One of my riding buddies who rides a Star 1700 cruiser and is a member of the local Star chapter in Greenville invited me yesterday to go on a ride of the final 75 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway from Asheville to the end in Cherokee, NC. There were about 25 bikes in the group, all Stars of one kind or another except my Beemer, a Suzuki, and 3 Harleys. One of the invitees, a Japanese businessman name Abiti (he said it means "Bill" in Japanese, more or less) was there, on a Harley, of all things.
We has a great and I was excited about the trip, since I had not ridden the southernmost section of the BRP into Cherokee. I was surprised to find out that there were more tunnels in the last 75 miles than in the northern section above Asheville. I counted 12 tunnels on the ride, and some were pretty long!
Due to the action of Hurricane Irene, there was significant cloud cover and strong winds in the first hour or so of the ride on the BRP. Lots of fog banks that blew in and covered the road, then would blow away again, over and over. The temps dropped to 66 degrees at one point, causing a lot of the Star riders to have to break into their jackets that were stashed in their saddlebags. (Most had on T-shirts and those black leather leather vests with their club pins all over them.)
When we finally arrived in Cherokee, I was surprised (and a little disappointed) in how much crass commercialization there was all around the reservation. There were outlets everywhere selling "Indian" souvenirs, like plastic bow and arrow sets, moccasins, headdresses, everything "indian", all made in China. And all of the motels, stores, restaurants had some kind of "indian" connection, like the "Tee Pee Motel", or "Black Bear Diner", or "Wampum Sav-a-Lot". And right smack-dab in the middle was this sprawling Harrah's Cherokee Casino and Hotel, a gigantic glass and redwood complex, with huge Jumbo-tron screens showing pics of the entertainers appearing there, like Paula Deen's Country Kitchen. The whole place just seemed so out of place right in the middle of the stores, diners, and other businesses that looked like something out of 1961.
We ate at a place called "Granny's Restaurant" that served a buffet that wasn't too bad. At least we didn't have to wait on our food. After lunch, we saddled up and headed back towards home on some really nice twisties that followed a river for miles. The group stopped in Cashiers for a break, and that's where my buddy Bill and I decided to split off that take a short cut back home. All in all, it was a 250 mile day that had some wonderful roads and scenery, along with some eyebrow-raising and head-shaking sights regarding the commercialization of the Native Americans that left me a bit sad. But a good day over all!
Topic: A ride in the Southernmost leg of the BRP! (Read 885 times)