Thursday/Friday - July 17th & 18th, 2008

The Main Event:  A Smoky Mountain Wedding

Article by:  Jim McMullen     Photos by:  Jim McMullen & Angie Acosta  

Thursday's Ride:  I departed Franklin, Ohio and headed for Lexington, KY on Thursday afternoon for the biker gathering that would "group ride" to Gatlinburg on Friday morning.  The ride down from Ohio was a 141 mile trip.  I made the route simple since I was leaving late in the afternoon.  My route was:  I-75 thru Cincinnati into Kentucky to Exit #180 (US-127 south), then KY-227 south to US-460 east (Bypass) to US-25 south to Circle 4 Hwy around Lexington to the south-east side of town.

KY-227 was a very decent motorcycle road which I plan to run the next time I head down that way.

Friday's Ride:  The biker group departed the south-east side of Lexington and headed to I-75 south.  We exited off at Corbin, KY (Exit #29) and jumped on US-25E eastbound.  Since we had 14 bikes in the group, plus a few vehicles following, we stayed primarily on the major roads and didn't catch any narrow back roads.

We followed US-25E into Tennessee and got on I-81 south, picked up I-40 west and ran it to Exit #407 (US-441 south).  US-441 ran us down to the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area.  The trip from Lexington to the monster cabin that most of the riders were staying at was 220 miles and took several hours.  It's hard to make great time with 14 bikes, lunch breaks, a dip in the lake and grabbing fuel along the way.  The scenery was great, even from the major highways!

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