Thursday morning I pulled out for the first of three trips I will be making to the Gap this year.
It looked like we were going to have a pretty big crew out there for this trip during the cold, dark months of winter, but as usual most everybody bailed out before the ride. bill- not davis and I were the only ones to go out of about 7 people who were talking about going.
bill- not davis left on Wednesday to take two days down, and I left around 4:00AM on Thursday. Let me tell you, it was rainy, and it was dark, and it was cold. I held out hope that once I got south and left cold, rainy Ohio things would get much better.
The weather cleared up near Beckley, WV and I was happy. This did not last long though, and by the time I hit Bristol it was raining like hell again! The rain lasted pretty much until I made it to the overlook and then it cleared up for me to ride my first pass on the Dragon. I wobbled my way through this first time trying to remember how to make the bike turn and headed for the Ironhorse. I found bill- not davis there and since it was late we took just a little ride down 28 to the overlook and I remembered why I had left a warm, comfortable home to do this:
We returned to the Ironhorse and checked into the bunkhouse. It seemed the guys in the bunkhouse were light sleepers and it also turns out that I snore a little bit. I guess they had a bit of a hard time sleeping that night so I ended up sleeping in the laundry room the next night.
The result was that the guys in the bunkhouse slept much better, but I still could not find much comfort in the “prison grade” bed I was provided with.
The part that kills me is that I could have been sleeping comfortable and warm at Deals Gap, but they had rented all of the rooms to Canadians! Now, I have nothing against our neighbors to the north, and I talked to some of the guys up on the overlook and I have to say, they really seemed like a great bunch of guys. But there is still a problem with Americans sleeping on prison grade beds in a laundry room while Canadians sleep comfortable and warm. I really wanted to hate the Canadians for reserving before I did, but I can not in good faith hate them because, like I said, they are a great bunch of guys
Well, no matter what I figured I’ll still get my pancakes each morning, and Brad had emailed me weeks ago to let me know my tshirt was in. I consumed mass quantities of pancakes dripping with massive quantities of butter and syrup and felt much better about the whole Canadian thing. I knew things would be all better when I got my new shirt! I headed over to the store to get my shirt and found out that someone (Beth) had GIVEN AWAY MY SHIRT! That right, practically the shirt off my back, except it had never been on my back. I was comforted to find out that at least it had not been given to a Canadian.
I brought home shirts for the wife, the son, and the daughter. Brad is going to order me another shirt and I hope he hides it from Beth until I get back down there in July.
I bought us each license plate frames for our bikes. I was feeling a little bit uncomfortable with a frame that says “Dragon Slayer” because I really don’t think I am worthy of the title. Things are improving for me though, because on Saturday I was dragging my footpegs around the turns for the first time.
The Ironhorse was actually a very nice place. It was one of the nicest campgrounds I have ever stayed in and just like most every place in the area the owners and employees were just so friendly and helpful. The lodge they have on grounds really helped make the best of the massive amount of rain we had. It gave us a place to hang out that was dry and warm and watch some movies.
Bill is thinking, “If it rains any more, I am gonna jump.”
There were Vstroms everywhere!
