Well my first big adventure of the year is over. I went to the Gap with a bunch of folks from RideOhio.org and it was a really great time.
We had quite a bit of rain, but it really did not hurt the fun very much. The best thing about having a bunch of friends with you is that you can still have a lot of fun even if it is raining.
As always the staff and management of the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort went out of their way to insure we all had a great time. I know I say this all the time, but these folks are just good people. They take such great care of their guests it is unreal. I have stayed in a lot of different places but I have never stayed anywhere that I felt more welcome.
I have to admit we behaved badly a few nights. What with all the rain we were left with nothing more to do than consume enormous quantities of alcohol and I hope we did not make a lot of noise and disturb any people who were trying to get some sleep. I know the one night most everybody who was spending the night was drinking with us so hopefully we did not disturb anybodys sleep.
There have been some menu additions to the Dragon Grill. They still have all the old favorites, but the new additions are great! The best thing is the Key Lime pie. It is spectacular. It is honestly the best I have ever eaten. They also have poppers on the menu. I loves me some poppers, and these are super good. They have also added cheese sticks. They are basically bread sticks with cheese inside. I think they would be better with some garlic butter on them, but they are still pretty good. There was another new desert item as well, but I don’t remember what it was because all I ate was Key Lime Pie. The controversial item for me was Sweet Potato Pancakes. I think I was pretty closed minded about them because pancakes are pretty dear to me. Cathy got an order and I tried a bite but didn’t really like them. Ben seemed so disappointed when he asked me how I liked them and I said “They’re OK”. The last morning Cathy got them again and got full after eating half of them. I finished them off and I have to admit that the more I ate the better I liked them. I suspect the first time I tried them there was not enough butter on them. I like a lot of butter. I often bring my own butter because I will use a whole stick of butter on my cakes and it must cost Brad a ton of money when I use 40 or 50 of those individual packages. Next visit I will bring a stick of butter and try them again, and I believe I will be able to say that the Sweet Potato Pancakes get the Tank Seal of Approval.
A very special friend made me lemon bars again and brought them to me fresh from her oven! That is the best food I ever get down there not just because they are delicious, but also because I appreciate the gesture so very much.
As I write this the great state of Tennessee is paving 93 pulloffs along the Gap and I just can’t express how good I think this will be! I can’t wait until they are finished! Take some time and send TDOT an email and let them know how much we appreciate how well they take care of our road at TDOT.Comments@tn.gov! This should greatly reduce the amount of gravel in the road and should encourage slower traffic to pull over and let faster traffic around. It will also make it far safer to pull over on our bikes to do some bike watching.
The best thing about my trip as always is getting to spend time with my friends as well as making new friends. It was great to see some of the locals that I have not seen since last year and it was great to spend some time with all my friends. I made several new friends that I hope to run into many more times!
To finish up I am just going to post up some of my favorite pictures from the trip.
