Wednesday was just a long day in the car. 15 hours to Chattanooga. Checked into the hotel room at 0130.
Thursday, Up at 7, well, 8, but if we leave by 9 we should be there in plenty of time. So, at 9 we roll out. Of bed. Got the bikes unloaded, loaded the panniers, geared up and we're ready to leave at... 10:15. Hit the starter and...click. Great. Battery tender wasn't plugged in when I was futzing with the GPS for an hour or more the night before I loaded it, so dead battery. Had a booster pack in the truck though so got it started and we rolled out. At 10:40.
Bikes off the trailer in Chattanooga
Chattanooga to the Dragon Pitt BBQ I didn't take any pics. It would have been 100 miles of flea markets. Apparently it's tradin' days or something here.
Finally onto a secondary road heading into the mountains.
Got to the BBQ joint at the end of 129 and had a great lunch. Pulled pork sandwich with bacon, cheese, and grilled onions. Quite tasty. Hmmm, I know I took a picture of the bikes in front of this sign. I'll come back and replace this one later.
Rode the famous stretch of 129 known as The Tail of the Dragon.
A few pics of us on US129 (The Dragon) from the commercial photographers on the road:
Then we rode up through Cherokee and picked up the southern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
From the GoPro:
A couple shots from my iPhone.
The Parkway was an incredible ride. 45 mph speed limit was a tad low but didn't take too much fun away. We had the thing practically to ourselves as the heavier traffic was heading the other direction. With one exception, when we came up behind someone, they took the next turnout to let us pass. It was 80 miles of curvy bliss with gorgeous mountain and valley views and a bunch of way cool tunnels thrown in. And no stop signs or traffic signals on the whole parkway.
We finally rolled into the Expo grounds about 6 and set up camp. Gates were closing at 7, so that was our time constraint and we made it despite the late start.
With camp set up, we headed to town for dinner at Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack. We are way too much. And it was awesome.
Back in camp we had a few more beers, set up the laptop to watch an episode of South Park on the tailgate and are heading to bed. Two days of very little sleep are taking their toll.
More tomorrow.
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