The Consolation Ride--July 8, 2017

All week long we watched the weather forecast for the Cloudland Canyon area for signs that the prediction for dawn-to-dusk thunder storms on Saturday would improve. It didn't. So the Friday before Saturday's ride out there, we decided to call in off and instead stick closer to home and manage around the afternoon storms called for here.

Thus the Consolation Ride (as in second place)

Our plan was to ride up to Dial in the early morning, assess the weather and if okay take the twisty sixty up to Suches and T.W.O and when there see the whereto next.

The ride up to Dial was enjoyable, as it usually is. We planned to take a rest stop at Van Zandt's Store, a remote, peaceful place where you could get a cup of coffee, sit on the porch on the rocker, and look over the fields and hills across the road. No more! When we arrived the parking area was filled with cars, trucks and raft carrying trailers. We shoe horned our bikes in to any available space and went inside: wall-to-wall folks waiting for breakfast or the restroom. Definitely not like it used to be. On the positive side the new owners may be able to keep the place open, Prior operators never seemed to last too long and the place was often locked up for extended periods.

Well the threatened thunderstorms never materialized. We had sunshine all day, and added a run over Wolf Pen Gap and down the Richard Russell to the route. Not a drop of rain fell on us.

Speaking of dropping, on the way home Bob's V-Strom,that has a family history of narcolepsy, succumbed to the heat and humidity and decided to lay down and rest under the Adair's Mill stop sign. Not unusual or a big deal, but it did manage to snap off the right peg. With a helping hand from the other riders (Dave, Mark, Garrett and Larry) a make-do peg was fashioned from a pillion peg and attached via bent wires and numerous zip ties. It did the trick and got us home.

While it was disappointing that we had to cancel the Cloudland Canyon ride the Consolation Ride turned out pretty good.