We woke up to a sunny morning and the mountain view from the little Ridge Top Motel was quite impressive. When went to pack up our bikes we found that the manager had kindly layed towels over all three of our seats to keep the dew off of them overnight. Nice service!
We checked out and headed down a fun little road that led us in to Cherokee, NC for breakfast. What's that you say? What's my favorite motorcycle road ever? Oh, well that would be the Blue Ridge Parkway, of course! So I was thrilled to learn that Steve planned for us to ride a section of it on this trip. We hopped on at Cherokee, which is where it begins, and rode it about 70 or so miles up to Asheville, NC. This is one of the best sections of the Parkway as it winds up and through the mountains with beautiful vistas on both sides as you curve your way through. It also has lots of neat stone tunnels and we honked in every single one of them. Steve pulled us off at one of the many overlooks and it happened to be the same one he chose the last time we were there. It's called Bunches Bald Overlook and I made him do the same pose he did before, stand behind the sign pointing at his balding head :)
We motored along further down the Parkway, enjoying the ride. We saw a little convoy of old cars coming the other direction which was cool. We pulled over again for a break and to soak up some sunshine after riding through chilly clouds in the higher elevations. This is when Dad jinxed us while he was talking to Sandy on the phone by saying "..and it hasn't even rained yet!". Nooooooo! Steve and I immediately gave him grief but the words had already been spoken and nothing could be done but wait....
So..we finished up and said goodbye to the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville. We began heading west taking some pretty country highways through some beautiful scenery. We stopped in Newport, TN for gas and it was so warm that it seemed to me like a perfect time for Dairy Queen. Steve consulted Sally and lo-and-behold there was one just down the road. Perfect! This is now an official trip! We enjoyed our blizzards and soaked up some of the air conditioning before heading back out. We also checked the radar maps on my blackberry and saw a big ugly patch of storms in the direction we were traveling. We of course blamed Dad...
It was still sunny in Newport though, so we continued heading West towards the Cumberland Gap Tunnel (yes, we already went through that a couple of days ago. We're riding in circles). We began to see the clouds getting a little darker as we went and then at one point the road curved North and took us over a big hill and there they were. Big, dark, heavy storm clouds and the rain started to fall. Steve began looking for a place to pull over but we were in between towns and he could only find a little side road to get us off the 4 lane highway. We pulled off and were just beginning to put on our rain suits when this woman yelled at us from up the hill saying we should come in out of the rain. We gladly took her up on her offer as the rain started pouring down on us. She had this little hair salon located at the end of an old flea market building and it was comfy inside with plenty of chairs and a cushy sofa. Her power was out for a while but when it came on she made us some coffee and we sat and chatted with her until her next client arrived. She was so kind to let us wait out the bad weather and we ended up sitting there for over an hour. Her name was Sharon and we found out that we had stopped in Thorn Hill, TN, they had only one stop light in town, she had lived there her whole life, and they have an annual Tomato Festival that starts next weekend. It was a fun visit :)
Once the storm passed over and it was just a drizzle, we put on our rain gear and headed back out to the four lane highway. We only had 30 more miles to go to get to Middlesboro, KY where we were stopping for the day so we figured we could push through what was left of the rain. Thankfully, though, the rain stopped as soon as we left and we finished up our ride with only a little road spray getting us wet. We cruised through the mile long Cumberland Gap tunnel and rolled in to Middlesboro around 7pm. Steve found our hotel easily and we're now in our rooms relaxing. Another day done!
Tomorrow we head back to Louisville, KY and then it's home from there.
You can click here for pics from today. I still have to upload pics from yesterday and will do that tonight.
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