Wherever I May Roam: 2018

I'm writing this blog 3 and a half hours after we finished the Blue Ridge Parkway, and I'm still somewhat shaken from our incident between mile 467 and 468. We were coming around a corner, leaning left, about middle of our lane and right around the 45mph speed limit. One second we were enjoying the last few miles of the BRP, and the next second there's an oncoming care in our lane. It was fully in our lane not just a little. I have never braked a vehicle as hard as I did there, and because we were in the middle of a corner, the bike felt like it was starting to go down. I remember pumping my left foot down as the white blur of the vehicle passed in front of us, and then it was over. There can't have been more than inches to spare, and somehow I kept the bike upright and moving. My leg hurt pretty bad after, and thankfully there was an overlook a few hundred meters down the road.

Leona and I got off the bike, and we were both shaking after the close call. I contemplated going up the road to see if the other vehicle had stopped, but wasn't sure what I would do if I met the driver, so decided against that. After ten minutes or so of calming down, we rode the final 1.5 miles to finish the Blue Ridge Parkway. Both of us were so thankful that God had his hand on our bike today, because that's the only explanation I can give as to how we avoided a major collision!

Other than that incident it was a beautiful day of riding, though we did get a little rain today. There was a 20 mile section that was under construction so we took a detour to bypass that. I wasn't in the mood for loose gravel again, especially a long stretch like that. We saw a little bit of North Carolina that we wouldn't have seen, though it was much better to get back on the parkway.

The fews today were the best of the last four days, and if a person only had one day available to ride the BRP, this is the section I'd recommend. The highest point on the BRP is 6,053 feet above sea level, and we passed that today. The majority of the tunnels were also today, which is always kind of fun.

We are in Bryson City tonight, and we have the next three nights booked here. There are bunch of roads we want to ride in the area, so hopefully I can trust the other vehicles when we get back on the road tomorrow.