This was a rather uneventful ride for a Bugsplat ride. No rain, no big deals about anything. First the route: Carrollton-Cartersville-Waleska-Jasper-Blue Ridge-Murphy-Andrews-Wayah Rd.-Franklin-NC 28 to Bryson City and Robbinsville-Cherahola-TN360 toward Vonore-411 to Cartersville-home, 504 miles in all.

We made a pit stop at 515 outside Jasper and met a guy with a brand new (to him) C-50. He turned out to be a real nice guy as you might expect from the name. John decided he would like to ride with Bugsplat and I for a while so putting him in the middle, we headed north. We made our second stop at the Andrews Inn where John called his wife and told her he had been detoured, something about being kidnapped by aliens but he was ok and would be home in a few hours. Turns out he is a fireman in Dallas and was supposed to be meeting his family in Hiwassee for vacation.

We went north a few miles further and turned on Wayah Rd. where John earned his road name: Scrape. Wayah Rd is certainly under rated and that’s a good thing. Scrape took one turn too wide but fortunately it was in one of the few places with a shoulder so he kept it up. Other than a Saturn on our side of the road on one of the “U” turns and a few slide outs from the loose gravel it was uneventful and certainly memorable.

 
We took leave from Scrape in Franklin where he turned to make amends to his family in Hiwassee and ‘Splat and I continued on 28 north toward Bryson City. 15 miles or so north of town a southbound rider riding in a group of Harleys crossed our lane and laid his bike down in a cornfield beside the road. After confirming that neither he nor his bike were hurt (his pride was hurt but Harley riders get over that), we continued north uneventfully.

 
At Bryson City there are several options including going back thru the gorge to Andrews but we chose to continue on 28 toward Robbinsville and the Tail of the Dragon. By now it was noon hour and Bugsplat gets surly when he isn’t fed. We stopped at Kickstand Lodge which was a bad idea because they don’t have a restaurant – it is a revelation to know that every motorcycle resort is not like TWO or 29Dreams! Bob asked how to get to Robbinsville quickest and I told him turn on NC143 which we did instead of following 28 thru Hellbender to the Tail of the Dragon.

 
We stopped at McDonalds in Robbinsville and met Ronald McDonald in costume coming out as we went in. Ronald tried to be friendly and engage Bugsplat in conversation but ‘Splat had only one mission and that was to eat. Did I mention he gets surly when he gets hungry?

 
Turns out the shop in the same building as McDonalds has a lot of Dragon stuff – some of which we had never seen before – so after eating we loaded up on necessities and headed for Cherahola.

 
There were lots of bikes out and also a great deal of enforcement. We were still on the NC side when I tried to warn an approaching motorcycle about enforcement a couple of miles back by patting the top of my helmet. He just grinned and waved and then I saw the stripes and badge – an NC trooper on a gray BMW. It was a comfortable 72 degrees at Hooper Bald on top the Cherahola.

 
We descended to Tellico Plains without incident and found the temperature there to be 98. Tellico Plains is clearly the cause of global warming. We were hot the rest of the way back.

 
We turned north on TN 360 which goes to Lonore near the north end of the Dragon. This was to be a research trip for next week’s SCRC trip to the Dragon and the Cherahola – do them both in one day. TN 360 took a sharp right and Wrong Turn Bob continued straight on what turned out to be county road 487. It got narrower and narrower and the surface worse and worse. Banjo music was wafting thru the trees when it opened up and we were at US 411 near Sweetwater.

 
411 is flat and straight and varies between 2 and 4 lanes. Bob put me in the lead at that point and we set out at the speed limit which in Tennessee is “65 mph unless conspicuously posted.” Now we’re usually pretty safe as long as we keep it under 10 over so that’s where I put the needle plus a little for speedometer error and the rotation of the earth. Bugsplat kept lagging back so eventually I pulled over. He mentioned the speed limit signs we had passed and I pointed out that they were not conspicuous and we set off again stopping this time just outside of Georgia to fill up on the cheaper gas and buy fireworks for the dwarf.

We stopped at Bob’s favorite station in Cartersville where an elderly woman complained to him about her car getting dented. Bob tried to trade my bike to the police officer who came to investigate her accident. When I found that out I told them no deal, I had ridden in a police car before. The officer said yeah but this time I could ride in the front and play with the lights and things!

We came on home uneventfully, shiny side up, with a computed 46 mpg and 504 miles on the clock. Really the only downside was that I had bought a new pair of Chinese made riding boots about a month ago at Ingles for $12.99. After only a month of daily wear and about 3,000 miles the back of the right boot was shredded. Apparently the wind flapping my blue jeans had worn thru the cat leather – ever wonder why there are no cats around a Chinese restaurant? Hard to get quality stuff any more.