Friday 10/18/19 Ride

Fellow Riders,

• With the forecast indicating a sunny and cooler day this Friday, I thought I would ride to Side Street Pizza & Pasta for lunch.  The ride to Tryon, NC should be a good one, although not as curvy as our ride last Friday.  If this sounds good to you, we'll plan on leaving the Key Mart parking area at 10:30 am.  Hope to see you there.    Steve

Side Street Pizza & Pasta

• It was indeed another great day for a ride.  Although the temps were a little cool, sticking to many open back roads kept the sun on our backs.   Those joining me today included Gary, Charley A., Jeff, Harve, and Neil.  We took familiar back roads to get to Tryon and enjoyed the country setting on such a sunny day.  When we arrived at Side Street, I thought the parking lot was quite empty compared to how it has been on many previous visits.  The small hand written sign on the front door told us why - "we hope to be open by 1 pm due to a water main break."  This was confirmed as one of the employees rounded the corner and said they did have a water problem. I checked my phone, and sure enough, Paulette had tried to let me know it was not open, but the blue tooth was turned off on my phone.  I decided to go another couple of blocks and try Huckleberry's for lunch.  We all managed to find parking and they were able to get us seated right away.  Burgers seemed to be the favorite menu selection and the food was very good.  This turned out to be a good plan B.  For the ride home, we took Hwy 176 through Saluda and then rode through the Greenville Watershed.  David D. will not feel bad he missed this route.  The road surface is still pretty rugged, but it is a scenic ride.  There was an abundance of bicyclists out today getting their miles in.  The temperature continued to climb and it was a very comfortable ride home.  Overall, it was another great day on two wheels.    Steve

Trip Advisor - Huckleberry's Tryon

Friday 10/11/19 Ride

Fellow Riders,

• Now that the calendar and weather have finally aligned for fall, I think it's time to switch to lunch mode for the Friday ride.  I thought I would head to Dillsboro, NC for lunch at Kostas Family Restaurant.  This will make for a nice ride to gt some good Greek food.  If this sounds like fun to you, we'll plan on leaving the Key Mart parking area at 10:30 am.  Hope to see you there.    Steve

Kostas Family Restaurant

• Today turned out to be a great fall day and perfect for a ride to Dillsboro.  There were seven riders that came out for the ride.  Joining me were Rob, Gary, Doug, Russ, Lincoln, and Neil.  We headed north through Cashiers and then turned onto North Norton Road for some winding road riding.  This was a warm up for the next segment which was driving on Cullowhee Mountain Road for some really serious twisties.  I'm pretty sure this was the first route I took with Dan and the Friday riders.  Having just moved from very flat and "non-curvy road' Michigan, I got a quick lesson in mountain riding.  I can say that Cullowhee Mountain Road is every bit as, if not more, challenging than the Tail of the Dragon which Gary, Neil, and I rode a week ago.  We continued the ride on Hwy 107 and connected with South River Road to get us to our destination.  The Tuckasegee River was loaded with fishermen, probably more fishermen than trout.  There may have been a tournament, or perhaps it was just because it was a perfect fall day, but I'm sure there were a lot of folks who called in sick so they could hit the river.  We arrived at Kostas and with Paulette's call ahead, they had a section ready for us.  Our server, who reminded us about a half dozen times, was named Brandi.  After getting our drinks, she did not return.  Another server arrived to take our food order, and the owner walks up and says he got us a better looking server, which seemed odd.  When someone asked what happened to Brandi, the new server said "we had to send her home."  Very strange.  After a slightly long wait, we got our food and the gyro's were fantastic as usual.  This is one of my favorite stops.  After lunch we took the more direct route back on Hwy 107.  Rob veered of onto Hwy 281 to take a longer and more winding route home.  Overall, it was another great day on two wheels.    Steve

DELICIOUS!!

Friday 10/04/19 Ride

Fellow Riders,

• With another hot summer/fall day in the forecast for Friday, I plan on riding to the Clayton Cafe for breakfast.  If an early ride into Georgia sounds good to you, let's plan to leave the Key Mart parking area at 8:30 am.  Hope to see you there.    Steve

Clayton Cafe - Facebook

• Friday turned out to be another record temperature day for this time of year.  We could feel the heat as we returned from our breakfast ride.  There were a total of 10 riders that came out today.  Those joining me included Lesley, Dan, David D., Ray, Mike F., Pat (note - Bill is recuperating from his procedure and is doing fine, will likely join us again in November), Jeff, Harve, and Neil (with his newly customized engine.)  It was a nice ride up the mountain on familiar back roads as we made our way over to Hwy 76 and into Clayton.  Thanks to a call ahead from Paulette, our back room was ready for us when we arrived.  The service and food are always good and it's nice they have the large back room for groups like ours.  With 10 guests all at once, it does take a little while to get the food out.  Sadly, Dan's order didn't make it initially, so he had an extended wait for his food.  I did try the chicken waffle and it was quite good.  However, I didn't realize it came with a little gravy which I will exclude if I get this again.  A couple of riders took a direct route home to take care of some errands, and the rest of us headed for War Woman Road.  It had some patches in the pavement, and we eventually caught up with the crews adding some more patch work.  After a slight delay, we continued on our way and enjoyed the curves before connecting with Hwy 28.  You could see some emerging colors in the trees as we head into the fall season.  As usual, with the elevation change, we got the warmer temps.  Overall, it was another great day on two wheels.   Steve

Origin of the War Woman Road Name

Friday 09/27/19 Ride

Fellow Riders,

• Apparently, summer is ignoring the calendar and sticking around, keeping afternoon temps in the 90's.  It seems like a cool breakfast ride is still a good choice for this Friday.  I thought I would head to Travelers Rest for some breakfast at Upcountry Provisions.  If you want to join me, we'll leave the Key Mart parking area at 8:30 am.  Hope to see you there.      Steve

Upcountry Provisions - Facebook

• Seven riders joined me for the ride to Travelers Rest today.  The other riders included Gary, Dan (Leader Emeritus - welcome back after a long absence), Charley A., Steve G., Harve, Ed, and Neil.  It was another great fall/summer day in the Upstate as we proceeded on our route to TR via the back roads of Pickens and Greenville counties.  The roads are definitely more rough than they were when I first started riding behind Dan eight years ago.  The good part of this route is there is very little traffic as we made our way to the restaurant.  Upcountry has very tasty food and some good looking baked goods, but you can't be in a hurry or expect diner size portions.  The egg dishes are cooked in mini iron skillets and they do come out hot.  We sat outside to enjoy the nice weather as ultimately, everyone's meal arrived.  There was some confusion with Ed's order, but eventually it seemed to work out.  After the leisurely breakfast, most riders took a more direct route home while Gary, Harve, and I headed north.  We didn't go too far up the mountain, but we did have some nice curvey roads as we rode toward home.  Overall, it was another great day on two wheels.    Steve

The notorious "Pissed Off Eggs" are actually quite good.

Friday 09/20/19 Ride

Fellow Riders,

• It looks like this Friday will be a good day to be on two wheels.  I thought I would head over to Pickens for breakfast at the Village Inn.  I missed it a few weeks ago when Gary led a ride and it sounds like a good spot.  If you're interested, let's plan on leaving the Key Mart parking area at 8:30 am.  Hope to see you there.    Steve

Trip Advisor - Village Inn Pickens

• The weather for the last ride of "official" summer was nearly perfect.  Clear skies and cool temperatures were great and six riders and one cager joined me for the breakfast ride.  Those joining me included Gary, David D., Doug, Neil, Harve, Bill, and Pat (along with his dog) drove along in a car.  We took a back way through Pickens county to get to our destination.  After about 30 minutes we arrived and had a table waiting for us.  The server was very friendly and got us going with coffee right away.  The food arrived in pretty good time, although, the final two orders took a little longer.  They must be able to cook for six at a time, but not eight.  The food was very tasty, including my pecan waffle, and I didn't hear any complaints.  After lunch, Bill and Pat (Note - Pat did take his dog some well deserved leftovers for waiting patiently in the car) headed home and the rest of us made our way into the mountains via Hwys 8 and 276.  We did hit some construction on East Fork Road.  There was a portable stop light and they were working on a bridge.  The lane we had to use was gravel - ugh!.  Only Neil, on his trike, thought, what's the big deal.  Fortunately, it was a short bridge and we got back to riding.  We came back down Hwy 178 to get us back home.  Overall, it was another great day on two wheels.    Steve  

Okay, it wasn't this bad....