As reported by Bruce
Another somewhat "crisp" start to the morning but the cars were covered with a coat of dew and not ice so that's a plus. We all woke up and hour late and blamed it on the time change moving from Central time to Eastern time. At least that what we are going with.
Another somewhat "crisp" start to the morning but the cars were covered with a coat of dew and not ice so that's a plus. We all woke up and hour late and blamed it on the time change moving from Central time to Eastern time. At least that what we are going with.
After dueling with local commuters whizzing around, texting and applying makeup on the way to being late for work we broke out into some beautiful countryside in east Tennessee. Our destination was Boone, NC a somewhat short 135 mile drive through the Great Smoky mountains. The ride through the mountains began after we went through Johnson City, TN named for the 17th President Andrew Johnson and home of East Tennessee University. We went up and down some pretty steep grades and then ended up on a long and twisty road. Trish is happy to report there were some guardrails on this stretch.
We passed by some fishing camps along the river and some expensive looking lodges. There was even a private airport in the area that looked like it would be an exciting place to land. We were now in the town of Elk Park, NC. We found out later that the trout fishing in the area and the elk hunting was the big sporting attraction.
We stopped for a nice lunch (I had a corned beef sandwich) in Banner Elk, NC. This is a college town (Lees - McRae) that is pretty upscale. The woman that seated us at the restaurant told me she used to live at Killington, VT. By the way yesterday we met a guy from Ipswich, MA.
So now we were only about 20 miles from Boone, NC but since it was early we decided to a swing over to downtown Boone for a stretching of the legs and some therapeutic recreational shopping. Boone is also a college town and home to Appalachian State University and their 15,000 students. We found some parking right on Main Street and we were on our way. The local general store has been in business since the 1880's and they sell all kinds of stuff. We must have spent 45 minutes and $75 in that store.
Lou and Rose had gone across the street to an antiques store when we found out that Lou had gone back to his car for something. Lou and behold ( !!!) the Zadramobile had a flat tire. After finding that out the pit crew went to work and changed the tire in less than 8 minutes. We decided to get to our hotel and fix the flat before the sun went down. Bruce and Lou got that chore done in approximately 30 minutes. We didn't use the old tube but instead opted to replace it with a new tube. The old tube was then patched and we will keep that as an "if all else fails" spare.
Finally, we enjoyed a light dinner at Troy's Diner next door to out hotel.
Today we went through Strawberry Plains, Talbott, Morristown, Whitesburg, Bull's Gap, Mosheim, Greenville, Roan Mountain, Elk Park, Banner Elk, Banner Mountain, Sugar Mountain, SevenDevils and Boone, NC.
Off to the Blue Ridge Parkway tomorrow hoping for blue skies and safe travels.
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| Elk Grove Fishing was renowned |
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| The Banner Elk Cafe - Good place to eat |
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| Lou changing the flat tire |
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| And the culprit was a pin hole in the tube |
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| Fall colors were everywhere |
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| More countryside colors |
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| From MARC facebook page, someone took this picture in Boone |
Another interesting day on your journey! That general store sounds like my kind of place. Did it sell Model A tubes?!!?
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