I didn't ride through the rain to Knoxville on Thursday,
I left for ground zero on Friday. The rain let up here
around 10am and off I went, dry through South Carolina
and up into North Carolina on 221. I went into a cloud
near Grandfather Mountain, visibility way down, not
raining but everything was wet and drippy (including
my faceshield). That went on for a long time, before
and after the entrance to Grandfather Mountain. It was
Friday of Labor Day weekend and I was at Grandfather Mountain,
but there was no traffic, almost no other cars. I stopped
to change over to my rain gloves and looked back
to where I came from...
...and towards where I was headed - that was encouraging!
I had the plan of jumping onto the parkway soon, to bypass
Blowing Rock and Boone, but I was worried that if 221 was that
foggy, what would the parkway be like?
The parkway was dry with great visibility. I used it for 20
miles from about Moses Cone to Deep Gap and totally missed
all the traffic at Blowing Rock and Boone.
Back onto 221 and pretty soon it started raining, but
not pouring... I already had my jacket liner on for
warmth, and I didn't put on my rain pants.
Almost to sparta on 221, 221 and 16 become the same road
for a little while, then they split up again. 221 to sparta,
16 to... Shatley Springs...
http://shatleysprings.com/Site/wp-content/uploads/file/Shatley_Springs_Lunch_Dinner_2017_Menu.pdfI got the Family Style Country Meal, it was terrific.
On to Sparta, still light rain. Everyone was there and the hotel
courtyard was hopping for a while... the hotel is designed perfectly for
a gathering like this one, it was easy to still be outside
with each other and the bikes even though it was drizzly all
night... Here's a picture of the hotel I took at dawn the
next morning, but by then I guess my camera was as soggy as
everything else?
We continued to hang around the motel the next morning, nobody was
psyched to take off on a ride in the rain first thing out of bed...
Around 12 or 1 a bunch of us took off in the mist for "Mayberry",
and Mark led another group to lunch at Shatley Springs.
Mayberry's not really a place. They have a "Mayberry-like"
area set up at Mount Airy, down the road from Sparta. Mayberry
was part of a giant back lot at the 40 Acre movie studio lot in
California. Some episodes of Star Trek were shot in Mayberry,
including A Piece of the Action, Miri and City at the Edge of Forever.
Our trip to Mayberry was real interesting... we took off through
some nice rolling countryside and soon hit The Mist and lots of
ups and downs and curves. We got to Mayberry and poked around
in the Courthouse and at Emmett's fixit shop. There were nice
vintage sheriff cars taking folks around Mount Airy, I don't
know where, maybe places Andy Griffith frequented when he was
growing up there... We left Mayberry, north into Virginia on
52, which we thought would probably give us access to the
parkway... there's... miles... of flea markets at the state
line.
We got on the Parkway at Fancy Gap and visibility went practically to zero.
We stayed on the Parkway 20 miles or so and got back off at 18 near
Sparta and headed back to ground zero. A good amount of hanging out
ensued and pizzas were eaten. People started watching football
here and there and the whole place quieted down around 10:30 or
so.
The next morning it was time to leave, and the sun was out. But
we mostly all left in groups, so the ride was on! A bunch of us
took off south on the parkway, and we owned it for a while. It
was the most fun I'd had on the parkway in a while, and I think
the others had fun too...
Me and Randy had planned to drop out of the group onto 221 after we got past
Boone and Blowing Rock. Traffic was beginning to pick
up on the parkway around that area. There's a bunch (five or six?)
of 221 exits off the parkway, I stopped at the second one. Randy and I
decided that wasn't the right one, we needed to go farther,
so we took off again on the parkway to find the right exit.
When we got there, Randy kept on going, turns out he had a
different idea about the right exit. This caused us to continue
on the parkway long enough to go across the Linn Cove Viaduct,
I never get tired of that...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linn_Cove_ViaductWe exited at Randy's place, right above Grandfather mountain,
and 221 was a parking lot. No, I mean literally. Cars were turning
around. We turned around and kept on the parkway. We passed
the group we had recently split up from as they sat at a rest
area. We jumped off onto 221 again near Linville Falls and it
was clear sailing the rest of the way home.
It was great seeing everyone again... Here's Hal, a really good dude.
Here's Carolyn, when she was first mending up from her dislocated
hip, and Bentley, the dog who ate my GoPro.
-Mike
