Weekend Getaway

Mike sprung a nice surprise on me on Thursday. He wanted to take a weekend trip to Tellico Plains, TN. We took the bike. I did not take mine. Three reasons: 1. It was a long trip (we rode 480 miles on Sat.) 2. I wasn't so confident of my skills on tight mountain roads 3. Sometimes it's nice to just hang out and take in the sights. I hope to take my bike on our next little excursion. I'll never get better if I don't practice. Mike will just have to pass a few hundred less cars when I'm along.

Anyway, we rode on some really, really nice roads. We rode Hwy 143 in NC and it was Hwy 165 in Tenn. It was a pretty popular road with bikes and fast cars. The scenery was great and would be spectacular in the fall once the leaves have changed. Many of the leaves in the higher elevations had not come in yet. This went through the Nantahala National Forest. There were already some kayakers braving the cold water.

I knew Mike must have wanted to go there because of some dirt roads. And sure enough, we road on some nice dirt roads (except for a few potholes here and there). We needed the practice on dirt roads for our upcoming vacation to Alaska.

We stayed the night in Murphy, NC. The next morning we took Hwy 64 and it again went through the Nantahala National Forest. This too was a nice road and it would also be great when the leaves change colors. We saw some great waterfalls. This road went through Highlands and Cashiers. We turned off 64 onto Hwy 215 and this was really nice also. All in all we had nice weather and got to see some pretty scenery. It was a really nice weekend getaway. I hope to go back in the fall.

Enjoy the pics...

Bald River Falls in Tellico Plains, TN.

Hiawassee Dam in NC (our could be GA?) - don't get dizzy looking down. We saw this because we decided to take a side road into Murphy because we were stuck behind some slow traffic. It was a good detour.

View from the top of the dam.

We came across this waterfall on Hwy 64 outside of Highlands, NC.

This was just up the road from the previous waterfall. I thought this was pretty neat.

Random lake

Dirt road near Indian Boundry Lake in Tenn.

Covered bridge near where we eat lunch at Tellico Beach.

Hwy 143/165

Just picture how nice this would be with the leaves in full color.