Man I’m so pissed right now at the local dealership, Performance Powersports. Hell they always give me something to be pissed about. Whether they’re strapping down a new bike wrong causing it to fly off the trailer and skid down the road (see the damage video here) or whether they’re leaving all but 2 of the bolts out of the front plastics, something is always wrong. The links above will show you photos and videos from the damage as well as what they put us through.

Then of course there was that time they told me they’d ordered our parts for warranty work, but it took calls to corporate and 2 weeks just to get them to order the damn parts. Yeah that was the same time they “lost” the parts and told us they’d never received them. Another call to corporate determined the parts had been sitting in their parts department at the store for at least a week while the dealership was telling us they were due to ship from a California warehouse!

Then there’s the fact that just about every employee up there Read the rest of this entry »

I can’t catch a break. Seriously! All I want is ONE decent trip to Deal’s Gap before it starts getting crowded. I hate going up there when it’s overly crowded because I just can’t enjoy myself. Crowds mean cops whether anyone’s causing trouble or not, and when the THP show up everyone is considered a trouble maker…even Granny taking a nice leisurely drive through the mountains.

I’ve been checking the weather for Robbinsville almost every time I’ve sat down at my desk. All I want is to see that little rain symbol go away, but *sigh* it’s still there. If it does rain we’re still going to the mountains next weekend, it just won’t be as fun without taking the bike.

We’ll still be making the trip to Pigeon Forge though. I found out my dad and his girlfriend will be in Pigeon Forge next weekend, too, so I think we’re turning it into a little family time. It’s been so long since I’ve gone on a trip with my dad. Well the last time would have been the last family vacation we took the Pigeon Forge before my parent’s split, and I was probably 17 then. Man that was 9 years ago.

It just happens to be a coincidence that he’s going up there this weekend. He’s been looking at some land for sale in Tennessee, so maybe if I get lucky he’ll be buying a little place up there. Then I can just visit my dad when I want to go to The Gap!

Normally when we talk about going to the mountains to ride the bikes I always suggest we stay the whole weekend, or at least one night. If we’re going to ride up instead of trailering it totally wears me out. After riding all day all I want to do is lay down in a nice comfortable bed and sleep.

Normally when I suggest this hubby’s response is, not this time. He’s always got some excuse that he’s got something to do the next day. Well, he surprised me tonight. He actually came to me and said “Why don’t we make a weekend trip to the mountains out of our Deal’s Gap trip?”

I’m sure my face lit up like a light bulb. So, our new plan is we’re going up to The Gap on Friday will all our friends. Then we’re just going to ride on up to one of the Pigeon Forge cabins our friend’s parents own. They’re going to let us stay for free, so we should definitely take advantage of it!

We thought about just riding the bike to Pigeon Forge, but I think we’re going to drive the Blazer, and we’ll let Allison trailer the bike back down the mountain with hers. She won’t need to unload hers until we’re back on Sunday anyway. We’re doing that because I want to do some outlet shopping while we’re there, and I don’t exactly have room to put my buys on the bike. It’s hard enough just packing a backpack for a couple days when we take the bike on a trip.

It was such a nice day today! With temps in the mid 70s it was a great day to ride, so when hubby got home from work that’s exactly what we did. He rode the bike to work today, and now that it’s warming up he’s going to be doing that a lot more if he can help it. With gas prices and a 45 minute ride up the mountain who blames him? We save money and he gets to enjoy himself!

I’ve definitely got to buy him a new tank bag and maybe even a set of saddle bags. I saw some awesome ones on sale awhile back that are made just for sport bikes. Riding the bike to work means he either has to leave all of his tools are work or find a place on the bike to carry them. It was quite a fiasco getting him to work this morning…or well yesterday morning considering it’s now almost 3am. He had to carry a nail gun and some air tools with him, so he loaded up the biggest back pack I have and ended up stuffing an air hose up his jacket. He was definitely a funny sight!

Luckily because we’ve got a YZF 600r he had plenty of room under the seat to store some stuff.  He put a hammer and a couple other things in there.  It’s so fun to pick on my friends because they don’t even have room for a credit card and sell phone in their seat storage!  I can fit 2 take out plates and a 20 oz drink in mine!