DAY 4
9/8/2015 – Blowing Rock, NC to Deal’s Gap MC Resort, NC
After checking in the previous night at Alpen Acres, I had immediately turned my attention to finding a solution for the tail light. I searched online for locations of Honda dealerships and located one close to the BRP in Asheville. Further research turned up a better solution from the trusty archives at vtxoa.com and vtxcafe.com – the tail light bulb was a standard part that I could find at any car parts store. I located an Advantage Auto in Boone and decided to be there when they opened the doors at 7:00am. I got a 2-pack of bulbs (now I’ll have a spare) first thing in the morning and installed it. Success! Street-legal once again and ready to hit the road sans mechanical distractions.
Deciding to eat while the overnight mountain mists burned off, we found an affordable breakfast option in Blowing Rock called Southern Comforts, a cozy little place with a country theme and a diner attitude. The omelet tasted homemade, not too fluffy and got my fix of biscuits and gravy. Good stuff.
We were back on the parkway a mile or so later. Our first stop came up quickly, the Cone Manor House. This was once the house of a wealthy local businessman whose habits apparently including road-building:
We looked around a bit and then continued our way south past the Linn Cove Viaduct:
and on down the road:
Stopped off at the Museum of North Carolina Minerals. We both like earth science type stuff and spent a good 40 minutes looking at the exhibits and rock and gemstone samples all found locally:
The sky was very dramatic today – lots of clouds moving through quickly and at different heights, including the same height as us at times. Grandfather Mountain was covered by clouds and we elected not to pay the $40 total for the privilege of riding up. We also went through several more tunnels on this section of parkway. We noted that the GPS was aware of some of them: it showed a dim highlight where the tunnel was coming up and went into night mode while we were inside. For some reason, not all the tunnels were mapped this way.
Despite all logic and heavy clouds, I was determined to get to the top of Mt Mitchell, it being the highest point in the eastern US (and free). Plus, the squiggly line getting to the top looked fun. We debated on donning rain gear and decided to wait since we felt comfortable. The spur road leading up the mountain was a blast and we emerged about 7 miles later into the summit parking area enveloped in clouds, with droplets sprinkling us sporadically. Nothing to see, but I still wanted to walk up the steep path in our MC boots to the summit observation deck, which we did in order to see…more clouds. Oh well, we got a few pics with the signs to document the adventure. We left the summit without donning rain gear and of course it then started coming down steadily as we searched for a pull-off to safely park the bike. We finally found one and got our gear on and…the rain lasted only the next 10 minutes or so, and we were again in the clear for the rest of the day.
Hmmmm, the view doesn’t look like the picture:
We wound our way along the miles to Asheville, where we stopped for a tasty, if heavy, meal at Copper River Grill, a local chain restaurant. The red onion strings are delicious. We continued to absorb glorious scenery and curves until the end of the parkway at Cherokee, NC.
From Cherokee, we made our way over to Rte 28, which grew smaller and twistier as it carried us up toward the waiting Dragon in the mountains. We had a beautiful clear view of Fontana Lake and Cheoah Lake had an eerie mist layer over it right at our level that made it seem like riding next to a cliff.
It was with elation and weariness from our four day journey that we finally pulled into Deal’s Gap Motorcycle Resort at the junction with 129, for our two-day stay. Being a Tuesday evening at dusk, the place was pretty empty except for a few folks doing their last runs of the day and our fellow travellers staying at the resort.
As we were unpacking the bike and chatting with the three riders staying next door, from the road up on the hill we heard the nasty sound of scraping plastic that could only mean one thing – bike down. We couldn’t see what had happened through the trees, but someone rode up and we heard the unfortunate rider saying something about a squirrel in the road. One of our neighbors who had made his first runs that day agreed, saying the squirrels seemed particularly daring along 129 and to watch out.
I decided to wait until morning for my first Dragon run, so with the restaurant already closed at six, we dined on leftover pizza from Blowing Rock and settled into our room without wi-fi, but plenty of satellite channels to nod off to. The rooms are bare bones there, but clean and apparently designed with easy cleaning in mind (no rugs, plastic on the mattresses under the bedclothes, etc). OK for a spartan night or two, but not the most comfortable digs.
