2100 mile 5 day 5 states dash from SW Missouri to Deals gap and surrounding area.

As the titles says, we rode from Springfield MO to eastern Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia.

Day one was 675 miles total, east bound on Hwy 60 through Missouri was torture, nothing to see, long straight roads.

Then through Kentucky and onto I40 East all the was across Tennessee. This was a much more interesting ride with curves and almost no police presence. We took highway 321 South to Maryville then joined Highway 129 South. We arrived at the Dragon at 7:45 pm and ran south on the dragon as the evening light diminished. I was tired, sore and ready for a long rest, but riding along the dragon was quite invigorating and I got a second wind. We arrived in Robbinsvillle North Carolina at 8:30, grabbed some food and located our hotel at around 9:45pm
We stayed at the two wheel inn and it was clean, small and had a small garage attached to our room for the motorcycles. Really cool.

The fog the next morning delayed our start so we ate a leisurely breakfast and then headed back north to the Deals gap resort.


Then we headed on up along the Dragon, This was a Monday and traffic was very low, but we still managed to catch a large group of people enjoying a ride on there touring machines. This slowed us down considerably, but it was still an enjoyable ride.



From there we headed to Marion Virginia, This was a chore because it was much further between the two spots than I had realized. From Marion we rode north along the "back of the Dragon". Thirty two miles of roads that are as twisty and smooth as the Dragons 11 miles. However the back of the dragon offers some straight stretches that allow for some respite. The road has much more car traffic, but its not overwhelmingly busy. There is a lot more gravel that sits right in the center of the lane and tends to limit the lines you can use in the corners.
We arrived at Tazwell Virgina and promptly turned around and headed back down to Marion.

We then made a mad dash to Johnson City Tennessee for dinner at the parents home of the guy I was riding with. Home cooked meal and apple pie!!Over 400 miles on day 2 completed.

The next morning the weather was gray wet and foggy. A friend of my ride buddy was local to the area and he led us on a winding ride through Tennessee and North Carolina that was spectacular in its scenery and roads. We road for several hours and a total of 200miles.
Wednesday was clear and blue with warm skies. We rode from Johnson City Tennessee to Waynesville North Carolina. Again through long smooth roads and wonderful scenery. Lunch was at a roadside barbecue Shack and was great. We stopped to rest at my ride buddies sisters house.

We left Waynesville North Carolina and headed west to Nashville Tennessee. We decided to wing it on a hotel and just stop when we were ready. We made it all the way through Nashville, but it was dark and just was we passed through the west side of the city it began to rain. We took this as our sign to stop and we pulled into a roadside hotel and spent the night.
The next morning was cool and clear and we headed out at 7:45 am. 434 miles later I arrived home sore, tired and excited for having completed a great journey.
The bike was flawless, Some stretches between stops were 200 plus miles, I was aching from an old shoulder injury but not enough to make me want to stopp..

 

very cool ride... nice write up

 

Nice ride.

 

Nice ride....! Glad all went well and no performance award :thumb:

 

Sweet ride man. Have you ever ridden 125 south from marshfield or 5 down into arkansas from lebanon?

 

Thanks for sharing. .....glad everything went smooth. ....that first day was an incredible amount of miles....ouch

 

Nice write up.

I was just down through your part of Missouri last weekend on the way to a couple days playing in Arkansas. Stayed down at Kimberling City and made a foray into Arkansas for some fantastic riding. I plan a great route if I do say so myself. :smile-new:

 

Thanks everyone.
Scuba, we were very fortunate for sure. Came very close once but thankfully the suv half a mile ahead took the award before us.
F3. We ride 125 regularly. The ferry into AR is a blast.
Duccman, yea it was too much really. I paid for it, at the end of the ride I had trouble with my right hand and forearm. Old lingering injury.
FJ. It's hard to find a bad route down that way. Mt Judea?

 

Mt. Judea fer shure. And Push Mountain, and lots of roads in between. LOL

It was my wife's son's first time riding a sport bike on some good twisty roads. He said it was a blast.

 

Nice write up sir! Did you guys happen to ride Hwy 58 in Virginia? Through Abington and Damascus then toward Marion. Great twisty! That's where my last performance award came from..... Met a trooper on top of a hill after a long straight. I pulled over and waited on him to come back. He was very cool when we went to court and I got out with a slap on the wrist and a lightening of the wallet. You rode some beautiful country.