A motorcycle trip to remember

Posted

I was one of those people who would pass motorcycles on the highway during a rain storm and think, “those people are nuts.”

Well, I am firmly now one of “those people.”

Two friends and I recently rode our motorcycles to Atlanta, Ga., for training put on by Harley-Davidson. Traveling that far means taking gear for any weather you might hit, so we had heated gear for the cold, rain gear for obvious reasons and I even took two different helmets and pairs of riding gloves to choose from depending on the weather.

We decided to take the scenic route, which took us south through Illinois and into Kentucky. From there we traveled to Nashville, where Music City greeted us with a horrible traffic jam. Stop-and-go-traffic on a motorcycle is no fun, let me tell you. Your clutch hand can cramp up pretty quickly.

From Nashville, we headed east and saw some absolutely beautiful country. I’m sure it looks nice from inside a car, but being out in the open really makes you feel like a part of the environment.

Our destination is something called the Tail of the Dragon, which is in the mountains between Tennessee and North Carolina. It is 318 curves – some of them hairpin turns – in just 11 miles. It is a destination point for motorcycle and car enthusiasts the world over.

We started from the Tennessee side and made it through to North Carolina in one piece, but it took some very concentrated riding – it is certainly not for the novice rider or the faint of heart.

We followed the road down the mountain past waterfalls and beautiful streams. That is some incredible country.

We made it into Georgia, and while I could hear the banjos from “Deliverance” playing in my head, we shot toward Atlanta.

We had a nice time in Atlanta, and the Harley officer training is always great. But with weather moving in, we had to leave Atlanta early on Saturday to try to get some miles in.

Well, the rain found us just outside Chattanooga, Tenn. And when I say rain, I mean buckets of rain, and high winds. When you get this weather on a motorcycle, you slow down and ride smart, or get off the road. The rain came and went, so we were able to keep going, but it stayed with us through all of Tennessee and much of Kentucky.

We finally made it into Illinois and decided to try to make it all the way home. The weather was OK, and we knew that the next day might be worse.

Things were going great as we made our last stop in Bloomington for gas. It was just a light drizzle and we knew in a couple of hours we would be home. We decided to finish the last leg.

About an hour later I think we all regretted that decision. The rain was pretty constant, but not hard. But it was dark, which certainly hurt visibility. We slowed down and rode smart. I was constantly going over in my head how to ride in rain safely, and I did just that.

We finally had to get off of the highway at Baxter Road, and it was only then that I lifted the facemask on my helmet and realized that the needles jabbing me in the face was ice, not rain.

Oh boy.

I hit Mulford and rode north to my house, making it home at 10 p.m., more than 13 hours after we left Atlanta. We rode more than 800 miles that day, and I could feel most of them. My knees we so cold they were red and swollen.

For the trip, in three days of riding we did 1,863 miles through five states. The end of the ride was a little sketchy to be sure, but it was an adventure that will stay with me forever.