North Carolina to the Staunton Virginia

We were a little later than usual getting away from KSL because we waited for almost everyone to get up, but it was worth it. It was cool and foggy riding the Great Smokey Mountain Parkway over to Waynesville.

We stopped in Maggie Valley on the way out and found Cat Benson from California and Yummy from Pennsylvania awaiting the arrival of the crowd. Our visit was only ten minutes long but I’m glad we took the time to stop by and see them. We grabbed a quick bite in Waynesville and talked to some GoldWing Riders returning to Sedalia Missouri after a trip to Key West.

The ride across I-40 to Asheville and up I-26 to Johnson City Tennessee was uneventful. We took the back road from Bristol Motor Speedway to Abingdon Virginia where we stopped for gas and hot chocolate. Then we jumped on I-81 where the traffic was heavy and got heavier. Despite a heavy police presence when we crossed the Virginia line, the trucks on this road really haul. We were under mixed skies and got some spits of rain. There was one heavy patch near Roanoke but it only lasted a few miles.

We are now in the Shenandoah Valley KOA near Staunton Virginia and I am sitting at our picnic table using the free WiFi. There are rabbits all over the place here. We went into town and had supper at a place called Kathy’s Kitchen. Sandy wasn’t impressed that chicken parmesan has a different definition in Virginia, or at least in Kathy’s, but we are fed. A gentleman from Louisiana stopped to talk and it turned out that he was from near Coushatta Louisiana and knows our friend Thomas Gates. It is a small world.

There is another couple here who have a Lees-Ure Lite camper trailer. We have to pay them a visit when I finish this.

The map tells me it is 569 miles to Ganononque so we’ll be up early in the morning. We’ll try and make that but, if we don’t, no big loss. We’re in good shape for a Friday arrival in Combermere.