Tuesday – Deals Gap, North Carolina

I wrote some more blog stuff before leaving, but of course I was unable to post. I left about 9.30 with what looked like rain ahead up in the hills and it looked alike a very nice vantage point for the hotel up there too, if that is what it was, but there were some nice curves to get up that way.

I stopped at a small town just to stock up with some food from a local Dollar store, these have cheap stuff so it was easier to do it now rather than a big town later.

The road from here was pretty ordinary, just general views until I crossed the Tennessee River after Jasper, a nice view of the boring Interstate over there 🙂

Then a few twists and turns before arriving in Chattanooga just before lunch. It was a pain to get through, and I saw some choo choos but no photos as the traffic was a bit hectic. I went past this place called Mayos which offered free WiFi, so I decided on an early lunch as breaky was a muesli bar and posted a few days of blog while eating some not so good looking, but tasty tucker. 🙂

For those interested, the tenders are deep fried chicken strips, the corn was cooked in some type of juice, no idea, but it tasted OK, the small bowl was the creamed potato and the Okra was also deep fried. The Okra I still have no clue about, it was green inside that is all I know, I have not seen a live one, so I cannot visualise it.

Yep, boring, traffic and road works, things were really slowing down and the annoying spitty rain was not helping either. But after a short while that all stopped and back to the normal 55mph. From here it was a cruise until I got to Tellico Plains and the country got nicer looking as well.

From here I took the much revered Cherohala Skyway and straight away it was wheeeeee 🙂 I have not coloured in the map route, just a basic direction as there is no other choice, but you can see the wriggly road and it was fun 🙂

The only downside to this road was that the mowers were up there and running over small piles of grass clippings on the corners was a bit nerve racking. ( I heard from some fellow strommers a day or so later that it was worse than this when they came though, there were rocks everywhere on the road 😦 )

After a look over the lookout it was onwards to Robbinsville, the roads were mainly long sweeping corners, fast pace and not many technical things to think about, very nice.

When I arrived in Robbinsville I had no choice but to go here as I had already called the resort and there was no laundry facilities there at all and what I was wearing was already a few days old.

From Robbinsville it was about 20 miles north until the junction of the hwy28, the red circle on the 2nd map, this is where the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort is.

Now, I got sucked in here because I had just crossed into North Carolina and when I tried to go into the shop it was closed. My watch said 6.30pm, but I had lost another hour due to time zones, bummer, but I was shown the camp site area and I set my tent up.

After that, I met some fellow campers from Texas, they were on their way back from a Ride to the Wall, the Vietnam Vets wall in New York I think. But, they offered me a couple of beers as there was no shops open here and we chatted for a while. I forgot the photos, but I have some tomorrow. After that I went and chatted with Tank, a fellow Vstrommer and his group of riders from Ohio. They were around the bonfire pit and a few drinks and chatting ensued 🙂 It was amazing to hear all the crotch rocket bikes flying up the road well after dark, but it seems the locals do this because there are too many cops during the day 🙂 We onlt decided to quit when the rain became more persistant, now to find out how good the tent was and whether it leaked or not.

Day – 225 miles and 362 km
Trip – 11,270 miles and 18,137 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom
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