on the ground, and as usual, that gave me a quick little scare!  It was cool watching myself drive it!  I'll post the video once we get it uploaded to Youtube.

Upon arriving home, found out my birthday present had arrived!  David bought me a Daymaker headlight for Khaleesi.  The Daymakers are the fancy LED type lights instead of the more yellowish halogen lights.  Took all of 10 minutes to install it!  Yipee!  I'm happy b/c the white light shows up a little better in the day light, and ANYTHING to make myself more visible makes me happy.  

Tuesday is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL.  It's also my later day at work.  I may just head on up and over Foothills Parkway on my way to work :D  So excited, it'll be my first day of the new year riding to work.  It's beginning to look a lot like riding season!!!

How you KNOW you've married your soulmate!

Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama ... in ONE week!  I know that's nothing compared to these hard core peeps that decide to do cross country trips on their motorcycles, but for us that have only been owners since February/April, that's something to write home about!

David's master plan worked beautifully; the rain held off last weekend for our VA trip, and we rode ALL weekend; it was so beautiful!  Monday, we rode to get some lunch here in town, then hit the Alcoa Hwy to visit IMOK to see their Scout Bobber.  Sadly, the bike was already sold, but they did have a Springfield Darkhorse.  Meh ... I'm just not a fan of a blacked out bike.  In fact, when we were shopping for what I thought was going to be "our" bike vs. David's bike, my only requirement is that it was NOT to be black lol.  So the Darkhorse line really doesn't interest or excite me.

Upon leaving IMOK, David found a decent back way to come home, so we did get an hour or 2 of riding time in.  Tuesday was "nothing" for me, and Wednesday we took a little trip down 411 to Athens.  Athens is a cute little town; there's a road that runs through there that I have GOT to get a picture of some day; it's this crazy huge mansion type house with silos built in to it.  Very unique!  Fun road through farm land!  Didn't seem quite as curvy in full daylight ;)

Thursday was laze at home and watch Netflix day, then Friday we strapped the bikes down nice and tight, then hauled them down to GA where we stayed for a few days with the in-laws.  As soon as we pulled in the driveway, we unloaded the bikes, changed our clothes, and jumped on!  Destination was a BBQ house in Lithia Springs that has the BEST brunswick stew ever.  The in laws jumped on their bikes as well and we caravanned there.  Heck, we ended up riding about 130 miles!  We didn't really detour, just took every back road we could.  Parked them for a few hours, then rode again to dinner.

Saturday morning dawned PERFECT.  Kody was able to join us as my lovely SIL was roped into  offered to watch the baby.  We powered down 55 MPH roads into Alabama, hoping to find some curvy roads, but alas ... not to be found!  Veered back into GA, in the general area of where we lived for 11 years (Cartersville) and re-visited some of our old stomping grounds.  Managed to find one or two more curvy roads, then back home.  Ended up being around 180 miles or so.  Rode again to Rockmart for dinner, then came home the "long" way across a hilly back road; there were a few curves to be had, but nothing like what we're used to!

Sunday it was driving back home to the MotherLand; didn't get home until around 9 pm, so no motorcycles then!  Today, I put the baby down for his nap, went straight into my room to change, then came to harass the hubs to GO FOR A RIDE!  I said I don't care, it's just a beautiful, perfect day and if you don't feel like riding, I'll just hit Foothills to 129.  He glared at me out of the corner of his eye, and out we went!

The ride began with a somewhat familiar route that I take every morning to the babysitter's house ... and then he turned down a road I did NOT know.  A mere 7 or so miles from home, and the curves were already more in abundance than over the entire weekend, lol!  Just proof that the riding is better in the mountains!  Khaleesi and I felt smooth as glass and we moved as one entity through the undulations and twists of the back roads.  We ended up in the nearby town of Farragut where we wandered through the used movie/book store and made a stop by the CLOSED Costco.  We picked our way back towards home using the same, but different back roads, and it was confirmed that David is most certainly my soulmate.  We were in the city square of Friendsville, and came up and over this AWESOME stomach in your throat hill.  As we braked to a stop at the stop sign, both of us were laughing our heads off.  We looked at each other with complete understanding, and he made left hand turns to come BACK to the hill TWICE more.  We finally grew up and headed on home, but our short little 80ish mile ride today was awesome and fantastic.

Only 4 work days this week, and a tentative plan to ride with a facebook friend on Saturday.  The route is one we've done and involves the Dragon, Moonshiner 28, and lunch in North Carolina.  Should be fun!  I actually have no plans to ride to work this week; going to TRY and go for a run every morning instead (haha!).