Day 3: A walk in the clouds...er,bike

I had set the alarm clock to 6:30, hoping to be on the road by 8:00 a.m. at the latest.  I woke up and couldn't get the alarm to stop....because it was a fire alarm!  Someone had burned their toast at the breakfast nook in the lobby and set off the smoke detectors.
I did manage to hit the road, and started off the morning in fog, for about an hour.  No, not because I was sleepy, because I'm still at about 4000 ft. elevation.  The clouds stuck with me most of the day, which was fine until it started to rain on me, about 5 miles before I made it to the campground.  I pulled over at the Doughton Park "Restaurant" and kefetched about my out of date information about this trip.  I had read a number of journals on the "CrazyGuyOnABike website and read the book, "Bicycling the Blue Ridge Parkway" by Charlie and Elizabeth Skinner to prepare my crib sheets for the ride.  Each day, I would put a laminated sheet in my back pocket with all of the waypoints for the day where I could stop for water, food, lodging, etc.  According to today's sheet, I should find food at several places today.  The Northwest Trading Post, in Laurel Springs, at rt. 18 and at this restaurant.  Nope.  The Northwest Trading post is a nick-nack store.  I would have been fine if I needed a quilt, or a birdhouse.  Otherwise, I had a choice of candybars, fudge or peach preserves for lunch.  The stores on rt. 18 were closed.  The restaurant in Doughton Park closed 2 years ago.  Today, I ate the pepperoni and macadamia nuts in my bags.
Doughton Park wasn't quite as nice as Crabtree Falls had been, but there were a few people there to talk to this night. On the other side of the loop was a young couple, one a teacher, the other a counselor, both from Florida, on vacation.  They asked the "usual questions" about my ride and were good to talk to.  At night, he pulled out his guitar and was playing when I went to sleep.  Not a bad way to end the day, especially since it stopped raining on me by then.  Dinner could have been tragic.  I pulled out my beef and zucchinni cassarole to rehydrate in my pot, and in a serious brain-fart move, dumped half of my bottle of cooking fuel into the pot!  Not only did I ruin the food, I lost a couple of days worth of fuel and things didn't look too good for finding fuel until I reach Roanoke in a couple of days.

The fog kept rolling in down from the mountains all morning.

A neat log cabin in Doughton Park.  The "park" is really just a large forest with trails running through it.  The campground is the only place where you will find much of anything.

it may be a well, or an outhouse.  I prefer to think of it as the "mother-in-law's house" from pioneer days.

The best I could find in the way of food today, thanks to the Northwest Trading Post.

NO FOOD here!!

I saw several wooly bears on this trip.  I think this means a warm winter.

Don't believe the map.  There is no restaurant, nor a gas station.

Still keeping a 10MPH average.  In the mountains, I'll take it.  55 miles today.

Top speed for the day: 43 MPH...HOT DIGGITY!

No bear box at the campsite.  Instead, I hung my food on a pole above the table.  Now really, what bear couldn't get to THAT?