Thanks OF,  well the tent prep is a no-go today... raining now...made it back from the store just in time.

But i'm going to be adjusting her engine guard foot rests and such, i'm nixxing the cooler and am going to go with 2 soft textile bags, one large and one medium. Going to put the tent, bed matt and bed roll on top of the small bag at my back (might use it as a backrest if it is full enough).

Thinking about transfering my cup holder from my Harley to the savage, test drove the gps today, might have to work out a vibration situation, not sure, going to try the other gps to see what it does.

Just fine tuning everything now, heh, got rid of the guage vibes with a popcicle stick for the time being, i'm not going to mess with it this close to "go" day.

How many are on the "show list" now???
I am actually thinking on leaving on tues. and riding from the bottom of the mountain range, not sure yet, buddy might not want too.

old_rider wrote on 06/03/13 at 10:34:58:



This tight in, we assume that everyone is coming and are surprised when someone doesn't show up.

REMEMBER, we are all trying to show up by 1:00 PM so we can get organized, get the tents set up and get us in a short trip in that includes dinner.   That way we actually really all get there in time to ride out to go eat.


===============



THE TRIP:   Wednesday, June 12th arrival day at Blue Ridge Motorcycle Cabins/Campground.  Leaving Sunday AM (Father's day)


OK, We got 5 people good for a Wednesday, June 12th 1:00 PM afternoon arrival.  We got three mebbe coming "as they are able to come".   We have confirmed rental of two cabins.   We have a third cabin or tent in the works but the cabin is not actually reserved yet.

Heated Cabin #1       (Dave and I are staying in their cabin #4)
Dave                          staying Weds-Friday/Saturday block,  confirmed
Oldfeller                        staying Weds-Friday/Saturday block,  confirmed

Heated Cabin #2
old-rider                          staying Weds-Thurs in cabin, confirmed, switching to tent on Friday
old-rider's buddy               staying Weds-Thurs in cabin, confirmed, switching to tent on Friday

Cabin or Tent
MMRanch          (who doesn't check in often enough to keep up with the changes and who hasn't made any reservations yet either, so he is likely reverting to his tent)

2 man Tent
New River Junkie             possibly/mebbe staying Saturday night
Serenity                         staying one night, variable date
Zar                               staying ???

Guys, we TRY to hit the 1:00 arrival time, but nobody actually really does it.  

Never have.   I am generally the first person there and the earliest I ever made it was 1:30 when shooting at 1:00.   Gas stops and such put you later than you plan, always.

Lancer and I generally would hit between 1:00 and 2:00 even with the best of intentions.   It was always plenty early enough because we were staying in a cabin or a room and it took us a big half hour to get the bikes off the trailer and put our carry bag of clothes into the room.  

Then folks would trickle in over the next 3 hours.   MM runs latest of the lot of us because he has further to go (and he believes in speed limits when he is in Tennesee).

Dave, leave at when you feel cuddly getting up, I certainly wouldn't spend a night sleeping awkward somewhere over a 1:00 arrival time.

Well, the ticking got to me... I fiddled with the headlight and somehow its not making any noises now, I popsicle sticked the speedo and its not vibrating, so I scheduled a valve job at my local fav motorcycle shop. They will do it thurs after my wed. afternoon drop-off, i'll bring her home thur. and change the oil, then pre-pack it up and test drive fer balance.
Sound like a plan?

P.S. I'm not afraid of the valve job, just want to be able to take my time, and if anything happens be able to leave it set for a week if I need too. Same with the verslavy... i'll get to it when I return, its not making any noises that I can hear over the valves.....

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/canton-nc/28716/june-weather/12122_pc?monyr=...


Now that we are inside 10 days you can get all sorts of weather forecasts from many sources, none of which agree with each other for very much on the details for any given day .....

All they agree upon is that we are going to have occasional showers in the evenings.



.... duh, it is mountain weather !!!

Guys I'm out. Things around here just are not working out. On top of everything else,our VP/General manager has decided to move on after 26 years. Understand this is not your normal situation. The guy basicly built the business for the owner over the past 26 years. He took care of all the dealing with the sales reps for whole goods and was the kind of guy that brought in most of the customer base. Now it's up to those of us left to try and keep the business afloat,if the employees don't decide to bail out too. This guy was the one with ALL the "people skills" not the owner,so you can see the way we may be heading!

Anyhoo....you guys enjoy! I'll be thinking about you and praying for a safe ride!

Black Mountain is nearby to Mt. Mitchell, so hunting for his mountain place can fill up the rest of your day for that trip.  

Do you still have your ride card that you made up with his phone number on it?   I still have mine if you don't, so PM me for his phone number if you don't have it.

A Dragon Cherohala loop would take us a day, so that can fill up one of your days, or we can filler it up some with a stop at Fontana Dam.   I bumped into a factoid that might explain all the stuff under the visitor center, so we might could stop by and ask the attendants a question or two and ask if they have some pics from back the 1950s when the visitor center was added to the dam.

Saturday we were going to mebbe go up to the knife store as we escorted you towards home, so that could take care of Saturday.

But as always, we will sit down at the table and find out what the boys want to do as we won't know until we ask them.


================


http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/canton-nc/28716/june-weather/12122_pc?monyr=...

Occasional weather check is good to do .....

Thursday sez "intervals of clouds and sunshine with a couple of showers and a thunderstorm" and that ain't bad for the worst day of the trip.

Looking Black Mountain for the same day yields the exact same verbiage so Thursday is a Blue Ridge wide crapshoot of a day for a thunder boomer.  Big thunderboomers are readily visible up in the mountains and we tend to go the other way quick-like for a while until we can find an air conditioned place to roost and feed our faces until it blows over.

Adds excitement & spice to hunting up some Mount Mitchell snowflakes and finding Black Mountain Mike.

Got the bike back, no valve tappage...but im still hearing engine rattles...hope you guys can tell me and show me how a "real savage" sounds and looks like, got the oil changed out, was filthy! and I just changed it two months ago.
We are leaving on tuesday and takin our time getting up there, no rush, google and map quest say 8hr 40ish minutes, but with gas stops, old man breaks (achy breaky), and lunch, it will probably be more like 11hrs, so we are stopping north of atlanta and will drive leasurely there wed. morning and enjoy the mountain scenery on our way.
Here is the setup i'm going with