First day in the Smokies....

Just a short note before heading out for another riding day here in the Smokies. We did get in and parked at Deep Creek Campground....not in the site they selected for us though. After 30 minutes of trying to back in the dark, they came out and told us to just pull ahead into the LONG pull-through spot. Wish they had done that first...oh well! LOL!

We slept in on Sunday, catching up from our days on the road. We finally headed out on the bike around 1:30, leaving Bryson City and heading up to Cherokee to cross through the Smoky Mountain National Park over to Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge.

We stopped at Mel's Diner in Pigeon Forge for lunch and then crossed the street to the Harley Dealer for a visit. From there we continued on to Townsend. That's when the fun began.

We stopped for a soda and stretch break. Stu noticed that there was oil all over the right side of the engine....and on his pant leg....and all the way back to the rear fender. A quick check on the oil showed the level way too high. We went in and had ice cream while we let the engine cool...

Stu then took the air filter off and cleaned it...got several tablespoons full of oil out of it. We headed off again...got worse...many stops to wipe the bike and us off....even had two volunteer park rangers stop to see if we were okay. They had chatted with us earlier in the afternoon when we stopped to take a break and ended up checking out the bear feeding on the ridge above the parking area.

Here's some shots of the day...the rest are at The Smokies and Big Red's Oil Spew.




Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu