It was a looooong first day

Distance traveled: 410 miles

Oak Ridge, Tennessee --> Lewisburg, West Virginia

**I have revised the version that was previously written.


The Revised Version:

When we left Oak Ridge we hopped on Highway 90 which is a twistie mountain road, motorcycle bliss. The sun was shining and warm but not too hot, just a perfect day for riding. It was a great road to set the mood for the trip.

We're cruising along, and I'm sixth in line with Pawn Dog and Bob behind me. Boog is leading and I see him dig into a curve and out of my vision and the next thing I see is 4 sets of red brake lights and birds flying. It happened so quickly I didn't know exactly what was going on but it turns out that turkeys were in the middle of the road and Boog made them get some flying practice.

Kentucky was uneventful. Kingdom Come freeway was pretty, but nothing worth mentioning in too much detail.

As we were riding it was easy to notice that we were getting into the heart of the Appalachian Mountains and into West Virginia. Our elevation increased quickly and soon we were riding on the side of a mountain with a breath taking view. It reminded me of a BMW commercial. The mountains were for the most part untouched and thick forested. From the road we could see miles of mountains and the sun gave some texture with some shadows and highlights.

So we're cruising along and all is well, wonderful. How could it get better? It probably couldn't have. Logic seems to point to that if something is at it's best it can only get worse and that's exactly what happened with our day...

During a quick bathroom break and butt rest I noticed that Pawn Dog didn't have his face shield. Apparently it catches wind like sail and just flies right off the hinges. He couldn't get it back on in time so he just stuffed it and rode on. You'll understand why this was included soon....

Right after we took off from that break the rain started coming down heavily. We pulled over on about a foot of shoulder on an incline and quickly put on our rain gear and took off. I decided to hang with Pawn Dog because apparently I was the only one that knew he was without a face shield and the rain drops would be like getting hit with pin needles in the face. So now, there's two groups. The six ahead of us, and Pawn Dog and myself.

We're riding along slowly and the rain gets heavier. Heavier. Still Heavier. The winds started to really pick up. The wind became treacherous. Small hail fell. Then huge hail. Needless to say it was difficult to ride and having no face shield makes it impossible, so we pulled over.

Not sure where to put this, but I'll tell a story you'll get a laugh out of. While we were stopped and getting on our rain gear I covered my tank bag with the included tarp, which is tethered to the front of the bag. As soon as we took off and gained some speed and my tank bag blew up like a balloon and started flapping all over the place. I forgot to tighten it down! It was slapping my helmet and mirrors and was uncontrollable. I finally grabbed it and tried to put it over the bag again and pull the draw string tight. I couldn't do it, there was no way. The drawstring was on the bottom of the bad and was so close to me that I couldn't see it, just feel it. Then the heavy hail and rain started. The only option I had was to try and get the cover on the bag and lay over the top of it and try to keep it pinned down. So for several miles I had to try and restrain a crazed flapping balloon tarp thing by pinning it down with my chest looking through a rainy windscreen and getting hit with hail. I'm sure others have similar experiences.

When the storm let up after a couple of minutes we decided to try and find the rest of the crew. As we're riding we see Bone came toward us with the palms of his hands facing upward and in the air, the universal gesture for, "I have no idea." We meet up with Tom and Bone and find out that Boog, Smoke, and Fred are now where to be found...

We ride to the nearest gas station to try and call one of them and finally we get in contact. They said to meet them in Beaver. It didn't sound promising but we met them there anyway. We found out that they had taken a turn they didn't tell us about. How thoughtful.

At this point we're soaking wet and cold and want to find lodging. But we're in BEAVER, so there's no where to stay. Off we go to find somewhere to stay. We hop on the interstate. We're all running low on fuel but figure that we can find somewhere within 30 miles. Bone takes the lead.

As we're running down the interstate we're looking for populated exits that have a hotel, or campground, or something. Nothing.

We did however cross the New River Gorge on the way, which was spectacular. Wish we could have stopped.

What hasn't been mentioned is that Bone has a 9 gallon gas tank and the rest of us only have 5 gallon tanks. So he's cruising along with about 100 miles left to travel while the rest of us have less than 20. Smoke and Fred have to catch him and tell him to pull off immediately. When we finally find some mom and pop gas station there was about 15 miles left in their tanks and I'm sure the rest of us were in the same ballpark.

Also all of the GPSs were not working correctly because they had been loaded with the exact same route. So all day they were telling us to go places that weren't there, or turn on roads that didn't exist or were in the wrong direction. Just crazy stuff. One time it told them to "take a left then u-turn." Why not just turn right?

But somehow we ended up Lewisburg.

A couple of memorable quotes that will give you a glimpse into our day.

Boog: "No GPS and wet maps, how are we supposed to get anywhere?"

Bone, at the hotel: "I think we should stay here for a couple of days and drink."

7B

**No pics. We just didn't have a chance. A bunch will come though, no worries.