This Day Ride from October 18, 2011 is re-posted here from our old website:

On Tuesday October 18th we got the chance to take another Day Ride. It was a beautiful sunny morning, around 52 degrees, so we both wore thermal chaps, leather jackets, 3/4 pilot helmets and neck warmers. We left our home at 10:30 am, gassed up and started our journey to the Smoky Mountains.

We got on 640 which took us to Alcoa Highway. We rode south to Maryville and then took 321 North toward the mountains. We stopped in Townsend to visit the Railroad Museum.

After checking out the Railroad Museum, we decided to go to the Townsend Heritage Center as well. The Railroad Museum was free and the admission to the Heritage Center was $6.

Here are some photos from the Heritage Center:

After visiting the museums in record time, we realized we were much more interested in riding on this beautiful fall day. We got back on the bikes and continued on riding the Loop from Townsend through the Smokies and on into Gatlinburg.

Traffic in Gatlinburg was heavy with all the tourists enjoying the fall colors. After a slow crawl we finally made it to 321 and stopped in for a late lunch at Little House of Pancakes.

The food was great and the folks were friendly. We highly recommend it and look forward to going back. After lunch, we took off our chaps as it had warmed to the mid 70’s.

We hopped back on our bikes and continued north on 321 to Cosby where we took the Eastern Foothills Parkway. We stopped for a few photos.

This section is only 6 miles long and comes out right onto  I-40 just south of Newport. We got off the interstate at Newport, rode through town, stopped for gas and then took 25/70 into Dandridge. We continued on 25/70 through Gibbs and then took Strawberry Plains back into Knoxville.

We got home around 4:30pm and our total ride was 158 miles.

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