End of Blue Ridge Parkway, Deal's Gap and Lexington

All right, I,ve got some catching up to do. As you can guess from the tiltle of this entry I completed the Blue Ridge Parkway, all 469 miles of it and it was worth every minute of the ride. As I've already noted the views from the easily over 1000 overviews are spectacular at any time of the day. The ranges in the distrance actually do look blue while the forests and fields on both sides of the parkway itself are of all shades of green and gold. There are stretches of the parkway that were completely lined with flowering rhododendrons.

This is one of those early morning views with the banks of fog hanging below the parkway in the distance.

The destination was Deal's Gap, a bucket list item for any serious biker. The Dragon's Tail, as this portion of route 129 that straddles the bodrder between TN and KY lives up to its billing as a must do ride: 318 curves in 11 miles; some quite nasty. The manager at the store/motel office told me that it takes an average rider around 30 minutes to complete one run. Well I guess I'm average. I rode it three times, twice yesterday after I had booked in and once on the way out this morning; and all three times my time was just under 30 minutes. I'm sure that Pierre-Alain could do it quicker on his bike, or on mine for that matter.

Here I am at the 'Resort' where I was lucky enough to rent a perfectly clean and well appointed room on short notice. They are booking rooms for next year, now! They are famous for their bike routes, but not their food. They are also far out of the way which means that there is no cell or wifi connection capability. This is a problem when one wants to let folks at home that all is well . Sorry!!

Here I am after breakfast just before leaving Deal's Gap.

The next panorama shot is of one of the many switchback curves on the Dragon's Tail.

Towards the end of the Dragon's Tail there is an overlook from which one can see a man made lake held back by a hydro dam.

Tonight I'm in Lexington KY; tomorrow it's off to Nashville to catch a bit of country.