Featured Summer Almost Gone

We didn’t do a lot in Boone, just used the next day to rest. We did find a nice little restaurant with some decent seafood, so we didn’t have to go to the beach for that!


Back at the campground we were staying in I decided to put a good dent in a bottle of my favorite adult beverage.


A couple gin and tonics later and China decided to come out and check out the scenery. For a little Dino these were some big trees!


Tomorrow sees us head into the Asheville, NC area and stopping in Maggie Valley, NC. This is where the views get gorgeous and the mountains reach above 6000ft. Even the road itself is pretty! I will make sure to give a good account of the history of the Parkway and some unusual engineering it took to get it built in the higher elevations.

 

Thanks! The gin is a local distillery but I think it could be shipped. I always liked Hendricks and Aviation gin, and this one is just as good! I like supporting local as well. China was definitely impressed with all the trees!

 

So a little about the Blue Ridge Parkway. It spans two states, Virginia and North Carolina for a total of 469 miles. It is basically one long park system full of great mountain vistas and valleys. It was constructed starting during the Great Depression and was instrumental in boosting the economy of the Appalachian region. Work began in the 1930s during Roosevelt’s New Deal program, and was mostly completed in the 1950s and 60s. The final section was not completed until 1987 near Grandfather Mountain in NC. This area was so rugged and beautiful that special engineering was done to design a bridge that was of minimal impact to the area.
The views start to get really nice as you leave Boone and head toward the Linville Gorge.


A view from under the Linn Cove Viaduct showing some interesting design. The sections are hollow concrete and are pinned together, held in place with tension cables from the inside.

There was limited opportunity to take a photo going over the bridge as they were working on it, here’s all we got. It looks like you are going to fly right off the mountain!


This is a stock pic of the Viaduct, since I wasn’t able to get one of my own.

We continued on with the day toward an area called Little Switzerland, a small area with some neat little hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops. More later!

 

Any time you come this way I’d be happy to meet up and take everyone on some good local rides!

 

Our day continued with a lunch stop in the town Little Switzerland. It is right off the Parkway and has some neat shops and mom and pop hotels. We ate lunch at a little place called the Little Switzerland Cafe. For you foodies it’s a must stop. The wife had bbq mini sandwiches and I had a smoked trout blt on a croissant with homemade potato salad. It was my favorite meal of the trip.

 

After lunch we continued on our way towards Maggie Valley, the next town off our route and our stop for the next couple days. It’s a decent size town with many privately owned shops, motor Court style hotels, and restaurants. There are almost no chain style businesses anywhere in town. The highlight of our visit is the Wheels Through Time museum in town. It is a museum completely dedicated to American motorcycles starting at the beginning when they were barely motorized. I’ll do an entry dedicated solely to it to try and give it a fair showing.

Our view heading into Maggie Valley

 

Heading further into North Carolina the mountains get taller and more rugged. Another view into Maggie Valley.

Seem to be a lot of knobs around

 

Great to hear from you! How is your trip going? Ours went quite well as you can tell. Stay in touch on this site, it’s a great bunch of people, though we are all a bit bonkers!

 

Sounds like an epic trip! Maybe one day soon.

 

While in Maggie Valley we stayed at a nice little hotel called the Valley Inn. Older but very tidy large rooms. It had a nice balcony for taking it easy!

 

We also went to the Wheels Through Time museum, which is dedicated to American motorcycles starting as early as the 1900’s. There are so many survivor bikes with original paint it it hard to believe. There are Indians, Harley’s, Pierce Arrows, Thor, Sears, and more. If someone made a bike with a motor on it at the beginning of the 20th century it is there. The fun part is that most of them run! Even those that are in original condition!

 

More....the first pic is my favorite in the building. The engine looks like a piece of jewelry



They even have some very rare cars like this 1915 Locomobile, a one of a kind.

 

This tandem bicycle was odd. There are several early motorized cycles from even earlier, as these are what lead to motorcycles existence.