We arrived in Lebanon TN on Thursday evening and ran into Joe, Julie, Lee, and Debbie. Saw Fast Eddie for a brief moment then lost him. Attendance was around 6000, not sure the exact number. We prefer smaller venues, preferably with Refined Hooligans, but if you were looking to demo a new BMW or shop for pretty much anything from technical underwear to driving lights this was the place. With so many people there will always be the strange ones. Not like our strange ones, more weird than that. Here, for example, this is weird, And yes, he rode in like that.
This is also weird but as mentioned, there's anything here one could possibly want.
There was a BBQ joint nearby so that was Thursday's meal. We all rode over only to find out it was closer to walk!
Friday Susan and i had planned to ride over to the Pic-a-billy Diner, about 116 miles away. (We thought!) There will be no photos of the Road Closed area(s). Let's just say it looked open to local traffic. All three times. One was sort of open if you ignore the blast holes as you ride over them, one had active construction (only 5.1 miles from our destination!), one had a crane blocking the bridge. The mountain is literally falling apart every where. We finally found an open road on the GPS, which soon turned to smooth gravel, which soon went down a STEEP hill for hundreds of yards, to this. (Not being off road savvy I totally failed to notice the lack of car tracks!)
So option 1 is turn around. Male genetics do not often believe option 1 to be viable. Option 2 was to walk into the river and see how deep it is. 18" on the right side, 10 ish on the left side. Once again I failed to take into account that these are rocks with nothing to hold them together, like dirt. As soon as the front tire hit one it would flip it and drop another 2 or 3 inches. The Enduro traction control on the new GS is beyond awesome but I really really need to stop testing it out.
See, no tire tracks! Now that we're across (Susan smartly walked!) we are back on the nice smooth gravel road. With a couple of steep switchbacks and then a sign saying something about private road or something. At this point I'm like no, hell no. We cannot go back. The 5th gate of the day did not have a lock. I would have apologies profusely to the landowner and authorities if it came to that but going back would have been simply stupid. Kinda like being there to start with. Why do these nice flat gravel roads always do this to us? But once again we emerged into the land of asphalt. Morale of this story, if it says Closed it probably is, and if you're going to have a private road put the sign further back!! Our goal! Not Oark by any stretch but it was good to be here.
After all this we were Adventured out so we took 70N back to Lebanon. We did't see anyone Friday or Saturday, and we didn't see anything we needed at the rally so Saturday afternoon we just hung out in the cool of the A/C. Up at 4:17 and off to home 6 3/4 hours away. We rode the first 194 miles with no traffic!!! 314 miles today, 948 total trip. 1 more mile to go, then home.
It was a good four day weekend. Hope y'all had a good one as well.
This is also weird but as mentioned, there's anything here one could possibly want.
There was a BBQ joint nearby so that was Thursday's meal. We all rode over only to find out it was closer to walk!
Friday Susan and i had planned to ride over to the Pic-a-billy Diner, about 116 miles away. (We thought!) There will be no photos of the Road Closed area(s). Let's just say it looked open to local traffic. All three times. One was sort of open if you ignore the blast holes as you ride over them, one had active construction (only 5.1 miles from our destination!), one had a crane blocking the bridge. The mountain is literally falling apart every where. We finally found an open road on the GPS, which soon turned to smooth gravel, which soon went down a STEEP hill for hundreds of yards, to this. (Not being off road savvy I totally failed to notice the lack of car tracks!)
So option 1 is turn around. Male genetics do not often believe option 1 to be viable. Option 2 was to walk into the river and see how deep it is. 18" on the right side, 10 ish on the left side. Once again I failed to take into account that these are rocks with nothing to hold them together, like dirt. As soon as the front tire hit one it would flip it and drop another 2 or 3 inches. The Enduro traction control on the new GS is beyond awesome but I really really need to stop testing it out.
See, no tire tracks! Now that we're across (Susan smartly walked!) we are back on the nice smooth gravel road. With a couple of steep switchbacks and then a sign saying something about private road or something. At this point I'm like no, hell no. We cannot go back. The 5th gate of the day did not have a lock. I would have apologies profusely to the landowner and authorities if it came to that but going back would have been simply stupid. Kinda like being there to start with. Why do these nice flat gravel roads always do this to us? But once again we emerged into the land of asphalt. Morale of this story, if it says Closed it probably is, and if you're going to have a private road put the sign further back!! Our goal! Not Oark by any stretch but it was good to be here.
After all this we were Adventured out so we took 70N back to Lebanon. We did't see anyone Friday or Saturday, and we didn't see anything we needed at the rally so Saturday afternoon we just hung out in the cool of the A/C. Up at 4:17 and off to home 6 3/4 hours away. We rode the first 194 miles with no traffic!!! 314 miles today, 948 total trip. 1 more mile to go, then home.
It was a good four day weekend. Hope y'all had a good one as well.
Comment