Up In The Clouds

After riding my bike all day Saturday, I really didn’t feel like going out for a recovery ride.  In fact, I really didn’t feel like riding at all.  Luckily, I had already made other plans.  Since Lunchbox was leaving for his summer pilgrimage to Florida, we thought that it would be a good idea to get up in them thar hills.

Since Florida is sooooo flat, I thought going up to the mountains would be a nice contrast for him so he would remember why he loves living up here.  As with most of our adventures, getting there was half the fun.

We got to drive through a few tunnels on the Blue Ridge Parkway:

Our destination?  The tallest peak east of the Mississippi River, Mount Mitchell.

Tallest?  Yeah.  At 6,684 feet, it’s way up there (at least it felt like that to a couple of Florida boys.) 

There was even a sign to prove it.

Since we were higher than the surrounding mountains, the view was awesome. 

This is the part where I cheat a little and just post up a shitload of photos instead of writing some kind of elaborate story.

We hung out up there for a while, just taking it all in.  We eventually got hungry, so we headed down to the on site restaurant to grab a bite to eat. 

We saw this sign on the door:

Apparently, some folks like to ride bikes all the way up there.  I’m not one of them, but a plan is in the works. 

Here’s the view from our table inside the restaurant:

After spending a good bit of time up there on the mountain, we headed back down and rode over to the town of Old Fort.  I wanted to show Lunchbox something.

Andrews Geyser, which is man made by the way.

We headed over to the Old Fort picnic area to use the facilities, and my wannabe shutterbug ass took another photo of a little creek.

Just as we were about to hit the road back to Charlotte, we saw a familiar face hanging out in the parking lot.  It was D-Wayne, who had just finished a pre ride of the ORAMM course (actually, I think it finished him.)  We chatted for a bit, but we had to haul ass to get to the airport on time.

It was a great day up in the mountains for sure.  Lunchbox is gone for six weeks, so I’ll have to keep busy until he gets back.  I hate that he has to go for so long, but at least I know he would rather be up here playing in the mountains. 

I know I would.  That’s why I don’t live in Florida anymore.