Day 2...much better

My second day was much better than the first . I started of with some fairly easy rolling hills, then dropped down to around 3200 ft for most of the day. 
I'm really surprised at the fact that I haven't seen anyone else touring on a bike yet.  There are still 7 more days, maybe later.
The most interesting part of the day came around 11:00.  I was cresting a mountain (not hill) and saw a car pulled over on the other side of the road. The driver waved me off, just as a car passed me and a BEAR scrambled across my path about 10 feet away!  I grabbed my camera and tried to get a couple of shots of it, but they came out like bigfoot sightings.  Really..It's a bear
I made it to my hotel in Blowing Rock by 3:00 feeling good, but not interested in riding any more for the day.  After a Google search of the area, I made my dinner choices.  Food Lion and the ABC store :) Dinner was roast beef with cream cheese, and jello.  Dessert was Irish coffee.  Darned glad I'm in a hotel tonight.  I just heard a crack of thunder outside. It's raining cats and dogs out there.

This is another constant sight on the BRP.  It looks like rhododendron to me, but I've also been told it's mountain laurel.  It's everywhere.  Probably looks gorgeous in the late spring, when it's in bloom.

I see lots of journals (mine included) where you only see shots of the scenery, with a bike in it.  Understandable since I'm alone.  I set up the tripod on a stone wall and took this shot.  Heroic, aint I?

Bear...really.

Or maybe it's the Loch Ness Montser?

I started getting onto farm country today.  This is one thing I will NOT see on Skyline Drive, through the Shenandoah National Park.  BRP winds through plenty of farms and even residential developments.

Cool stonework on the overpasses.

Another self portrait...I got better.

Wallpaper shot of the day.

A little information about the upcoming Linn Cove Viaduct.  Probably the second most photographed place on the Parkway, after Mabry Mill (Later).  Before the viaduct was built, you had to get off the Parkway and drive on rt. 211 for about 4 miles, then get back on.  The locals would not allow the mountain to be ripped apart to build the roadway.

The Viaduct isn't as long as I thought it would be.  It only took me a couple of minutes to ride over it while I took my ThrillCam shot of the day:

Riding into Blowing Rock on the way to my hotel.  Hey Cathy, punch-buggy blue.

51 miles today at at average of just over 10MPH.  The last of my "easy" days.  The next few days are 60+ miles.

95 miles down.  400 more to go.

The campground was nice last night, but the hotel is MUCH better.  My room was down a short flight of steps from the lobby.  As I was checking in, I was talking with a couple on motorcyclists who were also riding the Parkway. They suggested I ride my bike down the steps.  I dared them to go first and see who gets in the most trouble  :)