We're leaving North Carolina to embark on our 400-mile journey back to the Louisville Kentucky area some of it in the rain and all through the mountains in the beginning. Full update later tonight .
Friday, May 20, 2016
Thursday, May 19, 2016
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?
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!
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!!
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!
Blue Ridge Parkway today..
Just woke up and for our last real day down here, we'll be riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Since we're staying at the same hotel tonight, I don't have to carry all of my stuff on the bike, which is nice. Time for breakfast and to get ready to go...
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
DuPont Forest & Downtown Asheville
This morning we left the hotel and rode an easy 30 miles to DuPont State Forest. It was a real nice ride, nothing too crazy road-wise. We sorted out the bikes. One of my concerns when planning for the trip was when we walked away from the bikes, whatever we left wasn't really secure. One of the methods I planned to employ was covering the bike. That helps for sure. I also packed most of my valuables in a backpack that goes inside my dry duffel. That and my tank bag hold all of my most valuable items. So I took those two things with me when we left for the hike. I put the dry duffel on the seat, and ran a lock through the handle of the dry duffel, which now contained my motocross boots and my jacket. When seat space isn't an issue, that duffel can hold a LOT! I also put the cover and alarm on the bike. I felt pretty secure with that, especially since I would be carrying my packpack and tank bag. Here's how the bike looked before I put the cover on it:
We stopped in the visitor's office and there was a nice old lady working there who grew up in Glen Ellyn. We chatted for a bit and then I asked her if I could leave my backpack, tank bag, and jacket there with her while we hiked. She said that I could, and that was really awesome because hiking around while I carried all that crap would have been BRUTAL.
We hiked a few miles, visiting both Triple Falls and High Falls. We met and talked to several people along the path. Everyone was nice. We also found this little dude warming himself on the rocks:
The Rhododendron bushes were in bloom also:
Here are some photos, followed by videos of Triple Falls:
We also hiked up to High Falls. Here's a couple of pictures/video of High Falls:
After eating at the Wicked Weed, we walked around downtown Asheville. It's a real hippie scene. Lots of people wandering in the streets. Everyone's tattood, and I'm not sure what the hell some of these vendors are selling.....like this dude:
We walked around downtown a bit, before leaving around 5pm and hit some traffic. The ride to our next hotel in Marion was about 40 miles and was a great stretch of road. It was the first time we opted NOT to put our rain gear on "just in case", because it's so freakin' HOT. So naturally, we got about 20 miles into our ride and it felt CERTAIN that it was going to rain. I put the hammer down and rode most of the way back at 65-70mph. We beat the rain, checked in, and the nice girl at the front desk let us leave the bikes right out front under the shelter. We showered, and then walked 2 miles to a Mexican restaurant. It was a long walk (along the highway) after a long day of riding and walking. It felt like it might rain, but we risked it. The place was good! When we were getting up to leave, we noticed that it was POURING outside! We talked to one of the girls working there and she said that there is indeed a taxi service in Marion. Who knew? It was a $7 fare, so with a $3 tip it cost us each $5 to not have to walk back a mile and a half in the rain.
That's basically the story of the day. Tomorrow we're on to Blue Ridge Parkway for our last real day down here.....
We stopped in the visitor's office and there was a nice old lady working there who grew up in Glen Ellyn. We chatted for a bit and then I asked her if I could leave my backpack, tank bag, and jacket there with her while we hiked. She said that I could, and that was really awesome because hiking around while I carried all that crap would have been BRUTAL.
We hiked a few miles, visiting both Triple Falls and High Falls. We met and talked to several people along the path. Everyone was nice. We also found this little dude warming himself on the rocks:
The Rhododendron bushes were in bloom also:
Here are some photos, followed by videos of Triple Falls:
We also hiked up to High Falls. Here's a couple of pictures/video of High Falls:
And while we were at DuPont, we met a family from the Chicago area and they were taking pictures that mimicked one of the scenes from the Hunger Games movie, which was partially shot at the DuPont Forest. Brian and I thought it would be pretty funny to re-enact the same scene.. This is an extremely gay photo....Hahahaha.....but pretty funny.
We packed up and left DuPont, with our rain suits on as we weren't sure if it was going rain or not. The rain gear is HOT, so that part really sucks, but you just never know when it's going to start raining in the mountains up here. It was a 40 mile ride to downtown Asheville, where Brian wanted to hang out for a bit and see a craft brewery called "Wicked Weed".
With some of the strange directions that the GPS had given me (especially when it told me to ride essentially right up the side of the mountain yesterday!), I decide to ignore it a bit and just follow the road that I thought took us right back downtown. Well, I got us off track by a few miles, but really not too bad. Haha. We rolled into downtown Ashville, and quickly realized that it was all metered parking.....which we found a spot that we shared that was a few doors down from "Wicked Weed". Here's Brian standing outside, and a couple of pictures from inside. The food was great, and Bian said the beer was quite good, too.
Our waitress:
We walked around downtown a bit, before leaving around 5pm and hit some traffic. The ride to our next hotel in Marion was about 40 miles and was a great stretch of road. It was the first time we opted NOT to put our rain gear on "just in case", because it's so freakin' HOT. So naturally, we got about 20 miles into our ride and it felt CERTAIN that it was going to rain. I put the hammer down and rode most of the way back at 65-70mph. We beat the rain, checked in, and the nice girl at the front desk let us leave the bikes right out front under the shelter. We showered, and then walked 2 miles to a Mexican restaurant. It was a long walk (along the highway) after a long day of riding and walking. It felt like it might rain, but we risked it. The place was good! When we were getting up to leave, we noticed that it was POURING outside! We talked to one of the girls working there and she said that there is indeed a taxi service in Marion. Who knew? It was a $7 fare, so with a $3 tip it cost us each $5 to not have to walk back a mile and a half in the rain.
That's basically the story of the day. Tomorrow we're on to Blue Ridge Parkway for our last real day down here.....
Saw DuPont Forest & rode back to Asheville
We hiked several miles at the DuPont State Forest and saw lots of cool stuff. We rode back to downtown Asheville where we're going to hang out a good portion of the day. I will be posting lots of pictures, videos, and stories later tonight...
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Plans modified, but we made it to Asheville
Last night and this morning brought heavy rains to the Sapphire / Cashiers area. We saw this in the weather forecast yesterday and decided we'd modify our plans if need be. Much of the route that I planned for today was ridden by us yesterday coming into Sapphire/Cashiers, and it was REAL technical. We both decided that we didn't really need to do this again, ESPECIALLY in the rain. This morning we solidified our plan to just visit the best parts of the originally planned route. To me, that was the two waterfalls. In fairness, I only knew about one of them but learned about another one just a mile further than the one that I knew about. So we planned to ride to the two waterfalls, which were "only" 15 miles from the hotel, then turn around and ride about 70 miles to the next hotel (the first 15 would be the opposite of the next 15 - out and back from the hotel, as Asheville was in the opposite direction than the waterfalls.
It was raining pretty hard when we went down for breakfast, so we checked the radar and opted to wait until 11am checkout time before being forced to leave. It turned out to be a good decision. We did get rained on, but nothing heavy. The worst parts were the multiple layers of clothing that we put on expecting cooler weather, which caused us to sweat profusely, and the wet mountain roads. These roads had sections as technical as the dragon, only WET. It was tense. I took it slow and safe. As safe as possible anyway. Fifteen miles sounds like nothing, but trust me, fifteen miles on these roads is like a 45 minute roller-coaster ride. My first goal was to make it to our destinations alive. We did that. We met some other cyclists there...two guys on Harley's and a husband and wife on a Harley. When the one guy saw what I rode down from Chicago on, he looked at me and said, "You're a better man than me". Hahaha. Here are some pictures and a video of the two waterfalls that we stopped at. The smaller on is Bridal Veil falls. The large one is called Dry Falls. Watch the video to hear how deafening the Dry Falls are.
Leaving dry falls to ride the 70 miles to Asheville, we turned back onto the road, with my cell phone in my pocket connected via Bluetooth to my headset barking out directions to me. Let's just say the GPS directions are not always right. This time it had me turn left onto a small road, then turn right up what initially looked like a road but it went STRAIGHT UP! Once I comitted to the turn, I could not just turn around....I had to ride it out. I rode up this VERY steep hill, thinking about Brian behind me and hoping he didn't follow me. Once I got to a point where I could stop, I was STUCK, at the top of this insanely steep hill. I had to figure out a way to turn around without falling down. My bike is so damn TALL with the wider seat, I have very little contact with the ground with my feet. I'm on tip toes every time we stop. If we stop on anything but completely level ground, I have to be very aware of how I'm going to put my feet down to stay upright. With all my gear loaded, the bike is pretty top heavy. That's how I fell over on it in Bridgeton. There was no stopping it once it started to go down. I could NOT afford to have that happen on this steep hill. I didn't see Brian anywhere, which I was happy for him, but could have used his help to help me turn around. I was SURE that I was going to fall! But I slowly allowed my bike to roll backwards, until I felt the back tire hit something solid and stop. This was good. I had JUST enough room to go forward and try to turn around. This was SUPER sketchy, and then coming down this steep, wet, rocky road (it wasn't truly paved), I saw Brian there waiting for me. He told me later that he didn't know if he'd see me again. Hahaha. It's easy to laugh about it now, but it was a TENSE moment. Unbelievable. I completely ignored the GPS after that and stayed on 64 all the way back to the hotel and beyond, which I knew was correct. For the record, the GPS DID try to route me incorrectly several times. Frustrating.
The ride to the hotel was rather white knuckled on wet roads through the mountains. There were some turns that were marked "15mph" and that was NO JOKE. Some of them were so long and twisted around so much, it's difficult to believe that they didn't change our direction. A single mile on these roads is challenging. Complete concentration is required. More than once a truck came into my lane around a curve. At one point on our way out to the falls, a truck carrying what must have been garbage going the other way had a bunch of it fall out, into my lane. A pair of pants, a can, and some other garbage. Had I been there a few seconds earlier, it could have been ugly. I know I've said it several times on this blog, but riding through those mountains is no joke. It's been fun, but I have to admit that when we finally hit some straighter roads like what I'm used to, it felt relieving to just open the throttle and cruise comfortably at 65mph for a while. When we stopped for gas about 13 miles from the hotel, I had 70 miles on my trip meter for the tank of gas, and put in a little less than 1 gallon. I'm not good at math, but know that 70÷1=70. So the last TWO times I gassed up, I got 70 miles per gallon. Pretty unbelievable.
We got checked into the hotel in Asheville, then walked about a half mile to a restaurant called Stone Ridge Tavern. They had GREAT burgers,and Brian tried a few local beers that he said were great. Later we walked over to an outdoor mall where they had a field and stream store (kind of like a Cabelas), and some other outlet shops. We also got a $1 ice cream from the McDonalds in the area and walked through the outdoor mall a bit before coming home. Brian and I found our next vehicles parked there.
We also found something that you NEVER see in the Chicago area:
And just now got back to the room. Here's the view out our window:
Now we have to figure out what the weather will be like tomorrow. The only real plans that I have are to visit the DuPont State Forest. Hopefully the weather cooperates. After tonight, we spend the next two nights at the same hotel, which will be a nice change from packing up every day.
It was raining pretty hard when we went down for breakfast, so we checked the radar and opted to wait until 11am checkout time before being forced to leave. It turned out to be a good decision. We did get rained on, but nothing heavy. The worst parts were the multiple layers of clothing that we put on expecting cooler weather, which caused us to sweat profusely, and the wet mountain roads. These roads had sections as technical as the dragon, only WET. It was tense. I took it slow and safe. As safe as possible anyway. Fifteen miles sounds like nothing, but trust me, fifteen miles on these roads is like a 45 minute roller-coaster ride. My first goal was to make it to our destinations alive. We did that. We met some other cyclists there...two guys on Harley's and a husband and wife on a Harley. When the one guy saw what I rode down from Chicago on, he looked at me and said, "You're a better man than me". Hahaha. Here are some pictures and a video of the two waterfalls that we stopped at. The smaller on is Bridal Veil falls. The large one is called Dry Falls. Watch the video to hear how deafening the Dry Falls are.
Here's the video:
Leaving dry falls to ride the 70 miles to Asheville, we turned back onto the road, with my cell phone in my pocket connected via Bluetooth to my headset barking out directions to me. Let's just say the GPS directions are not always right. This time it had me turn left onto a small road, then turn right up what initially looked like a road but it went STRAIGHT UP! Once I comitted to the turn, I could not just turn around....I had to ride it out. I rode up this VERY steep hill, thinking about Brian behind me and hoping he didn't follow me. Once I got to a point where I could stop, I was STUCK, at the top of this insanely steep hill. I had to figure out a way to turn around without falling down. My bike is so damn TALL with the wider seat, I have very little contact with the ground with my feet. I'm on tip toes every time we stop. If we stop on anything but completely level ground, I have to be very aware of how I'm going to put my feet down to stay upright. With all my gear loaded, the bike is pretty top heavy. That's how I fell over on it in Bridgeton. There was no stopping it once it started to go down. I could NOT afford to have that happen on this steep hill. I didn't see Brian anywhere, which I was happy for him, but could have used his help to help me turn around. I was SURE that I was going to fall! But I slowly allowed my bike to roll backwards, until I felt the back tire hit something solid and stop. This was good. I had JUST enough room to go forward and try to turn around. This was SUPER sketchy, and then coming down this steep, wet, rocky road (it wasn't truly paved), I saw Brian there waiting for me. He told me later that he didn't know if he'd see me again. Hahaha. It's easy to laugh about it now, but it was a TENSE moment. Unbelievable. I completely ignored the GPS after that and stayed on 64 all the way back to the hotel and beyond, which I knew was correct. For the record, the GPS DID try to route me incorrectly several times. Frustrating.
The ride to the hotel was rather white knuckled on wet roads through the mountains. There were some turns that were marked "15mph" and that was NO JOKE. Some of them were so long and twisted around so much, it's difficult to believe that they didn't change our direction. A single mile on these roads is challenging. Complete concentration is required. More than once a truck came into my lane around a curve. At one point on our way out to the falls, a truck carrying what must have been garbage going the other way had a bunch of it fall out, into my lane. A pair of pants, a can, and some other garbage. Had I been there a few seconds earlier, it could have been ugly. I know I've said it several times on this blog, but riding through those mountains is no joke. It's been fun, but I have to admit that when we finally hit some straighter roads like what I'm used to, it felt relieving to just open the throttle and cruise comfortably at 65mph for a while. When we stopped for gas about 13 miles from the hotel, I had 70 miles on my trip meter for the tank of gas, and put in a little less than 1 gallon. I'm not good at math, but know that 70÷1=70. So the last TWO times I gassed up, I got 70 miles per gallon. Pretty unbelievable.
We got checked into the hotel in Asheville, then walked about a half mile to a restaurant called Stone Ridge Tavern. They had GREAT burgers,and Brian tried a few local beers that he said were great. Later we walked over to an outdoor mall where they had a field and stream store (kind of like a Cabelas), and some other outlet shops. We also got a $1 ice cream from the McDonalds in the area and walked through the outdoor mall a bit before coming home. Brian and I found our next vehicles parked there.
We also found something that you NEVER see in the Chicago area:
And just now got back to the room. Here's the view out our window:
Now we have to figure out what the weather will be like tomorrow. The only real plans that I have are to visit the DuPont State Forest. Hopefully the weather cooperates. After tonight, we spend the next two nights at the same hotel, which will be a nice change from packing up every day.
Made it to Asheville
We made it to Asheville. Ride the mountains in the rain...no fun! Full update after we eat something
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)