Back in June my son and I teamed up with a couple of buddies and rode down to Helen, GA for the first time. Here are some pics along with a brief narrative of the trip.

My son and I left around 8:30 but we did stop for a bite to eat before meeting up with the rest of the group.






I decided my days of being a pack mule were over so I fashioned one of my travel bags onto the ol' 883 to allow my boy to haul his own luggage. He was skeptical since he doesn't have a passenger backrest but the rig held like a champ.




We met up with the rest of the group at Blue Ridge Harley Davidson in Hickory before hitting I-40 West towards Asheville. Before mounting up, we decided to grab a bite to eat at the Iron Thunder Grill right beside the dealer. I frankly have no idea if the food we had was good or not. I think it was. But my mind was elsewhere.






With full bellies and full eyes, we headed west with sunny skies above. As you can see below, one of the riders is not a Harley fan. We traded barbs back and forth about our respective brands, but it was all in good fun. Besides, I got revenge later on the trip.




It wasn't long until we caught sight of mountains rising up on the horizon. I live in the mountains so I see them everyday, but I still appreciate scenes like this. We stopped to gas up just outside of Helen; note that the luggage on the Sportster is as secure as the moment we left!






More to come...

 

Nice...Keep them coming...

 

After gassing up, we headed into Helen and found our hotel. We checked in, unpacked, rested up a bit and then headed down to the main drag.






It was getting close to suppertime so we embarked on a search for food. When in Helen, do as the Germans do so we opted for The Old Bavaria Inn. My son and I were German cuisine virgins, but we were quite pleased with the pork wienerschnitzel sandwich. The one-man German band....not so much. Actually he was pretty amusing but it didn't take long for the accordion to wear thin.










We then walked the rest of the strip, ducking in and out of various shops, before calling it a day. The river tubers looked like they were having a ball.






I'm a talk radio junkie and have been for many years, so when I got back to the room I rolled the dice and contacted Neal Boortz, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host that used to live in Atlanta and rode the north GA mountains on his BMW motorcycle frequently. I Tweeted him and asked for suggestions of roads to ride. Much to my surprise, he replied. I thought that was pretty freaking cool!




We took his recommendations and the roads were absolutely fantastic. They were all in great condition with superb views and nice twisties.












I mentioned earlier that the non-Harley riders enjoyed poking fun with the usual HD jokes (Harleys have great storage to take all the extra parts along, etc, etc). Well, the two Harleys on this ride functioned flawlessly. The picture below speaks for itself. Hehehe. Karma.




Back to the ride pics -- we sampled as many roads as we could and enjoyed each one of them. We ended up coming back into Helen on the opposite side of town and HOLY COW at the traffic. It took us 45 minutes to cover that last mile into town.









To be continued...

 

The next morning we packed up and prepared to head home, but we wanted to pass some miles on the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway (the best section, IMHO). We rode up to Cherokee and took the BRP to Brevard Road in Asheville. We grabbed lunch at The Stone Ridge Tavern before heading back home. All in all, a great 3-day ride!

 

Been up to that area twice in the last year, excellent riding. I remember that "U"turn on Wolfs Pen Gap. Thanks for sharing...