| Ted's
House - Motorcycle Trip Reports Georgia, 1996 |
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DAY
4 Saturday morning again started off with coffee, but this time I had prepared a
veritable feast consisting of a huge smoked sausage, cut up and toasted over my backpack
stove...Yum. I walked up to see if I had won the the Shoei helmet door Helen, Georgia is like a big hollywood set. All of the buildings have some sort of faux-Swiss Alpine thing going, even the MacDonalds and the Bass outlet, even the "Mama's Leathers for Riding" had window boxes. Weird, man. After making the mandatory purchase of Wild Turkey in the only liquor store for 45 miles (No Kidding!) and probably the only faux-Alpine liquor store this side of Switzerland we stopped at the "International Cafe" for wienerschnitzel and bratwurst over sauerkraut. We had a great view of the parade of visitors, (mostly made up of bleached blond women in very tight halter tops and shot-short cut-off jeans and men in blue jeans, high-tops and black t-shirts) and the clown with purple hair and CAT hat trying to lure cars into the parking lot with the three NASCAR racing cars. Don't ask, I didn't...
It tooks us a good half hour to choose which way to go (NOT, maybe 3 milliseconds!) Turns out this was the much-touted "Wolf's Gap" - I can see why Mr. Much touts it, what a road! If you took Deal's Gap and stretched it out to 33 miles this would what you would end up with. We slowly and blissfully worked our way back to Hiawassee by way of several "Boiled Peanuts" signs, a moto-only campground, and a gas stop "so we don't have to gas up at 5am tomorrow morning when we leave." Yup, 5am - it echoed around in my head a few times then the euphoria of the riding
kicked back in and all was forgotten. When we got to the gas station I put the side-stand
down as I always do. Only this time, oddly enough, it felt like it just kept going. And
then there was that noise, it almost sounded like someone or something had dropped a
kickstand onto the concrete. Looking down I saw it lying there, disconnected and forlorn.
I hopped off of the bike (centerstand ;-) and scooped up the parts. Back at camp we held
an impromptu "Shack Pack" while I re-attatched the stand with the father of
Shack Packs, Gary Smith, looking on. I raced to finish so as not to miss out on the
legendary "Cook it yourself" steak dinner. Good thing to becasue no sooner were
we in line than it doubed in size. After Dinner, most of us shuffled in to see the awards ceremony and Aerostich drawing. Deb Lower had ridden up on her Ducati and all were having a good time until "The Internet BMW Riders" was called for the Club that had the most combined miles - then we all had a great time. Pat Roddy proudly stood to accept the award - It certainly would have gone to someone else had it not been for all of his groundwork and tireless organization. The Award Reads,
We all immediately headed back to the lower camp for a bonfire, Wild Turkey, Cigars and lots, lots of laughter and good-natured ribbing. I stayed up far too late and smoked and drank a wee bit too much, but everytime I would go to go to my tent Pat, Richard or Terry would bring up something too interesting to miss, Gary, Jim or Dave would answer with something equally interesting, and I was drawn in for another drink, another cigar, and another 30 minutes! I finally made it back to my tent and did my best to fall right asleep, I would need every one of those four hours of sleep for the big ride back to D.C. Then the zipperman struck again, this time at three am and this time he was zipping and unzipping his tent flap. After 20 or 30 zips I fell back asleep. On to Day 5... |
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All Photos and Text Copyright©1996-9, Ted
Verrill |
prize
yet, and to check out the Touring Gadgets spread. Yup, I need a pack towel, oh a
Wee-Willly, gotta have that...ummm how about the price on this that and the other thing.
Well I spent too much and was on the way back to hook up with Mike Schen for a ride when I
saw Mike and several others, a K1 I hadn't seen before included, light out. When I
got back to the tents I found out that Jim "Dr. Curve" Roche had arrived just
after I had left and they all went off to run Deal's Gap again. Well knowing that catching
up with "Double Yellow" and "Dr. Curve" would be near impossible I
started to weigh my options when Dave and Carol asked if I wanted to head down to Helen
with them. "Absolutely!" And we were off to one of the wierdest places I have
ever been. 
After perusing a few
of the glass and coo-coo clock stores (and one wine store that apparently was quite
good...:) we decided to take the long way back to Hiawassee. We seemed to be a little lost
(Dave Claims he knew where we were the whole time...) when our gently rolling road
dead-ended at a "T" intersection. To the left was a sign promising the secrets
of an Indian Queen whose name I can't remember, and to the right was a sign that said,
"STEEP GRADES AND CURVES NEXT 33 MILES." 
We cooked, ate, laughed, then ate and laughed some more. The IBMWR
contingent took over the covered picnic benches and we were all present for the picture,
except for the nine that showed up one at a time until I ran out of film...;-) Washington
DCers Dana Presig and Elsie Smith suddenly showed up, they had driven down for the day
from D.C. (Two Words:...Iron Butt!) 