Blue Ridge Parkway

May 22nd - 26th, 2003

Trip Statistics:

Time Traveled - 5 days
Miles Traveled - 1096
Accommodations - $265
Gas - $40
Food (Estimated) - $75

May 21st - The night before - I am finished packing and about ready to go to bed as I type this. I am excited about the next 5 days and looking forward to what we will see around the next corner. Three days should be plenty to get a good look at the Parkway even if the weather forecast of "rain and more rain" holds true. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather will be kind to us and check this page daily. I am taking a laptop with me and hope to be able to upload our adventures from our hotel each night. I wish you were with us.

May 22nd - It is 6:00 A.M., drizzling rain and 58 degrees. The forecast is not as good as I had hoped. While it may not be hard rain that is forecast, it looks like we might be in or near rain most of the day. I am glad we don't have to rush our schedule. Only about 250 miles to cover today. I will type more this evening.

  6:00 P.M. and all is well. Wayne Caldwell, Ned Goodman and Judy Morris all showed up for the ride this morning as promised.
  The temperature dropped a little first thing and was down to 52 degrees when we pulled out from our meeting place. It recovered quickly and we experienced the low 60's as our high today. There was a glimmer of sun and blue sky briefly as we passed through Bean Station, TN. on Rt. 11W. In Bristol, we got on I-81 for a few miles and made a brief stop at the new Harley Dealership in Abingdon for a T-shirt. We got off I-81 and on to Rt. 19 North for a short time. At Holston, Virginia we left the State Route and followed County Road 689 to 613 to Rt. 42 in Broadford. Now, my plan was to follow Rt. 42 all the way to State Rt. 460 and then into Blacksburg, but it did not work out that way. (Did I mention I cost us 1/2 hour in Saltville, Va.? Well, I know the town a little better now.) Apparently, Rt. 42 starts and stops without warning. It will change numbers and become a County Road leaving map makers without enough room to mark all the changes correctly.
  Actually, it was a good day. The rain held off and the valley we rode up was beautiful. If you look at a map, you will see Rt. 19 and 460 run parallel to Interstate 81, divided by 20 - 40 miles. Now look at the roads that run in between them from Abingdon to Blacksburg. That's pretty much the area we covered. Mostly farmland with a few small towns sprinkled in for a little Rockwell effect. I am glad we had a small group today because I was confused and lost a few times however, it is a ride I want to do again. Maybe as a weekend ride.
    The forecast for tomorrow is rain, rain, rain. The good thing is that we can take the scenic route of 250 miles or the Interstate and a much shorter 150 miles.

May 23rd - My phone rang early this morning. It was Wayne on the line telling me he had a emergency at home and had to head back to Tennessee. A friend has been in a car wreck and is in Intensive Care at U.T. Our thoughts have been with you today.
  Judy, Ned and I waited out the rain and did not leave the hotel until after 11:00 A.M. We were lucky again today, weather-wise. The road was wet but there was only one short area of fog that got our windshields wet. No rain again today which defied the weather forecast.
  We left the hotel and headed back West on 460 and then East on Rt. 42. This time I paid better attention to the road and map, catching the subtle changes on the map and applying them to our travel. For example, when Rt. 42 ended and Rt. 615 went straight ahead, we went straight and started following 615. It worked perfectly.
  The scenery today was better than yesterday. A lot of farmland with old houses painted white. The lush green grass really made the houses stand out and their red or green roofs added to the look. White fence posts and well manicured yards and pastures made the whole picture worthy of postcard..... over and over again for most of the afternoon.
    We are now in Staunton arriving at 4:00 P.M. again, missing rain by a hour or so. The weather forecast for tomorrow is for warmer temps and afternoon rain. The warmer weather will be good for the next few days since we will be traveling at higher elevations. We plan to checkout at 9:00 A.M. and will be at Rock Fish Gap at 10:00 A.M. to meet friends. Tomorrow we plan to ride the  Parkway to Rt. 8 and stay in Christiansburg tomorrow night.
  I uploaded a few photos today.

May 24th - A Gold Wing arrived at our hotel last night. I watched the rider unpack at about 10:00 P.M. This morning at 6:30, he was gone. I thought about how it would be to travel on a motorcycle with that type of schedule. A schedule that pushed you to spend $55 for a place to get 8 hours sleep. I hope he makes it to wherever he was going.
  We rode the short distance to Rockfish Gap where we met Chris and Sharon Davis at 10:00 A.M.. They are C.R. members and live in Richmond. After hugs and hellos, we headed South on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
  The weather was with us again today. It was a little foggy this morning and cool at higher elevations on the Parkway, but very, very good considering the forecasts just a few days ago. Our first stop was at mile post 6 to get maps at the Ranger Station. Weather reports were good down to Peaks of Otter which encouraged our attitudes. There were several random stops for breaks and photo ops. so we did not cover a lot of ground based on the time we rode. We rode about 220 miles total today and covered the first 165 miles of the Parkway.

  May 25th - This was the best day we have had thus far on this ride. We left the low lands of the Roanoke Valley and are now in the mountains of Western North Carolina. There were plenty of stops with an extended break at Mabry Mill. We walked the loop trail and saw exhibitions at the Blacksmith's Shop and Grist Mill.
  There was one disappointment today though. Two years ago we met friends at the Meadows of Dan restaurant. This year, it was not open. In fact, it is not even on the Blue Ridge Parkway map anymore. They were supposed to be there again this year but I am not sure if they made it or not. (Sorry, Gary).
  I got a nice surprise in Galax, Virginia. We stopped at Hardee's for lunch and passed club business type cards to the other bikers at the restaurant. Steve Jenkins found out we were there and introduced himself. He reminded me he has been on Country Roads mailing list for some time. Steve was riding with his wife, brother and sister-in-law. Hopefully, they will ride with us in the near future.
  As I sit in my room watching the NASCAR Winston Cup race in Charlotte, I see the race is under caution for rain. I looked out the hotel window and see it has just started here in Boone as well. Today was great, weather-wise with quite a bit of sun and only a brief sprinkle or two. I think it was warmer today but there were a few moments of cool air due to the elevation. Ned reports to me that the weather forecast for tomorrow has greatly improved since this morning. Our plan now is to leave Boone at 9:00 A.M. tomorrow morning. If the weather is good, we will ride all the way to Cherokee but if it turns bad, we will get on I-40 in Asheville and ride directly back to Knoxville.
  Mother nature was in fine form today. Flowers were to be seen everywhere. Pink, purple, yellow, orange and white were dominant colors.
  We got to the hotel in Boone just in time for the NASCAR Pre-Race show on television. The room was a steal at $50 a night in this NEW Fairfield Inn. Some of the group (not NASCAR fans) elected to go to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner which was about two blocks away. It turned out to be a mistake in that it was pouring the rain whenever they started back to the hotel. This turned out to be the only real rainstorm we got caught in the entire ride.

  May 26th - A continental breakfast on the patio allowed me enough time in the outdoors to realize the temperature had dropped during the night. Skies have cleared considerably but it is about 10 degrees cooler than I expected. Goodbye to Chris and Sharon who headed back to Richmond.
  The reminder of the ride was about as good as it gets. Visibility improved as the day got longer and we stopped several times for photo ops. We had lunch on Mt. Mitchell and shortly thereafter we met Terry and Ruth Ann Elmy who had ridden up to greet us and bring us home.
  Another good ride on the books.........and more to come.