Day 2 - Scenic Ridin and Brunswick Stew

Rise 'n shine! Time to ride.

OK, I don't really say that...at least, not too loud...seein as how I seem to always rise at 'round 5:30 every mornin on our rides...much to the chagrin of the missus. Luckily, the restaurant next door must cater to hunters, or some other equally early risers, as they were open for busness and servin up fresh brewed coffee 'bout as soon as I was showered and dressed. As I strolled 'round outside sippin my coffee, I could tell today was gonna be much improved over yesterday's rainy "ten-miles-from-hell" as Loosie calls it. The sky was 'bout as blue as I had ever seen, with a puffy white cloud here 'n there. It was cold, but I'll take that over rain any day...'specially when it equates to the clear crisp air it was servin up with my coffee. Ahhh...life is good. My buds rise almost as early as I do, so I was soon joined by several others as they vied for position in the coffee line.

It wasn't long before we were all caffeined up, and pullin outta the motel's parkin lot headin south on VA-8 towards Stuart for breakfast. We coulda eaten at the Tug...as we were prone to call our home for the weekend...but we were told the place in Stuart had the best breakfast 'round...and my bud, Dog and his wife Rae, wanted to take an early ride to see their huntin cabin nearby. And, was it ever worth it. The ride took us on a loop road much like the Cades Cove Loop in the Smokies...but without the gazillion tourists everywhere...and hardly a house to be seen anywhere. Dog 'n Rae plan to build themselves a retirement cabin on their five acres someday...but for now, the accomodations consist of a rustic huntin cabin, complete with the requisite backwoods outhouse.

The ride down VA-8 was a sweet little slalom run, and after our cabin loop, we ended up back on 8 headin into Stuart for breakfast. Dog had been leadin the ride up to breakfast in Stuart, but then Jay...otherwise known as Muthuh (Muthuh's Rides)...took over and led us over backroads thru some of the most beautiful country I've ever ridden. I wish I had more pics to show, but we were movin...it was too cold to remove the gloves...so the missus couldn't do her usual snapshots from the back of the scoot. After hittin a few backroads, we ended up on US-58 where we stopped at the Lover's Leap pullout. This is when we all realized the altitude at which we had been ridin.

After Lover's Leap, we jump on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a bit, with the first stop at the Mayberry General Store. Sorry, we didn't see Aunt Bea or Andy. The store was built in 1892, and was tended by a li'l ole lady with one dry sense of humor. Outside, there was a fellow stirrin a big kettle of something with a wooden paddle. The missus said it must be lie soap, but I told her no soap I ever knew of smelled that good. Turns out he was cookin up a batch of apple butter. We walked over and chatted with him a while, but the smell was drivin me crazy and causin me to salivate like an old hound, so we saddled up and headed on down the Parkway to Mabry Mill...but not before buyin us a jar of that thar apple butter. Yum yum! Mabry Mill is just that...a still operational grist mill. I wish I had paid more attention to the various plaques 'round the Mill so I could fill ya in on its history...but you'll just have to settle for the pic. I can tell ya tho, according to one thing I did read, it is the most photographed location on the entire BRP. They also had a display with postcards from various states, all displayin the Mill as tho it were their own, welcomin folks to come visit their scenic state. These were very old postcards, so I guess false advertisin has been around for quite some time, eh.

The rest of the day's ride was ramblin along the BRP with a couple Kodak moment type stops. The missus and I posed for a shot at one of these stops, just before gettin back to the motel. We ended up back at the Tug 'round 3:00 in the afternoon for a little rest before headin out to a big Brunswick Stew Party put on by some friends of Dog 'n Rae's. They led us back down the sweet slalom run down highway 8, and part way thru the loop I mentioned at the start of this day's ride, where we hung a left on a li'l dirt road. We rode the dirt road for just a little ways, thru a squeeze 'tween some hills, over a rickety wood bridge, and VOILA!...it opens up into one of the most beautiful valleys imaginable. There were three very old homes...probably in the family forever...and musta been a hunnert cars 'n trucks there. They had big kettles of Brunswick stew a cookin...big kettles of beef stew...and 'bout anything else ya could want fer dinner...a bluegrass band...and of course, the requisite jars of moonshine bein passed 'round. We got fat 'n happy...and met a good many very nice folks. After some minglin and takin bets on how many different kinds of meat were in the Brunswick stew, we said our goodbyes 'n thanks, and saddled up for the ride back to the motel. Sorry, but I didn't get the first pic of all this, as I had left my camera back at the room. Crap! Anyways, we were pretty beat when we got back, so there was much less jocularity than the previous night,,,which I'm sure the neighbors appreciated.

Well, time to put my wussy butt to bed...I'm beat! See ya for the ride home tomorrow.