Fun with Blue Ridge Parkway pictures

For those of you who don’t want to fool with my multiple flickr sets of trip photos from the Blue Ridge Parkway ride, you can watch a few highlights from the trip on this two-minute video.
Enjoy!

The grand finale — the last day of the Blue Ridge Parkway trip

The final leg of the parkway yesterday proved to be some of the most beautiful scenery of the trip. We left Asheville under cloudy skies but as we rode south the sun came out and shone on us from blue skies as we climbed to the highest elevation on the parkway.
The most dramatic view yet [...]

I see mountains when I close my eyes - Blue Ridge Parkway trip day 5

When Brian and I visited St. Petersburg, I’d see onion domes when I closed my eyes. In Istanbul, I saw minarets. On this trip I see mountains. Now that we’re in North Carolina, the ridges look less like really big hills and more like actual mountains. And today was a mountain day!
After another late breakfast [...]

So I can beat my dad at poker - Blue Ridge Parkway trip day 4

I’m cozied up on a lovely soft bed with a down blanket, I’ve just had a delicious dinner followed by hot cocoa and there are mountains outside my window. I can’t see them but I have the curtain open anyway because I like knowing they’re there. I’ve decided I was supposed to live in the [...]

Reruns and new motorcycle friends - Blue Ridge Parkway trip day 3

[posted a day after the fact because I had no internet at the farm]

We left Bedford early (I wasn’t in any hurry to linger at the affordable but grubby Bedford Days Inn) and took Big Island Highway back up to 501 to rerun a few miles of the Parkway. It was so rainy and cold [...]

Blue Ridge Parkway trip day two - the day in numbers and pictures

I’m going to cheat a bit. Here’s our second day in numbers and pictures:
$0 - amount charged at the Staunton farmer’s market for some fresh mixed greens for my picnic lunch. (”I can’t charge you for that little bit,” the lady said)
1 - number of abandoned former “Lunatic Asylums” I saw (it’s a creepy place [...]

I’m saddle sore but I made it - Blue Ridge Parkway trip day 1

I woke up at 4:30 this morning, ready for the motorcycle trip, but stayed in bed another two hours. I thought it prudent to lie prone as long as I could. And good thinking that was!
My dad and I set out at 8:30 this morning for Staunton, Va. It was funny to be on [...]

Ride like the wind

I had my induction to motorcycling yesterday with 40 mile-an-hour wind gusts and Derby traffic leaving Louisville as I rode down to my parents’ with my dad and my cousin.
Wind at all, much less wind speed and direction of wind, is a purely academic issue when I’m just going about my daily business. Get on the back [...]

The best alarm clock is sunshine on chrome

So I hear.
But then again a case of monkey brain in the middle of the night is pretty effective too. I wish they made a version of anti monkey butt powder for the brain, to help you turn it off in the wee hours. I have a lot to do in the morning and tomorrow [...]

Spring spruce-up

Spring spruce-up

Originally uploaded by travelingmcmahans.

I really like the fact that we rent our house for Derby. Obviously the money is nice but that first-weekend-in-May deadline motivates us to spring clean, spruce up and de-clutter.
A storm ripped our window boxes off the windows last year. [...]