The Blue Ridge Parkway

What a change today was.  The Blue Ridge Parkway is incredible.  Great views of the mountains (many scenic pullouts) and a great road almost totally to ourselves.   The Blue Ridge Parkway runs 469 miles from the Great Smokey Mountain National Park in the southwestern corner of North Carolina up into Virginia.  While it isn't a national park, the land on either side of the highway is owned and maintained by the National Park Service.  The road has limited access, has a 45 mph speed limit and no commercial traffic is allowed.  The few cars we encountered were all careful and courteous as they passed us.  A great change from the unbelievable amount of litter and trash we saw along the roads in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, even in Daniel Boone National Forest.

One of the viaduct stretches of the Blue Ridge Parkway

We are running into rain almost every day now.  Today we actually had to sit out the rain in the RV for a while due to the low cloud cover and steam. Visibility was less than 100 feet and it simply wasn't safe to ride.

Here is the track for today's ride - 67 miles and 6485 feet of climbing.  That averages 1000 feet of climbing for every 10 miles.  Not a cakewalk by any means. For the folks in Albuquerque, just think of riding up and down Tramway from El Pinto to the Tram stop sign and back.... 6 times in a row.

The woolly calf

Take a look at this cutie!   The parents looked like a cross between a woolly Mammoth and a long horn steer.

Only 6 more days to Kitty Hawk!

Here are the stats for each of us to date:

Panoramic view from the Blue Ridge Parkway ... and it's getting ready to rain again!