Stanley Steamer rode to my house on Saturday and we headed
to Sparta North Carolina for a meetup at the Alleghany Inn.
https://goo.gl/maps/Vmh9fxpGYqkEekVSAI wanted to go on some new roads and we both wanted to use the
Parkway so we went up to the parkway at 215, used it to sneak past
Asheville and go through a bunch of tunnels, and exited at
Spruce Pine. The rest of the route was a mish-mash of roads.
All Paved! A few I had never been on.
In the 40's the United Daughters of the Confederacy planted
125 acres of Red Spruce trees... 125,000 trees. I only recently
realized that's what kind of tree you make good guitar tops out
of. I guess these probably have too many knots...
The next day a whole bunch of us headed up the parkway to
Roanoke. Both days, perfect weather. Near the end I turned on
my camera...
I like the parkway up there, it is more mellow than the
southern end.
Here's a picture of Floyd and Megan my camera took while I
was turning around at the Parkway exit...
Arrival!
A bunch of smart people went riding on Monday morning. Not me.
After that the rain started. I looked at my little google weather
app and decided that there would be a few hours early Tuesday
that it might not be raining much. I couldn't find anyone to
go with me, but I was bound to go look around. I made this route:
https://goo.gl/maps/iwjJZaGUNtkGnWMp6At first it was kind of wet and slimey...
Then wetter and slimier...
Then better...
It was great that we were all stuck there in the rain, yet this
was a really good InZane anyway. There were several places to gather
outside, plus the tech sessions and pie sales and the Thursday
night meal. Willow called out all the raffle numbers and uniquely
described all the prizes. The charity this year was a place
that helps disadvantaged kids, a ride there for lunch was
scheduled. Because of the rain, they brought a great meal
over for lunch the planned day of the ride instead.
https://www.appleridge.org/overview/As always at InZane there's a component of the folks who spend
all their time in the parking lot working on bikes or looking
at people working on bikes. And drinking beer. A lot of this was
focused on the motel's large front desk covered entrance because
of the rain. The motel tolerated it because I guess they knew what
they were in for when the agreed to host a large motorcycle group.
Still they kept getting Willow to encourage everyone to cover their
beer cans with a coozie...
By Thursday I was encouraged by my weather app and believed
I might make it home mostly dry. It rained all night and I
left in a light mist. Bent Mountain was encased in a cloud,
I went pretty slow through there. I could see a patch of
blue by the time I got to Floyd. My face looked like I'd been
hiking in the desert by the time I got home, it was a great
ride. I used a lot of 221, 18 and 64 to get down to my neck
of the woods, bigger roads than I often use. I bounced off
the side of a few towns like Galax and Morganton and
Rutherfordton, but spent most of the day in the country.
Early on when I came past that Freeborn's place on 18 the road
headed up into a cloud and turned into massive twisties and
switchbacks, that was the only other place I lost sight of
blue sky.
Carolyn was standing in the driveway when I got home...
It was great spending a week with everyone!
-Mike
