April 21, 2005

Chattanooga To Franklin

I called around early to find a dealer who would change out my tire.  It is again interesting to note that the  local Honda dealer was not interested in helping a stranded rider.  Their comment was that "if you bring in the wheel we will change the tire but we don't want your bike on our lot".  As a result, the closest Yamaha dealer was 20 miles away in Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia, where I had Charlie McFarlan (the tower from the night before) tow me.  As in Leesville, the Yamaha people were very supportive and immediately worked on the bike.  An hour later, I was on my way although now it was nearing noon.

Bill had gone to tour Lookout Mountain while I worked on the tire issue and we met up in the motel parking lot for the ride to Athens.  It threatened rain so we suited up and began the 56 mile ride Northeast to Athens.  One of the young men who worked on the bike was from Athens and had given me exact directions to find the VFW Post so we arrived about 1PM or so and parked the bikes.

I wanted to run the bike on the grass for a photo with the airplane, so I knocked on the door to request permission.  The Post wasn't scheduled to open until 2PM but I heard talking inside.  Soon a man answered and was more than happy to let me drive on the grass.  It became an event and everyone wanted pictures and everyone had a story to tell.  Mack Angel's picture is the center point on  the wall surrounded by other memorabilia.  A man by the name of 'Boston' Bob Johnson was very knowledgeable about the history of 66-0319 and was also the one assigned to ride a crane up to the plane to clean it recently.  He has promised pictures of that event.

After a few pictures and more conversation, we headed back to Chattanooga to catch IH 24 rather than the narrow country roads so we could gain more time. As we headed west the weather cleared into a beautiful warm day.  We then grabbed State Route 96 at Murfreesboro and worked our way through some beautiful hilly country to Franklin so as to avoid going through Nashville.

Here's some pictures (full album HERE):