Our trip for the Feast in the East VI started out on Friday the 13th so of course everything that could go wrong did. It started out with our communication system not working at all. We stopped by the local bike shop to see if they could help but they couldn’t. So we left it as it was and left for the Feast.
We started going down US 340 because it keeps us of the highways for a little bit anyway. Well along the way we got hit by a fruit from a tree over the road, it was one of those green things a bit bigger than an orange and looks like a brain. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but when we stopped to eat I looked at the bike and found a hole! What ever had hit us had broken the faring and the right blinker. I was quite upset of course but couldn’t do anything about it so I waited until I got there to fix it.
The rest of the ride was uneventful until we go on I-40 going to Morganton. That was when it started to turn dark and I found out that I had no low beam. I had checked it when I looked at the faring and it worked so it must have gone out on the way. I was lucky enough to have caught up with someone else going to the Feast so I turned on the high beam and followed him. Bryan the rally master was nice enough to give me a spare since I didn’t have one of course. After installing the light I then found out that the right running light had also failed, that too was working when I had checked but had stopped as well. At least the blinker worked right. So I got some duct tape and a couple of other people helped me tape it back together. After all the crap of the day it was finally off to bed, butt of course I couldn’t get to sleep so I tossed and turned for awhile.
We got up at 5, took a quick shower and went for the riders meeting to find out any last minute changes and to get the wildcard bonuses. We left around five of six and headed west toward Asheville for our first bonus. We caught up to someone on a BMW in the construction area on I-40 and we rode together until Asheville. I had forgotten how fun I-40 can be halfway between Morganton and Asheville with all of the twisties going up the mountain. It was a pretty cold morning and I was glad to have my new electric clothes from Widder Clothing. Even with the vests I was still kinda cold, especially the feet and hands. We rolled into Asheville after about 45 minutes or so and the person following us past us, I thought he was going to stop in Asheville with us but he past right by the exit that we needed to take so I left him go. About 5 minutes into the town is the art museum with a statute out front that we need to get the info from.
Our next stop was Dillsboro about 45-50 minutes from Asheville, near the Great Smoky Mountains NP to look up the date on a restaurant. The ride to Dillsboro was pretty quick as there were not many people on the road. I decided to skip the Smoky Mountain park stamp as I thought that it was too far out of the way. Our next stop was the Andrew Johnson NP that was near the Davey Crockett State Park so it was pretty easy to pick up both. On the way we got gas in Tennessee for some points and also picked up the toy for Bryan’s son’s birthday the next day. We got some little doll that looks like a golfer and makes sounds if you hit it; I understand Bryan’s boys really liked it.
Along the way to the NP we stopped to get a pumpkin that was another wild card bonus. We stopped at some small community sale that we saw and picked up one of the only pumpkins we could find. The road to both parks was longer than the Rand McNally program told us it was so we lost some time there and added about 20 miles to our trip. After getting both bonuses we missed the turn we needed to get to I-81. This, however, turned out to be a good thing as we ended up finding a BBQ place which was the last wild card bonus we needed and allowed us to call in.
Our next stop was Abingdon for the Barter’s Theater that was right off of I-81 in Virginia. Our next stop was to be in Hillsville along I-77, this was going to be our longest time between bonus stops. Along the way we passed Harley Trash going south, and what might have been a couple of other people from the rally but I didn’t know them. We stopped for gas in Hillsville and asked for directions to the church, it turns out we were not the first people looking for the church at that gas station. We took US 52 to the church behind some really slow people. These people were only the beginning of our problems with people going well under the speed limit along 52. Our next stop was the Rockford Store in Rockville. We followed these slow people down 52 through loads of little community sales, none of these people wanted to stop, just slow down enough to look. Had we wanted a pumpkin though this was the place to get it.
We got gas near Rockford and asked for directions to Rockford. The store wasn’t too hard to find as we got pretty good directions from a local man. At Rockford we meet up with Mike S., his wife and another rider. They were also going to Cleveland next so we tagged along with them. This was a good thing as the church in Cleveland was a pain to find and we only had a little more than an hour from there to get back. We got directions from a woman who led us there by car. We needed to find the grave of some one who had served under Napoleon.
Cleveland was our last stop except for the beer we needed to pick up. Once back on I-40 we still had 48 minutes to make the 45-mile trip back to Morganton. We got back with about 7 minutes to spare and got our beer, a total of around 540 miles and around 7600 points, we picked up every bonus that I had wanted to get so I was happy. It turns out that we were 13th over all, which I thought was a really good placing. Over all we had a really good time and are very happy with our placing as it was our best by far.
