Bike Tour West: Day 49. To Tellico Plains, TN

Ooops - well behind in posts again. I will do my best to catch up.

Friday, September 26th.

Today we rode along the Tennessee Valley and into the foothills of the Appalachians at the Eastern edge of Tennessee. The ride was fantastic - I swear there is not a bad motorcycle road in this State. We were making tracks today and didn't take many photos.

We finally stopped at a Sonic for coffee! These drive-ins are all over the place out here. I assume the climate is more conducive to such places where people seem quite content to sit in their vehicles to order and consume their drinks and food. They do not seem to exist in Maine - too cold in the winter?

Watts Bar Dam - part of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Quite impressive to see this hydro-electric dam, complete with lock, across the Tennessee River.

We got talking to an interesting old guy in the parking lot. He was eyeing our license plates and was very interested in our journey. It turns out he collects license plates and has a complete collection from all over the country. In fact he was on his way to a license plate collectors convention - who knew there was such a thing! He wistfully told us, as he gazed at our plates, that he doesn't have a motorcycle plate from Maine. Unfortunately, we couldn't help him!

After more lovely scenic riding, we arrived in Tellico Plains and made a beeline for Tellico Grains, a wonderful bakery doing amazing sandwiches. After our delicious lunch and excellent coffee we found our way to the Tellico Lodge. This was a little tricky as, for the first time, our GPS steered us wrong - directing us down a dead end street. We finally got out of that tangle and back onto the main road where we soon found the lodge. This was an amazing, biker friendly, place with log cabins built around the property. We were able to use a hose to wash the bikes and then park them in a secure "bikes only" garage - perfect!

Our cabin