Day 42 - Lenoir, North Carolina

I can't believe I've been 'on the road' 6 weeks now! Another lovely day again today, and much warmer. However, it turned out to be a rather frustrating day in the end! It took almost an hour to get through Gatlinburg - though that did give me time to look at the tourist town with its mountain theme on the way through. But then I was in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which has been on my hitlist for about 30 years. It had been very cold overnight, so the frost on the grass was gently steaming in the sun - a very pretty effect. I find American drivers to be rather nervous of sharp curves and steep inclines - but I guess I am inured to them after living in Crete - so progress was steady. But such gorgeous views over the mountains! On the way up it is very thickly forested, and the trees grow together over the road, so it is like driving in a leafy tunnel, and the sun makes the red, gold, green and bronze leaves translucent. Also there are aspen trees here, and their leaves go a bronzy-pink - gorgeous!

Then onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, mostly up between 3,500 and 5,500 feet; it was so clear today that everything seemed to be sparkling. But suddenly - the road was closed at Balsam! So I had to find my way down, and then guess where the next open part of the Parkway would be. Fortunately I guessed right - south of Cruso, but it all takes time, having to stop and look at the map and (as Nancy's GPS would say) 'recalculating' ... And then about 15 miles on, the road was closed again, so I had to come down via NC-151! So more 'recalculating' was needed ...

I gave it one more try east of Asheville, and made another 30 miles or so, but it was getting late by this time, so I needed to come down again - US-80E is almost more spectacular than the Parkway, running alongside and across the bubbling river all the way down to Marion. Signposting here was minimal, so it took a while to find the right road out of town, to Morganton; signage even worse here, so I ended up on US-70E going through Valdese where the whole town was out waiting for (I think) the local college football team. So at last to Days Inn at Lenoir! And then to Ruby Tuesday and a well-deserved large margarita with my dinner ;-)