Almost rained on

10/7 Tuesday

At Iron Horse in October, the walnuts drop from very tall trees onto whatever lies below. That includes the ground, decking, bridges, rooftops, and grills. Even people, if you happen to be unlucky. The sound of a baseball sized walnut in it's husk can be startlingly loud. Around 0600 the sound of one hitting the lodge decks metal roof woke me up. From the far side of a flowing brook. It seemed dark for 0600 and I was almost back to sleep at 0630 when I heard drops. I hoped it was leaves from the non-walnut trees above me. By 0700 it was a steady rain. It let up by 0725, so I packed up my bedding and exited the tent.

I met Bruce on his way to the dry deck of the lodge. We had coffee and then had our breakfast orders filled by the kitchen. Many coffees later we had the kitchen make Nate's order before they closed at 0900. Nate's tent shook and he emerged as I approached it with his breakfast. He ate while I packed up. After Nate was packed he discovered that our Wheels Through Time Museum was not open on Tuesdays.

We fell back to riding the route Nate had created before we left home. That took us back roads to Cherokee and then Maggie Valley. We rode The Rattler but stopped at the store on the wrong end to buy that sticker. Apparently, the store at the northern end doesn't have the copyright for those stickers.

We continued north through the Pisgah and Cherokee forests, into Tennessee and eventually Virginia. Along the way we considered our lodging for the night. Bruce pushed for an Airbnb cabin in the woods, over a motel in town. It wasn't a very hard sell, and before left our gas stop, he had one booked on Rt58. Route 58 was a great road, even compared to all our recently ridden, great roads.

Our five bed cabin in "Mouth of Wilson, VA" was a great choice. It had a washer dryer, fully stocked kitchen, game consoles, even a separate arcade building. We had a few sprinkles about 10 miles out from the cabin. Not enough mist for anyone to don their rain gear, but we unloaded quickly to the cabin porch. Once inside, we had snacks and prepped our own dinners. Nate and Bruce also did a load laundry. Each of us enjoyed calls home at some point during the evening.