June 6 2023 - Day Four

 June 6^th – Collegedale – Day 4

 

Today was a great day to relax and get caught up on my blogs as well as try to get use to my new time zone. I have to thank my cousin Barb and her husband Gary for putting up with me for a few nights and it’ll be a great stay. I did wake up a few times and take a look at my phone and kept thinking great, it’s still early enough that I can keep sleeping to get caught up on the previous days ride, and it wasn’t until I rolled over and saw the clock in the room that showed it an hour later than what my phone was telling me. For some reason my phone never changed time zone even though my bike had the day earlier and everything else was already on the new time zone. Oh well, a reboot of the phone and I’m back on the new time so let’s just try to get used to it.

 

I did get up a little later than I had planned, but Barb had the day off, so it was a good day to visit. I had thought about a ride to do the Dragon’s Tail, a rode in the Smokey Mountains that most bikers will try, but it was about 2 ½ hours away that it would’ve been a full days’ ride that I can hit some other time. I had done it that 17 years ago while thru here in 2006 that I already knew what the ride might be like. 

 

Well, time to make other plans for the day and like I said, get caught up on some of my blogs. My plan was to take a trip to Chattanooga Harley Davidson a different name now than Thunder Mountain that it use to be, but only 5 miles away that I should be able to find it. I did make my way over there and did some shopping for T-shirts but didn’t find one that caught my fancy for the price. I did pick up some other things that I needed, like straps for attaching things to my bike and it would be a good idea to talk to some and see what kind of riding I should get in while I was in the area.

 

A couple of people helped me out with planning a ride and you never know if things work out as expected I just might be able to get the Dragon Tail in after all. Ok, now it’ll be time to head back to Barb and Gary’s place, get the bike situated so I can pack it and take off the next morning and get rolling to NC and get the directions loaded on the bike that I’ll need for tomorrow’s trip. Once back to the house I found the flattest spot I could next to the garage so I could back the bike into the garage and get it packed, but I couldn’t get that heavy bike backed into the garage no matter how hard I pulled. Everything is up hill even into the garage that only the garage floor will be level for the bike to sit. Good thing Gary is taking the afternoon off that I’ll just it sit and get around to moving it in later. Oh, I did forget on my way back to the house I did fill up that tank and talked with a local that had to tell me all about his bike. The conversations you can have with other bikers which is a great community to belong to.

 

Time for lunch that Barb put together a sandwich and salad and sure enough I was ready to eat. It was great being able to visit with her and in no time, Gary was home to help me push the bike into the garage, that with a bit of an effort from both of us, finally got it in that all I’ll have to do in the morning is pull straight out down the hill. Gary was still on call for making a run that afternoon that for me, like I said earlier gave me some time to get caught up on my blogging that I got 2 stories out of the way and hope you’re enjoying the reading.

 

Time sure flies when you’re having fun and it seemed to be no time that it was already getting close to dinner time and Gary was finally off the clock. Barb had a place in mind, I think it was called the Little Pig, not sure and checked my visa card to see what the name was, but no charge yet. It was a local restaurant that they’ve been too before and a nice place for dinner and a beer to cap off the day. I did peak Gary’s interest in getting a steak when I told him that tab was on me that we both got the open flame ribeye which turned out to be a really good piece of meat. I appreciated them putting me up for a few nights that it was the least I could do.

 

Back to the house and time to pack that I first had to make a call back home to see how things are going and someone had a great suggestion for me. Since my packing only has so much room and I only have so many of the travel bags that I need I figured I could pack dirty clothes with clean, well at least my jeans, that the suggestion was turn the dirty ones inside out so the clean ones don’t get dirty…what a great idea and it worked like a charm and the bike was packed in no time and ready for what might be a short ride tomorrow. According to the map it’ll be 4 hours that I’ll have to get some site seeing in for the days ride. Stay tune and you can read all about it when I get around to it. Hell, just getting caught up with this story helps.