SUPER SUNDAY SUPER BOWL SUSPENSE RIDE
Sunday February 3, 2019
I left my house in Hardin Valley around 9:00 AM headed for our starting point at the Beaver’s Dough Joe in Karns. I was running late because I was digging thru my closet and trying on different jackets. Something had caused one of my favorite wintertime jackets to shrink. It was fine when I hung it up last winter, but now I could not stick my neck out far enough to see the zipper tongue to insert it into the little box to start the zipper. Apparently, my neck had gotten shorter as well. Anyway, after holding my breath and getting a neck cramp from sticking my neck out too far, I was zipped up and ready to go. I rolled out of my driveway in Hardin Valley with the snowflake and low fuel indicator lamps illuminated. Now I had to stop for gas. A good Ride Leader would have taken care of all this on Saturday.
When finally arriving at the Dough Joe, I was pleased that there were already a number of bikes parked out front. Even our Club Pres Chris Marshall had braved the cold to come out and ride along. Tom McDermott brought his wife, Sandy, for the only 2 up pair on the ride. Steve Martin, not the REAL Steve Martin, but our own wild & crazy guy, brought his friend, Jim Hurst, along on his Tiger 800. I stood in line and ordered my cinnamon roll and water, and overheard Holky tell the girl behind the counter that he wanted a “brown beaver”. Her facial expression was one of confusion, mixed with empathy for the elderly, but she never broke stride and reached into the case and pulled out a large “beaver tail” ( this is what they call the huge apple fritters at Beaver’s Dough Joe ). I think Holky just got a little confused or his mind was on something other than pastries.
When I started counting heads, there were 17 of us sitting around sipping and chewing. Most were eating cinnamon rolls or beaver tails the size of deflated basketballs. Once the tongues grew tired, bladders filled, and blood sugar levels spiked, everyone filtered outside for the Riders’ meeting. I made sure that everyone had signed in on my sign-up sheet that provided me with names, type of bike ridden for the day, emergency contact information, next of kin, and cremation/burial preference. I was asked if there were any gravel roads or water crossings on today’s ride. I responded “no”, but really had no clue since about a fourth of the roads to be traveled today I had never explored. I gave the same old speech telling people to keep the rider behind them in their mirrors, make sure the rider behind you sees you turn by watching for their turn signal, yada, yada, yada. I spilled the beans on our ride destination since I had no clue where I would be taking this group when I set up the ride. Today’s destination would be Athens, TN. Sounds simple. After all, Athens is only about 40 minutes away. I’ll come back to that. Since it was Super Bowl Sunday, I didn’t want to keep the group out too long because I knew some people were anxious to get back in plenty of time to watch their favorite anthem kneeling, disrespectful, overpaid, spoiled, self-centered millionaires play a game that has no impact on anything except their egos and wallets. OOPS! Sorry, that just slipped out.
Once the Riders’ meeting was over and Jim Linneman had gotten dressed, undressed, and dressed again ( this time with his earplugs in place ), we were ready to roll out down the highway. Our steel horse convoy ( probably more plastic, actually ) rolled out of Karns with all BMWs except (1) Triumph and (1) Kawasaki Ninja. We went back roads and driveways out of Knox County into Anderson County and into Lenoir City in Loudon County. It was in Lenoir City where we had our one and only hiccup of the day. We encountered a traffic light that only stayed green the same amount of time it takes Jim Wishart to comb his hair. I believe it took 4 light sequences to get our 16 bikes thru the intersection. Some even ran the red light. Ironically, this was the same light that got ¾ of my group separated a few years back on a Chattanooga Ride. This time, I knew to hold up and wait on the other side. After about ten minutes, I had all the cats herded back together and off we went. We rode out of Loudon County and into Monroe County. We saw some beautiful farmland and rode some nice twisties. Some would later speak of seeing beautiful walking horses along the route. I missed them because I was spending too much time looking in the mirrors at my convoy. We crossed into McMinn County where we continued to take multiple back roads to reach our lunch destination. We arrived around 11:50 at Michael’s Casual Dining on Hwy. 11 in Athens. Our 40 minute ride to Athens would only take 1 hour and 45 minutes, without encountering any traffic.
I had contacted the restaurant the day before and tried to make a reservation for my best guess as to how many would be having lunch. I was told they did not take reservations, and often had a decent church crowd, so I anticipated a wait with 17 people. There must be more Southern Baptists than Methodists or Presbyterians in Athens, because at 11:50, we were able to walk in and not have a wait at all. They even put us in a private room. Gene Forbes and his friend, RC, skipped breaking bread with the rest of the group and headed off on their own, leaving me with a total of 15 dine-in riders. The menu had pretty much everything from steaks to salads to sandwiches. I even saw people eating meatloaf, fish, and fried chicken. Since I was leading a CLUB ride, I thought it appropriate to have a CLUB sandwich. We had a good waiter that took care of the entire group, and we were out of there in a little over an hour. When we left, there was a large crowd waiting to be seated. Food was very good, so Michael’s Casual Dining in Athens gets an ROK Seal of Approval.
We waddled back out to our machines and started putting on all our gear. Zipping up our jackets took just a little more effort. A few other riders of the group decided they were going to head straight back and ride their own ride, so they said their good-byes and scattered like Democrats running from a Job Fair ( I hope Clark is not reading this ). When leaving the restaurant, I had 8 bikes in my mirrors. We headed up Hwy. 307 out of Athens, up Sands Rd., onto Reed Springs Rd., and into Philadelphia, TN. We grabbed a few more back roads that brought us back into Hwy 72 and took a quick interstate run across the river and right back off onto Sugarlimb Rd. We ended our ride at the Weigel’s in Lenoir City near the intersection of 70 and 321. There were only 5 machines behind me when we pulled into the Weigel’s parking lot. The others had peeled off and headed toward home. We arrived at the Weigel’s around 2:30 without hitting any gravel roads or water crossings, and encountering absolutely NO traffic all day long. There is something to be said for the road less traveled. Google Earth had not let me down this time. We chewed the fat and rehashed the roads, scenery, lunch, and beaver tails that we had encountered on our Super Sunday Ride. It was a good day. We rolled out, each headed toward home, about 3:15. As promised, I had gotten everyone back in plenty of time for their big game preparation. As far as I know, everyone got back home safely to tell another tale….Beaver Tail, that is.
Ron Donahue
When finally arriving at the Dough Joe, I was pleased that there were already a number of bikes parked out front. Even our Club Pres Chris Marshall had braved the cold to come out and ride along. Tom McDermott brought his wife, Sandy, for the only 2 up pair on the ride. Steve Martin, not the REAL Steve Martin, but our own wild & crazy guy, brought his friend, Jim Hurst, along on his Tiger 800. I stood in line and ordered my cinnamon roll and water, and overheard Holky tell the girl behind the counter that he wanted a “brown beaver”. Her facial expression was one of confusion, mixed with empathy for the elderly, but she never broke stride and reached into the case and pulled out a large “beaver tail” ( this is what they call the huge apple fritters at Beaver’s Dough Joe ). I think Holky just got a little confused or his mind was on something other than pastries.
When I started counting heads, there were 17 of us sitting around sipping and chewing. Most were eating cinnamon rolls or beaver tails the size of deflated basketballs. Once the tongues grew tired, bladders filled, and blood sugar levels spiked, everyone filtered outside for the Riders’ meeting. I made sure that everyone had signed in on my sign-up sheet that provided me with names, type of bike ridden for the day, emergency contact information, next of kin, and cremation/burial preference. I was asked if there were any gravel roads or water crossings on today’s ride. I responded “no”, but really had no clue since about a fourth of the roads to be traveled today I had never explored. I gave the same old speech telling people to keep the rider behind them in their mirrors, make sure the rider behind you sees you turn by watching for their turn signal, yada, yada, yada. I spilled the beans on our ride destination since I had no clue where I would be taking this group when I set up the ride. Today’s destination would be Athens, TN. Sounds simple. After all, Athens is only about 40 minutes away. I’ll come back to that. Since it was Super Bowl Sunday, I didn’t want to keep the group out too long because I knew some people were anxious to get back in plenty of time to watch their favorite anthem kneeling, disrespectful, overpaid, spoiled, self-centered millionaires play a game that has no impact on anything except their egos and wallets. OOPS! Sorry, that just slipped out.
Once the Riders’ meeting was over and Jim Linneman had gotten dressed, undressed, and dressed again ( this time with his earplugs in place ), we were ready to roll out down the highway. Our steel horse convoy ( probably more plastic, actually ) rolled out of Karns with all BMWs except (1) Triumph and (1) Kawasaki Ninja. We went back roads and driveways out of Knox County into Anderson County and into Lenoir City in Loudon County. It was in Lenoir City where we had our one and only hiccup of the day. We encountered a traffic light that only stayed green the same amount of time it takes Jim Wishart to comb his hair. I believe it took 4 light sequences to get our 16 bikes thru the intersection. Some even ran the red light. Ironically, this was the same light that got ¾ of my group separated a few years back on a Chattanooga Ride. This time, I knew to hold up and wait on the other side. After about ten minutes, I had all the cats herded back together and off we went. We rode out of Loudon County and into Monroe County. We saw some beautiful farmland and rode some nice twisties. Some would later speak of seeing beautiful walking horses along the route. I missed them because I was spending too much time looking in the mirrors at my convoy. We crossed into McMinn County where we continued to take multiple back roads to reach our lunch destination. We arrived around 11:50 at Michael’s Casual Dining on Hwy. 11 in Athens. Our 40 minute ride to Athens would only take 1 hour and 45 minutes, without encountering any traffic.
I had contacted the restaurant the day before and tried to make a reservation for my best guess as to how many would be having lunch. I was told they did not take reservations, and often had a decent church crowd, so I anticipated a wait with 17 people. There must be more Southern Baptists than Methodists or Presbyterians in Athens, because at 11:50, we were able to walk in and not have a wait at all. They even put us in a private room. Gene Forbes and his friend, RC, skipped breaking bread with the rest of the group and headed off on their own, leaving me with a total of 15 dine-in riders. The menu had pretty much everything from steaks to salads to sandwiches. I even saw people eating meatloaf, fish, and fried chicken. Since I was leading a CLUB ride, I thought it appropriate to have a CLUB sandwich. We had a good waiter that took care of the entire group, and we were out of there in a little over an hour. When we left, there was a large crowd waiting to be seated. Food was very good, so Michael’s Casual Dining in Athens gets an ROK Seal of Approval.
We waddled back out to our machines and started putting on all our gear. Zipping up our jackets took just a little more effort. A few other riders of the group decided they were going to head straight back and ride their own ride, so they said their good-byes and scattered like Democrats running from a Job Fair ( I hope Clark is not reading this ). When leaving the restaurant, I had 8 bikes in my mirrors. We headed up Hwy. 307 out of Athens, up Sands Rd., onto Reed Springs Rd., and into Philadelphia, TN. We grabbed a few more back roads that brought us back into Hwy 72 and took a quick interstate run across the river and right back off onto Sugarlimb Rd. We ended our ride at the Weigel’s in Lenoir City near the intersection of 70 and 321. There were only 5 machines behind me when we pulled into the Weigel’s parking lot. The others had peeled off and headed toward home. We arrived at the Weigel’s around 2:30 without hitting any gravel roads or water crossings, and encountering absolutely NO traffic all day long. There is something to be said for the road less traveled. Google Earth had not let me down this time. We chewed the fat and rehashed the roads, scenery, lunch, and beaver tails that we had encountered on our Super Sunday Ride. It was a good day. We rolled out, each headed toward home, about 3:15. As promised, I had gotten everyone back in plenty of time for their big game preparation. As far as I know, everyone got back home safely to tell another tale….Beaver Tail, that is.
Ron Donahue
Our Start Point
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Chewin & Sippin
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Holky waiting to order his "Beaver Tail"
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Starter Kit for Diabetes Type 2
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Cinnamon Roll and a Beaver's Tail. Those are on full size plates!
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Pre-flight checks and gatherings of the minds
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Getting ready
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Lots of bikes to admire!
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Great turnout for the first ride
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Lunch arrival at Michael's Casual Dinning
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Ordering and anxiously waiting on more food
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