July
13 - 15, 2015
July 13th
We
got a little bit of an earlier start today and headed to the Cherohala Skyway.
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| We had a nice sun rise when we left |
Cherohala Skyway winds its way between Tellico Plains, TN and Robbinsville, NC
for 43 miles, and is designated a National Scenic Byway.
It
is a beautiful road for a motorcycle ride; elevation change, twists and turns,
good surface and very scenic. The speed limit is 45 MPH, but it begs to be
ridden faster. Competent riders can safely ride it at 15 to 20 MPH faster
without putting themselves in any danger. Riding faster than that starts to
push it some unless you are pretty good. Unfortunately, there are many folks
who either think they are competent or pretty good and find out that they
aren’t so much…
We
enjoyed the ride greatly and I won’t mention how we respected or did not
respect the speed limit. Best road since Angeles Crest Highway.
After
reaching Robbinsville we continued east to the Blue Ridge Parkway and picked it
up at the Southern Terminus.
The
Blue Ridge Parkway extends 469 miles from Cherokee, NC up north to Waynesboro, VA.
People
will argue over what the best motorcycling roads are in the U.S., but the BRP
will always be in the top 3 in my opinion. There are roads with better and more
challenging turns, none come to mind that offer so much for so many miles. Not
to mention, there are countless quality motorcycling roads that cross the BRP in
case you get bored.
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| There are a number of tunnels on the southern end of the BRP. This one is The Devils Courtroom Tunnel. |
We
rode north towards Waynesville, which is off of the BRP a few miles. Judith was
running a little low on gas, so we decided to take a diversion off of the BRP
to get gas. I completely confused myself when choosing a place to go for gas
(there are no gas stations on the BRP – you need to get off and head to a town
somewhere). There are two different roads that you would ordinarily use to get
to Waynesville from the BRP. I inverted north for south in my feeble mind.
This caused me to head to a town called Brevard, about 20 miles off of the BRP and
down a pretty twisty road (that I recalled riding and hating as soon as I
started down it this time as well) and got stuck behind a parade of slow cars. The return trip
back up to the BRP went much better, with only a small parade. Thus Judith got
her first taste of technical roads in the Appalachian Mountains, albeit pretty slow.
So,
after the petrol diversion we beat feet to Waynesville and the Oak Park Inn. I had
stayed in this motel six or seven years ago, and didn’t realize I booked it
again. When we pulled up I laughed out loud.
It
is an older, but well maintained motel, with a lot of character.
After
getting checked in and settled we walked up the street and bought some beer and
wine and then sat and relaxed for a bit.
A little later we walked a block to
dinner, and when we returned we found that a couple of the guests played guitar,
mandolin and harmonica. We ended up sitting with them and several other guests, along with motel
owners listening to music. A real nice end to a real nice day.
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| Warming up for the evening concert |
July 14th
There
was a pretty good rain and more mountain style thunderstorms for most of the
day today, so I took the time to catch up on this blog.
Later
in the afternoon the storm broke and we took a walk into town. We got back just
before the next storm came rolling through.
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| A wet day |
July 15th
Timing…
They say it’s all about timing!
I
had been looking forward to going to Wheels Through Time Museum, the home to
the world's premier collection of rare & historic American Vintage
Motorcycles in Maggie Valley, NC. You can see more here: Wheels Through Time
They
are closed on Tuesday and Wednesday – today is Wednesday.
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| There it is - so close, but yet so far! |
We
drowned our sorrows in Pink Lemonade at the Salty Dog just down the road from
WTT.
After
knocking back some lemonade we took a short ride that looped back to the hotel
and I took a nap.
When
I got up I found a German flag flying in front of the room. The owner put it up
to celebrate his international visitors. Actually, there is an International
Fest in town this coming weekend and the hotel owners are getting ready by
putting up flags of different nations.
If
it looks like we will have time in the morning we might take a second pass at
WTT, but it’s doubtful we’ll make it.
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