We spent a month in Bryson City the summer of 2014. We had a great time and began to fall in love with the mountains. We stayed in a log cabin and used it as our base for exploring the area. One of the things we wanted to do was take a bike ride on the mountain roads. We did not bring the bike as it would have been a lot of trouble, especially since we were not sure of our arrangements. Turned out to be a good idea as it would have been hard to get it to the cabin.

After a lot of hiking and exploring the place we looked for a store to rent a bike and found the Smoky Mountain Steel Horses motorcycle shop. It was a nice shop and the people were friendly and helpful. We reached an agreement to rent a Heritage Softail for two days. They worked with us to make sure we could take the bike, get some ride time in, and get it back without incurring extra charge.

The first day we rode US 441, through the Great Smoky National Park, to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It rained most of the day and we were grateful for the rain gear that came with the bike. The ride was awesome even with the rain. We had ask around for some other good rides in the area and were told of the Rattler. This is road 209 north out of Waynesville. We rode to Hot Springs and then down to Asheville were we finished up headed west back to Byrson City. The weather stayed beautiful for the entire ride and it was one of the memories that just stay with you.

After we moved into our house up here, I took a trip to Miami to bring more of our stuff up. Included in this was the Harley Dyna. It was November and I stored the bike in the garage for the winter. When spring came, I had some work done on it and we were ready for the road. We took it out for a few short rides and had a blast.

In May, I asked Saskia what she would like to do for Mother’s day and to my surprise she responded with taking a ride. Sometimes you just get lucky. The day was made for a motorcycle, so we got the Harley out and were ready to roll. The temperature was cool, the sun was shinning and the sky was blue. We took US-74 to exit 104 at Waynesville. This is where we pick up State Road 209. After a few miles we were on the Rattler for our second time.

The road is a dream on a bike. According to the sign there are 290 curves covering 24 miles and each one pure joy. The mountain roads are the exact opposite of the roads in Florida where I have ridden the last few years. The scenery was beyond belief. There were farmhouses along the road and a lot of barns. I love the old farm structures. Some of the barns had horses grazing in the pasture next to them and there were some with crops in the field growing towards the harvest season.

One of the interesting places along the ride was Luck NC. What remains today is the store and a few other buildings alongside the road. A couple of old gas pumps are left from the days when the cost to fill your tank could go no higher that $9.99. I have not been able to find much history about the place and wonder, if you will forgive me, how it ran out of luck.

I enjoyed the ride as well as the scenery. I rode for speed when I was younger, now I ride for the view.

Wishing us all a “Bit of Luck.”