You guys got a bonfire pic in there somewhere?

Glad you all had fun. Now order your new tire. Those tears do look worrisome.

Arrived home today around noon local time.

Dave is on the road and I suspect may have an ETA around 6pm or so...but he had a planned detour on the way so he may be a bit later than that.

  MM likes that short 4 hour drive to get to his house.  

250 miles , and crossing a time zone .   5.5 hours ride time .   Still not to far for a easy day.

--------------------------------------------------

The last day the owner turned the hot water on.  I understand the water heater wasn't plugged in good.

Well , when we got back to camp Thursday evening  …  we had a Note on our fire wood  !    

Not a nice note either !

Something about getting thrown out of the campground …
and
Our gas bottle was gone .

We did burn the wood ... after Stew broke them poles  into 3 foot pieces.  That is your (OldFeller's) shirt hanging on the pole and lighting up the night !

I made it home right at 6:30 yesterday....then proceeded to unpack some very soggy gear.

Our ride (Stew and I) on Saturday was mostly dry, we did run into a storm on 19 trying go south up the mountain back to camp - it was around lunch time so we just turned around and found a place to eat lunch and wait it out.  We got a light rain while we ate - but then by the time we finished the storm was gone and we got a bit more riding in before calling it a day.  We found some really nice rural roads with nice pavement, nice curves and zero traffic.

We returned to camp and loaded up the bikes, took down the pop up shelter and packed somethings up for the return trip - and just left the basics in camp for the last night (tent/cots/bedding).  We walked up to the corner store to get a drink - and that is when the rain hit with vigor.  We hid out under the awning for a while, and there were 2 of those Polaris trike things stuck there.....they don't have any better weather protection that a motorcycle. A young couple from Pittsburgh pulled in to get out of the hard rain - they are on a month long trip riding double on a big KTM adventure bike.  We made it back to camp, and then discovered my small tent leaks badly, and unfortunately the pop up shelter was packed away in the trailer and there was no way to go get it without getting soaked to the bone.  The rain stopped and we just had to sop up as much water as we could with the towels we brought - thank goodness the air temperature was warm and we weren't cold.

I knew my tires were going to be worn out by the end of this trip - but I was a bit surprised by the wear patterns.  The front tire has plenty of tread down the center - the aggressive cornering on the curves has worn the tread off the sides....while the rear tire has plenty of tread on the sides but is worn down to the wear bars in the center, and is worn flat across the tread as if I was cruising down the highway all the time.

Oldfeller - I don't believe you got a good feel for the local roads, as we found plenty of curves to scrub our tires away.  While I agree that most of them are not 11 miles of 318 consecutive Dragon curves - we didn't ever feel that we didn't get a good dose of twisties in our daily routine.  Most of the really curvy roads we found were the 30-40 mph turns - not big sweepers like the Cherohala Parkway.

The campground "hot water" issue was unfortunate - but it was a plumbing related problem and not a normal condition at the campground.  The campground does provide seasoned firewood at a very reasonable $10 a wheelbarrow load - and the owners complaint was not that you had gathered up your own wood....the issue was a 6 foot high stack of wood in the fire ring and a bottle of gasoline sitting next to the pit.  The workers watching you were evidently not the ones who are in authority to interact with the campers - but they later reported it to the owner.  I believe the management handled this very well, and were proper in what they did.  This campground is the nicest one we have stayed at, and they work hard to keep the place in good condition.

It is a bit inconvenient that there isn't food available most of the week at Two Wheels of Suches - but the Friday/Sat/Sun meals are great.  We did find that a lot of the local restaurants just don't get enough business during the week to stay open and are only open on weekends.  We started to just eat Yogurt/pop tarts/bananas from the cooler to get the day started - then ate a good lunch while out riding.

SUMMARY - I really like the area, and it is a bit less touristy than the areas up in NC/TN.  The benefit is the roads are not as crowded and we didn't have too many issues with slow traffic holding us up for long.....the downside is that you have to drive a little while to find restaurants that are open.  The roads in this area are very good motorcycle roads......not every road offers the tight twisties that the Dragon is known for - but you can find them around on roads like Warwoman, 28 south of Highlands down to the South Carolina border, Wolf Pen Gap, parts of the Richard B. Russel Scenic Highway.  This area is NOT a replacement to the Tail of the Dragon - but is a very nice area to ride and provide an alternative to the areas we have been riding previously.    

Well Said Dave !  



Suches  or  Dragon  … they are both about the same distance for me and both have their good point   and both have very few bad points  ,   so I'm good with visiting both places at least once a year !  

……………………………………………

More pictures later , to much catching-up going on now !