Monday

The lobby of our hotel, Crowne Plaza Asheville, is very warm and inviting.

The kick-off of Shark Week XV was the Welcome meeting Monday night. Hutmo (Chris Hutter) welcomed everyone and introduced Kim Hunter, one of the three women who organized this Shark Week. Kim went over the list of upcoming events.

Robert Saunooke of Singleton Schreiber Injury Attorneys sponsored the event and provided a light snack. Bob has ridden Road Glides since 2011. His firm specializes in representing motorcycle riders in injury lawsuits.

Tuesday

Tuesday’s main event was Dealer Day at Harley-Davidson of Asheville. All the Road Glides were lined up for the picture.

They put all the trikes in the rear.

The dealer had a lot of bikes on display. Two in our group purchased Road Glides this day.

The dealer provided lunch for everyone and had a drawing for a $300 gift certificate. We didn’t win the raffle, and we didn’t buy a bike, but we had a good time.

We bought some groceries for dinner on the way back to the hotel. Fortunately, we got back before the rain started.

Tuesday evening there were two presentations for Shark Week XVII in 2027. Tim Edmonds presented for Eureka Springs, AR, and Dean Cook for Bend, OR. All registered members present are eligible to vote. The winner will be announced on Thursday at the banquet.

A couple of riders were awarded a Shark Tooth of Shame. The award is a shark tooth necklace and is given to anyone who drops their bike on the way to or at Shark Week. The awards this night were unusually rare as both recipients dropped their bikes twice in the same day. Each received two awards.

Wednesday

Beth saw an article titled, 12 No-Hike Falls. The article listed 12 waterfalls that you can drive to and you don’t have to hike to see them. I put about ten of them in a route. We started out early and figured we’d see as many as we could before lunch and then turn around.

No. 1 – Looking Glass Falls. The overlook was right next to the parking area. We went down a few steps to get a better view.

No. 2 – Triple Falls. 4/10-mile hike. hmmm – “No-Hike?”

No. 3 – Hooker Falls. 3/10-mile hike. Someone brought a busload of kids to swim in the river.

No. 4 – Toxaway Falls. We found the town of Toxaway Falls, but we never found the falls.

No. 5 – Whitewater Falls. Another hike and about 200 stairs.

We had lunch here.

No. 6 – Silver Run Falls. A bit of a hike. There was a gnome village near the trail.

Several people were swimming here.

No. 7 – Rainbow Falls. It started to rain at this point, so we donned our crab claws, zipped the vents in our jackets, and headed for the hotel.

It took us about 4 hours to cover the 75 miles back. We were in in and out of rain the whole way. We stopped for coffee at a gas station. Fortunately, they had a few tables inside so we could sit and rest.

Traffic was horrendous in Asheville. We took several streets instead of the freeways to get to the hotel. Our gear kept us pretty dry.

The evening’s event was the raffle. Products donated by companies that make accessories for Harleys were raffled off, along with some hand-crafted items, motorcycle gear, and gift cards.

We didn’t win anything, but it was fun watching the winners.