My 12/7/13 ride...

[Brick]

I needed to get out for a ride... it's been way too long! My bike is still apart. Tomorrow a friend (mc mechanic) is coming over to help (ok... I'm helping him) check the Super Tenere's valves. It's due at almost 52,000 miles it's been 30,000 miles since it's been checked. The manual says 26,600 miles between checks.

So Chris Jernigan's Super Tenere is in my garage because we are putting a FZ-1 fuse box and Denali D2 lights on it. So... I rode his bike... yes I asked first!
Here is my report:

Oh joy... December 7th and I rode up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I live near MM (mile marker) #315 and that's where I got on the Parkway. At home down the mtn it was 53 degrees but up on the BRP it was 10 degrees colder. Not a problem I just turned up my Gerbing jacket and the Powerlet heated gloves and rode on. The parkway had a number of sections that were closed where they had the gates closed but I know roads that are just off the BRP and frankly are more fun. Jacob wanted to ride up to Mt Mitchell. I kept telling him that it would be much colder and socked in the winter...ish clouds,
We ate lunch at Mountain View Restaurant which is located at NC 226, NC 226A and the BRP. The food was great and the view is amazing! This is just 1.5 miles from the Big Lynn Lodge where I am holding the MSTA's Big Lynn Lodge event July 25-27, 2013. Here is Jacob and his sister Sarah putting there gear on after lunch.

After lunch we found that the BRP was closed from Little Switzerland up the direction of Mt Mitchell. So we rode some GREAT roads over to NC 80 north of the BRP. We then rode NC 80 south to the BRP and found that it was open south to Mt Mitchell but by that time it was getting colder and we could see that Mt Mitchell was IN the clouds so on down NC 80 we went toward Marion, NC. It got warmer as we dropped in altitude where it got back up to 57 degrees in Marion. Jacob and Sarah wanted to get home and so took a more direct way while I too the back way around Lake James over to Morganton. It was a nice day with ~ 6 hours but I only ended up riding around 150 miles.
Excellent day and tonight the cold front in rolling in... it's supposed to be a high of 37 tomorrow.

Being December 7th I thought a lot about the service men we lost today 72 years ago in Pearl Harbor.

I hope you had a great day to!

[Bob]

Great ride! But you lost me (which is easy)--who is Jacob & Sarah and what were they riding?

Edit: OK, I cliked on the pic and can now see the Dakar so I guess they were riding that. Still don't know if they are friends/relatives/ or some random crazed Canadians trying to escape snow.

[Brick]

Jacob is a local rider/friend. He is a senior in high school and has that 650gs. Sarah is his older sister who is about to graduate collage. She wanted to go for a ride with her little brother. She had NO MC riding gear... I told them they could borrow my wife Patricia's jacket and pants.... but noooo they didn't need that. After all they weren't going to crash. Youth... you can't tell them anything. I'm sooo glad they didn't crash!


Brick

[LeeDavis]

That's good info about the Mountain View Restaurant. I like new, tasty places to eat.