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06 Apr 2008, 6:26 pm / Happy
Our good friend, Mongo, brought his bike to Atlanta, arriving on Saturday night, driving through torrential rains. The weatherman had promised a beautiful day on Sunday, so we all planned on meeting up to ride in the Georgia mountains and take Mongo to Helen, as he has never been there before. Saturday night we went out for some wings and brews at the local bar - Topps - and planned our trip for the next day. Weather was still promising blue skies, 76 degrees, gorgeous day. We planned on meeting Mongo at his hotel at 9:30am. Well...we woke up to gray, foggy skies, temp somewhere in the 40s, but the local weatherman, Brad Nitz, still promising blue skies and gorgeous weather once the fog burned off. So, we suited up and got ready - HDSlim met us at our house at 9am and off we went to the hotel to meet up with Mongo. Karen had arrived to ride with Mongo and we headed up 285 to 400 to meet up with the rest of the east side crew - Lovechrome, Kayak, SidewaysKen, and Claude. Now the weather was still looking pretty iffy, but ever hopeful, we started our way up toward Two Wheels Only. As we started up the road, the fog started lifting, and we could see the mountains in the distance, and then - there it was - blue sky!! Our plan was to ride up to Two Wheels Only - and head out Hwy 180, which was full of nice twisties, and from there work our way over to Helen. Two Wheels Only is always a great place to stop and hang for a bit - beautiful scenery, lots of bikes, and lots of bikers - and the road to get to it has lots of turns and twists and is a beautiful ride without even going further - but our plan was to continue on so we hung there for a bit before riding the twisty turny road out of Suches into Helen. The ride was breathtaking - one "S" curve after another, a few switchbacks, more "S" curves, with the mountain range in view the whole ride. We reached the summit and pulled off to take in the view. The mountains, blue and majestic, in the distance - a rock face behind us, and a drop off in front of us. Karen and I did a little mountain top dancing, cuz sometimes, you just have to dance. Then we started to get back on the bikes to head into Helen, when Lovechrome's chinstrap broke on her helmet. Oh NO. What to do now??? Luckily for Chrome - she was riding with a bunch of rednecks...and in true redneck form....utilizing the finest in redneck technology....DC produced a bungee cord, and the guys bungeed her helmet to her face so that she could make it into Helen and get a new helmet there. (yes we have pics to prove it ). No problems now - we headed on into Helen as we were thirsty and ready for some lunch. The local hotspot in Helen for bikers is a place called Hans. They cater to bikers, and there is a large outside porch/deck where bikers congregate all year round for some brews, some tunes, and some good food. Sideways Ken disappeared to go get a helmet - the helmet is for his son - but he let Chrome use it for the ride home. He also purchased a purple "Mohawk" for the top of it (yes we have pics of that, too ). We had a few brews, and enjoyed the camaraderie and all the sites of Helen. It was full of bikers and all kinds of bikes amid the Alpine village - along with horse drawn carriages, and people walking up and down the streets. We visited one of the local bike shops and walked around a bit before getting back on the bikes to start the trek back home. The east side crew led the way and we rode down to Cleveland, where we split off to head back to our end of town. Our plan was to head back to 400 and go South, pretty much the same way we came up, except DC decided to make a few extra turns, and we sorta zig zagged our way to 400. I was convinced we were going in circles, but he was confident that he knew where he was going (he didn't but that was okay, as it was a beautiful ride anyway) - and we eventually ended up on 400, after riding through some very beautiful areas. Mongo commented that he wants DC to write down the route exactly how we went cuz he wants to do that again LMAO. So...we finally arrived back at the hotel - about 250 miles later - and Karen headed back home and we said our goodbyes to Mongo, with the promise of getting together again during the week - and headed back home to rescue our dog, Buddy, and relax after a stupendous day of riding with our good buds. Just doesn't get any better than that! Check out the pics on my page to see our ride. Happy Trails everyone - hope you had a great weekend!! Hugs, Lanie
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