First off, I now officially hate the Wordpress iPhone app. I just finished the post and thought, “Oh, i’ll just add a picture to this draft” and it erased my draft post when I did.

The day didn’t start so well either. I was awoken in Charleston, WV at about 7am by the sound of the rain. When you’re on a bike tour, it’s never the sound you want to be woken by. “Bacon, sir?” is much better, as is “Would you like the fireblade today?”. My first thought is “oh crap”. My second thought is “oh, crap. Marina isn’t going to like this”. I was right. Upon waking, you could see she wasn’t happy. We’re doing 300+ miles a day and she’s not got proper rain gear, only my rain pants. Check the iphone for the weather and it doesn’t get any better either. The next three days show thunder showers everywhere we are going. She’s not happy, but then I notice it says the total rainfall is <1mm. That’s much more appealing. I show her this and promise we can turn back if it gets worse. She’s calmed and we head down for breakfast.

Full of delicious frittata and coffee, courtesy of our hosts bob and david, we suit up and load the bike. The rain did cease a while ago now and it’s almost dry out. We hit the road, missing pretty much the first turn we’re supposed to make. The day isn’t getting any better yet.

Happily, we realize before too long and start south on the US-119. It’s a lovely road, if a little too highway. Four lanes mean it’s fast and it has some lovely sweeping corners that never seem to cease.

After a while, we hit Kentucky and the scenery changes almost immediately. There’s less trees for a start and the mountains have terraces cut into to the rock. I guess it’s for construction and it looks very cool, if a little alien. The 119 continues in the same manner, but we’re gaining more altitude now and it’s cooler. One valley gives us a little rain though it also made us detour through rural KY as the 119 was closed for a while. Despite the traffic, it was great road and gave a flavor of the twists we can expect later on though we’re also glad to hit Pikeville at the intersection with US-23, for some lunch. The “out to lunch” has great espresso and a decent, if small, pork BBQ sandwich. That and I also get to hear my first real southern accents up close and I have to say I like it.

As we left, we were warned that the 23 was dangerous. It’s called the country music highway so it doesn’t sound dangerous but the guy stood outside his shop as we left told us the drivers around here are terrible. Heeding his advice, we took things a little more slowly, at least for a while. I’m happy to say the drivers were certainly no worse than those back in toronto, though we did notice a lot of wrecks by the side of the road. That and it seems all the local business are directly off the highway so you have to be wary of people pulling both onto and off the highway with little notice. Still, we made it.

A little further along, the rains did finally come and we pulled into Norton, VA for both gas and rain gear. Marina to her credit didn’t complain at all and we got back on the road only to see the rains stop shortly after. It was cool though and the skies still broody so we didn’t stop again.

The 23 eventually spat us out onto the I26/I81 towards Knoxville. Here, the character changed completely. The sweeps, climbs and beautiful scenery of the 119/23 were replaced with close trees and die-straight tarmac. Still, it does it’s job and delivers us to Sevierville very quickly.

The place we are in is beautiful – outside town with a great view of the smokies. We’re headed around that tomorrow, down the tail of the dragon even though storms are forecast. Our host tells us it’s usually wrong. here’s hoping…

Tags: No Comments