NC Mountains → August 10 - 11, 2002
Day 1: Saturday 8/10/02
Day 2: Sunday 8/11/02
Going to ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We're getting on around Boone and heading south. Planning on going to Grandfather Mountain, Linville Caverns, and Linville Falls (the Grand Canyon of NC) on Saturday. Staying at a neat hotel in Little Switzerland called The Skyline Saturday night. Sunday will continue south down the parkway, maybe hitting Mount Mitchell, and then head back home.
Blue Ridge Parkway Links:
http://ncnet.com/ncnw/brp-intr.php
http://www.nps.gov/blri/home.htm
http://www.virtualblueridge.com
We left around 6am Saturday morning. Decided to start off the trip with a full tank of gas so went up to the corner store (that opens at 6am) to fill up. Ended up waiting about 15 minutes for them to actually turn the pumps on. After getting a little later start than we had hoped we hit the (fairly deserted) road west on I-40. Our first stop was at Elon, NC at the Cracker Barrell for breakfast. Hit the road again. After a brief stop at Yadkinville, we decided it was time to get gas at Wilkesboro. Pulled into the gas station and Marty realized they never gave him his credit card back at the Cracker Barrell. After about 15 minutes on the phone with the people at the Cracker Barrell (who insisted they did not have his card), I spent a short couple minutes on the phone cancelling the card. Luckily we had some cash and a few other credit cards we could use. We picked up lunch "to go" from the KFC across the street and I stuck it in my saddlebag. Off to the parkway.
We got to the first outlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway about 11:30am. Found a nice grassy spot in the shade and ate lunch. Spent most of the rest of the afternoon riding along the parkway and stopping at practically every outlook and taking pictures. The view was amazing and the pictures don't do it justice.
We got to Linville Falls around 2pm and spent at least a couple hours hiking around the hills there - taking lots of pictures of course. After a nice relaxing water break we rode down to Linville Caverns. The tour through the 52 degree underground canyon was quite refreshing. After looking through the Caverns we headed over to Little Switzerland, where we would be spending the night. We got to our hotel (The Skyline) around 5:30, unpacked in the (wierd) room and went downstairs for supper in the diner there. We spent the rest of the evening, til dark, walking around the hotel taking pictures and enjoying the scenery right outside the room. We were pretty tired so Marty went to sleep about 8 something and I sat in the room and watched a movie until drifting to sleep around 10.
Sunday morning we got up at 8 and ate some breakfast downstairs. Got our stuff together, enjoyed scenery from the balcony on the hotel a little longer and then headed out. Got back on the parkway going South, stopping a few times along the way to enjoy the scenery. We stopped at Crabtree Meadows and then again at Asheville. We were running low on gas but fortunately there is a gas station immediately after you take the Asheville exit off the parkway.
From Asheville I called Tiffany and unfortunately she was not able to meet us for lunch so we got back on the parkway and went back to see the Folk Art Center (about a mile away). After spending a little time there we went back to Asheville and got on I-40 and headed home. Stopped at a little diner near Mocksville for a late lunch, and ended up getting home around 6pm. As soon as we got to Asheville it got HOT, so the trip home from there was sweltering.
All in all, a good trip. :)
Starting Mileages
15008 Marty's bike
17495 Chris's bike
Ending Mileages
15556 Marty's bike
18046 Chris's bike
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