Johnson City/Gray TN Pictures and Report

This weekend the Board of Director and key Rally volunteers descended upon the Johnson City, TN area.
I didn't have the opportunity to ride the area, I will let others report on that. I did have a chance to tour the rally site,
and I snapped a few shots from the plane that you might enjoy.

I don't recommend flying into Johnson City, but if you must, you will be coming into the tiny Tri Cities airport


Flying does have its advantages when it comes to aerial pictures.


Maybe I'll look for this later!


Dang, I should have brought the bike!


Vince brought a bike, he got wet.




First stop, registration HQ


How thoughtful!


Plenty of Quiet Camping


Optimist? Check out the quality camping site in the distance!


Another shot of the grounds, check out the size of those trees, and there are more where that came from.


That's it for now. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the size and condition of this site. I'd only seen it in pictures. It was a spacious site, lots of grass, trees, rolling hills. It's intertwined with residential streets, not out on the edge of town. And from what I hear...the riding it quite good!!

SheRidesABeemer said:

Another shot of the grounds, check out the size of those trees, and there are more where that came from.

Click to expand...

Well, I've never heard anyone else refer to Vince as a tree.

This is one of the nicest areas with some of the best rides in the country. The old Sam's gap ride is unbelieveable- on a par with Deal's gap. I used to work in the area and explored a lot of the back rodes.

Thanks, SRAB. Sounds like we can look forward to our visit there in July!

And the area of three corners, where VA, TN and NC come together offers simply amazing riding. As good as the Smokys without the traffic.

And if you are riding down from New England, you get to go through West Virginia, the most friendly motorcycle state in the union. They even offer a whole "Motorcycle WV" package through the internet.

Can't wait!

SheRidesABeemer said:

This weekend the Board of Director and key Rally volunteers descended upon the Johnson City, TN area.
I didn't have the opportunity to ride the area, I will let others report on that. I did have a chance to tour the rally site,
and I snapped a few shots from the plane that you might enjoy.

I don't recommend flying into Johnson City, but if you must, you will be coming into the tiny Tri Cities airport

How thoughtful!

Plenty of Quiet Camping

Optimist? Check out the quality camping site in the distance!

Another shot of the grounds, check out the size of those trees, and there are more where that came from.

That's it for now. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the size and condition of this site. I'd only seen it in pictures. It was a spacious site, lots of grass, trees, rolling hills. It's intertwined with residential streets, not out on the edge of town. And from what I hear...the riding it quite good!!

Click to expand...

So they closed the schools and hid the kids when they heard you were flying in? And you view this is a Good thing??? (Oh, and you need to seriously work on your photoshop skills! I could tell in a moment that you had photoshopped the school into the background behind the Welcome sign!)

the quiet camping looks a bit TOO restful IMHO

and there are way too many fences, I can see that seriously impacting mobility on the grounds as we descend in our Hummers and HUV"S en-mass, I assume they will be removed before we arrive next year, right? Regardless of the sign I'm not Optimistic about this at all! ..

RM

Aha, that was THIS weekend! That explains the K1200RS (gt maybe?) rider in the yellow 'stich that went sizzling past me on I-77 in WV while I was on my way from Richmond back to St. Louis on Sunday... I was only doing 80 or 85, didn't stay with him very long, it made me miss my old K-bike a little! I've seen the vanity plate somewhere, but couldn't remember where.

DRKSD indeed!

Looks like a great spot- thanks for posting!

You have some great pictures of the entrance ( upper level ) but none of the lower level where most of us will camp. also no pictures of the flower gardens or any of the Antique tractors that are on site. I've been there many times for dog shows.

Lots of places I didn't get pics! It was not easy to hold an umbrella and shoot pics.
We toured the site in cars/vans because of the rain, then we walked around to the buildings.

I wasn't the only one with a camera. Stay tuned.

Camp Gears

RoyB said:

And the area of three corners, where VA, TN and NC come together offers simply amazing riding. As good as the Smokys without the traffic.

And if you are riding down from New England, you get to go through West Virginia, the most friendly motorcycle state in the union. They even offer a whole "Motorcycle WV" package through the internet.

Can't wait!

Click to expand...

I did a search for "Motorcycle WV" and didn't find anything about motorcycling WV. Any more information? Sounds fun.

Rod

SheRidesABeemer said:

Lots of places I didn't get pics!

It was not easy to hold an umbrella and shoot pics.
We toured the site in cars/vans because of the rain, then we walked around to the buildings.

I wasn't the only one with a camera.

Stay tuned.

Camp Gears

Click to expand...

Gail, You are forgiven...

My ride down was awesome. Virginia and North Carolina were incredible.

Try this link
http://www.motorcycleroads.us/wv.html

There is one ride that we take (and I took the Chromeheads on during thrie rally) that is truly a ride to remember. From the rally, the ride is between 275 and 300 miles long. Almost 200 is pure mountains and curves. You start from Tennessee and go into Virginia. From Breaks Interstate Park, you pass into Kentucky, then back into Virginia, then into West Virginia and then back to Virginia before you return to Tennessee. I took some folks from New Mexico and Texas on the ride a few weeks ago and the 200 miles (we started ion Marion Virginia) we traveled left them thrilled and exhausted. We plan on doing a write-up on it when the leaves fall so we can get some pictures of some mountains and curves. The leaves hides the good stuff now.

We also plan on mapping out some portions of the ride so those who wants shorter rides can enjoy portions of it. If you ride our roads first, you will be very disappointed with Deals Gap.

Ken

Keep up the posts and pictures!

I, as well as many others are soaking up this thread! I can't wait! Thanks Gail and Board for the pictures , looking forward to seeing this place up front and in person!
Osbornk, we want more! more! more!
A newby (sort of) to the BMWMOA!

Red

More pictures

I was through Johnson City the week of Oct 17th. Here are some pictures of the rally site.

http://picasaweb.google.com/smoothnaturals/RallySite2009Pictures#

I also rode US 58 in Virginia from Abbingdon to Independence. This is a must ride while at the rally.

Is there a bad road in Virginia? I know I couldn't one find last week. I sure tried too!