Day 9

 We woke up this morning to wet roads but dry skies at least until we got underway then light rain off and on for most of the morning. Last night Pat, from the K1600 forum and Huron South Dakota showed up to ride with us for a few days. We stopped for lunch at 10:30 and afterwards it was dry and the skies became partly cloudy for the rest of the day. 

We rode another ferry across the Mississippi River  

We are staying in Mountain View, Arkansas for 2 nights. Tomorrow we will ride around here in the Ozark hills. 

Another forum member from Missouri rolled into the motel tonight and will also ride with us for 2 days  

Day 8

 This is a Sunday and time to hit the road West. We got on the road a little before 7:00 with dry conditions. Stopped in Tellico Plains for gas and breakfast. As we looked the bikes over we noticed Damian’s front tire looked pretty worn so Andy and I started brainstorming on what to do about. The final plan was to detour and go to a Cycle Gear shop near Nashville. We arrived and I removed the wheel, in the parking lot, and Damian took it in and had a new tire mounted and balanced. 

Back on the road to Paris Tennessee for the night. Andy routed us so that wee took a car ferry across a river. We met up with brother Kevin and friend Greg at a friends house near Paris for a short visit. A quick ride to Paris before the rain came and we checked into our motel rooms.  

We had supper next door at a pizza and beer restaurant where we met Pat from Huron, South Dakota, who is a member on our K1600 forum. He will join us for a couple days of riding. 

Day 7

 Today is definitely a rainy down day so doing laundry was in order. More visiting with friends from around the country and sharing ideas on how to accessorize our motorcycles. 

Andy has been hard at work loading our upcoming routes on everyones GPS. 

Day 6

 We woke up this morning to a light off and on rain. Andy loaded the routes for our ride back West across America on my GPS.  Finally it let up enough that most every one took off on their motorcycles to parts unknown. Steve and I along with 2 others road to a resort by a river for lunch. We got rained on for a few miles but finished getting to the resort and back here under dry skies. I forgot to turn on my tracking program today but it was a short loop on roads we did earlier in the week,  o thing new.

Tonight there will be a 50/50 raffle and some other short programs typical of a gathering of this type. I'll have to count the bikes tomorrow morning to see how many showed up. It seems to be less than past years.

I gave the Australians Damian and Brendan shirts that Shannon made as souvenirs for their cross country trip.

Day 5

Evening meal with a few of the guys

 Another beautiful ride day. Sunshine twisty roads and BBQ for lunch.

Here are some pictures of the back lot of the lodge where there is tent camping, wagon camping and a bunkhouse with 4 beds where we are staying. A nice creek runs through the property and they have an outside gathering place with a fire pit. I'll post more pictures of the lodge later.

Day 4

 Today is a nice blue sky sunny day. We got out and road for 4 hours on several great roads. One was the famous Tail of the Dragon. 11 miles and 318 curves. Had lunch at a well known bakery and made it back to the lodge. The 2 Australians are here now as is a lot of old acquaintances.

Day 3

 We made it to the lodge Tuesday with just a few sprinkles. Several early birds were already here including Andy, who you’ll hear more about next week on our trip across America with the Australians. 

Today, Wednesday and tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and then rain this weekend so we’ll definitely do our local riding now.  

Day 2

 Tom and I arrived at the motel in Jackson, TN after 650 miles and were met by Steve. We had a relatively dry ride today with light rain the last 10 miles. After the normal greetings we called Uber and went to a Grill and Brew for supper. Back at the motel more talking about tomorrow’s route with variations based on rain or not. Tomorrow is a short 400 miles so a later start in the morning is in line.