Watching some Man vs. Food. How can you not want to travel? And eat?
Going to the BBQ joint in Asheville made me want to go even further… and taste all the local places. Every place has something to offer… it’s our job to find them all.
But, for the hot and spicy challenges: I can take ‘em. F!!! them bitches.
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Day 5 really made us happy about stopping in Asheville the night before. While clocking in at only 132 miles, it would have sent both me and En over the edge if we would have tried to push ourselves at night.
Leaving the Super 8 in the morning was the last time we would take a shower for the trip. Heading back to the Parkway early in the morning made us happy to be leaving the valley floor. It was already in the 80s before 9 AM. It would turn out to be another sweltering day in Asheville and the entire region.
Shortly after leaving town we started seeing signs about the upcoming detour. We were awake and we missed the sign to turn off the Parkway. I don’t want to think of the frustration we would be in the middle of if this was at night and we were already tired. With a bit of backtracking… and then back-back-tracking we managed to find the detour. Once we were on the detour it was easy enough to follow it around the edge of the Pisgah National Forest for a few miles before starting the long climb back up to the parkway.
It was a long climb, but it was some of the twistiest bit of road of the entire trip! I can only imagine the trouble that RVs would have in this bit of road with the sharp turns and the steep grade — it wouldn’t leave a lot of room for mistakes. The white van with all the hikers didn’t have any problems though. In some stretches we almost had trouble keeping up with the van. A van with a dozen people in it. With a trailer of backpacks.
Yeah.
You could tell it wasn’t his first time driving this bit of pavement.
As we neared the top of the ridge we suddenly found ourselves stopped. The detour has construction.
Not being in a rush we didn’t care. If this had been yesterday we would have been seething. It’s not something I want to think about too much.
The last hundred or so miles were a repeat of the rest of the Parkway with gorgeous views all the time. A highpoint of the Blue Ridge was reaching the high point of the Blue Ridge at 6053 feet above sea level.
Before we got to the campground we decided to stop in to a transportation museum in Maggie Vally, but it turned out to be closed on Tuesdays. Alas. Next time.
Leaving the valley towards the Parkway we noticed that the ground was still wet from a recent rain. The entire day it was mostly like that. While we got a small shower, we seemed to miss the brunt of the long drenching rains that were scattered around the area. I’m not complaining.
At last we got to our turn — heading to Balsam Mountain Campground. This was the only real destination that we planned our trip around.
At first we went all the way up the road to the start of a dirt loop trail. We decided against trying it on a fully loaded bike. I’m thinking it’s for the best. Another gut feel decision that likely made the trip a better experience. We drove back down the mile to the campground and looped around the camp grounds a few times picking out a site. We chose #36 since it was set back from the road a bit. This was both a blessing and a curse since it meant we needed to carry things further.
The clouds above started to look threatening again so hurriedly we set up the tent and move our stuff in before even paying. That was next on the agenda after the camp was fully good to go.
The rain held off for another hour or so while we walked around the camp grounds and enjoyed being on top of a mountain. We knew the storm was coming because we could see it in the distance bearing down on us. As the thunder started we made a bee-line back to the camp site we set up and rushed into the tent as it started to rain down hard. The thunder slowly rolling around the valleys around us and raindrops pelting the tent.
We were warm and dry.
After about half a hour it all cleared up. The blue sky was immediately above us again. We made up some dinner, brewed a bit of coffee and enjoyed more walking around.
This campground was one of the oldest in the park and the highest that you can reach in a vehicle. Looking at the steps leading down to our site made that history real. This is one of the campgrounds of the old park system that you watch on TV.
Slowly we headed back to the tent.
Night fell onto a nearly perfect day.
Day 4 repeated the previous day for the most part. More scenery that you can’t get tired of, but doesn’t come through in words.
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Starting off from Galax our original intent on this Monday was to get all the way to Balsam Mountain. From looking at the map it looked easy enough to just push through and set up camp there. Our backup was to hotel it for the second night in a row. We’d heard about some detours south of Asheville but figured that it’d be no big deal.
We struck out on the Parkway heading south. It was another wonderful drive despite the massive rain shower we ran into on the way. (Incidentally this was the one storm we’ve ever pulled over for!) A highpoint was going over the quarter mile curved bridge which is the Blue Ridge Parkway Viaduct.
Watching the PBS special on the parks we’ve encountered mentions of this bridge which is built completely over land. Driving on it with trees on the uphill side level with the road, mountains on the other looking at the curves ahead is a unique experience. It was one of the highlights of the day.
Eventually our stomachs started talking and we needed to grab a bite to eat. We took route 80 into the tiny town of Burnsville, NC. If you could even call it a town. The road wound down from the parkway into the valley with a few buildings and a horse farm all contained within the Pisgah National Forest.
We found the restaurant and parked the bike amongst the other motorcycles and laid out or gear to dry a bit before we walked into the Mt. Mitchell View Restaurant. It was shocking at first to hear all the bikers. They were speaking French. It made sense when we noticed the Harleys out front all had Quebec plates on.
We ordered up some burgers and listened to the fan above the table squeak away it’s metronomic beat. While annoying at first it quickly blended into the background that was filled with old Nascar memorabilia of all vintages.
The cook/waitress brought out the burgers and some conversation as well (she was doing double-duty that day since someone else called off that day). Obviously she lacked someone to talk to that day. We obliged for a bit as we ate talking about football and how her husband is a huge Browns fan.
“I’m sorry” we snickered back jokingly mocking the quality of the home team.
Filled with the great burgers we suited up and rode back up to the parkway.
As we neared Asheville we looked at the clock. It was around 3 in the afternoon. We looked to be about an hour or so from Asheville and from the map it looked to be another two or three to the campground. Going with our gut we decided to hotel it in town. This turned into one of the best decisions of the trip!
The hour into town wound up being closer to an hour and a half with a large chunk of construction that constricted the road down to only one lane. Lots of waiting and poor driving cars later we made it through and started descending into the town. We pulled up some hotels in the Zumo and went in.
The hotel we picked, the Blue Ridge Motel (or something like that) turned out to be a dump. No life at all and peeling paint. We turned around and headed back the way we camp knowing we had passed a couple of hotels that we wouldn’t mind staying in. We decided on the Super 8 since it looked new and plenty clean. An added bonus was nearby restaurants.
As we were checking I had a thought. We’re in frickin’ North Carolina. We need some barbecue, not the Mexican joint next door!
(sorry — this is redundant from a previous post)
“Is there a barbecue place around here?” I asked the guy behind the desk as he finished checking us in.
“Yeah, you can go to the Fiddling Pig. It’s about four lights down the street.”
“Is that where you would go?”
At this point he looked a lot more interest.
“Nahh… Obama was just here three weeks ago and he went to the same place he went when he was campaigning. That seems to be his favorite place here in North Carolina. It’s called 12 Bones I think. Lemme check.”
He shouted out to the manager as he was showing someone how to use these new fangled key card and it was quickly confirmed.
Good food knows no political affiliation. In fact I heard that’s how barbecue really started taking off here; what better way of feeding a bunch of people you want to campaign to for a few hours.
(end of repeat)
We both took a shower and a quick 1/2-hour nap to re-energize before we went off to dinner.
Well, it turns out that 12 Bones is more of a lunch spot. And besides it’s closed on Mondays.
Looking around on the iPad I found another joint that’s not a chain: Luella’s Bar-B-Que. From the web site it looks like a chain trying to be upscale. It’s not. It’s just your typical family owned one location joint.
With some damn good food!
We ordered a couple of local beers to start with and a mix of different things. En got the pulled pork with collard greens and mac-n-cheese. I ordered a full rack of ribs with beans and cole slaw. Both came with some of the best hush puppies I’ve ever had. I can’t say anything bad about the place — the sauces were spot on, the meats were smoked to perfection.
When looking at the pictures, don’t think the slaw is bad. En just has a thing for slaw. She doesn’t like it in general. The face is classic, if fake. 
Riding back to the hotel reminded us how hot it was in the valley once you left the forest.
Continuing the tradition we walked across the street and picked up some beer to go with the the hotel room. Across from the gas station we found the Mountaineer Inn with a giant neon hairy-toed woodsman imploring us to “Get Cozy” with him. Hmmm. The Super-8 seemed better and better by the moment! 
It was another good day on the Parkway!
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The nice thing about waking up at the KOA was knowing that you had a shower waiting for you. Getting out of the tent the bad thing is finding everything covered in daddy long legs. As I wrote before the camp site must have been double-booked with the annual daddy long legs convention! We rescued dozens from our gear as we were packing things up getting ready to go.
Before leaving we took our showers to wash off the crud we picked up in the rain the previous day. The shower perked us right up! With a bit of coffee made in consumed we were soon back on the road.
It seemed that when we were hunting for a place to camp we went a bit out of our way so we started off the day with a bit of back tracking — but that’s OK since we weren’t in any rush.
Shortly after hitting the road we stopped at the Otter Creek Restaurant that was right on the Parkway for some “brunch.” The dining area overlooked the George Washington National Forest with an expanse of windows om the walls. We ordered our first taste of southern food: country ham and fried chicken with sides of fried okra and mashed potatoes — with some more coffee to boot. The chicken was nice and juicy with a crispy crust. The country ham was salty, as advertised. The sides were tasty as well with the okra having a good vegetable flavor — of course anything fried is going to be good. The potatoes were good, but not as hot as I would have liked, but they were good enough.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the parkway itself. It is something to be experienced yourself. I could go on and on about the views. The feeling of driving on a ridge, meeting the “Blue Ridge Parkway” looking over the edge on both sides of the road. All the turns. They are all great, but I don’t think I can express things as well in words.
So, please, drive it yourself! It’s worth it!
All that being said, I have to reiterate that driving without the rush of previous trips is simply a joy. When we saw an overlook that we wanted to look over just just did!
As the day went on we started think about some road food for camping. We stopped by Rap’s Orchard Gap. It’s a little shop that had a couple of gas pumps and a bit of a convenience store. We didn’t want to double up on the spaghetti so we got some Dinty Moore beef stew. I kept suggesting some Spam, but En resisted.
Looks like rain!
As we drove down the Parkway it started to look like rain again. Neither of us was keen to camp in the rain again so we started to look for a hotel. We found a Knights Inn up the road in Galax. After navigating some of the confusing roads there we found the hotel and checked in.
“How much for a room?”
“$42 for a a room with double beds.”
“How about something with a king size?”
“Well, that’s more expensive. $48.”
“We’ll take that.”
I like cheap hotels.
Now that the room was handled: beer.
Galax does not have beer within walking distance of the hotel. We tried to no avail. Walking around for an hour and a half we could not find any even after was asked for directions. The fact that it was Sunday didn’t work to our advantage either. We did, however, find a dog. A nice black dog with a long wavy coat started following us keeping us company. He had an owner since he had a license tag, but not with him.
Eventually someone asked if he was our dog. Nope. But they were a pair of nice ladies offered to take him in for the night and call up the license office. +1.
We thought we were saved when we ran into a grocery store before closing. But the damned Virginia laws had no beer there. <sigh/>
We wandered back to the hotel and I rode out a quick little trip to get some beer. The gas station that was a few miles out had some. The best they had was tall-boys of Bud. Beggars can’t be choosers.
With that, we had beef stew and beer with some moon pies and chips we picked up at the grocery store.
Problem solved.
Day 2 started off with a relatively late start from the Quality Inn. Both of us were pretty tired from the long ride after work into the night. We started off with a big breakfast that would have to carry us straight through to dinner. Our laundry wasn’t dry from the night before so we stashed our clothes in the mesh bag and strapped it on the bike in hopes that it would dry on the way.
Starting from just a mile or so from one of the ends of Skyline Drive we quickly navigated to the entrance and started south on the road through Shenandoah National Park. The 35 mph speed limit didn’t feel too limiting riding two-up on all the curves. Being able to take the time to stop at various rest areas to simply “chill” made for the start of a great trip.
The chilling in this case was both figurative and literal — this was the first of a week worth of nearly record-breaking highs for the area!
As we came to the end of Skyline drive it really started to smell like rain so we stashed the laundry in the pannier. We should have switched gloves too since as soon as we got onto the Blue Ridge Parkway the skies really opened up on us. We made it through the 15-minute storm all nice and dry — except for our hands in the newly soaked gloves.
We got to an overlook over Buena Vista and figured it would be a good time to start looking for some place to sleep for the night.
First off we found something in the Zumo about the Jefferson National Forest and navigated down off the Parkway descending through a few thousand to the valley below. The town seemed strangely quiet for a Saturday night. Despite that we stopped at a gas station/convenience store and picked up some spaghetti and sauce for dinner later.
We found the camp site. Or where the GPS said it was. We didn’t think that knocking on the door of some poor unsuspecting family would be a very kind so we started looking for a plan-B as it started to drizzle on us.
Plan-B wound up being a KOA since it was the nearest alternate campground. Or was that Kampground?
We pulled up to the castle walls and walked into the office. $30 later we had a kamp site in a quiet corner of the campgrounds.
Quiet? (imagine “as the saints come marching in” blaring on the horn of a passing truck)
The truck was pulling a load of kids dressed up as princesses and knights. You can’t forget about the golf cart driven by the dragon either.
I thought they could fly… must be a geriatric dragon in a golf cart and all.
We set up the tent on the pad and started boiling up some water for the pasta. It took far longer than I figured it would. Then I noticed that the two pots were still nested together. Doh! The pool pack towel between them was pretty carbonized as well.
In every battle a few must fall.
I kept kicking myself about that gaff for hours afterward.
Eventually the water came to a boil and the pasta was cooked up despite my dufus move.
While eating we started hearing some music. And singing. Questionable singing.
Ahh — the ice cream social and karaoke.
$3 later and I had a big bowl of the good stuff.
Walking back to the tent we found ourselves talking to some campers from a neighboring site. They came with an RV and we spent a while talking about our adventures. They had come north up the parkway and were visiting family and friends out east — sometimes staying at campgrounds, sometimes with family. They warned us that a bit south of Asheville there’s a detour that annoyed them quite a bit. They were only a week or so into their month-long vacation. This is the type of thing I want to do when I retire.
We wished each other safe travels and walked back to the the tent. We took a good swig from the flask of scotch and called it a night.
Quick update to paste in the map of day 1.
Click on it for a full-size (huge) image.
As I have time to weed though the 1786 pictures I’ll be posting the edited results.
Day 1: We drove the second-longest leg of our adventure on the first day — to transport ourselves to the start of Skyline Drive. I took the day off and spent it prepping the bike for our trip. En was nose-to-the-grindstone at work. We left shortly after she came home since everything was already done.
On the first day we started off in Ohio and rode through Pennsylvania (where we stopped for some grub at Quizno’s), Maryland (for about two miles) and West Virginia before entering regular Virginia. We holed up for the night at the Quality Inn there and.
We also got the bike drop out of the way in a rest area we well. As we stopped my right foot landed on a plastic cup. The cup against the pavement was a slick as ice. Needless to say we elegantly set the bike down on it’s right side. It was tired and wanted a nap. No damage to anything at all beyond a scuff to the corner of the pannier that isn’t even noticeable. The engine guard I got for Christmas also worked great — I would need to buff out the OEM cylinder head guard without it!
Landslide apparently. We were going to go south on the 129 through to Bryson, but it’d be a long day just to get there… And to what end?
It looks like we’ve exhausted the roads we planned.
What now?
Location:Foothills Pkwy,Townsend,United States
This was another short day today. Like I mentioned the previous post we went north on 441 and got lunch at the pizza joint.
After that we punched in Cade’s cove into the Zumo and went straight to the campground. Conveniently, the campground is far enough west of Pigeon Forge that we were able to skip that mess.
The drive over was simple enough and we landed at the site around 3:30 or so. We drove around the camp to find a site that we liked and #26 fit the bill nicely. We paid up, $20, and set up the tent.
The biggest thing right now is trying to stay cool. It’s pretty oppressively warm at the moment and it’s hard to really get comfortable in the heat and still air.
