This was the best of days, and it was the worst of days......ok, so thats not quite an original thought, but it'll make sense as you read through this. Woke up rather early, even after ladies night at Mister Ed's, and got an early start leaving Crossville on Hwy 70. Determined to stay off the Interstate through the mountains, this winding little road was wonderful working its way towards Maryville, TN, where I got onto Hwy 129 headed east. This little known road works its way around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on its southern side and is fairly lightly traveled. It was a good thing I had planned on this route, as I had learned this morning that the Newfound Gap road through the park was closed due to a rock slide.

There is a stretch of Hwy 129 called "The Dragon" that boasts 312 hairpin turns in 11 miles....and believe me it is an amazingly fun ride. I saw at least 50 cafe' racers (rice burners, crotch rockets, suicide rides....etc.) that apparently see this piece of road as their Mecca. The gas station on the east side of the mountain sells T-Shirts boasting that "sometimes you get the dragon....sometimes the dragon gets you!"...Unfortunately all the T-Shirts have a Crotch Rocket on them, so you know I couldn't get one.

Once on the other side, I hit Hwy 19 and headed for Cherokee through one of the prettiest valley's in North Carolina...I was just thinking how nice it's been on this trip...no breakdowns, didn't get lost, well I lost out on the rain part of it, but other than that its been nice.....was still thinking that as I passed by a sign heralding the town of Murphy..........Murphy?....MURPHY? What the hell was I doing in Murphy? Some of you may have heard the phrase, "Murphy to Manteo"...meaning one side of the state to the other - Mountains to the coast. Well, Murphy is NOT where I was supposed to be going...took a wrong turn back there...OK, so I got rained on AND lost.....at least I didn't break down!

Once going in the right direction, I went through the Nantahala Gorge, which is one of the best rides in the state - short of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Took that into Cherokee, NC, which was kinda crowded with pissed off tourists who couldn't get over the mountain due to the rock slide up on the pass, so I kept heading towards Asheville....somewhere in there I decided to cut this short, and skip the Blue Ridge Parkway - been there done that too many times anyway and was getting the urge to get on home....so I hooked up with I-40 and set the cruise on 80mph....

Remember a while back how I was happy that I didn't break down?......here I was, on a roll.....over 500 miles behind me today, and 25 miles...TWENTY FIVE FRIGGIN' MILES...away from home, stopped at a rest area east of Greensboro on I-40 for a short butt-break, figured I'd be home before the kids went to bed, and when I fired it back up.......something was wrong...with no warning it's now working on one cylinder only. Pulled in to the rest stop just fine, now its not firing on the back cyl.....changed the plug, verified the plug was firing, still nothing. Figured it must be in the fuel injector. Imagine how pissed I was that after 3100 miles of trouble-free riding across the country, I get 25 miles from home and have to call Kim to hook up the trailer and come get me!.....Well, at least it WAS just 25 miles away, huh?

Thanks for following along. Hope you enjoyed it, I know I enjoyed hearing from all of ya on the trip. All-in-all this was a nice little scooter ride. Had a nice time at the wedding, snagged a couple of Cohiba Cuban Cigars, saw my dad for the first time in a couple years and just heard that my youngest brother and his wife just had a baby boy back in Florida...nice of Cindy to wait til Justin got back home for that!... and I saw a whole lot of neat back roads in this country. Might just have to do it again when I go to Sturgis in '00 for the bike rally.

OK, everybody go back to work...party's over!.....'night.