We are over the mountains in Asheville, NC!! Rode out of Knoxville feelin goooood. It is a mecca for nice people who love life. Our last morning was spent with Edye and friends eating breakfast where the table chatter was more than interesting. My favorite quote from the morning was "everything is good in moderation.......except for moderation". This eclectic group of interesting folks gathers every saturday morning for breakfast downtown and I felt especially honored to be able to share it with them....thanks guys. After that we rode over to TVB bike shop to meet up with Eric and his crew and they took excellent care of us. We ended up hangin with them all day and didnt start riding till nearly 3pm. Hollie and Dalton were cycling addicts like ourselves so we loved chillen with them. Daltons Mom stopped by and bought us all sandwhiches, schwinggg they were soo good; thanks Daltons Mom!
That night we passed a music festival called Dexfest but they wanted 45 bucks for the night. Whattt, nooo way jose....we went down the road and camped outside the Elswick Motel for free. The next morning we rode for the mountains!! In the sweltering 90 degree heat, with only 12 gears and no toe straps, Mike the Madm...an Moran kicked some appalachian ass!! He kept up with us the whole way and I was sooo impressed and proud of him; those mountains were steeep!
After a 50 mile day through the steep slopes we rode into Longnecks bar for a cold brew. This turned into a day off and a milestone on the trip. First, we met Susan, a local welding teacher who drove us around town and showed us her welding shop and all of the great art they were producing there....veryy cool stuff. ... Afterwards we came back to the bar where we were planning on camping out for the night. Well, the owners Hank and Terry decided that we needed to see more of the mountains and they were gonna be the ones to show us. So off we went back to their property which is bordered by three different national forests (I am not giving away names because the places we saw were so REMOTE and breathtaking and I just dont feel like sharing). That night, we sat out on the porch sharing stories and laughing till the sun came up....soo much fun. Hank and Terry have had a lifetime of adventure and travel and we really learned a lot from what they had to tell us.
The next day we woke up at 2 and started up the mountain on the ARGO! An amphibious 8 wheeled vehicle that can go just about anywhere I could imagine. Hank was a wildman on that thing!! Later in the day, we hopped in the car to go check out (secret spot name)....possibly the most pristine and beautiful wilderness I ...have ever seen....and my camera was dead, efffff. Ill be back. Terry made yet another amazing meal for us that night and we all hit the sack relativley early. Now we are in Asheville enjoying the beer capitol of the US! We met Karen (awesome human being) in a hotel parking lot and she was all like "you guys can crash on my hotel room floor!" and we was all like "wooohooo". So we all went out last night and met some more awesome humans and had an awesome Asheville night....simply ahhhsome!
Today, we lounged around the pool and decided to stay one more night here thanks to Katie Moran. We have been saving her "meal or sleep" voucher since calinfornia and we figured Asheville was the perfect spot to cash in. Thanks Katie!! Tomorrow we ride and in a few days we will be in Greensboro to see my Uncle Steve..., Aunt Karen and little cousin Kim......CANT WAIT!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment