Headed out of Madison north on US 441, finally stopping in Cornelia. There I got to see a large red apple sitting on a pedestal in the middle of town. This was also a crossroads of sorts for more railroad stuff, so I took some pictures of the interesting engines that they had sitting there as well. There were also two cute little statues near the apple that I took pictures of.
Then I found lunch in a small diner whose location I can no longer find, but oddly enough I had actually been there before, two years ago when I made the opposite version of this trek.
After lunch continued down the road, then headed over to Highlands, NC for a bit of mountain road riding. Ended up eventually in Franklin, where I met up with a couple of folks who had been doing some long-haul riding as well. Talked to them for a little while, then continued heading west towards Deal’s Gap, despite knowing that it was closed due to a landslide. Headed west on 28 until it reached 74, then took 74. At that intersection, I met up with the same group that somehow had managed to pass me without my seeing them do it. Not exactly sure how that happened, as we had followed the same route. They commented on my bike there, as they had not seen a Triumph Thunderbird before.
There was another old codger there on a Valkyrie 2000, and he also commented with the added comment that Triumph had to go to a three cylinder design in order to beat out the Valkyrie in size. Something bothered me about this comment, but it has taken a while for me to boil down just what it was that bothered me about it. I think the thing about it was that he considered displacement of the machine to be the end-all of what was important about the ride, which is really the furthest thing from the truth. I feel that what is important is that you are comfortable with the ride for what you are trying to do. Obviously you would not feel comfortable riding a large cruiser on a dirt track, but it is the application that is what matters.
Trying to find my way into the area of Deal’s Gap turned out to be a real pain, and eventually I gave up and started heading down to where I wanted to spend the night, at Amicalola Falls. Got there, got a room, and had dinner to a wonderful sunset.
Never even turned on the television here. I had internet, and connected to Jango in order to get some music piping into the room that I wanted, and I was done for the night.
