CnC: A Five State Day

Today was mostly just a transport day. We are working our way north to Cranberry, Pennsylvania to meet up with a few friends and be there for the start of the Iron Butt Rally

Rather than slabbing it, we opted for more gentle roads. Slabbing is quick, but can be quite stressful as everyone is only on the road for one reason - to get to their destination as quickly as possible. There is law enforcement but it seems to be outweighed by sheer numbers. So the average pace on the Interstates is Fast. With the capital F.

So we did have to do a bit of I26 but it turned out to be a lot quieter than others. There had been a large storm go through and the weather was just clearing, with wispy clouds still in the mountains. Nice.

We crossed from North Carolina to Tennessee

Climbing into the hills, we stopped at an overlook

Looking more closely we could see enforcement at work.

Fairly quiet roads

Clearing skies

Welcome to Tennessee

Further along my selected "quieter" roads we struck fog and a bit of traffic. The interstate petered out and we were on state highways. Still four lanes mind you, but as they weren't Interstate freeways, there was the occasional set of lights. Lots of warning though.

Foggy Four-lane

The road climbed several mountains and went through some as well. Cuttings were deep, but the mountains were high. It resulted in a huge roller-coaster ride which we shared with a couple of unladen semi-trailer dump trucks. They went a reasonable speed up hills, but we could outpace them. However, when it came to downhill, it was a good idea to keep out of their way. They'd thunder past us in excess of 80mph.

That's one of them there

After a while we took a short break and detoured through a town. Out the other side we got held up by a rock fall being cleared. The tractor was comical.

Can you see the "face"?

Next couple of photos gives an idea of the cuttings. The roads through this district were put through beginning in the 1960's under the Appalachian Development Highway System which is still ongoing. It was designed to open corridors through these mountains to give access to everyone, rather than rickety mountain tracks.

One giant downhill run (after we lost the trucks) took us through a series of fast sweeping curves for many miles. Most enjoyable riding after all the straight flat roads to the west.