Day 32 - Oct 5 - Little Switzerland?

The bike's cover was wet from the overnight rain, but the morning just brought wet roads and lots of low clouds and fog. I headed straight for the Blue Ridge Parkway at Fancy Gap, NC and enjoyed the peaceful beauty of lots of curves at 45 mph (the Parkway limit). The trees were full of early fall colors and I got to take in a few of the many beautiful overlooks down into the North Carolina flatlands on either side of this route that is perched on the mountain tops. The picture taken here was early in the ride. As the morning progressed, the fog started to obstruct the views -- initially intermittant, but eventually constant.

I arrived in the tiny town of "Little Switzerland, NC" at around 12:30pm and stopped into only restaurant in this hamlet for some lunch. While there I enjoyed some conversations with some locals who told me that the town really does give the feeling of being in Switzerland WHEN it's not foggy. As you may see in the photo, even the nearby post office was somewhat blurred by the fog -- which is about as far as one could see.

The locals also advised that the route was headed to a higher elevation which would also be fog covered and complicated by road construction on the Parkway. So, I hatched a new plan after learning that only the top of the mountains were fog-shrouded. I headed off the Parkway on a lowlands route to my destination -- Maggie Valley, NC about 55 miles from the Tail of the Dragon. Tomorrow's weather looks encouraging for some pleasant and fun riding but I'm already changing routing plans thereafter to try to skirt some of the expected rain still moving this way.

I'll be back to visit "Little Switzerland" again -- as the area certainly has plenty of scenery that I missed. But another visit to the real Switzerland and the Netherlands remains higher on my ever changing, always growing, bucket list.