We woke up to a cool but comfortable morning and were on the road at first light. As is usually the case, we had the early road to ourselves. The temperatures rose and dipped with the road, as we generally headed south and east in Kentucky horse country. Early morning on vacation is amazing.
Horse country eventually began to shift to coal country. Large farm estates disappeared and much hillier terrain pushed the road into sinuous ribbons. At times, the fog was quite thick - not so thick that we had to slow down, but there was enough fog that things got wet as the temperature dropped.
Coal country may have a reputation of being grungy, and in a minority of places it may be. Most of the area is simply gorgeous, with miles of trees just starting to bud and very little in the way of traffic. Some of the towns seem quite nice, while others appear to be in the midst of the death rattle. But the areas in between are some of the best motorcycle roads in the East.
We wound our way around eventually passing into Virginia for a short spell before heading south into Tennessee. As we spent a lot of the late morning at higher elevations, it really didn't get warm until afternoon.
Lunch was at the small and simple Whiteway Grill in Roan Mountain, Tennessee. Food was extra good and the people were very friendly. I think we were the only non-locals there. One kind gentleman even thanked us for stopping in before he left. He might have been the owner - it was all a bit ambiguous.
The area around the Tennessee and North Carolina border is absolutely silly with wonderfully empty roads and rhododendrons. I suspect if we were a week or three later, they could be in bloom which would be an amazing site to see. But even seeing them on this late April day, their waxy leaves were magnificent next to the just-budding trees.
We briefly got on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I've heard people say that they absolutely loved it and that it was a terror, filled with trundling cars and gawking people. We saw very few other cars on it, but we were only on it for a few miles. I'm not sure I would plan a vacation around it, and it goes in an awkward direction - NE to SW - for most of our trips.
After the Blue Ridge Parkway, we continued heading south and east. Weather warmed with gorgeous blue skies and perfect temperatures. I think the day ranks as one of my top 5 motorcycle days east of the Mississippi.
We got near Charlotte and headed around it, "enjoying" just a bit of traffic before stopping in Monroe. Frustratingly, we could not get into our hotel room with the keys we were given. The nice lady at the desk, working alone, tried helping several times. We thought about just getting a refund, but there weren't too many more reasonable hotel rooms available around Monroe, and the next place on our route was about two hours away. After calling the maintenance man (he apparently had had problems with that door as well), the clerk got permission to give us a cut key for the room. I'm quite sure this is actually the cut key for the whole hotel. That is something to think about...
Dinner that night was at Logans. Not bad, but not great. The night was completed with some ice cream from the gas station. I've learned from the past and have my own travel spoon now.
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