to Cherokee, NC

Our second day also got off to a sunny start.  This is the view from our hotel room in Douglas, GA. 

We got on the road at 8 a.m. and continued north on 441.  

In the reflection of the window you can see my new little Lumix camera.  

Riding along first thing this morning I noticed a fairly good sized area of forest land that had been harvested.  Still standing was a tall hunting blind.  Seeing it gave Allan and I both a chuckle and it was one of the many times I wished I had my camera at hand.  Wonder what those hunters are going to think the next time they drive by... 

After our first stop for gas I decided to try to carry my precious new camera in my coat pocket for immediate use.  It is rated as "waterproof and tough" and is suppose to withstand a 6' 6" drop.  They probably didn't do the rating from a motorcycle traveling at 60 mph.  (Sounds a bit like one of those math problems from when I was in grade school...  The trains was traveling at 45 mph toward Washington.  It left the station at 2:15.  When will it get there?)

I was thinking of Jake when I took this picture of acres and acres of neatly planted pine trees.  We came across several places where this was the case.  We also passed a tree farm with several varieties of trees.  There were hundreds of each type.  Among them were Magnolias in blossom.

This is the back of Allan's jacket.  My memory is not as good as it used to be but I really don't need to look at this for hours on end to know that I am perched on a Harley for this trip.  The bike has plenty of power and the seat is very comfy.  However, the shocks could use some air and we have been on pretty smooth roads thus far.  He has just the tool to accomplish this task but it is packed somewhere in Ma's garage in Maine.  

Today we saw a Suzuki Boulevard.  It was loaded.  There were folks riding 2 up with a backrest, carry bag and saddle bags.  It was white, similar to my friend Susan's bike, and the same model that Susan and I have.  I am looking forward to getting together with my bike in a week or so as well as with Susan and our other "Mildhog" friends. Hope those skies are blue and the roads in Maine are covered with nice pavement like this road here in GA.

Today we traveled North on 441 all day.  We really didn't know what to expect for road width and the condition of the surface.  A lot of it was as you see here, a two lane divided highway.  It reminded us of many roads in Maritime Canada since it was not limited access.  Businesses and homes are scattered along the way.  We found it clearly marked and towns and cities of much size had a business 441 through town and another 441 that skirted around the towns.  Thus, we avoided most of the towns/cities.

As we have progressed north we have left the flat lands of FL and Southern GA for some gentle rolling hills.  We have also arrived in the land of blooming wildflowers.  I know that this photo is blurry but I think that you can tell from it that the Daisy's and such are in full bloom.  We also saw fields of freshly mown hay.  As you can see from the photo below there was no paved shoulder and I didn't even consider asking Allan to stop for me to get a picture of "roadside daisies".  OK so I did consider it but I did not ask.

This photo is to illustrate that we have made it from the sandy beaches of Venice, FL to the reddish farmlands of GA.  Today be passed many cow pastures and corn fields.  In several of the pastures the cows were laying down under trees.  Grampie always used to say that seeing cows laying down was a sure sign of rain...

The clouds thickened as we approaches Athens, GA.  I can now say that I almost went to the University of Georgia!

We stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch at about 1:00 and took our rain gear in with us.  And, sure enough it was showering when we came out.  If you have ever wondered why they have those nice rockers and benches outside their establishment you can wonder no more.  We used them to climb into our rain gear. Just envision two older plump adults trying to climb into snow pants with suspenders and then pulling on a rain coat over a leather jacket, followed by a helmet and gloves...
I suspect we were an entertaining sight going through those smooth moves.

Allan was a bit unsure how far he wanted to ride today.  The choices were to stop before the mountains or push on into the mountains to Cherokee, NC.  Well, as often happens when you get all your rain gear on the rain doesn't amount to much.  Lucky for us that was the case today.  Since it wasn't raining, the little towns just kept whizzing by with no hotels in sight and on we traveled to Cherokee.  I have no pictures yet of the mountains because I thought I was pushing my luck with the camera in my jacket pocket and even through it is waterproof to 43' I wasn't ready to try storing it in my smaller rain coat pocket.  I sure wish that I had had it handy.  There were a few breath taking vistas before us and a couple of gaps/gorges that we passed over that were picture worthy.  The only sign of great interest that I might have tried to get a picture of was the tractor trailer truck facing down on top of a triangle wedge and the saying 7% grade next 1 mile.  I didn't remember climbing all that way up but we came down and around and down some more.  

There is an indian reservation casino here in Cherokee.  We will not visit this time...  Too bad for that since I won almost $100 on our trip down to FL at a casino in PA.  

This is a picture from the rear balcony of our hotel.  The sun made it back out for a brief visit late this afternoon.  Our view is of the Oconaluftee River.  (Now say that 3 times fast.)

Although the Blue Ridge Parkway begins near here we will not travel on it tomorrow because we will be taking a detour to Knoxville, TN to visit with Allan's sister Terry, her daughter and family.  It is about 80 miles from here to Knoxville but it will take at least 2 hours because of the mountains and city travel.  We hope to return here on Monday and start our travels on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Imagine my surprise when I opened up the "Guest Services" book here at the hotel and saw this ad for Snake Adventures...  Oh, wait, I have already had my snake adventure!  I am sure to pass on this opportunity.  Any takers out there?

Today we traveled 338 miles and our running total is 708 miles in two days.