2018-06-09 Birthday Ride For Pie TN Dirt Devil

[Fencejumper09]

A dual sport ride scheduled on my birthday? Hey wife, I know what you can get me this year!!!!

My overnight dual sport trips have been scaled back this year with a big trip planned in July and a 15 month old. With this ride scheduled on my birthday, I was really hoping to smooth talk my way into a kitchen pass by relinquishing the need for a gift. With all the correct forms filled out and signed in blood, I was granted nearly 3 days of amnesty with camping, low cell service, and of course wheelies!

This is my point of view of the events that took place on June 9th 2018 at

THE RIDE FOR PIE #13 - TN DIRT DEVIL

[Fencejumper09]

@Nice Goat and @kdtrull have been wanting to do a ride along the Dirt Devil for a while now. When they settled on a date and ironed out the details, I would have been crazy to miss this ride!

My plans were to ride up from Birmingham to Meriwether Lewis Campground Friday with an early departure time. After talking to @Mike Hudson about his crazy travel schedule, it was decided to start a little later. The route would be nice backgrounds with a taste of gravel through NATRA and some nice twisties in Bankhead.



@2372ighost and @Bniblett were going to join Mike and I at the Walmart in Sumiton for a leisurely ride up to Chef Troy's Talk of the Town for a nice lunch stop! Mike didn't arrive at Bham Intl until 8am but he still made it to his rendezvous point with Bill ahead of schedule. (No judgement Bill)

FYI - The Walmart is a terrible meet-up point as the shade was about 3 foot by 15 foot! (But Pall Malls were on special!)



After some quick introductions and ride briefing we were off to our lunch stop. I quickly realized that I had not updated my GPS settings so my zoom level was way too tight and my turn-by-turn directions were not turned on. After a couple brake checks and tight turns, Bill took the lead to keep Rich from wanting to kill me!

We made it Chef Troy's without anymore issues and I quickly updated my settings for the second leg of our trip. In the picture, you can see Mike adjusting his lowering back cooling mechanism to reduce flow!



Lunch was so good and I forgot to take pictures but Bill is now a connoisseur of Gazpacho (Minus the Almonds) and I got my first piece of pie of the trip!

[Fencejumper09]

After lunch, we hit the road through Bankhead and I may have stretched the "Speed Limit +/-10" description of this ride!

Hwys 63 and 33 are too much fun for the speed limit! It was a nice spirited ride to Moulton where we stopped to fill up with gas and grab a drink!

After Moulton we droned along to the Wheeler Dam but decided we would rather have wind on our faces than to stop and take the Dam Tour!



AL 101 to TN 227 was fairly uneventful aside from the "Cool Bus"



We then passed a convoy of, I think, 5 combines and the associated 15 mph speed limit!!

After Loretto, we turned onto some gravel through NATRA and continued onto the Natchez Trace to our destination for the weekend!

Meriweather Lewis Campground had no idea what it was about to be a part of!







Tall Tales!!

[Fencejumper09]

With the usual suspects rounded up, the shenanigans began around the picnic table! After some freeze dried meals, @kylepeterson grilled up some tasty looking chicken offering up tastes to the crowd! It was a great night of chatting with a few cold beers and some folks I don't get to see often enough!





And it is always such a pleasure spending time with my camp mama! She is always such a bright shining ball of fun at these MC-AL events! Love you mama Melony!


After a few too many beers the following morning needed a little jump start!



@Mike Hudson is a ball of sunshine no mater the time!



@kylepeterson had a nice EDM wake-up call and has decided to change his alarm clock at his house!



NSFW

@TFancher brings the titillating conversations to the breakfast table



@Al Goodwin was entertaining @2372ighost and @terryrussell1



@kylepeterson getting all gussied up for us



I guess we should ride a little too!!

[Fencejumper09]

A quick rundown of the crew! (Correct me if I get the wrong names)

Our leader @kdtrull


UNKNOWN KLR RIDER


@BamaPhill


@TFancher  @2372ighost  @Mike Hudson @Bniblett (*Guy on KTM 990) @Jwwr


@kylepeterson


@TWJohn


@Johnny Tobyone   @Al Goodwin @MelGoodwin


@Mulley


@Moto Guzzi


Can't Remember the last two members in this photo!
@terryrussell1   and??


The Sweeper @Nice Goat

[Fencejumper09]

Kenneth proceeded to lead us on a route that was superbly delightful! Little bit of pavement to get to the good stuff but it was totally worth it!

Jumping off point in Hohenwald! There is a moto shop across the street that has, at least, an air compressor.



In no time we were up to our ankles in creek crossings and slip sliding around on loose grave!





Some dusty red dirt roads with scenic views!



@Moto Guzzi getting his splash on! It is always funny to see how different riders handle water crossings. You have the cautious slow steady riders and then you have the jump in feet first and enjoy the cooling effect of the splash riders!



Waiting for the slowpokes to catch up haha!



I was impressed with the route and the amount of planning it must have taken! Ken kept it interesting by throwing in a couple intentional U-turns!



@Bniblett made the slick bottom crossings look easy even on the big Africa Twin. That bike is sweet and is definitely in the running if I ever decide to make a change to my stable!



@Mulley trying his hardest to keep the front wheel down on the new to him KTM 500



When you are following a route that takes you into a creek and you can't see an exit from said creek you start to wonder if you have made a wrong turn!



@kylepeterson enjoyed a couple of the pavement sections on his SUMO!



There were some deep gravel sections that I can't even imagine how he got through them on those street tires!

[Fencejumper09]

We made it to our first scenic stop of the ride! It was a great little waterfall with a nice swimming hole at the bottom!



@Mulley played in the water a bit trying to wash off some of the dust!



@Nice Goat got a nice shot of me and the beast on top of the falls! It was a little slick up there!



After some refreshments we continued on, at the next water crossing we had a slight misdirection and footing was nowhere to be found! The bike went down on it's exhaust side filling the pipe and carb with water! After about an hour of fiddling, carb draining, cylinder drying and forehead cutting the mighty DR came back to life inflicting only one injury. @Nice Goat I hope your forehead heals up and you come up with a better story to go along with that scar!

[Fencejumper09]

An executive decision was made that it was time to head to the lunch stop! The Beacon Light Tea Room is a solid lunch stop you just may need a nap afterwards.





They bring mini biscuits to the table! Trust me when I say wait for the jelly and preserves before you dive in!



Do we "need" an order of fried pickles? I mean we don't not need them!



Cool guy @Nice Goat showing off his new style!



The helpings are huge and it doesn't help that you fill up on biscuits before you even get your drink! Speaking of drinks, on a hot summer day while bouncing along a rough gravel road on a beat up DRZ with street tires, nothing hits the spot like a tall glass of ice cold whole milk!! Yummy @kylepeterson !

[Fencejumper09]

We slowly waddle out of the restaurant and reluctantly saddle up our steeds to continue the ride! I roll maybe 10 feet before I feel that oh so common feeling of your rimlock bouncing off the pavement! Yippee, just what I wanted to be doing at the hottest time of the day with a belly full of fried pickles and biscuits, FLAT TIRE! I proceed to sweat out every drop of sweet tea I had just consumed and when that runs out I think I got just a smidge of heat stroke! No Biggie!



A nice guy drove by and offered help but I had all the tools I needed. He saw me pull out my bike pump that is about the size of a No. 2 pencil and he grabs a full size bike pump out of the truck and said it might work better! I owe that man a case of beer!

After stuffing my spare 21 inch tube into my 18 inch rear tire we headed off to fill up with gas and Gatorade! We worked our way back to the good gravel and @kylepeterson grabbed this photo of me at a nice shady spot on some fresh gravel!

[Fencejumper09]

Glenn led us down a great gravel road with a bunch of creek crossings. After passing a couple swimming holes full of jeeps we all started thinking about how nice it might be to take a dip!





We headed on to a nice swimming hole and by the time we got there we didn't care that is was full of locals and had a slightly unappetizing scent to it. I was so excited when we got there that I didn't take a single picture (probably for the better) Kyle jumped right in with full gear! It was a great spot and the locals entertained us as much as we did them!

After cooling off, most of the group decided to follow Glen to the Natchez Trace and work our way back to camp! It really was a great day of gravel and I really want to go back and try to do the whole loop!

Beautiful Countryside!

[Fencejumper09]

After arriving at the campsite, Kyle and I headed to the overlook for some snazzy HDR photos!









Saturday night we drank a little more than the previous night and had some interesting conversations! We solved many of the world's problems and summarized that the MIA woman in the site next to us was involved in some sort of drug/prostitution scandal! We listened to a huge array of music and leaned a lot about Pterodactyls!

The ride home Sunday was mainly uneventful. The highlight was another stop at Chef Troy's and my birthday slice of Mexican Cheesecake! Thank you @MelGoodwin The group stuck together until Warrior where I jumped on I-65 to head south. Not thinking about the 21" tube in the rear tire I cruise down the highway at +/-80 just to have my rear start squirming around 2 miles from my exit. Sure enough I get another flat! With zero fucks left to give, I head to the shoulder and wobble the 4 miles left to my house at about 10 mph! Safe and sound!

This was definitely a fantastic ride with great people! I really enjoy meeting so many great people thanks to this forum.

Here is a little video from the ride! Hope to meet many more of you all at the next ride!

[norton73]

Great write up, pictures, and video!
Thanks for taking the time to do it and making me extremely jealous that I missed it.


On the plus side, I missed it because of work, and I just wasted an hour plus at work reading this on the clock.
;D

[Fencejumper09]

Glad to provide the distraction!!  8)

[Chitza]

Fantastic write up, David. Glad you're Birthday was dirty.

[terryrussell1]

Fantastic write up!  Didn't even realize you took so many pics. Great job.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk