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Old 11-23-2014, 11:41 AM   #1
shibumi   shibumi is offline
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Remembering the Monkees.

I fired up the beastie yesterday morning, determined to go for a quick ride along the road. I am currently domiciled in the sleepy little burgh of Joelton, Tennis-e. It’s a twenty five minute ride into the middle of Nashville unless you are in an Asian state of mind, in which case it would be considerably less.
However, being infected with an endless Peter Tork loop streaming through my nut, I had to make my way to Clarkesville, the home of a USAF base and the inspiration for the 1966 song ‘Last Train to Clarkesville’ about a pilot who was to be deployed to Vietnam and who wanted just one last bout of horizontal folk dancing with his girl, before jetting off into the great Asian unknown. It’s a short ride of some 40 miles…the ideal distance to ride for a cup of coffee.
The main part of the town has some nice little eateries, a few decent little pubs, nice river and although there is quite a lot of industry close to the town, it is obvious there is a high degree of civic pride. There are some odd traffic routes, made even odder for me, as I am still getting used to riding on the wrong side of the road.
It seemed at one point my electronic GPS girlfriend, Australian Karen, became a little confused also, and directed me along what was clearly a nicely paved walking track down to the river. The lady half way along the track with two small dogs was a bit peeved, and one dog was making the sort of racket only a small, stupid animal can make. (The other was having a crap….obviously showing me it did, in fact, give a s**T).
There was one true life changing discovery, for which I will always remember Clarkesville. Burger King makes better burgers than Maccas (I’ve only been in the US for a few weeks). I got yakking in Burger King to a builder, riding an immaculate burnt orange Harley and, as he had recently also ridden the Cherohala Skyway, we compared notes. He had some quite definite ideas about the three wheeled variety of bike/car thingies which seem to abound on roads here in the Land of the Flabby.
I’m not a fan of these peculiar hybrids which just look strange going into corners, but their riders are more motorcyclists than tin toppers, so than makes them okay in my book. The ride back from Clarkesville was along lesser roads than the interstate which took me there. I will try to make that a feature of my riding in the future.
In fact I have discovered that my GPS (An ancient Garmin Nuvi 1250) has some nifty filters which allow me to avoid unsealed roads, highways, U-turns and traffic. It’s amazing what can be learned from reading an instruction book! If only I had known that in Myanmar (Burma) and Laos, the two countries which jointly provide the worst motorcycling roads in the world.
Today we are going on a joint sortie to what I am told is a great little coffee shop/bistro/live song-singing establishment, Richard’s CafĂ© (Pronounced Ree-shard’s…which is a bit poncy if you ask me), for some Cajun munchies and coffee. It’s on White’s Peak in Naish-veele. Should be fun!
Cheers.
Dave.



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Old 11-23-2014, 02:38 PM   #2
Silent Sam   Silent Sam is offline
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Thanks for the Up-Date...I look forward to more....

..I agree with steering-clear of "super-slabs" and major motorways...The US and Canada have wonderful Two-Lane Black-Top Roads...to just Everywhere !

Enjoy the Cajun Espresso...
 
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