We were up at the crack of dawn as all of us couldn't wait to start riding the backroads of Tennessee. I found a neat cafe in Sparta and then we took off on a nice sunny cool morning.

The route ran us right by these beautiful falls.

N35° 48.270' W85°37.811'
"Great Falls"

This view was spectacular--the falls in the distance are huge. There is a lot of water going over them and there had been not much rain around here for some time. I would love to see it after a big rain. You had to hike back to get really close to the falls----but---we are motorcyclists.

N35°32.098' W86°13.597'

"Longs Store"
Nothing else was in sight---no town--no people--no houses. I passed by and made a U-turn (I do this very often) and we relaxed on the porch, had a snack, cup of coffee and a moon pie. We were even graced with old Mr. Long himself----and had a nice chat with him about the poor state of affairs of everything in general--really nice old fellow.

Yep this is one of the same guys laying on the ground yesterday. Are you getting to think he ain't goin' to make it to Oklahoma ?????

Well---it was relaxing on the porch of Longs Store--and we didn't want to leave.

Not too far down the road we turned off on this nice gravel backroad. It was very dusty on these roads and the guys ate a lot of dust---I mean a lot of dust.

I had bought Sam Correro's maps but didn't even bring them as I converted his rollcharts and maps to a GPS file--following the route was effortless. Most of the other guys had GPS's and the route too--which helped if they missed a turn.