Poor Man's' Watch Forum

Bike Trip! Day 5.

Posted By: Ricky Lee McBroom
Date: Sunday, 30 July 2006, at 4:19 p.m.

Saturday morning's rain proved persistent, so we elected to load up and head for home. However, we decided to take the scenic route. This meant that we needed a westbound road, and a quick check of the map suggested that the Cherahola Skyway would fill the bill perfectly. Ray and Judy lead the way in the Miata, and here we are at the first stop:

The rain had stopped on the outskirts of Robbinsville, and the climb up to that point had been great. Ray forgot to fill the Miata's tank and, being down to under 1/4 with 50 miles to the next services, we parted company here. You'll note that we elected to leave the rain gear on.. and it's lucky that we did! As soon as we left the Spirit Ridge pulloff, literally around the next curve, we hit drizzle. That soon turned into quite a heavy rain and, worse, heavy fog. Though at 5,000+ feet I suppose you could call it 'cloud cover'. In any case, it was so intense at times that you could barely see your hand in front of your face, and I had to drop the speed to the 20 MPH range. After 'bout a half hour of that (and barely 5 miles later!) we needed another rest stop:

That photo will give you an idea, but really doesn't do justice to the pea-soup nature of the fog. Mercifully, things cleared up 5 miles or so later, and the remainder of the Skyway was a blast! Despite the white-knuckle conditions across the summit, we felt vindicated in our choice of routes. Indeed, I'm definitely gonna do the Cherahola Skyway again someday. hopefully in less inclement weather.

Our next trop, near the end of the Skyway, was in the Cherokee National Forest. After 11 miles down this winding little road..

..which runs hard by Oosterman Creek..

You come to this spectacular spot:

We took this opportunity to have a picnic lunch. And, I must say, I don't think I've ever before enjoyed a picnic in such a picturesque setting!

The remainder of the day's trip was mostly an interstate drone, and I wicked it up to a steady 85, the sooner to get to our destination:

A race with Haley and Hannah! (They won.. )

Today's route is Spring Hill, TN to our home in Olive Branch, MS. Dunno if we'll do it via the interstate or the Natchez Trace. The Nashville-Tupelo section of the Trace is some mighty fine road.. but I've done it many times before. Maybe we'll flip a coin.

Have a great day, gents!

-Ricky

Messages In This Thread

Bike Trip! Day 5. (views: 70)
Ricky Lee McBroom -- Sunday, 30 July 2006, at 4:19 p.m.

Spectacular. (views: 3)
Robmks -- Sunday, 30 July 2006, at 8:39 p.m.

Nice Pics Ricky >>> (views: 4)
Paul December -- Sunday, 30 July 2006, at 4:59 p.m.
BTW - I don't know if you've posted an update, but how is your son holding up? I hope well.

Re: how is your son holding up? >>> (views: 1)
Ricky Lee McBroom -- Monday, 31 July 2006, at 10:18 a.m.
He's doin' great! The band's still gigging regular, still getting airplay on KLAQ. They've developed quite a following in the El Paso area...

-Ricky

Band home page

Nice shots ! (views: 2)
Fernando Campos -- Sunday, 30 July 2006, at 4:46 p.m.

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