|
|
|
Day 13 - Thursday, July 10, 2003 Waynesboro, VA to Alcoa, TN 438 miles for the day, 5,626 miles traveled so far. 7:29 in the saddle, 9:15 total time check-out to check-in. Average speed while riding was 58.5 mph. Parks visited this day:
Stamps: Daily Journal: Since I was so close to the Blue Ridge Parkway, I could take my time in the morning and didn't leave until 8:30. I got to the Humpback Rocks VC of the Blue Ridge Parkway (milepost 9) at 8:50. I had to wait until 9:00 for the VC to open. These pictures were taken at the VC.
I was hopeful that the day would be great so I hadn't put on the rain cover. The roads were quite wet near the VC, so I decided to put the rain cover on as I was waiting for the VC to open. I also put on the dry liner. The parkway was nice to ride on. I got off at milepost 30, Tye River Gap, and took the Tye River Pike to I-81. Near Roanoke, I put on the glove rain covers. It looked mighty dark to the south. That was a bit of an optical illusion, because whenever you looked up, there were blue patches all over, yet looking to the horizon, you would have sworn it was solid clouds. I did hit some sprinkles at times, but it mostly was dry. North of the Tennessee border, I had a car pass me with his radar detector plainly visible on the windshield (Texas plates on the car). So I joined him and the other car that was following him and had a blast for about 75 miles. In Tennessee, the freeway speed limit went up to 70 mph. Finally, a more decent speed limit. It was time for some non-freeway, so I took I-181 to Johnson city and then went south on US-11 to Greeneville and the Andrew Johnson NHS. Note that there is an error on the stamp, an 'e' was left out of Greeneville. The stamp may even be replaced with the correct spelling by now. From Greeneville, I took US-11 back to I-81 and then continues south onto I-40, exiting at TN-66. Traffic on TN-66 sucked. It was worse after I got onto US-441 and went into Pigeon Forge. I tried to avoid lane splitting, but I just gave up. I couldn't take the crowds and the 3-4 light cycle wait to get through the intersections. And all the ticky-tacky tourist traps. I breathed a sigh of relief when the bypass of Gatlinburg came up and I headed down it, easily dispatching the few cages in the way of blissful riding. I go my stamp for the Great Smoky Mountains NP at the Sugarlands VC. I think I got there around 4:30. Not wanting to go near Pigeon Forge, I went south on Little River Road. For the most part, I made great time, a couple of cars even pulled over for me. I caught up with US-321 at Wear Valley and went into Maryville, finding a Super 8 at the airport in Alcoa. This motel is actually being converted into something suites. The room was nice, had a couch in it, along with a microwave and a refrigerator. I arrived at 5:45. Large drops of rain were starting to fall. I went the the Chinese buffet across the street. As I was eating, the wind started to howl and then the skies started dumping rain. I took my time in the restaurant, waiting for the rain to die down. When it finally was more like a light rain, I went back to the motel. At the motel, I tried to turn on the GPS only to find that it was dead. I thought that the batteries were shot, so I threw them out. I did go out to the bike a couple of hours later, after the rain stopped, and used the bike power to get the stats for the day. Map: |
