Back to the Blue Ridge

We had a great week end. Deb and I went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway with Peg and Steve. We left on the bikes Thursday afternoon and went to Peg’s for the night. Steve cooked some steaks on the grill and Peg made an ice cream cake. Life is good. We got up and headed for the mountains on the 4th. We were staying at the Bluffs Lodge at Doughton Park. Steve and I stayed here last year and knew the girls would love it.

After we arrived Steve and I decided to go on a beer run. The sky looked bad but I said I would go and since I had taken all my bags off the bike, I would not take my rain gear. Wrong move. We got about 4 miles and the bottom dropped out. I was following Steve and his GPS told us to take a left. We did, and found our self on a 1 lane dirt road with twists and very steep inclines. The rain was as hard as any I have been in for a long time. The next thing we see is a 1949 Citroen CV2 coming the other way and not giving us much room.

At that point I had enough and headed back soaked to the bone. Steve went on. About 3 minutes after I got back here comes Steve. The road got worse and he followed my lead. At least he was in rain gear. The sky cleared and we went out to the patio to here a talk by the ranger and enjoy the big fire place. It was in the low 60’s and the fire felt great.
On Saturday we rode over to Mount Airy NC. It is the town that Mayberry was patterned after. They have a lot of the things from the show in town. (Wally’s Gas, the Snappy Dinner, and Floyds Barber shop)
They also have the old Court House set. We all got in the cells’ and sat at Andy’s Desk. The ride to Mount Airy was well worth the ride over.
The ride back to the lodge got a little messy. As we ascended to the parkway we hit some rain then rode in to the clouds. We were riding in about a 10th of a mile visibility on and off for 10 miles. You were afraid to stop for fear of someone coming up behind you. We got back and spent a second evening just enjoying the patio.
On Sunday we hit the road home. Deb and I decided to hit I85 and make some time on the way home. The weather was iffy. The traffic was not bad till we hit the GA. State line. We got off the interstate in Commerce, take the back way home, and stopped to gas up. As we got to Athens the sky opened up. That put us in a good rain for about 50 miles. That is not bad for a 1000 mile trip. See you all later.