MAGGIE VALLEY DAY 3

MAGGIE VALLEY DAY 3

 

Had an amazing breakfast of country ham and grits at Joey's.  The waitress said she saw an elk on the road outside shortly before I arrived.  There are no fast food or chain restaurants in this town, nice!

 

Got underway at 6 or 7 am, depending on which time zone you consider yours.  Temp was in the mid 60's, so I wore a leather jacket, but didn't need chaps or stocking hat.

 

 

Started off on the Blue Ridge Parkway for just 14 miles as I headed for the entrance to the Great Smokey Mountian National Park.  I went through 4 tunnels in that 14 miles.

 

So enjoyable riding in the park, everything was so green, temp was cool and fresh, there were numerous stream and lookouts, the curves were mostly gentle and enjoyable.  I could smell the magnolia's blooming, I saw no billboards, and I did see wilk turkeys.

 

 

This is Clingman's Dome, the higest point in the park.  You can see fog in the valleys.

 

I started heading lower again on my way to Gatlinburg on the west side of the park.  I met many vehicles and I hoped there would be few left in town when I got there, but I was wrong.

 

 

It was hot and crowed in Gatlinburg, so I didn't linger long.  Ol Smokey Distillery was close to the Harley store(where I got that black T-shirt I had been needing), so I went in and listened to this young man play some mountain music.

Apparently Ol' Smokey makes many flavors and varieties of product and have staff to assist with sampling if you were so inclined.  Looked like tiny communion cups, but wasn't grape juice.

I was so anxious to leave the heat and traffic that I took the path of least resistance and went back through the park.  Stopped for a picnic lunch (above pic).  Always carry a cooler and some snacks.  If you ever go through the park, they have an interesting corkscrew road where you go under a bridge, make a big circle turn, and go over the bridge you went under (similar to the Black Hills in SD).

 

Stopped in the town of Cherokee on my way back, which is commercialized, hot and crowded, then road the 14 miles on highway 19 to Maggie Valley, which is a challenging collection of hills and curves.  Then I just hung out in the pool with my friends (two couples) from Michigan and succeeded in sunburning the tops of my feet.

 

Only road 122 miles today, so not hard at all.