Having spent the night in Boone, NC, we were anxious to get started Friday. This is one of the first scenes that greeted us as climbed to the top of the mountain for our final leg of our journey.
The parkway was put on hold for about 20 years so that engineers, environmentalist, and local people could decide how to preserve this particular area with its huge boulders and beauty. They finally came up with this viaduct. I forget how many sections it took to put this thing together but I do remember that each section is 50 tons and there is only one straight section in the whole viaduct.
I walked down the road to take a couple of pictures and Judy stayed behind. I took this one of her sitting on a guard rail waiting for me. Can you say, “Guess who is cold today.”
Here is another one of Judy trying to check on her family roots.
Judy and I decided that we needed some exercise so we decided to hike back and see a waterfall.
The lady at the information desk said that it was 1.7 miles round trip. She lied! It had to be every bit of 7 miles. On the way back to the parking lot, I noticed that a tree had grown out of some rocks and it looked as if it was oozing out. I tried to push it back in but to no avail.
Another shot of Judy clowning around with her family roots.
Since there are no commercial establishments on the Blue Ridge Parkway, each time that you want to eat or get gas, you must find one of the highways that crossed under the Parkway and get off and find what you are looking for. We were getting hungry so we got off of the Parkway and started looking for a restaurant. We came across this little jewel in Linville Falls, NC.
It is even on the National Registry of Historical Places.
But what makes Famous Louise’s Rock House Restaurant really famous is the fact that 3 counties of North Carolina come together inside of her building. The food is cooked in Avery County, and you pay your bill in Burke County. You might also want to eat in McDowell County which is just a few tables over from Burke County. We decided to eat in Burke County.
I imagine that our meal was just as good as the folks had in the other counties.
We left with full stomachs and headed back to the top of the Parkway. This is one of several tunnels that we went through today. Today was tunnel day.
The scenery today was just spectacular.
There were 2 things that we had to watch for during the whole trip. Cars and bicyclist. Especially if you were entering a tunnel.
Judy and I met these 2 gentlemen at one of the pull overs. They were both from Kentucky and had traveled together quite extensively. They were very nice to talk to and we enjoyed our time together.
Although this was not the highest point in the mountains, it was the highest point that you could drive your vehicle to along the Parkway.
This is the last picture that we took before we started out descent off of the mountain.
It was a great days ride and we were ready to get off of the bike when we got to Cherokee, NC. Good night John Boy.