2010 END OF SUMMER RIDE-Mentone, Al

[fuzzyquilter]

Where is TN will you be stopping for lunch on Saturday? If Mike is back from MN, he went up there Sunday morning. And if I can either try to ride the scoot, or possibly ride on the back of his GW, Maybe we could meet you all for lunch. Would love seeing everyone.

[scout58]

Hello to all. Myself and my wife wouldn't mind coming down to join you guys on Saturday if thats not a problem. We live less than an hour away and could just head down That Morning.Also does anyone know if a Gas Station will be open in Mentone that morning so I could top off? I 've been through there many times and know its a pretty small place. This is my first post but I've been LURKING for a couple years.First with a Burgman 400 and now with a 650. Sure is alot easier to handle than the Goldwings I've had.They might be another Wing in the future,but I'm as happy as can be with the Burg.Went to Cherohala and the Dragon a couple weekends ago with a bunch of Harleys and Jap bikes. They constantly ask me to slow down . You don't realize how fast your going through the twistys because they handle so well.

There is also the MENTONE MARKET right in town about 1.5 blocks east of the flashing light at Hwy 117 & CR89. Nice folks and usually pretty good price on gas. Tell 'em Deb sent you.
They have sponsored the ride in the past.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!!!! Yoo Hooo!!!!

[roadstar522]

Thanks for the invites.I will be coming from the north through mentone.Hope to be able to make it.

[HO-DO]

We will be eating lunch in Sewanee on Saturday. I forget the name of the place,but we have stopped there a couple of times before. Probably arriving around 11:30. Hope you can make it.

[roadstar522]

I spoke to my wife again about the ride and it looks like we are in! Now just to clarify meet at 9:00am Central( I'm on EST). I might just come down and go threw jamestown,Al. from Menlo,GA. and then head west up onto the mountain.That way I bypass Mentone and come in from the south and Gas up then.Ironically we came threw Mentone this past Saturday on our way back from Collinsville Trade Day(flea market).

[HO-DO]

Glad you can make it. Yes, we meet at 9:00 am Central in the Desoto State Park Lodge's parking lot.

We will meet at Desoto State Park like the last four years. There will be a shorter Friday evening ride around ???? and the one long ride of 175ish miles Saturday, September 18th at 9:00am Central time. The ride will be the same as last year's rainy ride. Starts out with the traditional long ride to Sewanee, but then second half is totally different from the traditional ride. Only three scooters went on the long ride last year due to the rain, so most people have not done this new long route.

Friday's Ride (Sept. 17th): 4:30 pm. Meet at Desoto Lodge parking lot like usual at 4:00 pm Central Time.

There will be a dinner get-together Friday at 7:00pm Central Time at the Golden Rule BBQ:

Golden Rule Bar-B-Q and Grill
(256) 844-8484
Fort Payne
1114 Glenn Boulevard Southwest (AKA Highway 35 intersection with I-59)
Fort Payne, AL 35967

Saturday's Ride: Meeting at 9:00 am or earlier. Leaving at 9:30 from same Desoto Lodge parking lot. Have full tank of fuel. This ride will go through one larger town with traffic along the route. Approximately 175 miles long.

Saturday night?? We will see what everyone wants to do.

[suttondan1]

For Friday afternoon, a ride down to the Canyon Scenic Drive is still practicable. The NPS Ranger's office responded to me today regarding the improvements underway on the Scenic Drive. "As for highway 176, they are still working on the culvert and road work. It has been going on for more than a month and was expected to take aprox. 2 months. From HWY 35 you can go as far as Lynn Overlook. There is a detour from HWY 35 aprox 1 mile west of the river. You turn left onto 78, then left onto 255 and can access the southern end of 176 near wolf creek." The map indicates about 80% of the 11 mile drive is still open for traffic.

A map of the Canyon can be found at the National Park Service site:

http://home.nps.gov/pwr/customcf/apps/m ... 20Preserve

While I won't be able to join y'all for the Friday afternoon ride, as I did on my Helix a couple of years ago, I do hope to see many of you on Saturday.

Dan Sutton
Tuscaloosa, AL

[cheap0]

Will there be any time between the Friday ride and the dinner? 7PM is starting to get dark, and I don't like the idea of setting up a tent in the dark.

I'm trying to set up a couple of appointments in Huntsville along the way, so it might be tough to even make it there by 4PM. I might have to skip either the ride or the dinner. (Being a cheap0 I would prefer to skip the dinner.)

Is there anyone with room to share a tent site? I thought we might try to work things like that out when we arrive, but if Desoto is like Oak Mountain (near BHM), that would not be easy to do. Oak Mountain forces you to register at a site before you go in the gate. (They said we could go back and change it if we wanted to, but meh, who wants to mess with that?) I'd prefer to have electricity, but not willing to pay that $30+ by myself.

Do the people at the gate know that we're a group? I'm sure we won't have much problem finding one another, what with the bikes, but the gate people can probably help out.

[HO-DO]

There will be time between the Friday ride and dinner. It takes about 15-20 mintues to get from the Park to the Golden Rule. If the group leaves on time at 4:30, they should be back by 5:45ish?? So you would have from then until 6:40 if you wanted to make it to the restaurant by 7:00.

There is no manned gate at Desoto. You register at the little camp store. I know nothing about the tent camping rules/regulations. We camp in a converted cargo trailer. In the past we camped in an RV. Perhaps someone else familiar with the tent camping can help you.

Looks like we will have a nice group this year. It will be interesting to see how many show for this year's ride.

Ride safe, Del

[roadstar522]

Speaking of showing.Something completely slipped my mind and due to time restraints we will not be able to make it.I thought of making it a half day ride and heading back after lunch,but even at that i doubt I can make it.Hope everyone has a safe trip and I will plan to attend next year if it happens.

[roy_ryall]

In the past years, you had to have a key to unlock the gate to the primitive camp ground. They give you a key at the check in. After hours?????

[TechArtGuy]

I'll be leaving here between 6 or 7am so hard to say If I'll get camp setup in time to do the evening ride. But will make it to the golden rule for sure.

[HO-DO]

If my lawn mower is ready to be picked up from the repair shop, Holly and I will be pushing it to make it by 4:00, but we will try.
For you primitive campers, since it won't be raining, why worry about a tent? Just find a tree and sleep under it. I have asked the park to keep all the creepy-crawlies locked up for the weekend, so no worries!

[cheap0]

hehe, I expect the morning to be a bit chilly, so the tent won't hurt.

I'm leaving now, might check in from Huntsville noonish. Ride safe, everyone.

[fuzzyquilter]

If anyone is on here tonight down in Mentone, I need to know if the restaurant tomorrow is in Suwanee or Mont Eagle.

[cheap0]

If anyone is on here tonight down in Mentone, I need to know if the restaurant tomorrow is in Suwanee or Mont Eagle.

I am. I don't know the answer, but I recall Del at dinner saying "Shenanigans". Could it be this one?
http://shenaniganstn.com/

I hope to see you there!

[scout58]

That's the one...
Hey Cheapo,
Hope you got your tent all set up. See ya'll tomorrow!

[cheap0]

Thanks, I did, sort of. I only got 2 of 4 stakes in the ground and didn't bother with the rain flap. Now to leave the Lodge and go get in that tent! Looks like it will be dark and quiet up there in Primitiveland.

[fuzzyquilter]

Got it in my GPS, and hopefully I can make the ride down. If I go down 24, not any curves, and easy riding. That won't hurt my shoulder.

[A B Normal]

Had a nice meet up with the wild bunch down in Ft Payne and some good BBQ. It was great meeting y'all! Have a great ride tomorrow!

[fuzzyquilter]

Rode down to Sewanee and had lunch with everyone. It was great seeing you all, but the ride was a little much. Sitting with ice pack now. Ice pack is my shoulder's friend.

[scout58]

Rode down to Sewanee and had lunch with everyone. It was great seeing you all, but the ride was a little much. Sitting with ice pack now. Ice pack is my shoulder's friend.

It was great seeing you and Mike! You both look really good. Just think of today's ride as therapy. Tomorrow will be better!

[cheap0]

All packed up. I stopped by HO-DO's campsite and retrieved my jumpstarter, fully charged this time. Got the bike loaded real well this time. Getting a decent, if not real early, start.

It was a lot of fun, but also a little disappointing that I didn't get to meet more people from the forum, and that of many those I did meet and talk to, I didn't catch names and forum names.

This year's event was rather disjointed, unfortunately. The Friday crowd had little overlap with the Saturday group, and the Saturday AM group dwindled to a mere 6 at the Saturday dinner. I had hoped for a bigger social event. As it happened, the Friday dinner was the big event.

Thanks again to all who planned the event. See y'all next time.

[scout58]

Hey guys,

What happened Saturday? We came around a few curves and hills and the group was gone, never to be seen again. We were traveling 65-70 in 55 zones. Not knowing the route, we continued hoping to see a rider waiting at a turn...3 bikes left behind (that was a third of the group) and we ended up all the way back in to Flat Rock on Hwy 117 along the route where we started out in the morning. The four of us rode on back to Mentone and grabbed tea and dessert waiting for the lead to pull through town. Never saw anyone, so we all headed home.

Had a great time. Hope everyone has a safe trip and I'll see you next year (if not before).

Oh, please post your photos for everyone to enjoy. I will get mine downloaded in the next day or so and you can see them in my gallery.

[HO-DO]

Hello everyone,

We just got back home a little while ago. To those who got left behind, we turned onto state/county road 90 off of 73. I had no idea that there was anyone missing until we reached Trenton! As for speed, once we turned onto TN-377(AL-73), I never even reached the posted limit of 55 mph until we reached the top of the hill [after all the curves]. No where on the tip did I go faster than 60 mph, with the vast majority of the trip being at the posted speed limit. I am assuming you were going those speeds trying to catch up with us at the top of the curves on TN-377(AL-73). Unfortunately, the turn onto 90 comes pretty suddenly off of 73. Next time I will make sure to pull over somewhere before the 90 exit. Sorry about leaving you all. I did know that 73 runs into 117 after a while, so I was not afraid of you getting lost. Again, sorry to anyone that I left behind.

As for the EOS Ride in total, I feel it went really well. Thank goodness for dry weather (a little bit too warm perhaps). I agree with the previous posting about being a little bit disjointed. But it was expressed to me that people wanted to have the freedom to take off and do their own thing, so that is what happened. 19 bikes started the ride from the lodge Saturday and only 4 made it back!! (OK, 4 more turned into the campground right before completing the ride). So we ended up with 19 becoming 8 (plus the 3 I left behind), so 11 of 19 did the whole ride. This ride has always had people cutting off somewhere along the route. that is just the way it is, and I for one, don't want to change that.

We had 23 different bikes ride at some time during the two days and 3 more that met us for lunch at Sewanee. So basically the same numbers as last year.

For next year's EOS Ride, we are making two changes: Leaving at 9:15 am instead of 9:30 am, and Holly and I will serve a FREE PANCAKE BREAKFAST at our campsite. In addition, we would like suggestions about Friday's dinner and Saturday's dinner locations. I have no problem with Friday at the Golden Rule and Saturday at Ryan's, but I am open to other options. It would be great if someone new of a good, not expensive, mom/pop type place. So if you know of something, speak up!

Thanks to Deb/Scout for leading the ride Friday and first half of Saturday.

And again, I apologize to those I left behind. I'll have Holly spank me later.

Del