Blue Ridge Parkway - Day 2

    Another day on the Parkway and plenty of pictures of the trek.  Getting out of Waynesville was fun, NOT.  We went into town to get gas before heading out and found a BP station cheaper than all the other stations in town and just a few blocks away from the main thoroughfares. Not a very big station, Only had 4 pumps and all were full when we arrived.  I waited patiently parked out of the way so as not to block customers from entering the storefront.  Saw one car pull out and the car behind started to pull away so I began to move towards the pumps.  Nope, the second car just did an about face cause she was too #%&@# to know which side of her car to put the fuel into.  Now I'm blocking the storefront.....  and three more cars jumped in line to fill spots.  Decided it was worth the price to just go to a big station and get going.  

    Drove out to the main drag, and got into the turn lane to make a left into the Ingles Parking lot.  The lanes were really narrow, I was hanging the tires on the yellow line but Clipped the mirror on a big pickup truck in the lane to my right who likely felt just as snug is his lane as well.  We both exchanges shrugs, not much else we could do except block more traffic and probably cause some real problems.  We both drove our separate ways and I finally got Georgie Girl filled up and ready for the next leg of the Parkway.  We re-entered the Parkway just Southwest of Waynesville at Balsam.

Today's Parkway travel was about 120 miles. The speed limit was 45 mph for most of it and 35 mph for about a quarter of it. Regardless of the limit, We traveled along at 35 mph and stopping at a lot of the pull-offs and overlooks allowing others to pass.  On the downhill slopes, I would allow Georgie Girl to get up to as much as 50mph since there was no fuel cost, but rarely able to do it due to the bumps and curves.  Enough of this, Pictures below of each of the stops we made that had a view worth photographing.  

No sign on the first pic, but it's looking out over the highway we had just gotten off of to enter the parkway.

The Roy Taylor Forest Overlook also had a short trail the went off to the left and out to a sky platform. 

The next pic was taken from there.

And one of the High Points of our journey, ...sorry, couldn't resist. :-)

 

The next shot is looking at the rock face behind me when I took the above shot at Caney Fork Overlook.

A view from the driver's seat as we approach one of the tunnels. All of which today were high enough to permit Georgie Girl to transit in her own lane.

The Cradle of Forestry Overlook.  We had minutes before this, passed by the entrance to the museum but time was running short and we had to pass it by.

Never stop learning, lest ye die.

That's all for today, We stopped at Bear Den Mountain resort and campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We'll be here for the 4th of July and take another day's break before continuing on.  Cell service here is next to zero and the Wi-fi left much to be desired, so we got a premium Wi-fi package for 3 days to satisfy our habit and to keep the blog going.  We'll likely do a little exploring in the area while we're here and I'll post anything of interest should that happen.  *** Happy Independence Day! ***