day 47

18 July 2008



Today we rode about 27 miles along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Park that is pretty much just the road and a few overlooks. It runs along the ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains all through Virginia and North Carolina. At the visitor center they said it's the most visited National Park in the country.

To get up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, we had a 4 mile climb that was super steep. It was definitely one of the toughest climbs we've done. The Parkway was very pretty, and we got some great downhills at the end.

In Afton, right after the Parkway, we stopped and visited "The Cookie Lady". She's had bikers staying at her "Bike House" for years, and the house is chuck full of memorabilia left by bikers. She's famous among TransAm bikers, and everyone told us we should stay there. We didn't end up staying there because we have the van and trailer, and didn't really want to impose, but my dad and I visited with her for a while. She has had a stroke a little while ago, and a fall just barely, and is reaching the point where she probably won't be able to keep housing bikers much longer. I think she said she's 83 or so. She has had over 14000 bikers stay there, and has binder after binder of photos to prove it. It really was quite the place, and she is an amazingly nice lady.

We rode 70 miles today, and stopped at a campground near Greenwood, VA.