Well, for one of my shortest overnight rides, it was probably my favorite to date. I would be takin a Father Day's Ride 'n Camp putt with my 10-year-old son, Li'l John. We would ride over the Cherohala Skyway to Stecoah, NC, where we would pitch our tent for the weekend at the Ironhorse Motorcycle Campground and Lodge. Now, this wasn't any ole ordinary father 'n son overnighter...oh no...seein as how he's still a might young, it's not surprisin to tell that this would be Li'l John's first overnighter on the scoot...a right of passage, ya know.

We didn't have all that far to go, so we were gettin a rather leisurely start at 10:00 Saturday mornin. The plan was to take TN-360...the "back way"...to Tellico Plains, TN where we would pick up the Cherohala Skyway over to NC. Before we jumped on the Skyway for the putt over the mountain, we stopped at an outdoor outfitter's shop, and browsed thru an arts 'n crafts fair set up outside. Li'l John's such a ham!

Anyways, after clownin 'round a bit, and browsin the wares of the local artisans of Tellico Plains, we jump on the Cherohala Skyway for a leisurely and scenic ride over the mountains. Turned out to be a perfect day for our ride, and we enjoyed several stops at some beautiful pullouts. Along the way, we also met quite a few bicyclists headin the opposite direction over the Skyway. These are some real hardcore cyclists. They start out by pedalin the Dragon from TN into NC, and then back again over the Cherohala. Usually, when these bike rides are happenin, killboy.com will pull someone off the Dragon, and send 'em over to the Cherohala to get some pics of the cyclists.

As it turns out, 'bout halfway over the Skyway, we round a curve and there's one of killboy.com's photogs settin up in the ditch. He's still settin things up as we round the curve, but manages to quickly snap our pic.

After enjoyin an uneventful, but beautiful, ride over the Cherohala, we thread our way thru Robbinsville, NC...over to the Stecoah area...and set up camp at the Ironhorse Campground. 'Bout the time we got everything set up, it was lunch time so we set out to have lunch at a little diner just outside the turnoff to the Ironhorse. Can't remember the name of the place, but they had some pretty good grub...and according to Li'l John...the best apple pie ever! Well, 'cept for Nana's, of course. Gotta put that one in...just in case, on the off chance, Nana happens to read some of this stuff some day. We also met a fellow from Canada that had ridden all the way down to Atlanta to attend a conference...on a Victory tourer. Of course, once the conference was over, true to biker fashion, this fellow was takin the long way back to the house. Now, that's the way to attend work conferences, aye?!

After lunch, we head up to Cherokee for a look-see, and to let Li'l John pick him up a piece of tourist memorabilia. Can't say how proud of him I am...'cause when I told him to pick him out something good 'cause I was ready to spend some money...ya know to make the weekend special...he up 'n buys a gift for his mother, and a coontail for our bud, Cuz, to tie on the back of his scoot. With a little proddin, he did finally pick up a second coontail for himself to tie on his bicycle...but that was it. How many ten-year-olds do ya know like that? Despite my fumblin efforts at raisin him properly...he's turnin out to be some kinda son indeed.

In short order, we get sick of the touristy stuff in Cherokee, and head back to the Ironhorse. We had plans of hittin the game room for a game of pool, but much to our dismay, there was some kinda group of extreme motorcycle tourers havin some kinda getogether there...and had the entire club house reserved. As luck would have it, we had pitched our tent right next to one of these fellows who also had his son along for the ride. Li'l John and this kid ended up runnin the creek thru the campground...musta been a gazillion times.

Although, the group of tourers had taken over the club house, they turned out to be a fun lot. We sat 'round the campfire with 'em...which is my favorite way to end a day of ridin...had a couple beers with 'em...me, not my son hehe...and they invited us to their presentations in the clubhouse. Now, ya talk 'bout yer extreme tourers...we watched these presentations as several riders showed some fantastic pics on the overhead, and spoke on their ridin adventures in places like South America, Africa, etc. We listened with amazement as one couple spoke of their experience ridin in South Africa...and how they barely escaped armed rebels by greasin their palms with a few greenbacks. It all sounds excitin...and I'm happy for 'em 'cause they seemed to enjoy their brushes with death...actually, she seemed downright giggly over it...but I guess I just have a li'l different definition of fun, eh. Don't think you'll be seein/hearin of me ridin thru the jungles of South America any time soon...'sides, would never be able to lift my Harley over the downed trees like we heard described this night. Ya wanna hear something funny tho...even the non-Beemers in this group shunned the BMW riders and referred to them as snobs. I guess it's just universal, aye? hehheh

Anyways, we had a pretty fun eve, and a pretty good nights sleep after all that activity. Of course, we rose before the crack of dawn, as I am so prone to do on these rides...and jumped in the showers before the masses even started to stir. I guess even extreme tourers need their beauty sleep. After showerin, packin up, and munchin down our breakfast at the Ironhorse, we headed out for our ride back across the Cherohala. It was a bit cooler this mornin so we had to leather up a bit at first. We had 'nuther nice 'n scenic ride over the mountain, and ended up back at the house 'round lunch time. All in all, it was a great weekend's ride with my favorite ridin bud...my son.