Ride With Tank

Tuesday night, originally uploaded by Tank Mobile.

Another great day comes to an end.

We had a police presence until an hour after dark today.

Very light traffic again today, but enough to keep it interesting. I am not aware of any wrecks at all tody.

Dinner and lunch today was from Sweetwater BBQ, and it was quite good. We got a bunch of takeout so we will be eating BBQ for a while and that is fine with me.

Once again I spent some time hanging out with some TN/NC folks and I have to say the people of this area really are great folks. I enjoy hanging out with them just as much as I enjoy riding their roads.

We were visited again today by Jammer, Papa, and Rex and they seem to be having a really good time.

Tuesday morning, originally uploaded by Tank Mobile.

Today I got a genuine sunrise ride in. I made it to the overlook in time to watch the sunrise while drinking my coffee.

Once again after the coffee at the overlook I returned to the store for pancakes. One of the changes I mentioned the other day affects my pancakes. The Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort has stopped serving margarine and is now back to real, honest to God butter. This has made my week far more enjoyable.

The weather continues to be incredible. Absolutely perfect weather. Nothing but perfect in the forecast.

We only have our room through Wednesday night. We are hoping for a cancellation that will let us have a room through Saturday night but it is not looking good. I suspect we will just go buy a cheap tent and sleep outside if there is no cancellation.

There is a gasoline shortage in the area that has us a little worried. Many gas stations in the area are out of gas. We are hoping this does not affect us, but we are hearing a lot of reports of no gas.

Monday afternoon and evening., originally uploaded by Tank Mobile.

After checking out the lake we returned to the store and I got my first pancakes of the trip. I am very happy to say that Brad has switched back to having real butter instead of margarine. I sure do enjoy my pancakes more with real butter.

A few more rides up and down the Gap and when I return Jammer and his friend and Papa were at the store. I ate lunch with them and invited them to make a run to the overlook with me but they said they are planning to ride the Gap on Wednesday so Skid and I headed out alone.

The rest of the day just involved riding and hanging out.

As usual there are a lot of people from Ohio down here. If it was not for Ohio and Florida this would be a lonely place.

Monday morning, originally uploaded by Tank Mobile.

We has another great day today.

I got my sunrise ride in and saw the sunrise regulars at the overlook. It has been quite a while since I saw them last so it was great to see them again.

I returned to the room after I drank my coffee and Skidplate was up so we decided to head back up to check out the drained lake. I wanted to see it from Calderwood but for some reason they blocked off the road that runs along the lake.

We continued to Tabcat bridge and it was very interesting as you can see in the picture above. That is the original Tabcat bridge that has been under water for about 70 years. There were also several cars that had been thrown in the lake, and barrels that had contained who knows what.

The THP was on the Gap before I was this morning, but I guess the reason was there was a car wreck this morning. There were a bunch at the lake this morning and it looked like they were going to make their presence felt, but then they all left.

Back at Deals Gap!, originally uploaded by Tank Mobile.

Normally I am watching the weather to try to figure out when it is going to rain so I can work around it. This week it does not appear that I need to pay any attention to the weather because every day in the forecast is exactly the same: sunny and 81-85 degrees!

We had a great day today. We arrived at the Gap around 11:00. Not too busy today, but enough people to keep it interesting.

There was only one crash that I am aware of today and it happened this evening at two square. I don’t really know any details, but that can be one of the trickiest turns – northbound people tend to start the turn too soon and tend to go wide in the turn.

Cuz is here with a couple of his friends and we had a nice time this evening at the fire ring drinking beer and eating peanuts. A few others joined us at the fire but I don’t remember their names right now. All I can remember for sure is one guy is from Wisconsin.

There have been some changes since I was last here that I will be talking about.