September 21

This morning's plan was to ride some of the approach roads to the Blue Ridge Parkway, ride some of the Parkway itself, and then be at Deal's Gap around lunch.  A friend was riding up from Panama City, he had spent last night on the road, and was planning on being at the Gap today, so we hoped to meet him and his companions for a burger.

A while back, a guy on the Motorcycle Tourers Forum who lives in the area had said that the approach roads to the Parkway were more fun than the Parkway itself.  Since these approach roads had to climb steep slopes to reach the Parkway (which rides the ridgelines), it was logical that they would nice and curvy.  I had a couple of waypoints programmed in the GPS, so I routed us to the base of 151, just west of town, and we set out.

Considering we had a lot of riding to do before lunch, we hit the road at 8:10, probably the earliest we had been on the road all trip.  Asheville was blanketed in thick fog this morning, and we rode a few miles on the Interstate, in heavy traffic, with limited visibility.  Not fun.  But soon the fog lifted, we turned onto 151, and we rode under blue skies on this beautiful fall morning.

At the Parkway, the views were killer.  The fog was still laying down in the valleys, but up here it was bright and sunny, and, strangely, warmer than down below.  I stripped off a layer.

A few miles south on the Parkway brought us to 276, which we took back down the mountain, to make a loop with 215.  You can do this loop either way (on the north or south side of the Parkway), since they join up on both sides.  We went north, simply because it looked a little shorter, and we had a schedule to keep.  It was killer.  I am sure that the south side is just as good.  We also passed the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Campground on 276, which looked like a great place to stay.

These were all very entertaining roads.  The sections of  both roads closest to the Parkway, where they are climbing the ridges...amazing.  Climbing back up on 215, I entered a decreasing radius curve, and just as I started to lean, I broke out of the shade into full sunlight.  Blinded, I could not tell how fast the curve was tightening.  A second later I hit another patch of shade and saw that I was swinging wide, and had to push HARD on the bar to correct my line.  Pegs scraping, sparks flying, I cleared the curve and set up for the next one.  Man, this is FUN!

Back on the Parkway, I had planned to jump on 23 for a high-speed 4 lane run to Deal's Gap, but the weather was so nice and the road was so good that I decided to stay on the Parkway to it's end.  We might be a little late for lunch, but they would understand.

There were TONS of Goldwings on the Parkway today.  Must have been a rally in the area.  I bet we saw 3 times as many motorcycles as cars on the Parkway this morning.

The Parkway ends at Cherokee, North Carolina, where we fueled up and headed for Deal's Gap.  We got behind a Ford pickup on 19 that was running 10 MPH below the speed limit, stacking up cars behind him on this twisty road with no passing lanes.  He wasn't about to pull over and let anybody by, either.  Grrrrrrrrr!

We rode 28 up to Deal's Gap, which is a wonderful road as well.  You can have just as much fun on 28 as you can the Gap, with half the traffic.  Not a bad deal!

13 miles down the hill, I had service, and the news wasn't good.  Rider down.  But not a lot of injuries or damage, and they were up and running again.  I shook Eric's hand and he headed west towards home, and I headed back up the hill to wait for Steve.  They showed up about 20 minutes after I got there. 

The downed rider had a bit of road rash on his knee and some broken plastic and scuffs on his bike.  But he was in good spirits and ready to continue with the trip.  I chatted with them as they ate, then headed back down the hill on 129 towards TWO, where I had a room at the lodge waiting for me.

Little Tennessee River and Cheoha Dam, from the US 129 bridge below Deal's Gap.

My bottle of tequila was dry, so I stopped a liquor store somewhere along the way to replenish.  I knew that TWO's kitchen would be closed tonight, but had considered checking in, then riding a few miles to a restaurant that I liked at Turner's Corners.  But the further I rode, the more I didn't like that idea.  It had been a long day, and once I got to TWO and settled in, I probably wasn't going to want to leave.  So I stopped at a grocery store in Blairsville, bought a couple of "instant lunch" meals with tuna fish and crackers, and a couple of apples.  It made a fine dinner.  The tab?  $5.86.

TWO sits deep in a valley, and there is no hope of a cell signal getting in there, so just before sunset, I saddled up and rode a few miles to the top of Woody Gap to call home.  The Appalachian Trail crosses the road at this spot.  I made some of my last pictures of the trip as I talked to Lana there.

There were about a dozen people staying at TWO that night...a couple on a BMW Rockster from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, three Harley riders from New Jersey, a husband and wife team from Miami that had trailered up a couple of sportbikes, a guy from Tallahassee on a BMS GS...the usual assortment of interesting characters.  We sat around on the porch and drank and lied till about 10.  A fierce wind whipped up, indicating bad weather on the way.  The forecast on the internet was good, but you know how that is...

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