Viva La Vagabond: CAROLINAS FINEST -NC

Previously on "viva la vagabond," we left you with a suspenseful cliff hanger of us entering the Appalachian mountains. And so the story goes, we headed into the Cherokee National forest making way towards Boone, NC. Trying to avoid long round about route to Boone we decided to take the highway to Watuga lake. This road may have quite possibly been the steepest, curviest and scariest road yet. Full of +10% grades, blind curves with no shoulder and screaming descents, we prayed for our lives and peed our shorts. . . Okay maybe didn't do that but still pretty damn terrifying! Despite the the dangerous road conditions the ride was incredibly scenic and full of classic Appalachian scapes. Late that afternoon, exhausted but proud to have conquered the mountains, we arrived in the beautiful mountain town of Boone! Too tired to try to find a park we tried to find a last minute warmshowers host. Luckily, despite our lack of a heads up, we were taken in by John Boyd and Beth Cramer. Beth and John are librarians at Appalachian state, avid cyclists and incredible hosts. Our stay with them was very enjoyable.

The next morning, we headed to the local bike shop in order to fix Israel's maddening bike squeak. Thinking we had fixed the problem we headed back out on the road headed to Winston-Salem. Leaving Boone the highway was perfect, with wide shoulders and great views of the mountains. All the way into into Wilkesboro, we had a great ride crossing over the eastern continental divide and the Blue Ridge Pikeway. Arriving at Wilkesboro we stopped for lunch in order to escape the afternoon sun. After an extended lunch, we got back out on the road only to find that the road conditions had changed and not for the better. The highway had turned into a cyclists nightmare ! The shoulder had narrowed to about 6 inches of riding surface, mega deep rumble strips and deranged drivers. With about 50 miles to go, we attempted to fare our way through the highway from hell. It was about ten miles later that we decided there was no way of staying on that road safely. Once again we took to the handy google maps and realized that North Carolina had quite possibly the worst road system ever. Feeling depleted and half pissed off, we managed to find a route to the nearest town of Yadkinville. At that point, cutting our day short by about 20 miles seemed the most reasonable decision. On our way to Yadkinville, we stumbled onto a road side vineyard with fresh grapes. Instantly, We jumped at the opportunity to stuff our faces with some delicious grapes. Late that night we rolled up into Yadkinville and were able to stay at their local fire station. Randomly, the son of the chief of police showed up with Gatorade and burgers for us after hearing our story. With our bellies full and our thirst quenched we turned in for the night.

Waking up to a dewy morning, we made way to Asheboro. The route to Asheboro took us through Winston-Salem which was a complete nightmare. We are very lucky to have gotten out alive. Winston-Salem did however, have a very nice gas station clerk who was impressed with our story and have us a free map. We continued on through Thomasville and into Ashboro through some rather hilly country. In the quaint town of Ashboro we stopped at a local watering hope before settling in for the night. The bar tender referred us to his buddy down at the police station who would know about where we could stay. At the station we met with officer Harold who tried really hard to helps us find "legal" place to stay. After many phone calls and checking with the captain they were able to get us a free motel room through their local Christian outreach center. After thanking officer Harold, we headed up to our room excited to sleep on real beds and have showers. To our surprise, the room smelled of cigarets, Afro-sheen, and broken dreams! Stained sheets, roach traps, and broken lamps lined the room. Nonetheless, we were happy to be inside for a night and fell asleep with hopes of surviving the night. . .

Well, That's enough adventure for one post. Catch you guys next time!

The Cherokee !