Rain, rain go away; come again some other day

Well that just about sums up the weather ever since I have arrived in Fayetteville. The days where there are clear skies at some point in the afternoon seem to have passed for good, and it's now rain, soft and then hard, all the time.  Yesterday Jim and I had lunch at the Pig trail By-pass Country Café where I must say I had an excellent double cheeseburger with bacon and an A&W root beer. What's not to love in that?

The pig trail, as the name suggests is a piece of road in a beautiful mountain setting with a series of progessively tighter curves that you have to negotiate at very low speed. Difficult in nice weather, hellishly so in the rain. But we bikers do it because? Well because our addled brains have  convinced us collectively that doing such things is fun.

Yesterday we also visited the Terra Studios where pottery and blown glass products, including the famous blue glass Bluebird of Paradise are crafted. The shop which fronts the space where the glassblowers work behind a glass wall is full of handicraft, some of which is very nice and expensive. The grounds around the studio are laid out like a small park with clay characters and decorations all over the place.  The effect is quite pleasing and the joint is a stop for many a visiting tourist and maybe a few bikers; though I doubt that it's on the Hells Angels "Must See While in Fayetteville" list.

At the end of the ride I was treated to a delicious homemade meal at Jim and Diana's lovely home on a 54 acre piece of land next door to the middle of nowhere at the end of a steep gravel driveway. I was made to feel at home and I'm happy to have seen where they live with their two cats and the many dogs that guard the fenced-in property.

As it was raining again today and since I had to be back at the hotel for a conference call at 3:00 we limited our outing to a visit to the Crystal Bridges Museum of Modern Art, a magnificent structure designed by Moshe Safdie and set in an equally magnificent park full of trees, shrubs, flowers, and the occasional sculpture. The museum and the grounds, admittance to which are free year round, are gifts of the Waltons and the art collection is excellent. We were able to visit an impressive temporary collection of impressionist artists; more my cup of tea then Jim's.

Tomorrow is my last day in Fayetteville and Jim has promised another interesting ride, rain or shine. I'm betting rain but, who knows.