Well, all great plans must be subject to change when circumstances change. As I indicated yesterday, our plan was to make another run at the "Tail of the Dragon" today. Unfortunately we woke up to rain this morning and it was unanimous that we didn't want to try that run in the rain. It was decided that we would instead take the scenic route through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
It started out very well. We had very little rain early on, though the radar promised big things to come. The road through the park and over the mountains was very good. It's a narrow two lane road that winds for several miles along a mountain stream before climbing up into the mountains. This is some of the most beautiful scenery in the country and had the roads been dry, it couldn't have been beat. We made a stop at a small waterfall to look at the stream and watch some kids jumping off the rocks and swimming.
As we moved higher into the mountains it became more interesting, as the weather deteriorated and the temperature dropped as well. This would have been a spectacular ride if the weather had not been a factor. I highly recommend a trip along Rt. 73, 74 and 441 through the Smoky Mountain National Park, but do it on a nice day. We climbed over the 5000 ft mark through rain, wind and sometimes very dense fog. The temps were very chilly as well. When the fog would clear the views were amazing! Unfortunately we did not get pics, as we were inclined to keep moving to get to the other side. The fog we experienced was how this group of mountains got their name. Apparently the plan life on the mountain puts out a lot of CO2 often causing fog or clouds to hang in and around the ridges of the mountains. These clouds look like smoke.
We finally descended from the mountains into the town of Cherokee which is in the Cherokee Indian Reservation. We stopped at a Hardee's for lunch, then moved on to Maggie Valley, NC, home of the Wheels Through Time Museum, made popular on the Velocity channel TV show "What's in the Barn". They have the most amazing collection of vintage motorcycles as well as some cars and other unique thing. One of the really amazing things is that these bikes all run. As you can imagine I took a LOT of pics. I of course cannot share them all here, but, here are a few.
Tomorrow promises more rain as does Sunday so we shall see. We decided to stay here in Maggie Valley as we were pretty waterlogged. We will just decide our next move in the morning. Wish us luck!
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