DAY 10

Ok here is day 10, it’s Thursday morning and I’m getting a tire put on the bike at Roanoke Harley so time to knock out yesterday.

Had a very loud night Tuesday with thunder and driving rain outside while we tried to sleep. The morning brought drying streets, scattered clouds, nice temps, and no more rain. We quickly found a route back to the Blue Ridge Parkway that looked interesting and took us thru Boone the home of Appalachian State University. The road quickly became very rural, small farms and very old buildings some still in use and some abandoned. It appeared that a family would wear out a house and just build another next door without ever tearing the old house down. It was interesting that some looked on the verge of falling over but still had their Dish Network satellite TV. We stopped for a break at a small store deep in the woods, not an overly outgoing group at the store. I had to ask the clerk three times how much I just couldn’t understand her, finally gave her more than enough and waited for change.

We drove by two drive-ins today, regular old fashioned single screen drive-ins with big wooden structures holding the screen. Out front by the road was the old marquee where they hang the letters one was showing Rio and one had the ultimate drive-in movie, Scream 4. Looking in as we drove by these places still had the pole mounted hang it on your window speakers, no stereo here. An old house we drove by that was right up against the side of the mountain had a mid forties black Ford parked out front that looked to be in pretty good shape from the road. I bet the residents grand-daddy used that car to run ‘shine into town for the townies, wouldn’t be surprised if the current resident has the same occupation.

Finally back on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a little different from the southern end. The road was still great two lane with limited cross streets but with some small farms and lodges along the road. The scenery went from mountains to rolling hills with a mix of open meadows to dense forest, all of it so green it almost hurts your eyes. We had very little traffic all day with the occasional car or bike we came up on pulling over at their first opportunity to let us by, my left arm got tired waving at all the bikes going south.

We stopped for lunch just off the parkway at Station Inn, a biker friendly restaurant and bar with a huge parking lot for events. There was just us and one other table but they had seating for probably 200 for weekend events. Sat outside at a picnic table, waitress had a good sense of humor, food was good, creek running by, surrounded by forests. I would have sat there all afternoon and been very happy; this is country I will come back to populated by friendly easy going people.

After lunch back on the parkway and immediately ran into very thick fog made the riding tense and eerie. The fog didn’t last for long and we were back up speed headed down the road. We are now in Roanoke VA and following service to the bikes we will finish the last 100 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway and start the Skyline Drive. It’s Thursday morning as I write this at the Harley Dealer and I have absolutely no idea where we will be tonight, that’s as it should be.