Friday, May 25th

 

I woke up and looked at the clock on Chan’s side of the bed at 8:16 AM., Chan was still asleep, so much for his early morning ride! I figured this would be the case, we both are such bed heads! Breakfast would be served at 9:00 so I needed to get up and get ready, but the bed in “Appleview” was soooo comfortable!  I loved the down comforter and will have to purchase one soon.  Finally at 8:30 I woke Chan and told him we had to get up.  After another fantastic breakfast this morning of sour cream/walnut/zucchini pancakes with all the trimmings we get ready to go to Grandfather Mountain.  I preferred to ride two up today, so Chan drove my bike to put some miles on it.  There is a very twisty road (#194) you can take that brings you out close to Linville that Chan loves to ride. We had driven it in the truck the first time we came up and I knew I really didn’t want to drive it myself yet. (To be honest, I don’t think it was any worse than the one I had gone up yesterday to the Parkway.)  I took these pictures as we went up it.

 

 

A car and a truck ended up in front of us, slowing us down.   I really didn’t mind, but Chan was a little ticked at the slow traffic.  I told him it was just answer to my prayers J!  He was not amused. 

 

We arrived at the entrance to Grandfather Mountain and the ticket lady hands Chan a paper to read that was for all motorcyclists. “Beware of very sharp curves!  Going to slow will cause you to drop your bike!”.  They were not joking when they said very shape curves, as you can see from this video I shot.  8.6 Mb, 2:15 minutes, WMV format.  The problem was the car drivers that were CRAWLING around the corners, making it hard to keep the speed up on the bike.  Chan handled the curves like a pro, I always feel safe riding with him, at least I do 99.9% of the time.  The .1% is the rare scraping peg!  This is a heart stopping moment for me, it didn’t happen this trip.  (At least it didn't happen with Lana on the bike--Chan).  We got to the top and walked out to the mile high bridge. The weather was gorgeous, but a bit breezy and nippy, glad I left my motorcycle jacket on.

 

 

 

 

My phone rang while we were up there, an agent wanting to show one of my listings.  I told her it was vacant to go ahead and show, she had no idea I was in NC.  (Sidenote: People frequently ask me "Why do you answer your phone and check email while you’re on vacation"?  I do because it takes all of 5 minutes, I can still make a deal happen that might not have otherwise, AND my sellers never have to worry when I’m away.  They know they can call or email me and I will be in contact soon.  I can work a deal totally from the road as long as I have cell service, especially now that we use our phones as a modems for the laptops.  Gotta love technology).

After soaking up the eye candy from the top of the mountain, we hopped back on the bike to go see the animal exhibit.  This bear was being fed by another visitor and was so cute. 

The otters apparently were very tired, they would lay there asleep for several minutes then one would have to scratch an itch, then lay right back down.  They are such fun animals to watch! 

As we were walking back to the bike we see another V-Strom coming into the parking lot. Of course we have to go speak to the rider with such good taste in bikes!  Winnie and her husband Rick (riding a 1200 Harley Sportster), were up from Gainesville.  We found out that they belong to the StromTrooper message board and would be getting together for a ride at the end of June. Their final destination will be Apalachicola, so we hope to ride over there that weekend to visit, and invite our other local friends to go that have Stroms.  Winnie commutes to her job at UF everyday on hers and uses her tank bag for her purse.  We thought she was really cool!  We needed to get on the road to Pleasant Garden, so we said our goodbyes. 

Once we were back to the B&B I start checking my email, as I had received a call that my Homes & Land real estate ad proof needed to be approved.  I asked Tom & DeeDe if I could take their photo for the website, she jokingly told me as long as it was for promotion she would allow it!

 

 

After the photos were taken I picked up 3 of DeeDe’s fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and a diet Coke, J and off we went, leaving right at 2:00 as planned. In the distance was a very black cloud.  This area was needing rain badly, just as we were in Florida. We were almost to Boone when the bottom of the cloud fell out and it started pouring.  It rained all the way through town.  We were almost out of town on 421 when an SUV turned left in front of us to enter a parking lot.  But instead of moving on across our lane, the driver came to a dead stop, directly in our path!  The road was slick with rain, plus we had a trailer full of bikes behind us, and this idiot stopped dead in front of us!  Chan was on the brakes hard as she slowly started to move, but she wasn't moving fast enough.  Chan swerved around her, horn blaring.  We are thankful no one was in the passing lane as he would have side-swiped them.  (Much profanity uttered--Chan).

 

We arrived at Gary & Dulcie’s at 5:20, with just a few minutes to spare before Evan's ballgame.  Evan was the star of the team this game.  Gary told him to play his best for his Aunt Lana & Uncle Chan, and he did!  He hit several base hits and even got a solo home run!  For having just turned 7 he is quite good, and of course I’m not prejudiced in the least!  Drew and Reece had more fun playing with each other than watching the game, but I was cheering all the little ones on as if they were my kids.  Chan had never been with me to a sports event, he was quite surprised at my enthusiasm, even saying (jokingly) that I was embarrassing him!  Game video, 4.5 Mb, 1:19 min, WAV format.

 

 

Drew and Reece

Evan

Gary, Reece, Evan

 

Reece, hamming it up

I told Gary not to steal that car...
After the game was over we headed back to the camp.  Dulcie’s mom Jill had parked her cute retro camper over beside Gary & Dulcie’s. She had left a message that she would not make it over for the night, so if Chan & I wanted to sleep in it we could.  We thought that was so nice of her and decided that we would take her up on the offer and avoid setting up our tent in the dark. 

 

 

Dulcie had practically bought out the grocery store (just kidding!), so we had plenty of snacks and drinks while we waited for the hotdogs to cook.  I made chili for the dogs in Dulcie's very cute camper.  She had recently remodeled it, she is very talented.

 

 They had invited another couple, Tripp ("My parents were hippies", he explained) and Martha, and their four kids to come camp with us. Their daughter, Leah, is Evan’s girlfriend. You must  understand that Leah can take on any boy any day of the week, she can throw a ball and swing a bat with the best of them.  I think that is why Evan likes her so much!

 

Most of the adults sat around the camp fire until 2:00 a.m, with exception to Martha who had gone to bed around midnight with the 5-month old Mailey. 

 

 

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