Sunday, May 16, 2010

Day 19 Asheville, NC to Hillsville, VA via Blue Ridge Parkway

The combined dinner with the Pub Crawlers and the members of Mog South last night saw the presentation of some Pub Crawl Sponsored awards to all gathered. They were:
.
Best Trike: Graham Addle
Best Flat Rad: Oscar Roberts
Best 4/4: Andy and Anne Leo
Best +4: John Claxton
Best early +8: Morgan Bondon
Best late +8: Bennett Shuldman
Best Roadster: Pat and Judy Buckley
Best Aero: Rick Frazee
And keeping with our tradition, those who have been on the Pub Crawl at least 10 days and are leaving get the Iron Man in Wooden Car awards. Awarded to Bill and Ellen Kukuk and Myron Koenig.
.
.
Sunday, May 16, 2010, marked a transition of sorts for the Pub Crawl. Some of the group departed to go home for assorted reasons, and others were new to the Crawl. We welcomed Bennet Shuldman from Ridgefield, CT in a 2003 Plus 8, Mike and Diane Dewer from Kingsville, Ontario in a 1980 Plus 8; David and Margaret Jacobson from Woodbury, CT in a 2005 Roadster.


A drivers meeting was called for 7:30am to thank the Boyles, Kinzer's, Kukuk's, Leo's and Myron Koenig for participating and wish them well on their journey home. Since this was the time during the Crawl when the most participants would be in attendance, Charlotte Hahn took the floor to present tour coordinator Charlie Miller a gift from the Crawlers and to read a poem she wrote to him:
Morgan Pub Crawl:
.
Morgans, MG and a Pontiac Solstice motored down south
Toward the goal of Manassas.
.
Opossums, raccoon's and dead armadillos,
Each night your head on different pillows
.

Red white and blue cars, silver and gray,
But greens the most popular car of the day
.
Gigantic trucks . . . sakes alive!
Samaritans and gators on I-95
.
All of the people we meet on the way
Wave and smile and always have something to say.
.
"Nice wheels!" "You look awesome" are comments thus far
And of course that question . . . "is that a kit car?"
.
Pubs that were far and pubs that were near -
Hearing Charlie yell: "Hey-where's the beer!"
.
Up in the morning, eat some breakfast on the run
Prepare your self to fight wind and the sun.
.
Beer is our staple and Pub Crawl requirement
It flows like a river for our enjoyment.
.
Cars that break down and shiver at 60,
But our shade tree mechanics have them fixed in a jiffy.
.
Really good food, crab, gumbo and grits
Low Country Boil make you lick your lips.
.
Asheville's the site to meet with South Mog
For all our adventures, check out the blog.
.
Wheels that are wire and wheels that are not
These little cars are cute - but boy are they hot.
.
Let's raise our glass, thank you Beth, thank you Charlie
And be grateful we didn't do this on a Harley!


After all this frivolity we were off to the Blue Ridge Parkway. This gently winding, tree-lined road through scenic mountains was created in the depression days of the 1930's. This is the nations first rural Parkway. Standards for road design and engineering were pioneered here. As the nation's longest Parkway it stretches 469 miles to connect the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia with the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina.

Bikers, hikers, campers and drivers share this park as both a place to visit and to see. And the scenes are awesome.

Tree lined, two lane roadway with abundant overlooks and pull off points.

It was a foggy morning as we made our first stop to enjoy the scenery.

Huge cuts in the mountain side to make room for the highway.

Fog in the valley, viewed from high atop the ridge.

We stopped at Linville Falls and some of us took a 1/4 mile hike into the woods to see the falls.

A lunch stop at the neat town of Blowing Rock. The waitress in the photo above is cleaning the catsup off of my shirt after she dropped a little cup of it on the floor, and it exploded. It looks like I was enjoying the rib tickle.

Another minor break down with Karen's car when it didn't like the higher altitudes. A new distributor module she just happened to have in her spares was installed by Dr. Hahn, our esteemed road doctor and it seemed to cure the problem for now.
We got into Hillsville right at 5 in time for our afternoon beverages, Jinga and Farkle routine. Dinners of Pizza and salad were ordered to be delivered so we didn't have to get in the cars again... it was really raining by now.
More tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. Cute waitress, Gary. . . You do look like you are enjoying yourself!

    ReplyDelete
  2. For true fans of this thread I will address is a free online! Digital marketing asheville

    ReplyDelete