Shovelhead Mountain Retreat

One of my favorite lines in a song is by Van Morrison........"And it stoned me to my soul".
The weekend in the mountains, the ride up with Dennis, Dave, and Jeffro, the ride thru the mountains handlebar to handlebar with John and Billy, laughing, telling lie's, seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and sharing the love of life and brotherhood, it was a weekend that will have a special place in my life......".And it stoned me to my soul"
　
Beer on ice, chilli cooked, all I had left was a few hours of work to do Thursday and everybody should be rolling in to my place to crash for the night befor our run to the mountains. Jeffro was the first to arrive, at my work. No problem, but man I couldn't wait to get outa there and hit the road. Then Dennis and Dave rolled in, also at my work. The couple of hours I had left at work was really dragging on now. I knew we had beer on ice at the house and the party was on as soon as we hit my place. Quiting time came and my shirttail didn't touch my ass till I hit my basement door, thats was where the beer on ice was.
After a cold beer we were pulling the bikes in the basement (my shop) to make final preps for the next morning, that's when we see Dennis' bike leaving a trail of oil. He had blown an oil pump gasket, shit. Quick, what time is it? The only thing open for the next 25 minutes was the Stealership, I guess I'll be the one to make a visit. Make a call and the guy says sure we got one, so me and trusting sidekick Kimbosobi (Jeffro) set out that way. Back in a few with gasket in hand and a few beers later and VROOOM!!!! tater tater tater, sorry I meant potato potato potato, and we all good again. So now that all is good and the bikes are loaded with our packs it's time for "us" to get loaded. Up stairs to the kitchen table for some beer and chilli. I had cooked the chilli the night befor, so it needed to be heated up, Jeffro decides he'll do the honors. While Jeffro is standing at the stove we all partaked in cold beers and some of natures finest herb, I had some of the shit that killed Elvis. Well while we were bullshitin' about.... things you bullshit about, we look up and, well the best way to describe what we saw is to just picture the Shovelfest shirt with the skull with the flames around it, thats what we saw. Jeffro had somehow moved a stack of napkins to close to the stove eye and set them on fire. Now I might be fertilizing a little here but I swear I saw flames lickin' up around Jeffros' bald head. Funny as shit. Were laughing and Jeffro just turns around and looks at the fire and like...oh well, and puts it out. I swear, that Uncle Fester looking fucker.......one day.
Now the phone rings and it's Kinley, he's right down the road so I talk him on in to my place. Now really, how tempting would it be for you........to run that fucker past the house a couple of times and just sit on the porch drinking beer watching him go by? Just fuckin' with ya Fucker. So Kinley joins the beer drinking and chilli eating, I take this time to go in the living room to set up some sleeping quarters. I'm walking thru the weight room and I get to thinking......damn, my house smells like dogshit. I cleaned just last month (yesterday). KINLEY!!!! your fucking dog just took a shit in my livingroom!!! Kinley came in there with chilli bowl in one hand and scooping dog shit with the other. Ok, so he might not have had the chilli in his hand. ( funny tho, thats how I saw it in my mind).
Couch folded out, cot thrown, air matresse aired up, now to show that damn trian what real noise is like, let the snoring begin. I think I heard my glasses in the cabinets rattling that night. Snore...fart...giggle,....snore....fart....fart again. I'm glad I was in the other room. But I was also glad to have my fartin' snorin' drunkass buddies in my house waiting to make a run the next day. Have I said Life is Good?
Friday morn. Nothing like a little SteppenWolfs Magic Carpet Ride to get the day started. Yeah I cranked up a little music. Surprisingly everyone was chipper as young bucks when they got up.. Nothing like a raodtrip with your brothers to get you fired up first thing in the morning.
Four shovels all firing up first thing in the morning, I know the neighbors across the valley could hear the echos coming off the mountainside. Damn I felt good, it was going to be a kickass weekend, it already has. I roll down the long driveway and stop at the bottom and check my mirror to see that everyone was ready. I see these old guys back there with the look on their faces of kids getting ready for a rollercoaster ride. I love this shit. Little did we know that one of us was about to go for a "real" ride.
I decide to take the backroads for a few miles and give the guys a little warm-up befor we actualy hit the mountains and the twisty's. About two miles from my place I take this turn that goes to the left over a rise, and as I look in my mirror what I saw just about stopped my heart. I see Dennis' bike flipping, dirt thrown in the air, sparks, and Dennis rolling down the road. I brake and swing around to go back. Befor I can turn around and get back Dave, Jeffro, Kinley and Dennis has already got the bike up and thank God Dennis was standing. Scared the bejesus outa me. The bike didn't look to bad, and Dennis had the ass of his pants tore out and he landed on his elbow pretty hard. He had his leather jacket on so that saved some skin.
Now let me tell you what kinda guy Dennis is, besides being a tough ol bird. He might have said some other things but I remember him saying " I'm sorry". He was worried about ruining our weekend. Here he was banged-up, his bike banged-up and he's worried about us. Now I'm sure he was upset over dumping his brand new build and all but we never heard a discourging word from him. So he say's he thinks he can ride it back to the house, so away he goes. Tough ol bird he is. At my house it was like pit road at a Nascar race. The front controlls (r/s) were rapped around the down tube, we pull those off and with a vise and small sledge hammer in a few minutes we got um back on the bike. I had a derby cover on the wall, a little tape around the broken clutch lever, afew tweeks here and there, and by-gawd we're back on the road again. With wreck and all, we were having fun. I've talked to Dennis since our trip and he even said his wreck just added character to our trip. I've said, and I'll say it again, tell the people you care about how you feel. When I saw my brother go down on the road behind me the bottom fell out of my stomach. When I saw him standup........well hell, Life Is Good.
Ok, were back on the road but this time I take a little different route, something a little smoother so these old fucks behind me can keep up. I swear, between the smell of Ben-Gay, prunejuice and falling off their bikes.......well, I guess it does make for a good story. Just kidding guys, either one of you probaly could show me a thing or two about ridding.
So we cover about twenty miles of four lane (2 oneway 2 the other) and then we hit the two lane thru the Ocoee gourge. Miles of beautiful ridding along side of white water rapids with tall mountains on either side of you. Everybody has gotten into the flow by now and we're laying the bikes over this way and that, twisting thru the mountains. The sound of the bikes echoing of the sides of shear rocks faces and bouncing back off the trees. I catch a look in my mirror every once in awhile and there are those kids again, not a worry in the world, following Kenny.
About two thirds of the way there I pull in to a little store just so we all can check packs and stuff, some people might fire a bowl up........ And I made a call into the camp to check on progress of the pig and beer. All was good.
I don't think I've mentioned the weather. For the last two weeks everybody has been calling for rain. Well the ol Hounddog said fuck that shit, we going to have SUNSHINE, and we did. A little overcast friday till we got to the camp, and when we rolled in the sun came out, I shit you not. The whole weekend was beautiful weather.
So back to our journey. Our next leg of the run took us into the Nantahala gourge. Nantahala is Cherokee for "Land of The Noonday Sun", the only time the floor of the gourge gets sun is when the sun is dirrectly above. Again, rushing white water running along the side of the roads and mountains straight up. I love these mountains.
Now we're about thirty miles out from camp, I'm getting really excited now, I got to watch myself because the closer I get the faster I go. Ten miles,.....five miles,......just over the hill,.......WOOF WOOF fuckers we're here. I see a lot of the forum mebers are already here. Some that I have met and some that I haven'. It was a good feeling rolling in with Dennis, Jeffro, Dave and kinley,.....I drug a pretty cool gang in with me. Just like last time here it was all about hugs and backslapping,......and COLD BEER. The pig on the smoker was smelling good, the beer was cold and I was like a kid in a candy store seeing all my old friends and meeting new ones.. Laughter was in the air.
To be continued.......