Cycle News Wheelspin
COLUMN
Two miles from TWOS
By Keith Dowdle
With lots of large companies, relocation is part of the game if you aspire to move up the corporate ladder, and my career with American Honda was no different. From one day to the next, you never knew when you might get that call telling you that your next assignment was in a new city far away. I always tried to make the best of it but finding things to do and making new friends can either be fun and exciting or daunting and frightening, depending on your approach. One thing that never changed for me was the urgent need to find new places to ride. No matter where I was living, I needed good roads and a few nice trails or forest service roads to keep me sane.
Midway through my career with Honda, I was relocated to Alpharetta, Georgia, and the hunt was on for new roads and new friends. Shortly after my move to Georgia, I was working the Honda display at Daytona Bike Week when I met a group of guys who all rode in together but who were each from different parts of the country. They explained to me that they all met and became friends at a place called Two Wheels of Suches (TWOS, as the regulars know it), which was not far from my new home in Alpharetta. They invited me to join them on one of their camping trips, with the promise that they’d show me all the good roads in the North Georgia mountains and beyond. A few months later we all met at the campground. Little did I know that TWOS, and the people that I met there, would become such a huge part of my life from that day forward.
The friends that you make while riding are truly some of the very best friends you’ll ever have. The passion that we all share from riding builds a bond that’s unbreakable, and those who don’t ride can’t understand that our love of riding comes from deep within our souls. When you put that together in a location that’s arguably one of the best areas in the entire country to ride, friendships flourish and last forever. TWOS quickly became the new center of my universe, and I found myself there anytime I could get away for a weekend. My small group of friends expanded quickly, and everyone seemed to know about a new road that I had yet to ride or another motorcycle friendly campground that I had yet to discover.
Motorcycle campgrounds are awesome places to hang out, kick tires, and meet new friends. If you look around, chances are good that there’s probably a motorcycle-friendly campground within a few hundred miles of where you live. There are hundreds on them in the eastern U.S. that range from four-star resorts with restaurants and cabin rentals onsite, like TWOS, to those that simply offer a place to pitch your tent and a fire ring for late-night beers and cheers. As you move west, they’re fewer and farther apart, but getting there is 90 percent of the fun anyway, and I can guarantee you that once you’ve discovered your favorite one, you’ll find yourself dreaming of being there all the time and you’ll make long-lasting friendships just like I did at TWOS.
I spent a little over 10 years of my career at the Alpharetta office, after which I was relocated back to the corporate office in California. I kept in touch with the friends that I’d made back at TWOS, and I’d see them from time to time at events like MotoGP and Daytona. As the years went by, they were all retiring and relocating to Suches to be with old friends and to ride all of the great roads in the area. But the TWOS campground had been abandoned and left in a terrible state of disrepair. It was heartbreaking. Luckily, Bill Johnston, who was part of that original group that I’d met at Daytona all those years ago, loved TWOS so much that he bought the place and has since brought it back to its former glory and then some.
There’s something extra special about sitting around a campfire with your ridding buddies, having a cold beer, enjoying a great meal and talking about the day’s ride. I’m retired now and lucky enough to be writing this column sitting in my new home just two miles from TWOS.
If you’re ever in the area, stop by and kick a tire or two. Whether you’re an adventure rider, cruiser type or a knee dragger, you’re all welcome at Two Wheels of Suches. I’ll see you there. CN
Click here to read the Wheelspin Column in the Cycle News Digital Edition Magazine.
