Smokey Mountain Road Trip
Send us your road stories and pictures. We'll post 'em when we can.
Send us your stories and pictures. We'll post 'em when we can.
Carolina Dave and Kim Take a Vacation in June 2007
Vacations can sometimes be a pain with all the planning, hustling, bustling, gotta to be somewhere, gotta do something, hurrying up to have to wait, traffic, crowds, stressing, etc. Hell, that sounds worse than reality. So we threw all that out the window when we called River Cove Cabins in Murphy, NC. Kim got ‘em from the Dixie Biker website, made a reservation, researched the area, picked out what we found of interest, checked on roads and routes to ride - again from past DBI articles on the website. Murphy is in the furthest corner of SW North Carolina where it meets Gawga, Tennessee and South Carolina. We loaded up the bikes, yeah, we
trailered that way I could lay in the back of the Blazer and sip on the half gallon of JD I picked up for the trip while Kim
drove.
The owners of River Cove Cabins, Wanda
and Gary (right), greeted us when we stepped
out of the truck and provided 5 star service (not
that I’m sure what that is) but they took damn
good care of us the whole week. I wasn’t sure
what to think looking round at the cabins.They
looked kinda primitive from outside and it was
at dusk which made my vision worse. Once we
got inside cabin #3 on the river, I lost any doubt,
it was clean with electricity, full bathroom with
running water and a king size bed. Not much
else you could ask for huh? Well, how bout a Jacuzzi, kitchenette with microwave, mini fridge,
all utensils and a comfortable king size bed. And did I mention how clean it was? Well it was super clean. All you have to bring is food, drinks, charcoal, ice and BEER! Murphy is a beer dry town. You can buy hard liquor but not beer! Go figure.
View of the river from our front porch.
Wanda invited us out to the fire pit once we settled in and told us someone named Mike from DBI was in cabin 2. I had just finished a big ol’ cigar and had knocked down a good bit of that half gallon of Jack so I had a good buzz going. I knew DBI didn’t have anyone named Mike on staff so I wandered if maybe he was an undercover agent for the FBI or worse, the IRS. Over the next couple days of riding and hanging out with Mike we found out he was a biker from Lake County who everyone ‘round Dizzy’s and Hideaway know him as Coors Light Mike. He came up for vacation
same as we did after saving his River Cove’s ad from a DBI issue last year. We hope his friends who had to cancel at the last minute had as much fun as we did. After dinner we stayed up drinking the first night to about 1 am and that set the pattern. Get up around 9 am, get motivated, take time to clear my head, enjoy the the river(hell, I didn’t even fish and they provided fishing equipment), load up and head out on the bikes by noon at the latest (which was great cuz before that you had to leather up).The weather was perfect - sunny and cool. We rode every day 8 to 9 hours covering 150 to 300 miles each day. We’d get in at dusk just before the animals came out. It woulda sucked getting taken out by a deer or
something.
Wanda and Gary took time out of their busy schedule to take us on a couple great rides. Every direction you go in is a great ride actually. You could do as much or as little as you liked and we did both. We took our time and enjoyed what we encountered. We rode a lot of empty highways which was awesome when ya go 30 to 80 miles and not see anyone. The roads pratically belonged to us and they all lead somewhere or nowhere, depending on what you were looking for. We checked out waterfalls, dams and enjoyed undescribable views. We hung-out and had a few cold ones here and there when we worked up a thrist, and that was quite often. We stopped pretty much at every juke joint or beer sign we saw and met several good folks who moved there from Florida. (Continues below)
Over at Cherokee County Cycles owners Mike and his lovely wife were running ‘round taking care of customers. We found they take care of the bikers Dixie Style. We stopped by their place after a couple days of ridin’ through the mountains, and what deals they had. With lots of 50% off items we loaded up. Cherokee County Cycles is located on US Hwy 74/19/129 by-pass in Andrews, NC. If you’re up that way be sure to stop into their full service shop and retail store and let ‘em know you read bout ‘em in
DBI or tell ‘em Carolina Dave sent ya. They’re good people and you can get all your bike needs, including rentals and great local maps, right there.
Some of the memorable roads we rode were US Highways 64 over to Franklin; US 76 down thru N.Georgia, and then you have US 68 and The Cherohala Skyway which are long, winding roads with lots of awesome views. State Roads 28, 246, 106, have tight curves with steep declines and lots of close calls. US Hwy 129, The Dragon at Deals Gap is one of those with 318 winding
curves stretched over eleven miles. It’s even hairier when a rundown
ice truck with grinding brakes came up behind me on the decline side.
I was at the back of our pack and beginning to tighten up a bit after I could read the guys name tag in my side mirror. Sure was glad Gary pulled over the group when he did so I didn’t have to puss out, but I was just about to give the truck my spot. Even with that though,there wasn’t much traffic. I guess it helped that it was a weekday and school was still in. Shit, there wasn’t even any crotch rocket traffic.
Mike, Carolina Dave, Wanda & Gary with a Dixie Biker Hello.
Every day was a good day, every ride was a good ride including when Kim and I got caught in a storm on our last day. We did a bit of white-water motorcycling coming through and down from around The Highlands area that day. It rained so hard the water was up to my floorboards while we rode down the mountain. Of course after all the great weather that week, I had discarded my windshield and removed my rain gear to make room for beer in the saddlebags. We made it back safe after I made a makeshift rainsuit and us taking our time.
If you’re looking for a great biker vacation or just a quick getaway, check out River Cove cabins, and places we mentioned. I’m sure you’ll find a great time. . . we sure did
Just Like Baby Ducks....
All Lined Up in a Row.
At Deals Gap.
