Last year, we rode the Blue Ridge Parkway from the northern terminus to Boone, North Carolina. We experienced favorable weather and beautiful scenery in 2016. This year, we set out to ride the southern part of the Parkway, and I imagined scenes like those we experienced last year. This was not to be the case.
We departed our hotel on time at 8 AM knowing the forecast was for 80 to 90% percent rain beginning mid-to-late morning. With this being the case, we made a decision to forego our visit to the Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum in an attempt to get ahead of the precipitation. This turned out to make the circumstances better - but hardly ideal. We started the day dry but in rain gear. We finished the day WET, and still in rain gear. Wet roads and on again and off again rain were the order of the day. Even more significant was heavy fog on much of the parkway, obscuring the views we were anticipating. Of particular note was our view at the Mount Mitchell summit, where a blanket of fog was the order of the day. What should have been a beautiful panorama of the Great Smokey Mountains was... well... not that at all. We enjoyed lunch at the summit anyway, and enjoyed the camaraderie this band of brothers has come to cherish.
All was certainly not lost. At one point, I remarked that I had not laughed so much in a long, long time. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we are all connected in conversation via our Cardo Scala Ride PackTalk communication systems. While there is practical value in the ability to communicate, much of our conversation is just friends being friends... boys being boys... and I laughed so much at times I could barely ride. After some of the things we've encountered in recent days, I
needed to laugh. Psalm 126:2 says,
"Then our mouths were filled with laughter; our tongues sang for joy. Then it was said among the nations, 'The Lord had done great things for them.'" Yes, we laughed so hard we could barely ride. But riding was the order of the day - and we did indeed ride.
Today was a short day by our standards - just 209 miles. The museum and 20 carefully-selected scenic overlooks were the plan for the day. As mentioned previously, we skipped the museum. We bypassed a number of the planned overlooks due to low-hanging clouds that obscured any view at all. But all was not lost. We found other overlooks in places where the "fog" or clouds had broken. You'll see some of these expressions of God's handiwork below. We encountered a bit of excitement in the form of a mother brown bear and three precious cubs. Matt remembered a waterfall - Linville Falls - that was not a part of the plan that made for a pleasant hike and beautiful scenery. We're certainly hoping for more favorable weather tomorrow - especially given some very aggressive roads we'll be riding, including US 421, known as The Snake and a 32-mile stretch of VA 16 known as The Back of the Dragon. But even with the challenges weather presented, we still had a wonderful day together, and can't wait for another ride tomorrow as we continue to press north on our way to Nova Scotia.
Here are some experiences from Day 2, along with an introduction to some of the characters in our story:
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| The momma bear! |
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| Another overlook |
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| Linville Falls |
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| Me |
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Six Friends
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| Randall taking in the beauty |
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| Trent |
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| Steve |
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| Father and son - Steve with Junior |
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| Under the Linn Cove Viaduct - a story for another day |
