The Great Smokies

Day 10--May 25, 2011
Lookout Mountain, Georgia
Written by Rev

Well here we are. Yesterday was spent scootering up and down the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains. This was very beautiful, but time-consuming. We would slowly stroll up the hills at a pace of 20-25 mph. Then, at the crest of the mountain, we would pick up speed and race down the other side at a rapid pace of 43 mph. Viking even leaned far into a turn and 'laid his bike down'. For all of you 'non-bikers' out there, this is a term that biker's use when they are going around a curve and their bike scrapes the ground. This is awesome and my friend Viking did this. Very impressive. We even attacked the curves so hard that a vehicle pulled over to let us pass. That was a first.

Anyway, after the mountains we were eagerly anticipating our thrill ride on the Tail of the Dragon. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a road that is 11 miles long with 318 curves. This is a biker hit down in these parts. Bikers come from all over America just to ride this stretch of road coming from North Carolina to Tennessee. We filled up with gas about 20 minutes before the beginning of the Tail of the Dragon. As we were going down a mountain to the beginning, Wilberforce decided to backfire twice. We still don't know why, but it was pretty cool having a Honda Ruckus flying down a mountain and a little flame coming out of the muffler :)

As we pulled into the motel-gas station-store at the beginning of the Tail of the Dragon around 8:00 PM, we noticed Wilberforce making a clanking noise. This didn't seem right. This is where the story gets so great.

A man comes over and asked us if we needed help; of course we did! He told us to take it over to the group of guys outside this motel and they could take a look at it. I was extremely intimidated as we rode our little bikes over there for two reasons: a)I know nothing about mechanics and b)they were bikers. BUT my intimidation soon faded away as they welcomed us and within 15 minutes of us being there by the group--a man came up and asked where we have been staying. We told him where we had been, but had no clue where tonight we would stay. He told us to stay at the motel with him because he had 2 people in his room and there were 4 beds and 2 futons. We just smiled at each other. God is good.

We stayed there last night and were welcomed greatly by each of them. We got to listen to biker crash stories around the fire and were blessed with some burgers and good company. It was awesome. God is good.

We started early again this morning and rode the Trail of the Dragon. We decided it wasn't as exciting as we hoped due to the curves and mountains we had to take to get to that point in the road. But it was still cool to say that two Honda Ruckus' did that 11 miles stretch. We made our way to a Honda dealer in Athens, Tennessee to see if we could fix Wilberforce. The guys last night diagnosed the problem as the clutch, but the man at the shop took both clutches off and decided that it was the main bearing in the crank shaft. So that was devastating news because it takes a lot of time to fix this, therefore the labor is very expensive. But the good news was that we can still ride Wilberforce because it might go 20,000 more miles or just 20 miles. We decided to keep going for it with some minor repairs to Wilberforce.

Just before entering into Georgia, we stopped at a church and laid out in their lawn and took a nap. Very good idea since we were both exhausted. I told Viking that we shouldn't go into Georgia because of the mountains and we should stay away from them. But he insisted that there wasn't mountains in Georgia because where we were going was elevation of 600 feet. This was hilarious to me as we were going up and down the mountains.

That's not the best part. We were supposed to head south into Georgia a little ways and then head west, but Viking was turned around by an ambiguous map and we ended up by Covenant College, about 2 miles from the Tennessee border. So funny. We were both in high spirits for some reason as we pulled into the famous Rock City. We enjoyed a great view of 7 states, as well as the town from where we had just come.

We then asked the Starbucks man where a good place to eat was. He advised us to head to Hill City Pizza. So lo and behold we did. Great pizza, I might add. Anyway, as we were sitting there watching the news, we couldn't believe the terrible weather that we were about to have.

It seemed that we only had a couple of choices: We could ride through the night and then get a hotel, drive a little way and camp, or just camp where we were. Our pizza came, and we said a prayer about where we would stay and discernment on what to do. Within 1 minute, in an empty restaurant, a lady walks up to us after getting her order to go. She asked us about our trip, etc. and then asked where we were staying tonight. We replied that we had no idea. She said she would try and find us a place to sleep, she took our number and called us back 20 minutes later telling us to come to her place. God is good.

So I am writing this from the comfort of a home, praising God for answered prayer. Also, we drove through two towns that had been devastated by tornadoes. So praise God for this home and family tonight.

We have been extremely blessed on this trip so far. We could be headed into bad weather these next couple of days as we head to Arkansas, but we are trusting God to guide us, keep us safe and help us discern what to do.

All Viking and Rev can say is that God is good and we cannot thank him enough for all that He has done for us.

To God Be the Glory.