Ride to Marshall, NC and Taking the Turnpike

Tuesday morning, August 16, 2016.  Temps in the low 70s.  Light to heavy fog depending on where you were.  High to be in lower 90s.  A good day for a ride.  So at 6:30 a.m. I pushed Red Bug out of the garage and fired him off, the beginning of a good day's ride.  Headed North to meet up with Biker Fried Paul a the Exxon on Boyds Creek.  Destination, over in NC to ride a couple of new roads, and a stretch called Turnpike which is in name only for it crosses a mountain and the surface for most of it is crushed rock.

This what it looked like shortly after leaving the Exxon Sta. meet-up.  Light fog over the highway but heavier over the land.

This blurred foggy scene is the Seven Islands School that I have taken so many pictures of.  Due to the fog I waited a bit too long to take the pic while riding by.

As he sun tries to burn its way through it makes a colorful picture in doing so.

Here's what riding directly into the sun looks like through a fog and a fog coated visor and lens.  A natural Star Burst.

As we ride toward Sevierville the fog lifts a bit here and yon and still gives some eerie but effective pictures.

Once we hit Interstate 40 the fog is all gone.  However, this doesn't last for very long as soon after we hit the fog again even thicker.

Coming back into the fog area and now we're starting to ride through the gaps in the mountain which start on the TN side just before you get to the NC state line.

Once again the air cleared and was so for the rest of the day.  Heading into the mountains.

After about 30 miles or so on the interstate we took a turn off to head to Canton, NC and our ride destination.  Roads with names like Stinky Creek, Skunk Hollow, Piney Ridge, etc.

One of the stretches of crushed rock roads that we would travel today.

A beautiful valley below, great farming land.  Lots of tomatoes and corn grown along with horses and cattle.

Paul stopped to take a picture of the valley below and the city of Canton, NC.  That smoke in the far distance is steam rising from a pulp mill.  The smell goes along with it.

Canton and prosperity as long as the mill operates.  It is the backbone of the economic pattern of this area.

After the gravel run we're back to hard pavement, riding along the edge of the mountains.

These two calves had gotten out of their pasture and was grazing along the side of the road.  I stopped to take their picture as they were looking straight at me.  Just before I snapped the pic they both turned away from me.  I guess they didn't want their picture displaced about the country.

Blue sky, green corn.  Makes for a nice picture.

Shady country lanes always looks so peaceful and today they really were for we saw very few cars on this part of our run.











Ah, at last we have arrived at Canton, NC and a good stopping place for breakfast.  Part of our breakfast came from next door at the Taco Bell and the rest came from Ingles which consisted of hot coffee and an apple fritter.

Right after eating breakfast we headed out for one of our main riding roads of the day.

It twisted and tuned up and down a mountain and along the way was tis small but pretty little waterfall.

A closer look at the waterfall.

Coming down off the mountain was very scenic with the forth coming of farms and settlements.

This turned out to be a great bike road with it twists and turns.  And every once in a while the twist turned into a corkscrew so you had to stay alert.

Corn, hay and tomatoes.  How green is green.  How picturesque can it get with the mountains on either side and at the end of the valley.

This old house was next door to an old store.  Paul took the picture of the store while I settled for the house.  It appears to be sinking into the ground but that's just an appearance.  The roadway is higher and the house site has been cut down making it appear the first floor is several feet below the top of the ground.

Cemeteries and churches dot the countryside.  Some church structures are unique.

Tomatoes.  Future canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato catsup, tomato soup just to name a few.  And most of all, tomato sandwiches.

Hillside cemetery.

To me this was a beautiful old house far out of town and very peaceful.

Here's Paul getting ready to enter this store.  He said that he'd passed it many times but never stopped.  Today we stopped.  It was built by two brothers 52 years ago.  One of them still runs the store, more for a hobby than a business.  Paul asked if they had coffee and how much.  He actually paid for my coffee.  It was 25 cents but Paul is a big spender so he gave the gentleman a dollar, half of it was for my cup.  Next time we buy coffee it will be my turn to pay and will cost $2 a cup.

A well use barn and well weathered too.

Kudsu, in the process of taking ove an old church.  I have kept smelling a faint sweet smell when riding where there was a lot of Kudsu along the roadway.  I found out on this ride that it actually blooms with a pale lavender flower.  It has a faint sweet but enjoyable aroma to it.

A view from one of the hilltops we crested.

Crossing the Holston River near Hot Springs, NC.  Very serene.  Like a good float trip to take your cares away.

Leaving Hot Springs we now head back in the direction of the house.  We will just burn and turn until Sevierville where we will stop and gas up.

It has looked several times as if we would be getting soaked by rain but the clouds move off or we out ran them but no raindrops on this trip.

It has been and enjoyable day to ride.  Even the rock roads which had the tendency to make you tighten up a bit were fun.  Now as the trip winds down, you can relax and just let it all go.

Door to door for me today was 206 miles averaging 79.1mpg.  I'm riding a refinery.

So until the next Valkyrie Adventure I wish you all peace and prosperity, truth and wisdom and most of all health and safety.  We live in a beautiful country so take the time to look around and enjoy it.  Ride/drive safe my friends.