The Fog....

We planned on riding the Blue Ridge Parkway today and stopping at many of the overlooks and at Grandfather mountain.  We rode the parkway, but because the fog was so dense in most areas, it didn't make sense to take dozens of pictures of the fog.  The rides that we had done prior to this, without the fog and rain, helped to prepare us for this ride.  It was very challenging.  There were times that the fog was so thick that we couldn't see each other on the bikes.  And often times if they didn't have a painted yellow double center line, you would have a difficult time knowing where the road was.  They had signs all over saying, "don't drive the parkway in the fog" and such.  Too late....last day here, and we thought this would be our best day, but the weather really put a damper on it.  We still rode the bulk of the parkway that we had planned to ride, but took a more direct (safer and faster) route back home.

Our first stop was for gas, then we were going to follow the GPS directions that I made up for us weeks ago.  The thing was, since it was raining, I didn't want to have my phone mounted on my handlebars in the rain, so I tossed it in the pocket of my rain jacket.  There are two problems with this.  First of all, I can't SEE the screen to show me about upcoming turns, or twists and curves in the road, so it's like everything is happening at the last minute.  And the second problem with this method is that I couldn't charge my phone while riding.  With GPS directions going, there's no way the battery would last all day.

We started off fine, but then the GPS told me to turn right, then just after that, told me to make a U-turn.  Okaaaaayyy, what's up with THAT?  So we stopped in a parking lot while I tried to figure it out.  Got back on the road and expected to hear some GPS voice directions going down the road, but never do.  After pulling over again, and Brian and I both trying to make sense of what it's telling us and agree upon a route (which turned out to be the exact opposite direction as originally planned), I let Brian lead and followed him into the area where we could get on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Wet, curvy roads leds us in.  We took it slow and safe, finally reaching the sign that indicated we were about to enter the Blue Ridge Parkway.  A few miles after we started, we pulled over at one of the parking areas and saw some signs.  One was to let us know that we were right at the Eastern continental divide.  In this picture you can see the Blue Ridge Parkway going overhead.

Here's the parking area,  This is also the area where Brian decided he needed to take a leak.  He told me to "watch for cars".  Now, we'd been on the road for a half hour and hadn't seen a SINGLE other idiot on the roads besides us and he tells me to "watch for cars".  I laughed and told him "Just piss and let's go".  Not 15 seconds after he peed, a ranger drove by!   We were both cracking up.  What are the chances?   Oh well.  I decided it was a good time for a pee break too....so it was my turn.  The bikes waited patiently:

You'll notice the big yellow waterproof duffel missing in the photo of my bike.  Why?  Since we finally stayed at the same hotel two nights in a row, I didn't have to bring it along with us as we could leave stuff in the room.  That turned out to be mostly good....made it much easier to get off and on my bike, but there were times when I missed having it as a backrest.  Oh well.....tradeoffs.

There was quite a steep hill to climb to get up on the Parkway, with a stop sign that I already decided I was blowing off because of the angle of the ground there and the height of my seat, there was a good chance of another tipover if I tried to stop there.  There was virtually NO traffic all day.  If we saw a dozen other vehicles on the 83 mile stretch of the Parkway that we were on, that would be about it.  And I'd say we also saw a dozen other motorcyclists....all in rain gear and put putting along like us.  Couldn't DO anything other than that.

We rode about 30 miles and saw the Museum of North Carolina Minerals in Spruce Pine, NC.  We both could use a break so we decided to stop in there.  The first thing we noticed was the "no guns" sign on the door.  For a minute I thought I was back in the state of Ill-Annoys, but didn't want to break the law out of state, so we walked back to the bikes and disarmed.  We only stayed for a few minutes, and then we were back on the parkway.  This was one huge piece of quartz, though:

Our next stop was in Linville Falls.....looking for gas.  We never found any so just got back on course and ended up at the Linville Falls trail system.  Bathroom break, get off the bikes, and get some water.  That was the intended reason for stopping.  But looking at the map, they actually has some pretty good trails.  We didn't want to spend a lot of time there but did hike one trail.

The first thing you'll notice is THIS picture.  What ARE these?

I'll tell you what they are NOT.....Hiking boots.  They are motocross boots that go up to my knees.  But surprisingly, they did fairly well as hiking boots, besides not allowing much ankle flex.  

Here's the waterfall that we found on the trail:

While we were hiking, I finally spotted my first bear.  We heard that the black bears were really large in North Carolina, and here we have some proof.  It's difficult to see in the first photo through the trees, but in the following 2 photos the bear becomes more evident:

There it is!!

Hahahaha....hey, if I can't have a little fun at Brian's expense, HE can type this damn blog up every night.  But the bridge across may look solid, but that thing is rickety and shaky....Brian jumped on it while I was crossing and the whole thing started swaying.   Hahaha.

After leaving this little rest area, we planned to ride up to see if we could see the Linn Cove Viaduct.  Here's what it's supposed to look like.

And here's what it looked like today.  Obviously these were taken from below.

   

After speaking with the lady at the visitors center, we found out that the closest gas station was about 12 miles away in a little town called Blowing Rock.  We followed the directions that she gave us into Blowing Rock, NC.  As I was filling up, a local guy pulling a trailer was waiting for my gas pump to fill up with diesel.  While he was waiting, I asked him if he was from the area, and he said that he was.  I asked him where was a good place to eat nearby, and recommended a little place called The Woodlands Barbecue.  We drove a couple miles down the road and found the place.  Now, I don't know if this happens because we are generally starving by the time we eat, but this was a really good barbecue place.  I liked the T-shirts they were selling, too, so I bought one.

After eating, we decided to take the quicker way home, rather than slug it out in the fog of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It was a little over 50 miles back to the hotel, and we did it in about an hour.  Some really nice, sweeping turns coming down from 4,000 feet.  Tomorrow, we leave for home, likely in the rain.  Good thing it's only 400 miles tomorrow.  Ugh!