Grandfather Mountain

As we were getting things started for our day, we checked the weather and found that they were calling for rain. Because of the weather, Jim decided he wanted to head back to Ashville, so we loaded up to move in that direction. After packing up the bikes and seeing that the weather didn't look too bad, I asked if he wanted to go to Grandfather Mountain on the way back down. We decided to take the same curvy road that we had traveled the day before. Since the roads were dry [they had been wet the day before] it was much more fun traveling on the twisting roads than it was previously. After a fun ride, we turned into the the drive for Grandfather Mountain. A lady came out and told Jim that he could not take his trailer on the road up. Evidently they are very strict about what can travel up the road because of the extreme tight turns on the uphill drive. Jim parked his bike and walked up to the gate to pay. The lady there gave further cautions, telling him that two bikes had wrecked the day before. She handed him a printed paper giving even MORE cautions directed at motorcycle riders. By this time I was beginning to get concerned. Thankfully Jim drove my bike and I rode on the back. Although Jim had no problems maneuvering up the mountain, had I been driving my own bike I am certain that I would have been challenged. There were numerous very tight uphill turns, but the cars ahead of us presented the biggest challenge. They were going extremely slow and even stopping at times [obviously even the car drivers were overly cautious of the roads]. If you didn't stay far enough back, you could encounter a need to stop in the midst of a uneven, crazy turn [impossible for anyone to hold a bike up in that situation]. No problem for Jim's riding skill level as long as we stayed back a bit, so we made it up without a scare. The view from atop Grandfather Mountain was amazing and crossing the mile-high swinging bridge was fun too. Glad we decided to stop by the site and really enjoyed it since the rain held off for us.