North Carolina - Knob Land...

We've ridden all day back on the Blue Ridge trail, all the names along the route were something knob, ie Theodore Knob etc... we've been chuckling all day long, puerile humour but good for a giggle!!

Anyway, back to the details of the day... whilst looking at Google maps last night for a road that runs through the Cherokee lands south of us, we found out that the Blue Ridge Trail runs for almost 500 miles, roughly north to south, so we decided to follow it to a little toen called Cherokee, (Apparently this is a proper little tourist town full of chinzy little bits of junk, I have a picture of a shop in Blackpool in my head, anyway we'll see when we get there...

So the road continued as yesterday, loads of great bends & scenery, the road surface has changed a fair bit, its pretty rough, plenty of pot holes, (its like being back in the UK again :-)). We saw more deer, a fox that tried to stare Geoff down as he approached at 50 mph, it did turn tail & run at the last minute though... & we've had tick attacks all day, I got out of the shower to find 2 on me, Geoff had one jump onto him, he wacked it off though... they can't half jump high those little buggers!! Oh & we saw bear warnings today too... mmm don't want to run into one of these...

We've met loads of chatty bikers all day, two guys on Victory bikes, Harley look a-likes but with more class I thought, see what you think below... nice guys going south to north like us.

We also met up with two older guys who gave us loads of info on the Cherokee roads, especially one called the Dragons Tail... 313 bends in 11 miles to a lookout above Lake Fontana... we need to do some research on this yet.They were riding an old Harley & a BMW 1100RT, good old bike...

One other guy that stood out was on his own, when we met him in a cool little gas station, he had about 80 miles to go to get to the highest peak in West Virginia, park the bike, walk upto the summit, then go home, fab day out!!

We had lunch in a proper little roadside diner, chicken dumplings, these were ace & one of the first things I've eaten here that wasn't sweet, mind you that was soon offset with the sweet potato & carrots swathed in butter that came with it!!

Chicken Dumplings - heaven...

You lookin at me boy??

We also crossed the state line into North Carolina today, which was heralded by a nice big sign & a white line across the road... that's the 3rd one so far, lots more to come!! The accent has changed dramatically since we crossed the state line, amazing how much more of a drawl it is... It takes a moment to get your ear tuned to it, but as always the people are pretty friendly, we get asked if we're having a good day even by people who are getting out of their vehicle which they've just parked next to us, great stuff!!

Finally we dropped off the Ridge as we neared the 300 mile mark for the day, then started looking for somewhere to stay. We've ended up in a campsite which is totally for bikers, the family are all mad keen & the whole place is set up so you can park your bike up easily, there are places to chill etc... great place & I gather that it's one of the haunts for Nick Sanders when he runs his motorbike tours over here. Plus there is a lot of off road potential around here, well worth a return visit I reckon.

We got the stove out tonight to so we could test out all the bits of kit we'll need now we're getting close to start of the TAT, maybe one more day of indoor over nights before we start on the trail properly. My bags seem really heavy & I'm not looking forward to picking the bike up in mud or water etc with all this extra weight, might ave to look at shedding some very soon.

Tomorrow, the plan is more time on the Ridge route, then follow the Dragon & the Cherohala Skyway roads into Telico Plains, then that's us on the roads for awhile... can't wait to start to get muddy in all that Tennessee soggyness...

You all have a good day now!!