From Iowa to NC, Day 4: Dragon-bound!

Waking up in Corbin the next morning, the weather was actually decent. No need to wait to get on the road, and I still woke up at a reasonable time sans alarm clock. Nope, still not much to see in Corbin, though...

Breakfast was a mixed bag. I've long been convinced of at least a few things the South doesn't seemingly acknowledge..
- Biscuits are an attempt gone horribly wrong, removing any and all liquid from what should have been a perfectly edible dinner roll.
- Due to the utter lack of moisture, someone decided to dump some gravy on the biscuit, in an attempt to be able to eat it.
Thus, 'biscuits n gravy' was born.

Yeah, I know them’s fighting words for some, and have had friends all over, including from Illionois, that simply love biscuits and gravy.  More power to them, but - I just don’t get it.

But...there was sausage, and bagels, and OJ, and it was good, although the juice dispenser was possessed - it would pump, but in spurts, guaranteeing anyone trying to get more than a half glass would also coat their hands, confirmed by watching other guests attempting the same.

I loaded the bike up, got some gas, and bid Corbin adieu.

I made it to Knoxville in good time, to find, once again - a detour. Not just any detour, but one that blocked off any way to get onto the highway I needed to cut down towards Maryville and the start of US-129. I pulled off to ride around and watch the GPS re-calculate, until I thought it had a viable route back on further south onto the highway. Oops - no such luck. Apparently, there looks like there's an on ramp there...one that might be complete next year.

I stop in a gas station after doing a circle around Knoxville for an hour or so, and ask some guy in a pickup truck, who apparently has a Harley as well as a dual sport. We chat about bikes briefly, and he gets me on my way - I've got to go west for a while on 75/640, then to cut back in East, then south towards Maryville/US129. Once I'm partly there, the GPS confirms it knows where I am, and the area starts to look familiar to me, from previous trips of mine, although I've always come into the Smokies from the NC side or near Gatlinburg, not from the Knoxville area. 

I made it to Knoxville in good time, to find, once again - a detour. Not just any detour, but one that blocked off any way to get onto the highway I needed to cut down towards Maryville and the start of US-129. I pulled off to ride around and watch the GPS re-calculate, until I thought it had a viable route back on further south onto the highway. Oops - no such luck. Apparently, there looks like there's an on ramp there...one that might be complete next year.  Right now - there was …. nothing at all that was a usable road.  Nice maps, Garmin - you usually miss roads I’m in fact on, but now - you’re calling future roads as being usable.  Meh.

I stop in a gas station after doing a circle around Knoxville for an hour or so, and ask some guy in a pickup truck, who apparently has a Harley as well as a dual sport. We chat about bikes briefly, and he gets me on my way - I've got to go west for a while on 75/640, then to cut back in East, then south towards Maryville/US129. Once I'm partly there, the GPS finally confirms it knows where I am, and the area starts to look familiar to me, from previous trips of mine, although I've always come into the Smokies from the NC side or near Gatlinburg, not from the Knoxville area.

I start to see more bikes on the road, with both the SV as well as a Harley Rally happening at the Gap this weekend, plus the usual plethora of cars and riders. I stop for a little bit to take a few pictures just after the truck warning sign (Hint - if you drive an 18 wheeler, do NOT cross the mountains on US129...please!) And I still hadn't figured out my camera lens is dirty yet, grr!

I jump back on the bike, and start through on the way to Crossroads of Time, and Fontana Village. About 2 miles or so in from the TN side of the Dragon, I see someone standing on the left hand side of the road.

There's no sidewalk, just cliffs and rock faces, plus, he looks dirty and banged up. There are also only a very few places you can safely and sanely turn around in the Dragon. There's a blind turn coming up, so I pull off quickly across to him, and put my bike where I hope it's visible to people coming from the other side.

being unable to make the turn. He was beat up and pretty dirty, and bleeding from the head slightly. I did the best I could to make sure he didn't have anything broken, no concussion, nausea, shock, etc., and checked he was able to move his joints..then pulled out the first aid kit and gave him anti-biotic ointment after some cleanup, and some clean cloths to clean up a bit more with.

Nothing seemed broken, but wasn't too sure it was a great idea to head to Crossroads, or back to the TN side entrance to call an ambulance, tow truck, or find a Trooper, while leaving him there, so I flagged a few bikes down in each direction and asked them to send a Trooper or two truck, and hung out to make sure the guy didn't go into shock.

He was understandably pissed off and upset. The way things looked, he was pretty lucky in my opinion - jeans and t-shirt, and only a bit of rash at his waist and back, a half helmet and no head injuries that could be seen, and his bike had caught up 10-15' down the side on a tree..if it hadn't stopped there, it might not have been seen again. It was covered in dirt a bit from the slide, but might well be rideable after checking the forks and handlebars, levers, etc...

Apparently one of the bikers I’d asked to find a Trooper had luck, as 10 minutes or so later, a Trooper pulled up on his bike.  You can sort of sort of see his path in the last pic below - he came around the turn, scraped pegs and slid, just forward of where my bike's sitting, and the bike went down the side where the trooper in front of my bike (a little tough to see) is standing (now looking down at the bike).

Onwards...

With the Troopers now there and an ambulance en route, I jumped on the bike and headed on towards Crossroads.

I came up on Crossroads, which looked like a parking lot; bikes everywhere. Debated on stopping, but I kinda wanted to get my room for the night sorted, and eventually dry out, so just kept going on to Fontana.

Of course, with the downpour, no one was there for the SV Rally Registration, so I moved on to the address I had for the cabin I was renting a bed at for the night. (Yay to SVRider forums..I've been to DG for rallies before, and rooming is always an issue. A post and a few PMs, got a place for the night a week in advance!). I found the cabin, and no one there, so halfway de-geared and dumped my stuff under the porch..it was pretty nice to be off the bike and out of the rain for a while!

Eventually, Nick showed up (aka nicklaus on svrider), and we wondered who each other was..then waited on Teri/tlcdiving to show up. I guess the door was open to the place, but..just hung out and BSed for a while, then headed on the the Rally Dinner not much later, after giving thanks for a shower and some clean, dry clothes!

I pulled up, and there were a lot of SVs there already!

Lots of bikes to check out, which was cool. Ironically, I'd never heard a stock SV before - my buddy's had a Two Bros on it, and mine an Art can. I'm SO glad for that - stock, the bike sounds like a sewing machine!

I knew nobody, as I'd also missed the Meet N Greet the night before, as well as Registration, managed to get my 'dinner wristband' from Ruefus, and sat with Sam/swiest and others I don't recall their names, because I truly do suck at names - nice folks, one of these days I'll remember names better..maybe. Ok, unlikely.

Dinner was some chicken and potatoes, salad..all good, until. I'm not sure what the culprit is, and it's possible I'd been eating really lightly on the trip to date, but something really didn't agree with me at dinner :-/ Pics, and details, spared. :-)

Traxxion had donated a full AX-20 drop in fork kit, and a lot of other vendors did as well. There was a lot of stuff there from Kobe, all donated apparently from 1888fastlap.com.  
I hadn't been familiar with Kobe before, but some of it looked pretty sweet, including a yellow one piece set of leathers.

I think Asus won the leathers..if not, sorry, sucking at names, again :-/
They were a bit large on him, but they're exchangeable.

Whenever someone won something, they chants of 'try it on!' would go up...and at least one person did, for the stylin' Cool-Max shirt. ;:D

I won a pair of Kobe gloves..sweet! My Rev-It gauntlets are pretty decent, but have seen better days, and have been in the market for a replacement pair of gauntlet gloves. Of course, they were XL and Red, but the nice folks at Fastlap later exchanged them for me for these (Large, in Blue, woo hoo!) (post trip, very cool of them, go visit them and buy stuff :) ) 

The gloves feel pretty protective, mixed with Kevlar, kangaroo skin and regular leather, and have a few vents on the topside, plus reinforced where you'd expect them to be, all good. The fit's slightly on the odd side, with the wrist being slightly tight, and the two smallest fingers being slightly long, but they seem to be well made, and I'll be using them as my main gloves. Thanks to SVRider, and I think it's Kathy at Fastlap for exchanging them! Also, as Ruefus pointed out at the rally, thanks to any/all vendors who donated gifts to the Rally.

After dinner, we headed outside to check out the bikes and do the group pic (ok, I think it was after dinner). During the 'rev 'em if ya got 'em' part, Woody's bike managed to get away from him, but..no pics (from me, anyways).

Where the golf cart came from, no clue, but...it has an engine, sorta (electric), therefore..not the best shot, and someone's got video somewhere of it, but yes, you can drag knee on a golf cart :)

After a bit, everyone filtered off to put bikes away, and what else, go party!
cfreger's bike was smoking like mad, so we checked it out at the cabin, didn't find any leaks, so topped it off with oil, then eventually made it 'in search of alcohol.'

As an SV Rally newbie, I had no clue where I was going. cfreger gave me some random 'easy' directions, but, I saw shiny lights and stuff at the Harley part of the Rally, so had to go look for a bit, while avoiding the inevitable oil leaks from the Hardleys. A few cool looking bikes, though, or..trikes?