Blue Ridge Parkway June 2007

Dan Smith had just bought a new Nomad and was itching to try it out. He had a trailer and had got a hitch for the Nomad so he and Gail were ready to go.

Kelsey, Dan and Gail an I left the Waffle house and headed straight up 138 towards Winder GA intending to cross grain to 985 and pick up GA 441 to Cherokee. Great ride on back roads and 441 to Cherokee is not quite as exciting as 129!

We arrived at the River Valley Campground and met up with Ray and Linda who had ridden in from Huntsville, AL. We went Grannie’s Restaurant for dinner. A simple country buffet, but the food was good if you like country cooking.

After dinner we headed for the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway and on to the Blue Ridge Motorcycle campground at Cruso, NC.

Our hosts Philip Johnson and his wife were very hospitable. Absolutely no cell phone service on the parkway except for Verizon. Philip was gracious enough to lend out his cell phone to those who needed it. The dining area is under an open area, (with a roof of course!) and the food was very good. The Johnson’s server a great breakfast and dinner. We had fresh trout for dinner that was caught that morning.

As usual, a great group camping there with people from as far away as Nova Scotia and headed out to everywhere. Met Bruce on his Honda 1100 who was from New Hampshire but embarrassed us by knowing more about roads and trails in the Georgia Mountains than we did!

Dan and Gail headed back to Blairsville Saturday morning, where he has a cabin, as Dan had to be in Oregon on Monday. We had a leisurely breakfast and rode into Cruso for gas. Ray discovered he had left his gas cap at the last gas station where he had filled up. The owner of the little country store was obliging enough to remove the lid from a pickle jar which served as a make do gas cap very nicely!. The road back up to parkway from Cruso made Deals Gap look like a picnic, but we were soon on our way.

The Parkway is quite high and, in spite of the fact it was summer, was quite cold. Warm clothing is essential for this ride. The Parkway through North Carolina is breathtaking and a lot of time was spent at overlooks. This section of the Parkway has a lot of tunnels. Many of the tunnels are on a curve as they follow the contour of the mountain and all of them are not lit. Coming out of bright sunshine into a tunnel that is curved so that you cannot see the other end plunges you into total darkness with eyes that have not had time to adjust. Fortunately none of us were wearing sunglasses or we would have been totally blind. Especially true of the lead bike with no tail lights to follow. Keep the sunglasses off on this section!

No gas on the Parkway, so you have to come off the Parkway to get gas. As all of the towns are in the hollows at about 1000 feet and most of the Parkway in North Carolina is above 4000 feet, you get to drop over 3000 feet in altitude in about three miles in most cases. These roads are an endless series of very tight 180 degree hairpin bends that are really exciting to ride. Stop for gas often, its a great ride!.

About 50 miles before Doughton Campground the sky turned really black so we stopped an put on rain gear. Just in time. The rain came down in buckets with high winds and lightning. It only lasted a few miles and we rode out of it. Once we got to Doughton we decide to go on to Meadows of Dan as there was a Motorcycle Camp Ground there. We arrived at Meadows of Dan at 9:00 PM. The restaurant closed at 9:00 PM, but the country store was open and they served a pretty good Philly Cheese steak. Kelsey was cold and tired and between him and Ray and Linda I was out voted and we stayed at the Blue Ridge Motel instead of the Campground. Once we were checked in, I rode down to the campground. It is called Willsville and is owned by Will Beers. It looked a great place. Everyone was around the campfire. I was greeted with shouts of “The Pigman” which was a little confusing. It turned out that at Caruso I was telling the fabled story of Lucky Lips, a pig owned by my sister in South Africa, loud enough to entertain most of the other campers. They found the story pretty funny and two of the folk there recognized me instantly by my accent as the person who told the pig story. I reluctantly returned to the motel and to sleep.

The next morning we headed for Roanoke where there was a Harley dealer and Ray had hopes of replacing his gas cap. As it was Sunday, the dealer was closed, so the pickle jar cap had to stay put for the rest of the trip!