I just got back this weekend from a 9-day road trip down to Tennessee. I went down there with my buddy who has a Road King. I had planned a route avoiding the Interstate as much as possible. The only accommodations we had booked were a cabin in Monteagle, TN for 3 nights. Otherwise, we were planning on finding motels on the road so that we weren't really tied to a schedule.

I took my '13 Street Glide which was less than 2 months old with about 4K kms (approx. 2.5K miles) on it. It's been a very wet spring so there hasn't been many weekends to ride.



We met up at a service center about 45 mins away from the NY border on Friday morning.



The first 200kms of the day went by pretty quickly since we both had to hope on the freeway to our meeting place and to the border. Crossing into the border was nice and straightforward. However, about 30 mins of riding in NY on Hwy 219 we were pulled over by a trooper who was trying to tell me that my helmet wasn't DOT even though it was labelled so in the clearcoat. I'm wearing a helmet from Crazy Al's which they claim is the smallest DOT available. Despite me disagreeing with him he was comparing my helmet to my friend's Seer helmet arguing that mine wasn't DOT because it was smaller, lighter, and made of a different material than the Seer which he stated was clearly DOT. Anyways, he decided to let me off with a warning since we were from Ontario.

Lunch stop was in Ellicottville, NY. Nice little town that gets busy during ski season due to the nearby slopes.



I got the perch fillets which were pretty damn good.



After hitting some of the backroads in Pennsylvania we had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants....



We don't have Cracker Barell in Canada so I try to get my fill whenever I can. This CB was located in Altoona, PA. After dinner, we hopped on the Interstate for a short 30 mins ride to Bedford, PA where we spent the night.

 

The next morning we had dinner at a nearby diner as I try to avoid chain restaurants (other than CB of course!) as much as possible. We noticed quite a few bikes on the road and came to find out that there was a big rally called Thunder in the Valley that weekend nearby.

We left PA and rode into VA which offered some great roads.





We had lunch at another little diner in a tiny town called Monteray in VA. Can't beat the friendliness, prices, and quality of food at these diners.



Had a semi-close call with a deer after lunch. We were taking corners more quickly than we should have and just as I had made it around one I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It was a deer on the side of the road that I didn't really see until I was passing it. Thankfully it decided to run off in the other direction and not into me. We saw another deer near the road shortly thereafter. There are obviously a ton of deer in PA/VA/WV but the only good thing I will say is that they appear to be much smaller than the ones we have up north. These are more the size of large dogs like the one I saw in Texas hill country earlier this year.

After riding on 220 for most of the day we needed to hit the Interstate in order to make it to a hotel before the deer started coming out. We made it into Abingdon, VA where we traded riding stories with a couple of guys on BMW's who stayed in the room next to us.

 

The next day we rode into Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. I'm not a big fan of crowds and don't really care for the touristy area's so we visited the HD dealer and headed on out. The traffic in Pigeon Forge was unbelievable.

Had lunch here.





As we rode towards Hwy 129 the scenic lookouts were breath taking.



At this point the sky was starting to get dark and just our luck, the rain started exactly when we started riding the Tail of the Dragon. It started coming down so much that we had to pull over mid-way through to put on our rain gear. Just as the rain intensified, making it very difficult to see, we came onto Deal's Gap where we waited out the rest of the rain.



The Tail of the Dragon was nice but my favorite was the Cherohala Skyway. Long sweepers as you climb up and down the mountain. This being a Sunday evening the roads were clear with very little traffic.



We spent that night in Athens, VA.

We made it into Monteagle about noon hour the next day where we ate at this gem.



We stayed in a 2 bedroom cabin at the Best Western Smokehouse Lodge. The cabin was really clean and there's an awesome Smokehouse on the property that has some awesome food.



They have these fried pies that are pretty damn good.



During our 3 day stay in Monteagle we rode into Nashville and did the Natchez Trace.



We ate at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville. You have to try the fried pickles if you go there. Highly recommend.



I have to say that I was disappointed with the Natchze Trace. Well at least the portion from Nashville to near Waynesboro. The limit is only 50 mph and while the road is fairly scenic with long sweepers it gets pretty monotonous after a while.

We also got the chance to visit Lynchburg and take a tour of the Jack Daniel's Distillery.





Statue of 'ol Jack.



There's a small town near Monteagle called Cowan which has this cool looking old Texaco station.



The ride home sucked but that's to be expected after any vacation. We were getting hammered with pop up showers the hole way so we decided to hop on the highway and Interstate for much of it. We just wanted to get home.

One nice surprise on the way home was visiting this new dealership in Kentucky.



I think they might be 2 years old now but the dealership is fantastic with lots of apparel and plenty of bikes and accessories. I highly recommend stopping in if you're in the area.

Got home on Saturday with an extremely dirty bike complete with some battle scar (small chips, scratches, etc.). That trip must have aged my bike a couple of years and the curves really tested out the suspension. The roads in Ontario are completely boring by comparison now.

Here's my reading of how many kms we logged on the trip.



That's my story, I hope you all enjoy.

 

Sounds and looks like you had a good trip.

 

Nice write up. Loved the pics, Thanks..

 

Great pics. Glad you liked the KY HD dealer.

 

Shouldn't that night in Athens, VA be Athens, TN?

 

Tiny? LOL Monterey is the seat of Highland County!

I agree with you about Pigeon Forge (and Cherokee) avoid at all costs.

Nice ride report and pictures!

 

You are correct! Thanks for pointing that out.

 

Great write-up and pics! Thanks for posting!