May 16, 2013
Warming up
Call me Bond: James Bond
I'm a pretty terrible mechanic, but finally I've about mastered the routine of unpacking and assembling our Bike Fridays. I set up shop outside our motel room and was pleased to have everything go smoothly and effortlessly. After I finished, the motel owner wandered over to let me know he'd been watching my smooth, methodical progress. Said it reminded him of James Bond assembling his kit.
Blowing Rock was our only two night stand until we reach Manhattan. We like to stay two nights at our first stop to allow time for settling in, planning for shipping our luggage, and protecting against any flight delays. We used our day by enjoying a luggage-free loop ride south along the parkway to Linville. This is a beautiful stretch of road, skirting Grandfather Mountain and crossing the famous BRP viaduct - the final piece of roadway to be completed.
We cycled a figure 8, staying on the parkway one direction and following route 221 going the other way. We enjoyed this because it gave us a sense of the landscape from below the ridge as well as on top. We had nearly perfect cycling conditions - partly sunny, very little traffic, a promising southwest wind, mild temperatures. Very seductive, leading us to hope that we had arrived just at the front of a spell of fine weather to come.
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