Tales of the Dragon

[emptysea]

TOD Continued:

The Old Man Was Snoring

Our third day of riding was supposed to be a short ride with a lot of off-bike time in Cumberland Falls State Park. 155 miles along US25/US25W should give us plenty of time to explore the park and maybe even ride a few of the park roads, which I recalled from a previous car trip were very scenic.

The threat of rain put our side trip to Cumberland Falls in jeopardy, but we figured we would head to Corbin, KY where I knew of a good coffee (and tea, Mickey) shop and assess the weather situation at that point. We had a fantastic breakfast at Boone Tavern (included with our room rate, so keep that in mind when you make your reservations). Laura and Cheryl (our crew's weather assessors) assured us that any rain we got would be light until Corbin. Even so, we checked out, donned our rain gear and headed out in a very light drizzle. Within a few miles, though, it had cleared up nicely and we took a "comfort stop" and stripped down a few layers. Off to Corbin.

Arrived in Corbin late morning, just in time for a beverage and maybe a tasty treat. Both were offered to us from the friendly (and surprisingly hip) staff at You & Me Coffee and Tea.

Cool place with mostly old mid-century furniture, good food & drink, and free WiFi. (note that the women in red shouted across the street for Mike to turn off his lights and she didn't even know that we had to remind him of this at nearly every stop after the bump-start incident)


Parked the bikes across the street and headed inside.


I just finished my scone when I heard the thunder. Within a few minutes, it was raining pretty good and we decided to hold up in the coffee shop. We asked the folks there if it was OK to stay for awhile and they replied that half of their customers order one drink and stay for 4 hours. We ordered sandwiches and stayed for 2.


It took awhile, but when it stopped raining, it stopped. No lingering drizzle or anything. In fact, the sun peeked out a little bit. We were in Cumberland Falls State Park within a few minutes. The rain must have kept other tourists away because there were only three cars in the parking lot. Having the park to ourselves was pretty neat.

My family had stopped here several years ago when we were chased out of our South Carolina vacation by Hurricane Charlie. We had always wanted to return here because it is so pretty and we were especially happy to do so with our good friends.

Look close. There's one in every group, but usually I am that one, not Mike.


I took a few photos of the falls, but Mike is a great photographer and took more of the artsy shots. He hasn't sent them to us yet, though. I may post a couple once I get them, but in the meantime here's two of mine





We (and by "we" I mean "I") turned the wrong way exiting the park's parking lot which took us on a bit of an adventure, including a U-Turn on a 4-lane (whohoo!). The wrong turn did, however, take us on some beautiful roads in and around the park until we found our way back to 25W (look at KY90 and KY92, which we rode, but look at some of the other ones in between them, too). It was getting chilly at this point, but I was the only one who had completely removed his rain gear so I was the only one getting cold. Too cold to snap any more road pictures this day. The rest of the ride to Clinton, TN was uneventful, unless you count the semi that nearly ran over my wife on I-75. She didn't panic and Glen made the necessary one-fingered salute to the guy as he passed. Rained overnight in Clinton and it was forecast to rain hard on Tuesday morning which would mean our first trip on The Dragon would be in the rain. We made contingency plans to get to Robbinsville by a longer, but less technical route although Laura and Cheryl again assured us that the weather would be fine. Off to bed, dreaming of waterfalls and twisted roads. (to be continued...)