Day 39- July 30

Day 39, July 30th 37,397 on the odometer

It only takes us an hour to break camp and load up. Very good for us. We make it to the Grist Mill in plenty of time for breakfast. The food is good but not fantastic. The setting is great. We spend some time visiting the restored mill and rebuilt old buildings. Ceci is taking lots of post card quality pictures. There are quite a few other bikers here and we chat with some of them for a bit, before heading out to fuel back up.
We are back rolling on the Blue Ridge by noon. We stop at a couple of visitor centers along the way, and do some gift shop shopping. On some of the curves there is a wild caution sign showing a biker jumping off his bike surrounded by a symbol that is either meant to depict a tight turn or promote The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. I know the meaning is supposed to be serious but I find it hilarious. They sell souvenir signs in the gift shop, but I have no place on the bike to pack it. We settle for a key chain and photo. In the interest of time, we pass on the mineral museum.
The pavement is starting to get worse as we go along. It is still ok, but we are hitting some rough spots and avoiding a few potholes. The road is also getting steeper and tighter as we get further south. At one point, the road is closed so we take a detour on HWY 80. Excellent detour, as it is downright twisty. I get my heart rate up as I dive into a hairpin with a nice big oil patch on entry. The bike slides a bit wide through the corner which helps me avoid all the loose sand in the middle on exit. Fun stuff. Ceci is taking a much safer pace and benefits from my real time ride report through the Chatterbox, so no drama for her. Just a nice ride.
We get back on the Blue Ridge to finish it off. Rain is beginning to threaten, but it holds off. Dusk is rapidly approaching though, and I don’t relish sharing the road with the deer we can’t see. There are a lot of tunnels on the southern end as well. They are pitch black. My eyes can’t adjust fast enough to see anything so we go through blind and hope for the best. As dusk falls we reach the last tunnel. This time my eyes adjust so I can see a bit. Good thing as the pavement in the tunnels isn’t always great, and it is pretty terrible in this last one.
Ceci is also beginning to tire. A lot. She says she’s fine every time I ask, but she is falling behind considerably even with a slow pace. There is no place to stay until we finish the Blue Ridge. It is 9:00 when we finally pull into Cherokee and get a hotel room. She was completely unaware that her placed had slowed so significantly, and should sleep well tonight.
We saw and splattered a lot of butterflies today, but didn’t see as many critters as we had on the last two days. Today we covered 298 miles by my odometer, so in actuality it was a bit over 300. Not bad by our standards, and it was still a pretty good ride with frequent stops to enjoy the trip.