All that know me know I work a lot, and that is an understatement. So the "cough cough" lady in charge of this hell hole I am working at through a fit and said that she was booked this weekend and there would be no working this weekend. Yea, off on a little bike about for Wooly and me, okay this was not my first thought but we will leave out that part. First Wooly was thinking the beach's, now most of my friends are beach lovers but when I can be to the mountains, playing on some twisities and curves on the Submarine well the beach is not even something I would consider. So after working all day, it was pack the bikes and off we go. I planned a little back road trip to Boone NC where we could hook up with 221, Wooly insisted that we had to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway again. Now I could have argued we had rode this road many times on many bikes but I really did not care, we was riding our bikes and I was finally happy.
Day 1: We left after 7 pm and I knew we would probably not make it to Boone that night, but any miles away from hell is miles away from hell...We only made 118 miles of the 180 to hook up with the Blue Ridge Parkway. We stopped in this little town Mookesville, bearly a mark on a map. I had been on the look-out for deer for a while now as dusk turned to dark. But now I was nervous, thinking what might happen, I was now starved, I was a little tried and I was getting just a little bit bitchy from no food
AND I wanted a drink. We stopped in a little place called East Coast Wings and Things. I had a salad and a glass of wine, Wooly had a patty melt and fries with a beer. But the amazing part of this little nowhere spot was we got talking to the guy next to us at the bar... Talking wine that is and he asked us if we had ever heard of V. Suttui???? I was amazed that here set a guy from New Jersey in no where North Carolina that knew my favorite winery. I also had to tell him I had a bottle of Gammy in my saddle bag, we laughed at that. So if you ever doubt that it really is a small world don't! There are people every where that will amaze you and surprise you, all you have to do is just start a conversation. And any one who knows me knows I will talk to just about anyone. So even though we did not make to the Smokey's we got a way from our hell and was surprised by a total stranger... All in all a good day in my book.
Day 2 : Starts with coffee and packing back up the bikes and looking at the weather...Knowing we will get showers, not really caring just knowing, we b-lined the rest the way for the Blue Ridge Parkway. We gassed up before we hit the parkway in Boone grab some healthy snacks, water, Gatorade and 2 glasses of wine sealed in these little cute glass shapes, I just had to have them. And off for sweeps and curves and some banks and some rain and some fog and finally some fun. In this 304 miles we rode this day I change riding gear 5 times. Yep it was that kind of day! I started in jacket, got cold quick once we started up the mountains with big trees and no sunshine so into leathers I went, when we gassed up in Boone. After stopping at Mount Michell for some lunch it started pouring so I then added the rain gear. By the way, the ride up to Mount Michell's restaurant and observatory was fun, it had some steeper banks, tighter curves and even though it was posted to go slower I did not, YEA HAW!!! But it was fun ride up there , the place had great food with an excellent view, highly recommend the stop. And if you are smarter then me and the waitress tells you that is a lot of food, listen to her as I took two thirds of mine with me when I left.
After waiting for the down pour to turn to just a rain and riding back down Mount Michell to the Blue Ridge Parkway and riding farther south the sun came out and it heated up so fast that I once again decided to pull over to take some clothes off this time. I don't remember the scenic view but I do remember 3 lady's who was all trying to get a picture of all of them together. I volunteered to take the picture for them and found out it was one of theirs 70th birthday. Also that these three lady's came from all over the country to help celebrate it by riding up the Blue Ridge Parkway together...The one lady who's birthday it was lived in North Carolina , one came from Arizona, one from Maryland. I did not ask but either these lady's where sisters or sorieity sister because those our people who truly love you that will drop every thing in life and help a person celebrate in this big way.
After some more twist and turns and some stops here and there I found myself loving this ride...Okay I always love this kind of ride but Zenning with the ride and I looked in my mirror to see the Wooly man was falling far back, I slowed down for him to catch back up and he says lets pull over so we stooped at Pisgah Inn and Country store. There we meet a very young couple who he had just got his first bike... First Harley that is, and a street glide at that... And he was proud, I don't blame him I am proud of the Submarine and she has chips and scratches and all kinds of beauty scares from rides and some drops and 1 crash. We would keep running into this couple till we hit Waynesville... That is where they was stopping, we was just gassing up stopping grabbing some things at the liquor store and heading the rest the way south. At the Waynesville gas stopped we must of had the biker gods looking down on us because after we paid for gas went to the rest room and got some thing to drink we went back to the bikes still under the gas station awning and it started to pour. I mean a heavy down pour, again... Well shit back to rain gear we go! After letting the poring rain settle to just rain we take back off for the Parkway even though we was warned by a local that we would be better to hit the main highway as the parkway would be dangerous now. Well being our normal we started we will finish it self we did not listen. We got back on the parkway and let we tell you it was Smokey like I have never seen it... We could not see 10 feet in front of us, the smokies was doing her thing alright and we was caught in it. We finally made it to Cherokee safe and sound and all in one piece with out no damages or incidental happenings. Let me tell you that town has charged a lot since last time we was there. The little casino is big, bigger then I would have imagine a casino would be there in the beautiful hills. I am sure that if you are a gabling smoking person this place would be great but I am neither so I had no interest in going there. Instead we relax with the glasses of wine I got before we started the Parkway. Or as Map man says "WOSB"(wine outa saddle bags) ... Munched on some left over lunch and relax for a minute. But about 10 pm we decide it was time for food and took the shuttle to the casino for dinner, not some thing I recommend. The food was.... not even good nutrition but it did make our growling stomachs quite growling... back to the hotel and out for the count I went.
Day 3 started with sleeping in, some thing I love but seldom get to do, coffee and Kahlua and sunshine. Wooly was moving slower then me this morning as I was packed and had already went to move the Submarine into the sunshine to warm her up (the avaunt temperature was only 20 degrees) when I forgot the fob and she decided to tell me and a few neighbors about it. Any way I was doing my stretches when this elderly happy looking couple walked by. I wished the lady a Happy Mothers day, it was Mothers day after all. She told me she was never a mother but instead she was a step mother... So I wished her a Happy Gigi Ha ha day, then proceeded to tell her about Dew and that in Japanese they did not have a word for step mother but instead gigi means almost. She seemed to enjoy that thought almost as much as I do. I have even had people I barely knew or meet tell me that gigi haha fit me to a t, that I am a silly kind of gal and I am, I am also proud of the fact that life has not taken the silly from me. The ride home after heading north up the parkway to Waynesville was boring to say the least a four lane super slab with no thrills. We did stop at Tillys H.D. in Salisbury N.C. where I found a shirt I liked and I bought it only because it was made in the USA... I am on a mission to only buy American made stuff, I mean if I have to support an economy I might as will support mine.
Monday I woke excited to think where will the Submarine would take me today??? Then I realised that I was back at hell/work and that my freedom and joy of riding two wheels through back roads and curves and sweeps and what ever mother nature and the world throw at me was over. I guess we can not enjoy all of our time on earth and that for a poor working slob like me work is as important part of life. But waking and knowing my fun would be gone away from me again. That I was no longer aloud the leisure of sleeping late, the thrill of taking on what ever mother nature throw at me, that I did not have the pleasure of enjoying and triumphing over all things good bad and indifferent, of meeting new people who I would never cross paths with again...Well I guess that is why Mondays really suck!
