| Blue Ridge Parkway Trip Sept 7th - 14th, 2002 A Daily Journal by Fran Hill |
| 10th |
| Robin�s arm is now red and swollen down to her elbow.. She contacted her doctor who said it should start going down by tomorrow. We are monitoring our leader�s condition closely. We are getting into our routine nicely..up at 5:45 am, load up the bikes, off to a continental breakfast, then put on our layers of clothes for the chilly morning start. We are usually on the road by 7:30 am with temperatures of about 50-60 degrees. The first 2 hours are usually a little brisk but once the sun gets higher ,it warms up fast so we have to start shedding layers. |
| Today was another beautiful ride through the mountains�we are taking pictures of some of the views, but I do not think the photos will come close to capturing the true experience. There are a lot of scary curves. Robin loves them, so we let her set her own speed and catch up with her later. I am going to go home with a lot more grey hairs than when I started this trip! |
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| We crossed the state line from Virginia into North Carolina. There was actually a white state line painted across the road. A great photo opportunity. At the next information center, we met a lone biker who had come up from Florida. He recommended that when we reach the end of the Parkway, we drive down to Deal�s Gap. It is a stretch of road with 311 turns in a 10 mile stretch. ..like we haven�t already gone around enough curves! |
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| At our next stop at a gift shop along the Parkway, we ran into a couple from Haverhill, MA on Harleys�they were enjoying the trip, as well. It was fun to meet fellow New Englanders. The woman in the information center was very nice and said she wished she could join us. We ran into a lot of that response from people along the way. |
| Places to eat along the Parkway are few and far between. It was almost 1pm before we arrived at a visitors center with a small restaurant�.by then I was absolutely starving! I can say without a doubt, that was the BEST cole slaw and the BEST apple pie I had ever tasted�course, this analysis was swayed by my starving condition. The group got a good laugh out of that. |
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| Near the end of our ride, we met a young, skinny fellow sitting and admiring the view at one of the overlooks. He was very talkative, wanted photos of us and him together, so we obliged. He gave us a brief life story of how he was originally from Louisiana, moved to Kentucky, but left there because they were all rednecks. He loved North Carolina and figured he would settle down there for awhile. Hippies are alive and well ! |
| At one of our last stops for the day, we stopped to view the �mile high bridge..it is a bridge way, way up across two peaks. An elderly gentleman, at the same stop, gave us the history of the bridge. Our time schedule did not allow us to go all the way up to cross it. He asked if I knew where he could buy one of those �3-wheelers � ..he said �I may be too old to drive one of those things you are on, but I could ride one of those 3 wheelers. � Quite a character. We got a room at the Baymont Inn in Ashville,NC. We could have travelled farther but we wanted to be close to a hospital if Robin�s arm took a turn for the worse. We went out to eat at the Texas Roadhouse, a really cool place,,, We ate way too much.. When the waitress came to start clearing the table, she spilled an entire coke all over Robin. We had another good laugh over that. Poor Robin, between the bee sting and a bath in coke, I don�t think she is having quite as much fun as us! We skipped the whirlpool tonight when we walked by and saw 2 fat, ugly men in it. A hot shower will suffice. Total Miles � Day 4- 276 Miles |
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