-
Home
- TV Shows
-
TV Schedule
-
SPEED Showcase
-
- NASCAR
-
Latest Headlines: NASCAR
-
-
Formula 1
- Auto Racing
- Moto Racing
- Cars
- Bikes
- Store
- Social
- Games
- Mobile
- Deals
- Videos
- Photos
- Home
- TV Shows
-
TV Schedule
-
SPEED Showcase
-
- NASCAR
- Formula 1
- Auto Racing
- Moto Racing
- Cars
- Bikes
- Store
- Social
- Mobile
- Deals
- Videos
- Photos
Motorcycling Destinations
BIKES: Live Full Throttle With Tamela Rich - America’s Favorite Drive
Quick! Of all the sites administered by the US National Park System, which one is the most visited? The correct answer? The Blue Ridge Parkway.
Fancy Gap KOA Lodge
(Photos: Tamela Rich)
Quick! Of all the sites administered by the US National Park System, which one is the most visited?
The Grand Canyon? Yosemite? Yellowstone?
No, think east, not west, dear Reader.
The correct answer? The Blue Ridge Parkway, a two-lane ribbon of road connecting North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains and Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. Imagine the bliss of running 469 miles without a stop light. The catch? A strictly-enforced 45 mph speed limit.
As a motorcyclist, I especially appreciate the Parkway’s curving roads atop the crests of the southern Appalachians. There’s something mesmerizing about the sweeping curves and glorious vistas, so much so that I once missed my turn off. I don’t mind the speed limit because 45 mph is fast enough. I promise, it is.
No matter what you like to do--rock climbing, photography, golf, swimming, shopping, listening and dancing to music, learning how to throw a pot from Carolina clay--you’ll find plenty of opportunities to do it all along the Parkway,which also known as “America’s Favorite Drive.” I couldn’t take it all in during the three days I’d allotted for this phase of my my two-month road trip. Here are the highlights.
I met my friend K, a fellow motorcyclist, at Mount Mitchell State Park (milepost 355), which is the highest peak in the eastern US. We headed north past stunning views of the Blue Ridge Mountains (yes, they really look blue, thanks to the haze produced by isoprene, which the trees release into the atmosphere.)
After a late lunch/early dinner on the patio of the Switzerland Inn (milepost 344), where we watched guests play a game of corn hole on a manicured lawn flanked by bright orange daylilies against a backdrop of the blue mountains, we headed to Linville Falls (milepost 316). The Linville River begins high on Grandfather Mountain (milepost 300), cascading through falls as it begins a 2,000-foot descent into Linville Gorge. I'm so grateful that our ancestors had the foresight to protect its beauty and the area’s water supply by including it in our National Park System.
I’m not big on touring homes of the rich and famous, but K had visited The Moses H. Cone Memorial Park’s Flat Top Manor (milepost 294) before, and told me I would enjoy the mountain crafts for sale there, including pottery, fiber arts, photography, painting, wood turning, jewelry, and carvings. She was right. Some of the items for sale at Flat Top Manor are also available at the Folk Art Center (milepost 382). Off the front porch of that gleaming white 23-room, 13,000-square-foot mansion, artist Jay Pfeil demonstrated her talents at etching and engraving. I love learning about the processes required to make any art form, and Jay was eager to talk about her work.
Had I known I’d have loved the Blue Ridge Music Center (milepost 213 at the Virginia state line) I’d have made it a priority to arrive with a couple of hours to spend there. The Center offers live music almost every day, and frequently hosts concerts and jamborees. The interpretive center taught me a great deal about Southern history and culture through the lens of music, including how German group singing and African slave music combined to form the Blue Grass genre. What I learned about the history and influence of the banjo gave me an appreciation for the humble instrument. First, the history: when African slaves were forbidden by slave holders to play their drums, they created the banjo. In the mid-1800’s, when minstrel shows featuring white men in black face playing banjos and baffooning in a racist way became the rage in America and parts of Europe, the instrument was largely abandoned by African-Americans. Now, the historical influence: the descriptor, “Jim Crow” (as in Jim Crow laws) originated with a minstrel performer, whose character, Jim Crow, was devised to reinforce beliefs in white superiority. Jim Crow played a banjo. The Center is run by the National Park Service, which means the interpretive displays and hands-on learning activities are of the highest quality. Toddlers would be bored but school-aged children will enjoy it.
That night, we stayed in a KOA lodge at Fancy Gap, Virginia (milepost 199), where I was introduced to KOA’s “Alumni Kampsitter” program. The owners at Fancy Gap had a death in the family and a couple who had owned a KOA in Bristol, Tennessee dropped everything to allow them to attend the funeral by running their campground. Evidently there is large network of such alums. No wonder every KOA I’ve visited is so well run -- they seem to anticipate everything.
The next morning K and I stopped by the Jacksonville Center for the Arts, just 8 miles off the Parkway in Floyd, Virginia (milepost 165). Housed in a former dairy barn, Jax, as the locals call it, is a symbol of the fusion of old with new, and agriculture with art, a fusion that is Floyd itself. Here’s how the Visit Floyd website describes the community: “Floyd County has been a magnet for anti-establishment free-thinkers since the early 1700s. Independent-minded self-starters from Scotland, Ireland, and Germany said, ‘Just give me a spot of soil and some time, and I can do for myself.’ They rejected urban offerings of the newly-settled New England and Eastern seaboard regions, and settled the remote Appalachians and Blue Ridge Mountains, which was the ‘frontier’ of their time. In Floyd, you’re either an artist, farmer, shopkeeper or combination.
Jax offers classes and exhibit space for those interested in a long list of media including blacksmithing, which we learned is in high demand lately. The potters in residence showed us their studio, kilns and finished works, answering questions and generally making us wish we could stay the day and sink our hands into some clay. Instead, we motored another mile into the town of Floyd, where we enjoyed ice cream at the Floyd Country Store, which stocks brands I haven’t seen since my grandparents’ medicine cabinet. The tie dyed shirts on display there are the best I’ve ever seen.
At the back of the store is a music stage that is part of Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. If you can make it to Floyd the last weekend in July, go to FloydFest, a musical extravaganza featuring internationally-known solo artists and bands.
I ended my trip on the Parkway at Natural Bridge, Virginia, having dropped my phone, which smashed the screen. I had to find a store and go through the insurance replacement process, of which I will spare you the details. I will say that the road from the Parkway to Natural Bridge is a series of fun twisties, but I couldn’t bring myself to plunk down good money to see the bridge with hoard of families pushing strollers. If I hadn’t been in such a rush to take care of phone business I would have taken in Foamhenge, a styrofoam replica of England’s Stonehenge, given my love for roadside kitsch. I managed to grab the northernmost section Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park for a serene morning at 35mph before hitting the tarmac to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Many of us are guilty of overlooking the treasures of home, myself included. Living just a couple of hours south-east of the Parkway for the past 24 years, it was always “something to do next time.” While it might have taken me 24 years to really explore the Parkway, given my experience, I’ll be looking for every possible opportunity to return.
Links
Blue Ridge Parkway
Switzerland Inn
Artist Jay Pfeil’s website
Blue Ridge Music Center
Jacksonville Center for the Arts
Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail
FloydFest
Foamhenge
The Grand Canyon? Yosemite? Yellowstone?
No, think east, not west, dear Reader.
The correct answer? The Blue Ridge Parkway, a two-lane ribbon of road connecting North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains and Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. Imagine the bliss of running 469 miles without a stop light. The catch? A strictly-enforced 45 mph speed limit.
As a motorcyclist, I especially appreciate the Parkway’s curving roads atop the crests of the southern Appalachians. There’s something mesmerizing about the sweeping curves and glorious vistas, so much so that I once missed my turn off. I don’t mind the speed limit because 45 mph is fast enough. I promise, it is.
No matter what you like to do--rock climbing, photography, golf, swimming, shopping, listening and dancing to music, learning how to throw a pot from Carolina clay--you’ll find plenty of opportunities to do it all along the Parkway,which also known as “America’s Favorite Drive.” I couldn’t take it all in during the three days I’d allotted for this phase of my my two-month road trip. Here are the highlights.
I met my friend K, a fellow motorcyclist, at Mount Mitchell State Park (milepost 355), which is the highest peak in the eastern US. We headed north past stunning views of the Blue Ridge Mountains (yes, they really look blue, thanks to the haze produced by isoprene, which the trees release into the atmosphere.)
After a late lunch/early dinner on the patio of the Switzerland Inn (milepost 344), where we watched guests play a game of corn hole on a manicured lawn flanked by bright orange daylilies against a backdrop of the blue mountains, we headed to Linville Falls (milepost 316). The Linville River begins high on Grandfather Mountain (milepost 300), cascading through falls as it begins a 2,000-foot descent into Linville Gorge. I'm so grateful that our ancestors had the foresight to protect its beauty and the area’s water supply by including it in our National Park System.
I’m not big on touring homes of the rich and famous, but K had visited The Moses H. Cone Memorial Park’s Flat Top Manor (milepost 294) before, and told me I would enjoy the mountain crafts for sale there, including pottery, fiber arts, photography, painting, wood turning, jewelry, and carvings. She was right. Some of the items for sale at Flat Top Manor are also available at the Folk Art Center (milepost 382). Off the front porch of that gleaming white 23-room, 13,000-square-foot mansion, artist Jay Pfeil demonstrated her talents at etching and engraving. I love learning about the processes required to make any art form, and Jay was eager to talk about her work.
Had I known I’d have loved the Blue Ridge Music Center (milepost 213 at the Virginia state line) I’d have made it a priority to arrive with a couple of hours to spend there. The Center offers live music almost every day, and frequently hosts concerts and jamborees. The interpretive center taught me a great deal about Southern history and culture through the lens of music, including how German group singing and African slave music combined to form the Blue Grass genre. What I learned about the history and influence of the banjo gave me an appreciation for the humble instrument. First, the history: when African slaves were forbidden by slave holders to play their drums, they created the banjo. In the mid-1800’s, when minstrel shows featuring white men in black face playing banjos and baffooning in a racist way became the rage in America and parts of Europe, the instrument was largely abandoned by African-Americans. Now, the historical influence: the descriptor, “Jim Crow” (as in Jim Crow laws) originated with a minstrel performer, whose character, Jim Crow, was devised to reinforce beliefs in white superiority. Jim Crow played a banjo. The Center is run by the National Park Service, which means the interpretive displays and hands-on learning activities are of the highest quality. Toddlers would be bored but school-aged children will enjoy it.
That night, we stayed in a KOA lodge at Fancy Gap, Virginia (milepost 199), where I was introduced to KOA’s “Alumni Kampsitter” program. The owners at Fancy Gap had a death in the family and a couple who had owned a KOA in Bristol, Tennessee dropped everything to allow them to attend the funeral by running their campground. Evidently there is large network of such alums. No wonder every KOA I’ve visited is so well run -- they seem to anticipate everything.
The next morning K and I stopped by the Jacksonville Center for the Arts, just 8 miles off the Parkway in Floyd, Virginia (milepost 165). Housed in a former dairy barn, Jax, as the locals call it, is a symbol of the fusion of old with new, and agriculture with art, a fusion that is Floyd itself. Here’s how the Visit Floyd website describes the community: “Floyd County has been a magnet for anti-establishment free-thinkers since the early 1700s. Independent-minded self-starters from Scotland, Ireland, and Germany said, ‘Just give me a spot of soil and some time, and I can do for myself.’ They rejected urban offerings of the newly-settled New England and Eastern seaboard regions, and settled the remote Appalachians and Blue Ridge Mountains, which was the ‘frontier’ of their time. In Floyd, you’re either an artist, farmer, shopkeeper or combination.
Jax offers classes and exhibit space for those interested in a long list of media including blacksmithing, which we learned is in high demand lately. The potters in residence showed us their studio, kilns and finished works, answering questions and generally making us wish we could stay the day and sink our hands into some clay. Instead, we motored another mile into the town of Floyd, where we enjoyed ice cream at the Floyd Country Store, which stocks brands I haven’t seen since my grandparents’ medicine cabinet. The tie dyed shirts on display there are the best I’ve ever seen.
At the back of the store is a music stage that is part of Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. If you can make it to Floyd the last weekend in July, go to FloydFest, a musical extravaganza featuring internationally-known solo artists and bands.
I ended my trip on the Parkway at Natural Bridge, Virginia, having dropped my phone, which smashed the screen. I had to find a store and go through the insurance replacement process, of which I will spare you the details. I will say that the road from the Parkway to Natural Bridge is a series of fun twisties, but I couldn’t bring myself to plunk down good money to see the bridge with hoard of families pushing strollers. If I hadn’t been in such a rush to take care of phone business I would have taken in Foamhenge, a styrofoam replica of England’s Stonehenge, given my love for roadside kitsch. I managed to grab the northernmost section Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park for a serene morning at 35mph before hitting the tarmac to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Many of us are guilty of overlooking the treasures of home, myself included. Living just a couple of hours south-east of the Parkway for the past 24 years, it was always “something to do next time.” While it might have taken me 24 years to really explore the Parkway, given my experience, I’ll be looking for every possible opportunity to return.
Links
Blue Ridge Parkway
Switzerland Inn
Artist Jay Pfeil’s website
Blue Ridge Music Center
Jacksonville Center for the Arts
Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail
FloydFest
Foamhenge
Neale Bayly Rides Peru - Dirt Course Training
LATEST HEADLINES: MOTORCYCLING
-
BIKES: 2014 Star Motorcycles Bolt
Ken “Hawkeye” Glassman rides the brand new Star Motorycles… -
BIKES: Neale Bayly Rides Peru Tests Eclectic Group Of Willing Participants…
Final original series produced under SPEED™ banner premieres… -
GEARBAG: The ICE Device
For $10, they send you five small capsules, 10 data forms, an ICE… -
BIKES: AMA Go Ride! Month Wraps Up
AMA Go Ride! Month in April 2013 concludes today after a month-long… -
BIKES: 2013 Honda CB1100 First Ride
Check it out as MotoUSA gives Honda's concoction of old and new-school… -
BIKES: Kawasaki Videos Win Four Awards At NY Festivals
Two Kawasaki promotional videos have been recognized as being among… -
BIKES: Organizational Changes For MAG Media Group
MAG Media Group (MMG), a division of Motorsport Aftermarket Group,… - More News
