Finished sharpening my new crop of $1.65 each "don't cry when you lose one" pocket knives -- these are cute little rip offs of the old Gerber lock back design I do believe. Nice little pocket knives in a 6 for $9.99 plastic pack off the center table.
Fine fine belt sander followed by edge hone on a stone, I was done with the whole lot in an hour and a bit.
Nice little knives for the price, blade steel seems a bit soft (easy to sharpen means easy to dull) but all Chinese pocket knives feel that way to me.
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Something that we talked about on the trip was a change in week date -- current week was picked to suit Toymaker's summer school teacher type needs and we don't have a Toymaker around any more.
Some mentioned first week of June as first time it gets warm enough for short sleeves up in the mountains. Last week of May, first week of June would avoid that tire killing people wilting heat completely and roll us back towards jacket or long sleeve riding weather. It would also roll us back away from the crush of people wherever we went as that is "too early" for the main vacation season peak crowds.
Tires would last longer too.
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The Dragon Lodge has become a little more and more difficult to deal with each year and I think them actively picking Lancer's pocket for $79 when we rolled back into the single room was the last straw -- I say screw staying there in the future. Plus I hate having to dodge the cops all the time every time you go up hill -- Tennessee's attitude towards bikers around the Dragon really does suck.
There are two other formats we have used on Blackline trips that seem to work out OK.
One is to base camp at Blue Ridge Motorcycle Cabins at two beds fer $45 (or 3 fer $15 each with one on an air mattress). This greatly simplifies reservations and planning as DURING THE WEEK no reservations are needed (nor are any enforced by pocket picking). Food is a very short ride up the road at a real town, or it can be gotten at the kitchen if you sign up for the meal ahead of time.
Having stayed at both, we will miss having a personal bathroom and the big fridge. An ice chest full of beer will have to suffice. It will do though if we must have a base camp.
The alternative is to have no base camp, to Hotwire.com a $29.99 hotel room at place A, ride around it some then proceed to place B and the next $29.99 hotel room. When blacklining in a small group this is a good format as the local cops don't get to recognize you as you aren't around there very long. Rooms are nice, generally have a fridge & TV and have a free breakfast.
Next, speed limits. North Carolina has a 55 mph default that plays anywhere it isn't posted otherwise. Tennessee seems to like a 45 mph default or else they just post it (or something less) everywhere. And they like to give warnings and threaten $176 tickets then send their buddy just a little bit down the road to nail you for 1 mph above the posted limit. They gets their chuckles out of it (and a large part of their budget revenue most likely).
NC cops have better things to do ....
Riding speed became an issue on this trip for the first time, as did staying together as a group as we busted up a ride with two having to go back to look for the one that wasn't ready to leave from a rest break on time and got separated/lost.
We had one new one that wasn't able to even reach the speed limit reliably (went home early because he was getting "too beat up trying to keep up with the group") and we had Dave as a new one who was always able to run in #2 or #3 position and had no issues keeping up whatsoever.
Age/back/legs/fatigue was an issue too, as the younger feeling wanted to ride for 6 hours at a shot and the older feeling wanted to stop and take a walk around break every hour.
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Lastly, I got caught by the fuzz this time for going at a normal curve speed on the dragon (50 mph) and given a no cost no insurance notified warning ticket as a courtesy service of the Sheriff's Dept.
(which I told the man "I appreciate that, Officer" because I did appreciate it)
Part of my permanent Tennessee sentence was to be permanently magically transformed from rasty green frog to wimpy sissybitch, which lasted until I got firmly back into North Carolina territory again and far far away from them narsty Tennessee Sheriff and Highway Patrol execution teams.
And while I was being humiliated by the Police, two gold wing pairs came up all grinning like fools, stopped along side and the wimmen took pictures of me getting my ticket. Seems they liked that a whole lot because I had just passed them upstream in the corners a little bit roughly.
And then sitting over at the next overlook there was this 7 man row of grinning Savagers who all wanted to see my ticket, and MM who cried out a bit in disappointment that it was jest a warning ticket and what lies did I tell that policeman to get out of the $176 fine I so richly deserved?
And then I had to ride like a wimpy little sissybitch all the rest of the morning since we were headed deep into Tennessee territory and I had been promised a Tennessee necktie party for going only ONE (1) mph over the 45 mph limit anywhere in that state forever as my 20 over the limit warning ticket stays on their computers forever.
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