Day Eight of the CCC trip

Dano says:
Agenda for today, have a nice semi short day and arrive at Cheapbastards house in Kaaang, North Carolina.

I found it hard to believe that with the amount of adult beverages being consumed every night that we were waking every morning pretty easy. Not once did I have a headache from drinking, it pays to drink the good stuff right? So I shower, go downstairs roust a few of the guys to start showers. Gary and Jessica had started the day all ready and she was gone by the time most of us were up. Gary being the superstar that he is began making us breakfast. Sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, biscuits, country gravy, coffee and juice. That's what I'm talkin' bout. There isn't a better way to wake up to bacon cooking in a house, nom nom nom. The morning was(in Doug's words) fantastic, so we ate outside on the patio. Baily the lab got her fix of chasing the thrown ball in the back yard. Nice bee hive ya got there in the back yard Gary, glad I didn't piss on it last night in the dark while I was drinking. With plenty of warm food in our bellies, we saddled up and took off, with Gary in tow on his 600RR Honda. He rode with us for a while before he had to turn around and go home. Thank you so much for all that you did Gary and Jessica, you went above and beyond the call of duty. You have a beautiful house and I was glad to see and visit with you again. And because of the on going bagel story that you have going with your friend, you made us think that you stashed the cash we gave you on one of our bikes. Thanks for making a memorable night for me and my friends.

Down the 64 east we go, at fairly early time with great weather and temps. At the first gas stop I lubed up the chains and decided that I needed to tighten the RC51 chain. Well the chain was on its last leg, it was stretched beyond help. Time to call Cheapbastard and have one ready when we arrived. Thanks for procuring one Cheap, as all the places that we checked along the way were either out or had chains for 200 dollars. Well I adjusted it as best as I could and lubed that chain at each gas stop to make sure that it made it to Cheaps. Man was it worrying me the whole day that it was going to snap, I kept the throttle as smooth as I could to spare that chain. The ride along the 64 was fast, had nice scenery and allowed us to make it to the 77 south turnpike. That was a pretty road with lots of great views running along the mtn floors next to a river. At one toll booth I got delayed as I had to make sure that I zipped my pants pocket shut. I had the fear of losing stuff like Hockey did. So all of the guys tore off without me up the racetrack that is the 77 turnpike. Well shoot, that is just horrible, I've got some catching up to do...I played RickyRacer for about 10 miles hauling major ass in excessive speeds in some sweet sweeping corners dicing in and out of traffic. It all came to an end when I rounded the corner and spied a few of the guys waiting for me. Later I told them about my delay and the fact that I had to gradually build speed because of the chain. At the last gas stop, I called Cheapbastard and told him we were about 45 miles out still. He said that he would meet us outside at the off ramp in Kaaaang. Lets do this yall, and down the road we roll. A little over half a hour later, we exited into Kaaang and didn't see Brad, so I took us through town and stopped at the Hot Wings place and called to see here the hell he was, after the call we continued towards his place. In route him and DirtMcGirt met us on their bikes. The CCC boys have arrived, let the party start. We made our introductions to the new faces and hugged the old familiar farts. Bikes were unloaded and the decision was made to go back to that Wing restaurant and have dinner. After we all gathered ourselves, we rode back to town in a massive Triumph convoy. We mobbed the restaurant, ordered lots of tasty food and shared lots of laughs with all the amazing people that make up TheSpeedTriple.com.



I love the camaraderie that exists with all these people, what great friendly, generous people. I feel right at home with all of yall, the best part about it is, that we know and joke with each other like we always do....fun time people, fun times. After a nice long feast session we all loaded up on the bikes and rolled back to the ECR(East Coast Rally) headquarters. Time for some beers, lots of bullshitting and talks about our ride so far. What a whirlwind, so much to recall. I took the opportunity to change the chain out on the RC51 with the help of BBOPP750(Brian).
BBOPP is another awesome man, ready to help at a moments notice with tools in hand. He brought over a chain tool and we made quick work of the removal/install. Thanks Brian, you da man. After the chain repair, I could relax and enjoy the beers a little more.


Oh yeah, "We're makin muf#@kin turkey burgers!!". A late night ensued with Bucket and Dirt going at it. I warned ya Bucket,


Dirt don't know the word stop, or that's enough, hahaha. I have no idea what time I crashed out in the Princess room, but Id say it was after 2:00am. Im pretty sure that Hockey slept in the Princess room with me the first night on a matress on the floor, the next few nights it was Nimec.


David says:
I've often said every good day starts with a fart. After checking my watch to make sure Gary's wife had left the house I let go a squeaker that rose in pitch about six times in the ten or more seconds it lasted. Almost everybody in the house busted out laughing. It was going to be a very good day.
Gary made a breakfast that would put Bob Evans to shame. We rolled out with full bellies and an easy day ahead of us. I was pretty giddy rolling through the Blue Ridge Mountains cause I was finally getting to show the Aussies what it was like in my backyard. At one point the interstate went through a mountain and while I was in the tunnel I dropped all the way down to second and hammered it. The sound echoed for what seemed like forever, Leggy later said he thought his ears were going to bleed. I thought he liked the sound of the Zard and he said he loved every second of it but it was still painful.
After a bit of confusion we ended up meeting up with Dirt and Cheap on the way to Cheaps house and rode the last few miles to the ECR with them. For those that don't know the ECR (East Coast Rally) is an annual event hosted by the world renowned Mr. and Ms. Cheapbastard. You would be hard pressed to find a more decent and gracious couple to host this shindig. My hats off to you guys yet again. The weekend is supposed to consists of two days of riding local (sweet) roads and a few nights of drinking. Solid plan but I realized on the way to dinner it wasn't going to work for me. Dina would be arriving the next day in the afternoon so I sent her a text during dinner and asked if it would be ok if I wasn't there when she got there. She called me right away and asked what was wrong, she knows me too well sometimes. I can't express how bummed I was that it was almost over. I was done. A short 300 miles and I would be home. Not that I didn't miss my family but I just didn't want this adventure to be over. So after some back and forth plan B, or maybe it was D who knows it could have been Z by then, was hatched and with my mind at ease I settled in to another fantastic night of BSing with friends both new and old. King NC 7450 miles so far.





miles traveled for the day=381

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