A little ride thru the Smokies w/pics

[Venturous Randy]

I woke up this morning to sunshine just coming up, but within an hour it was gray and gloomy again. I ended up taking a morning nap and again the sun popped out, so I took a ride.

I took off toward Knoxville, which is about 100 miles away, on old Highway 11. This is kind of like Route 66 in this is the road you would have traveled if you were going from New York to Birmingham and beyond. It parallels several diferent interstates. Some of it has been moved and four laned, but there are still stretches of two lanes with old stores and motels along the way. After going thru Knoxville, I looped into Townsend and then to Gatlinburg on the narrow two lane thru the mountains. With the rain we have had lately, there was a lot of whitewater flowing. I went thru Gatlinburg and then hit the Foothills Parkway near Cosby over to I-40 and then home. It was a beautiful 260 mile ride and definately lifted my spirits. My 1st fillup at @$2.16 at a Shell station was almost 47 mpg.

Here are a few pictures to show what a beautiful day it was. The third picture of the house is zoomed in and the forth picture is the same shot not zoomed. That is what call being off the beaten path.

RandyA

Edited September 28, 2009 by Venturous Randy

[Dano]

Beautiful pics, Randy. I'm extremely jealous. Got to look at freeway and city streets for my ride. Did manage to take a nice little twisty side road on the way back. Just enough to wet the appetite a little, gonna have to quench that thirst real soon.

[DragonRider]

Very nice Randy, I too took a ride yesterday, it was beautiful out, wasnt as long as yours, but a nice ride. Looks like the Vstar will have to take a back seat to the Venture for a while. Charlene wants me to sell it, she dosent think I need 2 bikes, but aint gonna happen. Maybe the Vstar in a year or so, but not now.

Those are some great pics Randy, now I know why my brother lives on a mountain top in Knoxville, he has a view just like those from his back porch...............

[1 - UP]

Randy,

Now I know why people retire down here in Florida and move to TN.

Ken

[hunter 1500]

Nice pics, I noticed the leaves have not started to change at all down there. Up here they are changing fast and should be peak foliage in about two weeks. I love riding at this time of year. The only bad part is I know winter is getting closer.

[ddoggma]

Thanks, Very nice country side you got there. No big ride for me this weekend. Rain sat, took a look at battey and a couple of those connections that I could get to easily. Cause the bike was doing that slow turnover, and starting thing. Thought it was more then a cleanup and top the batt off [was very low] But, that seemed to fix it. Lots of juice now. I hope the batt is OK. Water was way down, like halfway DOH!

[stroker ace]

I guess yesterday was the day for us locals to hit the paths with water by them in our beautiful state of TN. Mike and I did Hwy's 95-411-72-129-441 yesterday and the water in the Smokies looked like the Ocoee. It was beautiful, and as usual it made me almost take a little nap.... There isn't much color change yet I would say maybe the weekend of 9-10-11th if we can get some cooler temps and a little more rain, they should be close to perfect if not it may take another week..

I'll try and post our pics later on today....

[Venturous Randy]

As I was coming out of Gatlinburg on 321 toward Cosby at about 4:30ish, I passed a Brown MKII 1st gen. He waved, but I am not sure he recognized my bike as being a Venture with the bikini side panels. I started to run him down, but just went on.

RandyA

[1sttenor]

Beautiful pics. I love the area. The smokies and the Ozarks look so similar, we are all fortunate to live in or close to these places. I feel for those who live in cities or in the flat lands!

[utadventure]

I'm jealous. The pics are great!!

 

Dave

[Condor]

I woke up this morning to sunshine just coming up, but within an hour it was gray and gloomy again. I ended up taking a morning nap and again the sun popped out, so I took a ride.

I took off toward Knoxville, which is about 100 miles away, on old Highway 11. This is kind of like Route 66 in this is the road you would have traveled if you were going from New York to Birmingham and beyond. It parallels several diferent interstates. Some of it has been moved and four laned, but there are still stretches of two lanes with old stores and motels along the way. After going thru Knoxville, I looped into Townsend and then to Gatlinburg on the narrow two lane thru the mountains. With the rain we have had lately, there was a lot of whitewater flowing. I went thru Gatlinburg and then hit the Foothills Parkway near Cosby over to I-40 and then home. It was a beautiful 260 mile ride and definately lifted my spirits. My 1st fillup at @$2.16 at a Shell station was almost 47 mpg.

Here are a few pictures to show what a beautiful day it was. The third picture of the house is zoomed in and the forth picture is the same shot not zoomed. That is what call being off the beaten path.

RandyA

 

Those were nice!!

[stroker ace]

Here are the pics as promised earlier today, Enjoy!!!!

[Grandpagak]

great pictures guys..