Day 5 - October 6 - Floyd, VA to Zirconia, NC (262 miles)

     Well, after the long, cold day before, I was a little lazy in getting started this morning. The clock/temp. display on the Floyd Bank showed 42F at 800AM when I went to the Blue Ridge Restaurant for breakfast. I decided the I needed more calories for the expected cold day ahead, so had too much stuff, including something I had never seen before: hash browns made solely from the skin and not much white stuff of the potato. I also forgot how salty country ham is.

   I was out of the Floyd Hotel, and on the road by about 10AM. I knew there was a crowd of folks waiting for me in Zirconia for dinner. In any case, there were some prodigious sidewinds along the BRP, so strong that I relived my perilous moment crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge a couple of days earlier. The physical layout of the BRP changes slightly from VA to NC. The VA portion today was very open, thus giving the wind a lot of distance to get going. Once I was in NC, the trees were allowed to grow closer to the road, thus blocking the wind a bit. My fears about low temperatures were unfounded, as the temperature readout on the RT was always in the sixties. Despite that, I left the panels in my riding pants.

   I did have a pleasant conversation with a fellow from NC who expressed concern about how the winds were affecting me. We went back and forth about motorcycles for a while, and then gave me a wink and said, "Well it sure is a pretty day." Indeed it was.

   Onc of the folks from the Yankee Beemers club to which I belong suggested a stop at "Little Switzerland" (just off the BRP) as a worthwhile place to see. Despite being a little late for dinner in Zirconia, I got off the BRP to take a look at the place. Big Mistake. Not much there. I figured I had to get further off the BRP a bit to see this wondrous place, and descended a very narrow road (NC 226 Alt). Long story short, after a couple of miles descending this snake-like route, I could not find a place to turn around and get back to the BRP. I asked my Garmin GPS to get me to Zirconia ASAP, and thus I did a few slab miles getting over there. Everyone seemed pleased to see me, gave me some Scotch to drink, and then we had a fine dinner.

Sorry - no photos today.