"Great things are done
Going through the "Garden of the Gods..." 
Sparkling sunlight, bright colors
Heading north, back home. Our late afternoon run on the Parkway, just before 7 pm and the eye-level clouds are still miracles of nature, embracing, shielding Mt. Pisgah with white lightness.
Heading North on the Parkway with Mt Pisgah straight ahead. No need to hurry, just soaking in the splendor.
Crag of Devil's Courthouse at 5720 feet
Rain today? Not yet, so we took a short ride to Auto (yes, they’ve got a place called Auto) on CR11 to the Monongahela Forest, through farm land that included an enormous corn field. “They can see this in space,” Steven said.
We returned via VA- and NC-16 to the Parkway. After two detours (still in repair!), we rode the BRP to Asheville. It sure felt good to get home.
A walk down memory lane for Steven... Here he stands in front of the Dam and Spillway at Hungry Mother State Park, adjacent to the Park's spectacular lake and forest, located in Marion, Virginia, just off Route 16.
Happy Independence Day... We rode back through the lush Thompson Valley, soaking in the greens and the blue-on-blue splendor...with a bit of white and red... FREEDOM!
Our View of Thompson Valley off VA State Route 16
A wonderland forest. A tunnel made of bending branches. Nearby pastures. Private. Untouched. From a different era. How are we so lucky to be able to see this?"...And sweet blossoms fills the air
Pastures of gold and green
Roll down into cool clear waters..."
~Bruce Springsteen
Holston River, Virginia 
We stop to catch our breath, get shade from the sun, and enjoy the lush beauty of the lazy Johns River that curves along NC 90 near Mortimer, NC. No one for miles...
Glenwood, North Carolina
Another great late afternoon ride... This time, we explored northwest of Buncombe County through Madison County. The mostly-rural community is named after President James Madison. Agriculture--wheat, cattle, corn, and tobacco--is the primary source of income.
Another ride, another gravel road. This one in Marshall, North Carolina.
Late afternoon, images whirl by. How do I capture it all? We passed this farm in Leicester, North Carolina-- an artist pallet of neon greens and gold on crystal blue. The country air, the fragance of life lived simply.
Herrin Knob Overlook - elevation = 5510'
Pull off the side of the road, and nearby you have all this to yourself...
We saw beautiful pink Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) today on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
"Beauty... is the shadow of God on the universe." ~ Gabriela Mistral
Orange flame azaleas against the clear, clean blue sky. This picture does not do Nature's magnificence justice. The azaleas are bursts of color amid the purple rhododendron and pink mountain laurel.
Headed north. This morning's ride's revelation: Purple Catawba rhododendron blossoms covered the Blue Ridge Parkway around Craggy Gardens, near Mt. Mitchell. Just stunning abundance of color...
Down another side road, to a lake at the dead end. Exploration.
We had to pull over to recheck the map and the cows came over to check us out. Definitely glad I am off the beef.
We stopped at the Food City in Kingston and had a great picnic lunch (lobster dip, hot wings, and shrimp) at Cove Lake State Park. We had front row seats and watched hundreds of Canadian Geese and graceful cranes move across the lake, which is in Caryville, Tennessee, on the edge of the Cumberland Mountains.
We spent the night in Sweetwater, Tennessee, then continued west on HWY 68, then north on HWY 58 through the Watts Bar Lake and Tennessee River area. Off in the distance, the nuclear plant billowed steam. We made a pit stop at this Marina and Steven was fascinated by how the boats were stored in this building and moved to the lake by crane. Pretty cool.
With a break in the incessant rain, Steven had the fever, anticipated a breathtaking ride at dusk, so we left in the late afternoon, headed West, toward Tennessee's Tellico Plains. It was quite a ride, not what we expected.
Two deer wandered near the parking lot of the restaurant up at Mt. Mitchell, just off Milepost 355...
We took a spontaneous ride through the low-hanging clouds, up to Mt. Mitchell. We had the parkway all to ourselves. The road has been closed for a year and a half and recently reopened.
Nantahala means "land of the noonday sun." Here we are near the white water rafting experience. We watched folks tubing white water. Makes me want to try, too.
We stopped for lunch in Bryson City, North Carolina and watched the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad meander past us.
Because life is always an adventure, our road near Rabun Gap, Georgia turned to gravel and instead of turning around, we tried to ride it out. Things became a bit scary--Steven had to turn the bike around near a precarious dropoff. He did it, but man, was it stressful. I walked about 1/4 mile while he rode the bike out solo. “Sure knows how to show a girl a good time…”
We continued up, reaching the crest of the mountains at 5,340-foot Beech Gap. Near Devil's Courthouse, we saw a white eagle in flight. First time. Remarkable.
We rode NC HWY 215 past Lake Logan and Sunburst Campground, through the 495,000-acre Pisgah National Forest. We experienced views of pure drama, with miles of lush forest to our right and left. With the water levels up from all the rain, we stopped before the Parkway entrance and found this waterfall. which I believe is part of the West Fork of the Pigeon River.
Picnic lunch just off Highway 28, South Carolina. Seemed like we had the entire Sumter Forest to ourselves.
