That was before the storms came. The rain started about bedtime last night followed shortly by the thunder. Bo, my parents' dog, doesn't like thunder, so he kept us up with his pacing. Then the wind picked up blowing the rain into the motorhome forcing us to close the windows. Then the CO2 detector went off...just because.
So I wasn't all that surprised when I woke a little before 8:00 this morning and found everyone else still sleeping. Of course even if we had gotten up earlier the idea of riding to the summit in the rain wasn't all that exciting.
Fortunately, by about 10:30 the skies cleared and Vicki shuttled us the 40 minutes back to the parkway where we had finished the day before. Getting on the road about 11:30, with far too little sleep, we decided reaching the highest point was more than enough of a goal for today.
With cooler temperatures and a clear sky, we once again began climbing. Hopefully the pictures tell the story of the views, road, and sights along the way.
What the pictures will never do is tell what a wonderful feeling you get when you stop at one of the lookouts and realize the only sound you hear is the wind rustling the leaves of the trees. Or how discovering the mystery of the "bouncing flower" up the road is the bee landing and then taking off as it gathers pollen.
If you take the time to view all of today's pictures they will however reveal how lucky we have been. While the weather cleared giving us near perfect riding conditions just about the time we were awake enough to ride, the moment we hit the summit the dark clouds filled the sky again and rain started to fall just as we finished loading our bikes on the car.
Having completed about 40 miles from the southern entrance to the highest point tomorrow is an RV travel day and then we will once again head northeast out of Asheville trying to find some combination of day-trips and RV campgrounds that work for everyone.
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| 7-28 Day 16 |
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