We had a nice breakfast at the hotel. A lot of hotels now offer a complimentary hot breakfast. All the ones we stayed at did. Once we finished, it was time to pack up and get on the road. That's when the first fiasco of the day started. Apparently Scott's switch for his LED lights on his bike got wet from the heavy rains we had had overnight and the moisture had shorted it causing the lights to be on all night. That was enough to weaken the battery to the point that it wouldn't start. I should have gotten some video of the guys pushing him around the hotel parking lot, as it was quite the comedy show, but, I was too busy laughing at them to think to break out the phone. Of course, it was raining quite nicely at the time also, just adding to the amusement of many of the guests who were pretty sure we were nuts to start with. I did get a couple of pics of the guys jumping the bike after Scott walked across the street to another hotel to borrow some jumper cables (ours didn't have any but thought the one across the street did.).
We got the bike running and we were ready to head out.
The night before a couple of the guys had decided to walk up the road to a biker wear store (Maggie Valley Biker Wear) we had passed on the way into town. They were in search of better rain gear, as theirs was not doing the job. They met the owner, a good ole' boy who looked for all the world like Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty. That was another missed opportunity where we should have taken a picture. We decided to make a stop there before heading out of town as I was in need of a new rain suit and a couple of the others who couldn't decide the night before had decided to take the plunge (pun intended). I was looking mine over at the hotel, trying to figure out how so much water was getting in. When I held it up to the light, there were a lot of places where you could see right through it. It's one of those nylon that's had pvc applied to the inside of it, to waterproof it. In many spots the pvc coating was completely gone. Mostly at the normal wear point like the shoulders, knees and shins where the suit rubs or is buffeted by wind while riding, but those are also the points that take the most rain. No wonder I was getting so wet!
We walked into the place, and the first thing the guy says is, "Boy, you brought you a big one with you today" (obviously referring to me). One of my brothers said, "Yea that's the one we told you about. Do you have a rain suite that will fit him?". (Now I know from the start I am opening myself up to all sorts of "Omar the tent maker" jokes from my ever so sensitive friends, family and co-workers). Frankly I was skeptical, because very rarely does a shop of this type have anything that comes even remotely close to fitting me. Today I was pleasantly surprised. He walked right over to a rack and pulled off this jacket and handed to me to try on. It fit! Needless to say, I am the proud owner of a new NexGen rain suit at a very reasonable price. By the way, a neat trick to getting the pants on without catching your boots in the lining, is to put a plastic bag over your boot before inserting it into the pant leg, and it slides right through! Thanks Uncle Si! (we didn't get his real name). A couple of the other guys made their purchases as well, and we were ready to hit the road.
Did I mention the logical suggestion to run the BRP instead of the highway to avoid the stinging rain at highway speeds, and how we all agreed it was a good idea? Well, having only visited the BRP in good weather, it never occurred to us that there might be other issues besides the stinging of raindrops.
We left Maggie Valley heading east along Rt. 19, knowing that we would meet up with the Parkway. We gassed up before getting on the Parkway since there is no gas actually on it. We entered at Asheville heading north. It wasn't very long until the first of the issues became pretty evident. It was getting colder the further we climbed. Most of the Parkway runs at between 3000 and 5000 feet, and that is a whole other weather climate. Ok, so it was getting chilly, but I was wearing enough layers, that I was going to be fine. It wasn't my first rodeo with the temperature difference at higher altitudes.
The next issue was fog (cloud cover actually). Visibility dropped to 10 or 15 feet at times. This makes for some interesting riding. Especially when you are in the lead with nobody to follow and there are any number of unplanned ways to descend the mountain which would not be the preferred method for anyone wanting to make it home.
The final issue became the wind, which we had not considered at all. This is the first time I was in a situation where there was heavy fog and gusting winds. Usually the two are mutually exclusive, not on the BRP. So here we are at nearly 5000 feet in almost zero visibility at temps in the 50's with wind driven rain.
We made it to the "Craggy Gardens Visitor Center" about 20 miles from where we entered the Parkway and sought refuge inside. They had a wood stove burning and the lady park ranger was very nice. We asked where the first exit to civilization was going north. She suggested either Rt. 80 about 20 miles north, or Little Switzerland about 30 miles. She strongly suggested going the extra 10 miles to Little Switzerland as Rt. 80, while on my map of recommended rides, was treacherous with a lot of switchbacks which could be an issue with the visibility.
We set out again feeling our way through the fog, wind and rain. The only good thing about the fog was the fact that you couldn't see how bad it might go if you strayed off the road. It was so thick and wind driven, that most of the tunnels in that area of the Parkway were full of fog as well. We came to the first of our possible exits from the parkway, but when we were right on it and we could barely make out the sign, we decided to move on. We arrived at Little Switzerland about a half hour later (remember it was only ten miles) and at least at that point we could make out the sign.
We exited onto Rt. 226A which if it hadn't been for the weather conditions, would have been a great ride. Sweeping curves going down the mountains, and the visibility opened up to 40 or 50 feet almost immediately and was completely clear about halfway down. We reached the town of Marion (if that sounds familiar it's because we stopped there on day 2) and stopped to have some lunch at a Wendy's. By this time it was after 4 pm. We had been on the road about 5 hours and covered a distance of about 70 miles. We were obviously DONE with the Parkway.
Now the debate became, how to proceed and what was our goal destination for the night. It was still raining, but it looked like the rain was soon to be east of us. Of course we needed to head northeast, so there were many discussions of the best route to take advantage of the speed and direction of the weather (isn't it amazing that we can now call up current radar on our phone?). In the end we decided that we were going to get rained on no matter what so we decided to take the "quickest" route to get us to Roanoke, VA for the night.
We struck out and had pretty good luck. We hit light rain off and on with some heavier pockets here and there, but nothing like the sustained rains we had earlier and on Friday. We made pretty good time and by 9:30 or 10 we were in the Roanoke area to search for a hotel. We had all agreed that we would like to be on the north side of Roanoke, unfortunately, we went just a little too far north and there was nothing to be found. We pulled off to stretch at a gas station at "Natural Bridge, VA" and decided that we would press on to Lexington about 10 miles up the road.
It was then that Jay dropped the bomb that he had decided to press on home because he had many pressing family things with a family vacation at the shore starting tomorrow and he preferred to ride through the night now, rather than push through in the morning and be rushed to get everyone one off for New Jersey in time to get their camper out of storage and set up. I completely understand his reasoning, but at the same time, I was not willing to let him make the run by himself in the middle of the night in the rain, so I volunteered to ride through with him.
We said our goodbyes to the others and they headed up the road to a nice warm dry hotel room. I topped off my gas tank and Jay and I set out north. Now, we had run out of the rain around the VA state line, but radar told us that there was more to come. We hit heavy rains around the Charlottesville area and had it for about 50 miles. Once we got to the Winchester area we ran out of the rain for good. The trip went smoothly except for an attempted gas stop in Hagerstown MD. The only station indicated on the signage was closed and there was nothing else around, so we ran up another exit and found gas. We made it home by 3 am, safe and sound. So, I am home a day early from an adventure after a marathon ride that started in Maggie Valley NC, at about 11 am and ended here in Harrisburg, PA at about 3 am. It didn't turn out quite like we had planned, but it was a good week and one that I'm sure we will talk about for years to come. Safe travels to the rest of the crew today. There weather here in Harrisburg is gorgeous!
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