Gettin' Our Kicks: Chapter 39 – Day 42 Waynesville to Boone, NC

July 16, 2015

We had a great time at the Oak Park Inn, but now it was time to bid adieu and head back to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

On the way out of town we discovered these characters…

Back on the BRP, we found very little traffic and moved along at a brisk and not too over the speed limit pace.

 

At Black Mountains Overlook we ran across, what I called a Blue Ridge Parkway Butterfly (actually a Pipevine Butterfly) at a rest stop, who posed nicely for me.

We stopped at the Linn Cove Viaduct for a look-see. It was completed in 1987 at a cost of $10 million and was the last section of the Blue Ridge Parkway to be finished. - See more at: Linn Cove Viaduct

Linn Cove Viaduct from below

Just after passing over the Viaduct

Just outside of Ashville we stopped at the BRP Headquarters for a rest and a little walk around.

  

Biltmore or Bust – we Bust

We dropped down from the Parkway and into Ashville with intentions to visit The Biltmore Manson. Peace and calm gave way to big traffic and tourists once we entered the vicinity of The Biltmore. Thank God the entrance is just a short distance from the BRP.

Our plans changed quickly once we arrived however. There is a short, but idyllic winding road up to the “Buy Your Tickets Here” building. We parked and walked into the large ticket-buying place and were sort of stopped in our tracks. Tickets are $60 each… !!! All I wanted to see was the outside of the Manson and take a few pictures, but no – not possible.

60 Bucks Each!!!

This was our tour

This is my picture of the Manso

 

We headed back to the Parkway and enjoyed the remainder of the ride to Boone, NC.

We stopped for a lunch break of apples and almonds and ran into a Rolls Royce in the parking area, so we sat in front of it so people wouldn't think we were on the motorcycles....

Our Rolls...

Wild Mushrooms or Toad Stools? We didn't eat thm.

The Dog and Christian Youth and Football Hotel

Our hotel in Boone was a typical chain hotel, but under renovation, but nevertheless fine. They handled the renovation mess pretty well and not inconvenient.

However, there was a big Christian Youth Group, along with a high school football team staying in the hotel as well. Mass chaos was underway with all of the excited youth. To add to our delight, the Hotel must be the only pet friendly hotel in the surrounding 100-mile radius. About one third of the guests had dogs, plus on guest who was walking around with a parakeet on her shoulder. It was all delightfully funny.

Gettin' Our Kicks: Chapter 38 – Day 39 to 41 Vonore, TN to Waynesville, NC

July 13 - 15, 2015

July 13^th

We got a little bit of an earlier start today and headed to the Cherohala Skyway.

 

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.

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.

Warming up for the evening concert

July 14^th

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.

A wet day

July 15^th

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.

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.