I set my watch for 7:00AM and did a sunrise run of the Gap. Sunrise is the absolute best time to ride the Gap. There is nobody on the road for 1 to 2 hours after sunrise. It is like having your own personal road. The only downside to it is sometimes there is a little debris on the road because the traffic has not blown it off yet.
Most mornings when I do these rides I see turkeys up by the overlook, and I was not disappointed this morning. I don’t know what the deal is with these turkeys, but they sure to love to wake up early in the morning and stand in the road. All I know is they sure do panic when I come around a turn and start heading for them. As much as motorcycles seem to scare them you would think they would stop standing in the road, but I guess they just love standing in the road too much to give it up.
By the time Mark woke up I had made several passes and been down to the store to eat my pancakes. I sat with Mark drinking coffee while he ate his breakfast and then we went out to ride the gap together. I was shocked by how much his riding had improved over the last year. I had a real hard time keeping up with him last year but I found that I might as well not even bother trying to keep up with him this year. He was taking the turns like he was on rails.
Mark had never rode the Cherohola Skyway so we headed out to ride it. We enjoyed it very much. You just can not call the Gap a relaxing ride so it was nice to get out on the Cherohola and just cruise and take in the scenery. Upon returning from the Skyway we rode the Gap a few more times and just ended up having one of the most perfect motorcycle riding days you could ever have. We made some new friends up on the overlook and got some tips for some more good roads in Tennessee that we had never ridden before.