On our return from STAR 2014 Stacie announced that she wanted to do another long road trip before the summer was over. How could anyone have a better passenger/spouse than that! I said where do you want to go and she said Tennessee, specifically Nashville. We have both made many trips to Tennessee, but never been to Nashville, so I said OK. But during my April Mozark 7 ride I had had lunch at the Cliffhouse near Jasper, AR for the first time and had noticed they had rooms with a great view and I wanted to spend a night there. Rooms with balconies with great views are very high on our trip priorities. So we would begin our trip to Nashville and the Smokie Mountains via Arkansas and the Ozark Mountains.

To get a jump start on the trip and cut down on the miles in the Arkansas heat we left home late Friday afternoon and stopped for the night in Vidalia ant the Comfort Inn overlooking the Mississippi. This is a nice motel with a terrace overlooking the river and adacent to the River Walk. The motel used to have a nice bar and restuarant but on this visit the bar was closed for undisclosed reason and the restuarant appears to have been downsized to a snack bar. So after a walk and cockrails on the terrace we walked across the levee and two blocks to Johnnie Mae's Cafe, previously the Sand Bar Resturant. The food was excellent.

We got an early start Saturday to be the heat and had an uneventful ride to Jasper, AR, enjoying Scenic Byway 7 from Russelville to the Cliffhouse. Our stay here was delightful! The owner and his wife are extremely nice. The rooms are comfortable and perched on the side of the cliff below the restuarant with a sitting deck below that all with a great view of the valley below. The restuarant was excellent with an some outsatnding fresh seafood. I knew they served great lunch fare but I was not expecting such an impressive dinner menu for such a remote location. After dinner we made some friend on the deck including a couple on Harleys who we swapped photos with and some Pentacostals who shared their watermelon with us.

It was amazing to sit on our swing on the balcony as the sun went down over the valley below and watch the lights come on one by one in the many homesteads that dotted the hills but were invisble during the day due to the tree canopy. Incredibly peaceful.

Our next destination was downtown Nashville Aafter a stoppover in Hayti, MO at another comfort Inn. Another of our favorite things to do is drink and listen to live music so we booked a room for two nights on Broadway in downtown Nashville. Rather pricy but just blocks away from Honkytonk Row and Country Music History. We ate some great BBQ at Jack's and the Brew House, listened to some excellent country and rock & roll bands at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, Legends Corner and the Tin Roof. During the day we walked around downtown and toured the Ryland Auditorium (original Grand Ole Opry) and the Johnny Cash museum.

From Nashville we headed to Townsend via the Cherohala Skyway, Tail of the Dragon and the Foothills Parkway. In Townsend we stayed at the Highland Manor which has rooms with private balconies overlooking the mountains. The view was dissappointing compared to the Cliffhouse but they had a nice pool which we had all to ourselves plus the motel is just across the road from Lily's Cafe which was fantastic. Here we had the first of several delcious rainbow trout meals in the Smokies.

From Townsend we backtracked on Foothills Parkway and Tail of the Dragon to Crossroads of Time where we took NC 28 now popularized as Moonshiner 28. South of Bryson City we headed North on US 74, 19 and 441 to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We rode the Parkway, with a lunch stop at the Pisgah Inn, to our next destination, Little Switzerland, NC and the Big Lynne Lodge. I knew about the Big Lynne Lodge thanks to past MSTA president Dave Brickner who now hosts a club event at the lodge in early August. Reports of last years event indicated the lodge was a special place to stay with a great restuarant with dinner and hot breakfast included in the motel rate. We were not able to make the event due to our schedule but decided to include the lodge in our itenerary. The "lodge" is a sprawling complex located within yards of the BRP with various buildings surrounding the restuarant, gift shop and office, most overlooking a broad grassy slope with mountains in the distance.

Our accomodation was a private cottage with a covered porch with a great view. Our next door neighbors happend to be a semi-professional folk music duo playing the ukele, guitar and dulcimer so we enjoyed some more live music that afternoon!

Dinner was served from about 6-830 pm and a bell is rung to alert the guests whent the food were ready. We had a choice of rainbow trout or chicken. We don't know about the chicken but the trout was delicious! (Breakfast was order whatever you want and I we did! Waffle, eggs, grits, sausage, fresh fruit.) We spent another peaceful evening under the stars staring out at the lights on the mountains.

Our final "special" destination was Unicoi Lodge in Georgia's Unicoi State Park just outside of Helen. After the last two days on the dragon today was to be a relaxed ride with only the BRP to negotiate but that was not to be. First we did a 5 mile hilly gravel section due to GPS map errors. Garmin's waypoint for the Big Lynne Lodge is 1.2 miles east of where it really is so while my route was to backtrack west on BRP, Nuvi wanted us to go east to get to our starting point. Had I obeyed it would have only meant 2.5 miles of beautifully paved, exquisitly twisty blacktop. But Nooooo, I figured I was smarter than Nuvi and killed the route to self navigate. The problem with that is the Garmin map doesn't always show whether a road is paved or not or whether it intersects with the BRP or goes under it! So we got to explore some of the obscure sections of Little SWitzerland on Bear Wallow, Crabtree and Girlscout Roads.

Next I missed my intended exit about 85 miles down the BRP and went 4.3 miles before I realized my mistake. I backtracked and exited onto NC 215. 215 proved to be 17 miles of immaculately paved twisties rivalling the TOTD in long stretches except with zero traffic. This connected us with US 64 where I had planned to make a side trip into Gorges State Park for a waterfall hike but due to the above mention delays I decided to skip it. We cut across South Carolina before crossing into Georgia and riding Warwoman Road before reaching Unicoi State Park via GA 356.

I had camped at Unicoi State Park circa 2007 on my way to the MSTA North Georgia Classic and in addition to the really nice campsites had noticed the impressive lodge/conference center/restaurant buildings and decided this would be a good place to stay when not camping. The 4 lodge buildings and restaurant/conference center surround an open grassy courtyard with swings to sit on. We arrived at the lodge and checked in and unloaded. Covered parking was conveniently located near our lodge. The room was spaciouis and well appointed. We changed into our street clothes and stepped out to walk and have a look around. The lodge buildings are surrounded by a grass lawn about 20 yards wide and then there is the woods. As we stepped outside onto the grass Stacie pointed to the edge of the woods at a large, black furry object and said: "what's that?" I whispered: "It's a bear, let's go back up the stairs!" The huge black bear had its rump to us and its head was buried in a bush of some kind of berries, enjoying a meal. Ignoring my warning Stacie took a step toward the bear. He heard her and jumped and whirled to face us. Images from "I shouldn't be alive" flashed through my brain as I fumbled with my phone camera. Luckily for us the bear turned and ambled into the woods with just a quick glance over his shoulder at us. I am guessing he was 500 pounds. That was enough excitement for the day! Back to the room for drinks we went and then relaxed on a swing in the courtyard until supper.

Supper was an all you can eat buffet featuring whole fried rainbow trout and chicken with various sides plus desserts. It was excellent.

Our last night on the road was in Meridian, MS. We rode to I-985 and took it and I-85 to downtown Atlanta and hung a left onto I-20. Atlanta was plumb in our way and too damn big to ride around so we rode right through the middle of it. That's something Interstate highways are good for, diving into the middle of chaos and coming out alive. We took adavantage of the HOV lane when we could (when some idiot wasn't driving in it slower than the regular lanes) It all went pretty well except for a mild slow down in the center of down town where motorists were having trouble figuring out which of the 17 lanes they needed to be in. We stayed on I-20 all the way to Meridian. Vacation was over, time to go home.

Nothing special about Meridian as far as I know and nothing good to say about the Baymont Inn we stayed in. I may have had a lamer free continental breakfast but I can't remember when.

Sunday we had only 230 miles to go because we need to get home early. Stacie had to be back at work for noon. Whaaat??? True. She is a Super Trooper! I could not ask for a better passenger! Despite a very heavy dose of twisties and my not-so-smooth riding she says this was one of her all time favorite trips (not counting Europe). I got high marks for picking great motels and restaurants! This trip is definetly one more to add to our long list of great sport touring vacations together that began with STAR 1999.