FJ-09'ers Meet and Ride Around North Georgia

[superfist]

I was pretty excited to get out and ride with some other forum members, as I had never ridden as part of a group before.  The meeting point was approximately 90-100 miles from my home and we were to meet at 12:00 for lunch at TWO (Two Wheels Only, or Two Wheels of Suches).  I had performed most of my pre-ride checklist last night, so this morning all I had to do was set the air pressure and give the FJ-09 a once-over before heading out.  It was 9:50AM and I was all set to hit the road and arrive early.
 
Before I even pulled out of my driveway, the USB charger I had been using decided to die.  So I dropped by Walgreens and picked up a new one before stopping for gas and grabbing gatorades for the saddle bags.  After all the fiddling with chargers and toys and what-nots, I finally got on the highway at about 10:20am.
 
The ride to TWO was beutiful and uneventful.  When I arrived, there were so many motorcycles I wasn't sure I'd be able to spot the FJ-09s in the crowd without wandering around and looking lost.  Luckily, I got flagged down while looking for a place to park the motorcycle =)
 
I had never stopped here before and it was a really cool little restaurant and lodge.  The cheeseburger was absolutely delicious.  None of us had met before, so things were mildly awkward at first, but warmed up by the time the food was on the table.  It's amazing what good food will do when there's good company.  After eating and drinking, we were off!
 
From TWO in Suches, we traveled down highway 180 (Wolf Pen Gap Road).  This is also where the video starts, since I had been saving battery and memory card space for the group riding.  I wish I had taken the time to record some of the variety of motorcycles at TWO.  Once we got around a slow car, the group was off to a brisk pace.  We had a multitude of FJ-09s in the group along with a Can-AM, FJR1300 and a BMW R1200 (correct? It was a BMW, model not absolutely sure).
 
After coming to the end of 180, we turned left onto 19 and continued the brisk pace before turning right onto 180.  We followed 180 around to 17.  Somewhere along this way, a BMW and Chevy tried to make a mess of things, but we pulled off to check the route and let them go along on their way.  Traffic in a little town here was extremely congested so we backtracked a little way and eventually arrived at the Richard B Russell Scenic Highway.  I'm was a little lost in-between 17 and RBR Scenic Highway, so I'm not sure what the route to get there was.  Again, we flew from one end of the road to the other where we paused to regroup.  This is when I realized that we had a love of back bumpers.  When there wasn't one in front of us, we made sure to find another one quickly!
 
After a left from RBR onto 180 and another left back onto 19 we all stopped to top off fuel at Sunrise Grocery on 19.  I like stopping here because I get to use this old gas pump with mechanical rollers from the price/gallon numbers.  You have to remember how much you pumped and then go inside to pay.  The ethanol free 93 octane is welcome as well.  Once we got going again, it was south on highway 19.  This time, we left bumpers behind even though this highway has substantially more traffic than the surrounding roads. There are plenty of sections that turn into 3-lanes for passing opportunities.  We paused at 19 & 129 so that everyone could catch up and regroup before following 19 west.  Then it was a short trip back up 60 and we ended at TWO.
 
The weather was absolutely beautiful for all of the riding we did.  I'll be honest and say that the day was such a blast and so fun that I can't recall everyone's name, much less their forum handle that goes along with it.  I apologize for being terrible in the name memory game so I won't list anyone because I'm sure to leave someone out.  Next time, I'll see about getting some pictures.  Maybe mugshots will help my memory =p
 
Hopefully, I'll have some videos to post next week.  I'm waiting on a new hard drive because I'm currently out of space.  Thank you, everyone who came out.  Good food, good rides and good company is always much appreciated.
 
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I'll edit to post some videos here later.
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