My brother got back from Iraq earlier this year, which was certainly good news for me. We don’t get too many opportunities to see each other since he lives outside Little Rock, Arkansas and so this made for a good reason to visit him. He bought a Harley Davidson Fat Boy a year before he deployed and when he found out I rode, we had the perfect excuse to meet up. Our plan was to meet in Tennessee and ride around the state. We started discussing what we wanted to see and came up with a list of places we could visit over the course of three days. We eventually came up with Nashville, Lynchburg, Chattanooga and Knoxville. And since we were going to be in the neighborhood, I talked my brother into riding the Tail of the Dragon with me on the way from Chattanooga to Knoxville.
Our initial plan was to meet in Nashville and ride east from there. Some BMWBMW members suggested that I attempt a Saddle Sore 1000 and ride to Little Rock. I initially resisted that idea since I didn’t think I was ready for it, but eventually changed my mind and told my brother of my plan. He naturally thought I was crazy, but agreed to meeting at his house and starting our trip from there. The distance door-to-door was 998 miles via the direct route (I66/I81/I40) and so I picked a route that took me through Kentucky. Some other friends suggested a stop by the Buffalo Trace distillery in Frankfort to pick up some cream liqueur that’s only available at the distillery’s gift shop. The liqueur is like Irish cream but made with bourbon. So now my trip had five purposes – visit my brother, complete a SS1000, sightsee Tennessee, ride the Tail of the Dragon and make a booze run.
The route I selected took me out I-66 west from Fairfax to I-81 south. From there I would pick up I-64 west at Lexington, VA and ride that to Frankfort, KY and the Buffalo Trace distillery. I planned to take the Bluegrass Parkway out of Frankfort to I-65 south into Nashville and finally I-40 west to my brother’s house. Google maps showed a total distance of just over 1100 miles.
We got our schedules coordinated and I started my SS1000 at 5 am on August 21 from a gas station near my house. The early part of the ride went pretty much as planned since I had made preliminary plans for my rest stops. I only hit some brief showers around Clifton Forge, VA, but had good weather the rest of the trip. The ride across West Virginia was the most scenic part of the westbound ride. Everything was going well and I pulled into Frankfort about 1:45 in the afternoon after riding 550 miles. I got my cream liqueur and a few bottles of bourbon and hit the road about a half hour later. From there, I got on the Bluegrass Parkway and made a quick water stop to get a receipt since I had only travelled about 20 miles from the Frankfort, where I fueled up.
I was doing fine until I got to the I-65 interchange. I saw a gas station sign at the first exit on I-65 and pulled off. Somehow, I missed a turnoff and wound up going in the opposite direction of the station. And to make matters worse, there were no exits/turnoffs from that highway. I finally gave up after riding 11 miles and made a U-turn at a break in the median. That mistake added 22 miles and about a half hour to my ride. But I did find a gas station and got back on I-65 south without any further delays.
My next stop was the I-40 interchange in Nashville. That stop went without a hitch and I was on my last major highway. I managed to time my subsequent stops so I wouldn’t have to stop in Memphis since my previous recon didn’t show any really highway-accessible gas stations in the area. The only other down side was I had to stop about 40 miles from my final destination since I don’t have a very large tank (5 gallons) and was getting just over 40 miles to the gallon. But eventually, I made it to my destination around 11:30 pm Central Time. I checked my final receipt and it had the time stamped correctly, so I was done my ride, 19 ½ hours and 1124 miles later. I made my way to my brother’s house (2 miles away) and we had a celebratory beer. I’ll tell what – I slept like a log that night.
Of course, I slept in late and so we got a late start on our ride to Nashville. I wasn’t in the mood to ride the interstates again and so my brother suggested some back roads. That sounded good to me since we saw some scenery and it was a more leisurely ride. And I surprisingly saw some interesting bikes, like this Boss Hoss:
We pulled into Nashville about 10:00 pm and immediately found a hotel room. While parking the bikes, I came across this gem:
It’s a Suzuki Hayabusa that owner, the guy in the white shirt, said he had sunk $30,000 into! He broke it down as $13,000 for the bike and another $17,000 in chrome and other accessories. It was interesting to look at, to say the least.
We dropped our gear and headed back out to find a place to eat. We luckily were just a few blocks away from Broadway and stopped at Riddy’s for some ribs. Appetites satisfied, we decided to walk along Broadway. Live music was everywhere, but the one that stood out was rockabilly act at the Full Moon Saloon. The singer’s name was Travis Mann and he was throwin’ down some serious music! I had a good time listening to him. And an upright bass made it really come alive.
The rest of the music I heard was modern county covers and while the bands were good, the music didn’t strike me. That is, until we walked past Robert’s Western World. The house band, Brazilbilly, was playing some traditional country and they were GOOD! The leader is a Brazilian immigrant who bought a half interest in Robert’s and plays every weekend. We heard some Hank, Johnny Cash and lots of other old but good stuff.
The next morning, we headed out for Lynchburg for a tour of the Jack Daniel’s distillery. No photos are allowed inside the plant, but we were allowed to take some outside. Here are a few that I could take:
My brother in the parking lot
A plaque commemorating the Distillery as a National Landmark
And a statue of Jack Daniel called “Jack on the Rocks” (get it?)
The tour was informative and the guide had a good time cracking Baptist jokes and describing the distillation process. I must admit, though, that I’m still a bourbon man.
After the tour, we went into downtown Lynchburg to the Jack Daniels gift shop. Pew County is one of the few remaining dry counties in Tennessee and was through some political maneuvering that the still was allowed to continue operations after prohibition was lifted and the citizens voted to remain dry. Part of the deal was that no JD could be purchased at the still or at the gift shop. Oh well. Here are a few pictures of the town square:
The courthouse:
The JD gift shop (the three two-story brick front buildings)
We headed out for Chattanooga afterwards to visit Lookout Mountain. Time only allowed me to visit one battlefield and I chose that one because it was on the way and of its importance to later Civil War battles. I learned that Lookout Mountain was important since it allowed the Union forces to use Chattanooga’s transportation facilities and also set the stage for Sherman’s march on Atlanta.
This photo shows Lookout Valley and the slopes Union forces had to climb to secure the mountain:
A plaque describing the location above:
A view of Chattanooga from Lookout Mountain:
Some Confederate artillery:
We spent the night in Chattanooga and headed out for Knoxville in the morning. However, we decided to not go up I-24, but headed out US 74 east through Cherokee National Forest into North Carolina. From there, we picked up US 129 and the Tail of the Dragon. Thankfully, it was a Monday and traffic was relatively light. I was surprised there weren’t any law enforcement vehicles out after all the stories I’d heard of increased presence, but I wasn’t complaining. I rode the Dragon conservatively since it was my first time and I was with my brother. Killboy.com was out taking photos of the passing traffic and I bought these few of our trip:
Both of us:
My brother
And yours truly:
Despite the lower speeds, I had a blast on the Dragon! I left the bike in first gear the entire distance and it never protested. I didn’t find any of the curves troublesome. The only bad spot was when three squids passed us as I was setting up for a left hand hairpin. They blew by without warning and crossed the centerline. I was caught by surprise but kept everything under control, but they apparently passed my brother as he was getting ready for an earlier curve and the distraction almost caused him to crash. But he got it back together and we finished the rest of the Dragon without further incident. I can’t say the same for someone else because we later saw police cruisers and an ambulance heading into the Dragon as we were taking a break at a store on the north end.
So with that block checked, we rode onto Knoxville. We hadn’t been there since the 1982 World’s fair and so it was good to see the town again. We rode by the exhibit place, which is now a park and had dinner in the historic district. From there, we rode downtown and walked around Market Square. I unfortunately didn’t take my camera with me and so I don’t have any photos of Knoxville, but it was my favorite of the towns we visited – not too big, not too small and (best yet) the University of Tennessee is located there.
We parted ways the next morning and I slabbed it up I-81 home. All said and sone, I logged in 2400 miles and got to see my kid brother again. We made plans to ride to Florida next year, so I can foresee annual get-togethers.