To Hwy 85 with the Tennessee Riders

Total miles: 328
Weather: High 70's F.
Route: approximate
Click the map to go to an interactive version.

The Tennessee Riders have been meeting every Sunday for years. They are skilled riders with many many miles on their tires--riding with them stretches me and I learn crucial lessons each time. You can join them on a ride, just don't show up in shorts and a t-shirt: this is an ATGATT crowd.

Meeting at McDonalds on Sunday at 8 a.m.

Bikes: 2 Suzuki SV650's, 3 Yamaha FJR's, 1 Yamaha FZ1, 1 Suzuki DL1000 V-Strom, and 1 Honda ST1100

Cato Coati gets some love
This gentleman no longer rides a bike, but follows the group in his Mustang.
Phyllis: pillion rider extraordinaire.
Riding the green road...

Stopping to rest at a beautiful spot: Granville Veteran's Park

To missing heroes


Playground for the kids...

This is some of what we came for: lots of twists and turns on TN-85/TN-52 between Livingston and Jamestown TN. I'm a new street rider, so this was a challenging road for me. I've made a lot of progress, but I still have tons of work to do to confidently speed up my cornering. Here's a little video from my helmet cam.

I split off from the group on the way home and stopped by Dale Hollow Dam and Lake - posted separately.

Obey River / Dale Hollow Dam and Lake

A quick visit to Dale Hollow Dam and Lake and the Obey River, here:

Peace

Dam
Buggyin' the dam
The Obey River

Simply serene

Shadows and reflections
The mad helmet cam man
Cato

Easter Sunday on the Fly

I took a short ride on Easter Sunday. I hung my camera on a lanyard around my neck and tried shooting photos one handed, on the fly--not the best way to do it. Here are a few semi-usable ones out of the 146 I took.

Countryside:




Fellow travelers:

2-up

the motorcycle wave

BMW F 800 GS (yes, I'd like to steal this bike...)

Easter Sunday:

Spreading Easter eggs

Harley to church

The quiet ones

Riding:



Cato Coati, my riding companion.

Back Roads with Jeff

It was a beautiful, sunny spring day. We took the liners out of our jackets and headed south to play around on back roads between Franklin and Columbia, TN. I wanted to show Jeff the fun to be had on Old Natchez Trace which winds around the new Natchez Trace parkway for a few miles. Lots of twisty curves and beautiful scenery.

I used my action cam with a helmet mount, and cobbled together some road video. Our improvised route led us to Williamsport Fishing Lakes, where the video ends.

Left or right? We purposely got ourselves a bit lost. We had a little "where in the world are we" powwow at this intersection.

At one of these many "right or left?" decisions, Jeff chose right... I led the charge, and to my delight the road turned to dirt right around the corner. But... I didn't get too far before Jeff honked and flagged me down. For some reason he didn't want to ride his cruiser in the mud. Go figure.

Darn... Jeff ruins it just when my boots are getting in the mood.

We pulled in to find out what the Williamsport Fishing Lakes are. Jeff was practicing his "scary biker" look.

"You should have seen the one I caught back in 1989..."

We decided to follow the sign and view the wildlife.


Wildlife? I wish, but my life is pretty mundane.

Wildlife was here. Was here.

WHERE IS THE WILDLIFE?!

Trees are alive. This one's kind of wild. Wildlife, right guys? Right guys? Right?

OOOOHHH... I get it. The wildlife is a caterpillar.

Pretty lakes. Lousy wildlife. Time to go find lunch.

But first a scenic stop on the Trace.

Cool panorama thingy. If you want you can see the wide image here. The view is much better than the picture suggests. The camera wanted to focus on that darned power tower.

Dynamic Duo

Terrific Trio??

And finally lunch, cheap lunch.

We made a beeline for home to try to get ahead of predicted violent thunderstorms, so there was no more time for picture stops. But by the time we got near home it was obvious that the storms wouldn't hit for a few more hours. Not ready to get out of the saddle yet, I followed Jeff to his workplace. Jeff is groundskeeper and general keep-things-working man at The Castle Recording Studios. He graciously let me take a few pictures.










Another day well spent.