Third Day in Motorcycle Paradise - 209 miles

Just a little rain overnight, but we were snug. Jack and Linda turned up right on 8am and we found our way out of Boone traffic and back on to the Parkway.

Almost instant bliss. No trucks, traffic lights or crossroads - lots of corners, green mown borders, hills and valleys, trees touching overhead or opening out onto green meadows - all mown. Just the odd car for overtaking practice. Lots of motorcycles to wave at.

Another two hundred miles of this - can we take it?

Yup.

First stop was at a rocks and minerals museum, run by Nat parks and explaining all the useful rocks in the area.

Then we climbed Mt Mitchell, tallest mountain east of the Mississippi. Had brunch at a restaurant near the top. I had my first ever taste of grits. Well, I probably would have if they actually had a taste.

The last section of the Blue Ridge parkway is a bit more mountainous than the last couple of days and so we had some big climbs and lots of tunnels to go through. The tunnels can be scary as on a bright sunny day you are plunged in to darkness and cannot see if there is anything on the road. One was a bit rough under the wheels. "I wonder what that was." I said. "Probably a bicyclist." says Charleen.

Once again we forgot about fuel and I was happily tooling along noticing my gauge was getting low and forgetting that Jack, who is generally using a bit more than me normally, had also done about 20 more miles last night finding their camp site. Finally, we found a side road to a town and luckily for Jack it was all downhill off the Ridge. He put in 5.9 gal so would have still had a half gallon or so - good for nearly 20 miles!!

Eventually, all good things must end and we finally came to the end of the parkway. We turned left and arrived at the town of Cherokee. It is a Reservation so the land is completely owned by the Cherokee people. It is a big tourism town with lots of motels, from the cheapest dives, up to a multistory hotel/casino. We eventually pickedout a Comfort Inn to stay for the two nights.

Got some more interesting riding to do tomorrow - without the trailers. Woohoo.

Here's todays pics and check out the exciting times on the video.

Hang-out road bridge coming up

Here it is

Mt Mitchell balcony - 6000 feet up in the clouds. Sit here and you'd probably never leave. Lovely spot.

First time seeinggrits on the menu. Had to have a go.

From atop Mt Mitchell

Mountaintop pose

They do have some interesting signs.

Most of the mountains are quite smokey today

One of the 25 tunnels on the BRP

This section had a bad winter. They are replacing it but only about half done. We had about 8 miles of this.

Smooth again, but some people pick wierd placed to turn around - see the video

Mt Mitchell is higher, but it is technically not on the Parkway as we had to go three miles off to one side.