Lost rider.: Ricks Rendezvous May 15-19 2013 in Hampton TN.

This years Annual ADV Rally was held in Hampton TN at the Black Bear Resort. Sadly for me I had to work that Thursday but I had Friday off to head up and to enjoy the weekend. With the bike loaded up Wednesday night. Thursday as soon as I got off work I hit the road. After a 3 hour ride I come into Boone NC just east of base camp. quick bite to eat and I'm gone. About 45 minutes later I rolled into camp. According to the GPS I coming in on the main road. After a nice smooth ride down a paved road I hit gravel. At first it wasn't to bad. About 13 miles of gravel and dirt later. (Did I mention the bike was loaded up.) I found out I came in the back way and there was a much easier way into camp. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the direction on the website. It said there was a nice paved road coming into camp from the other side of the mountain but no I had to take the back road. Damn GPS. But it was a good practice. The bike did a great job and well it just made me look more bad ass coming in on the dirt road loaded up.

Friday-
Friday morning I wake up at 6:30 am. Why I dunno I wanted to sleep but I'm used to getting up early for work and my mind just decided to wake up whether my body decided to follow or not. After a good morning breakfast. I joined the Big Bike road Ride. for today. We did a crap load of twists and turns, up down left rights and literally all around. One road we took was called The Snake. by the end of Friday I have gained a whole new level of respect for my large bike and how well it handled on the tight corners. Scrapping pegs and all the GSA took it like a champ and rolled through all the corners beautifully. Running the K60 scout dual sport tires 50/50 tread. I was hesitant on how well they would do. But I'll be honest these tires have performed beautifully no matter what I've thrown at them. Next set I may get them again.

Saturday-
Today was the Bike Bike off road ride. Now what I mean by Big bike. I'm referring to big bikes 650cc or bigger. All the little dirt bikes went on their rides where my bike is just to big and or to heavy. For the Big Bike off road ride our leader had a preset route we were going to try. But due to the weather rolling in and all the rain the group made some changes to the course. After a short delay we hit the road and road for about 6-7 hours of mostly gravel and dirt roads. One second we are in TN and then out of no where we pop out into another small town in VA. make a few random turns that almost look like driveways or dead end streets and boom we're in NC. One one trail we were on it for about an hour and we stop and gather at a nice over look of the mountains. We are all sitting there and chatting about how adventurous we are and how much fun we are all having. Then out of no where a Buick driven by an old man and his wife in the passenger seat just drives on by us. As you pry assume we all didn't feel so adventurous anymore. But we were still having a good time. After a few more hours of riding and my GPS loosing us in some of the hills and valleys we finally made it home with no casualties just in time for beer o'clock.

Sunday was an easy day. everyone started packing up and slowly headed back to the real world. To make the weekend last a little longer we took a dirt road called old hwy 105 south for about 18 miles. It entailed very steep inclines and descents fog was thick but made the road that much more challenging. Once we hit pavement we took a few more detours and stopped at Childress Vineyards for lunch. Not to exciting but the food was hot and very good.

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