Fontana Village, NC.

Hello from the Fontana Village in NC. The resort is located In the Great Smokey Mountains. How we got here is quite a story. We left Maggie Village today about 12:30 after an adequate free breakfast at the hotel, our destination the Smokey Mountains. The weather was very nice, not hot, as we traveled to the Blue Ridge Parkway. As we traveled to a higher elevation the temperature dropped significantly. Knowing the weather had been in the +100*F we were riding with our summer mesh gear which allowed masses of air flow through our clothes. We soon became cold. We stopped to put more (all) the clothes on we could, dressing by the side of the road.... no class. The Blue Ridge ended in a Cherokee Indian Reservation. There were all kinds of shops, junk yards and stuff. We only stopped for gas as we had a hard arrival time scheduled for Lawton OK and needed to keep going.

We followed our plan to head for the Cherohala Skyway.
We missed the turn but found ourselves on a very nice country road. We decide that it may be best to find a motel before getting on the Skyway. We continue on towards the town of Robbinsville but didn't see any motels that were suitable. Carol wanted a restaurant and high speed Internet connection. Chriss drove on and soon saw a lake appear on the GPS screen. We continued along the shore of Lake Santeetlah. Thinking we would surly fine a nice motel near a resort lake or at least something better than we saw in Robbinsville. WRONG, We found nothing.

Soon we realized we were heading for the Dragons Tail. It has 318 curves in 11 miles. Check out this link!!! I said to Chriss....please don't take me over the "tail" in the dark. He nodded OK in return. We agreed to stop for the night at the first suitable place. As we approached the "Dragons Tail" we saw a country restaurant/ Inn that looked descent so we pulled in and after 5 hours on the bike. We crawled off and Chriss went in. I should have known something was wrong when I didn't see any cars in the parking lot. The place was closed with the owners on vacation. A couple that was working there operating only the hamburger grill said that about ½ hour up the road was a nice resort called Fontana Village. They thought maybe they would have a room. Chriss and I looked at each other and said OK so they called for us and said they had a room left. We didn't ask how much but said hold it for us and off we went. We had a long ride on a very windy road from Tampoco NC to route 28 to Fontana Village. We found a nice rustic resort. The biggest surprise of all was$89.00 per night for our room. We were very happy to have a nice room and decided to have dinner in the dining room that just about to close. In we went with all out black leather riding gear on and helmets in hand. Yes, a lot of heads turned our way.

We were seated next to a very nice couple from Florida. We introduced ourselves and soon developed a nice conversation. Made some new friends we did. Chriss and i always seem to meet such nice people when we travel together. We both like to talk with people. We decided to spend Saturday night here also. We needed the break and then we will move on. There is no phone service here in the mountains and the Internet hot spot is up by the pool, so I am typing this in word and will send it later. Will take pictures of the place, to show you.
To be continued tomorrow…..Carol and Chriss .

The second day

Our next day at the village has turned out just great. There were professional mountain bike races at the resort today. The riders were well built young men and women who participated in a long hard race. They had a booth set up to give the racers a massage or acupuncture. Chriss has had much pain in his neck while riding our Sport Touring bike so he opted for treatment. He said it helped for awhile. The racers also had a spaghetti dinner that we were invited to for only a $7.00 donation. After dinner we walked over to the general store for ice cream. Oh those calories!!! There was also a square dance in the big hall, we really wanted to go but we had to pack for an early morning departure and couldn’t participate this time.

There is no internet in our room I have to go to the main lobby to get this sent. You will my lobby office in our pictures. Chriss will spend some time in the children’s “craft” room successfully repairing a rubber part for our motorcycle top box. A very relaxing time we have had.

It is getting late tonight so this will be short. We are packing to hit the road again tomorrow. This was a nice break and we met so many nice people and enjoyed the change of pace but now are anxious to return to our journey.

Carol and Chriss

Smoky Mountains

Chriss Horstman & Carol Ann Hoff

(Double click picture to enlarge, back arrow to return)

About Maggie Valley

Who was Maggie?

Maggie Mae Setzer Pylant, for whom Maggie Valley is named, was born December 21,st 1890 in a small log cabin that still stands in altered form at the foot of Setzer Mountain.

In the early 1900s, Maggie's father, Jon Sidney Setzer better known as "Uncle Jack", grew tired of riding his horse several times down the mountain to the old Plott Post Office to get the mail for residents of the valley and decided to do something about it. He wrote U.S. Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock in Washington D.C., asking for permission to operate a post office in his home. He was told he had to prove the need for one; and so, for a period of several months, Uncle Jack kept records of the mail that passed through his hands, the amount of stamps, postal cards (which at the time cost 1cent each), etc.

He then applied again and obtained permission to operate a post office in his home. Thereupon Setzer submitted four names, one for the creek running by his home (Jonathan), and one for each of his three daughters: Cora, Mettie and Maggie. Maggie was Washington's choice, and thus the Maggie Post office opened May 10, 1904.

Maggie helped run the Post office in the Setzer home while her father delivered the mail until 1907, when she married Ira M. Pylant and left her valley. The young family moved to Tennessee, then California and finally Texas, where Maggie died in 1979, at the age of 88.>While Mrs. Pylant lived an ordinary life away from the public eye, she became a celebrity of sorts with the expanding fame of the mountain resort area that bears her name, which has been publicized on radio and TV, in books, magazines and newspapers. She was perhaps the only woman in the United States for whom Uncle Sam has named a post office.

Chriss and Carol

Maggie Valley

Blue Ridge Parkway to Maggie Valley

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Hi All:
Most of these words are from Carol, some are from Chriss.

Each day has been a little different but still we are still doing well on the bike, amen. We really enjoy exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is such a great motorcycle road. Today the Parkway will share some of its own surprises with us. We got back on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville, NC, about 1 mile from our hotel. During our late morning start (a bad characteristic of mine, Carol will soon say) has the sun out but with big building clouds visible. Once on the parkway for 20 miles or so we pulled into an overlook area , one that already has three bikes in it. The riders were all young men on crotch rockets. One was using his cell phone try to locate service while the other two were hovering over a bike. The parking grade was quite steep with a slope running down from the viewing area. Once stopped I quickly told Carol “DON’T MOVE” as I was having trouble keeping the bike upright due to the steep grade. We finally got parked and off the bike. We stood aside for a few minutes then asked if we could help. It seems one of the riders had his bike leaned over due to the steep grade a little too far after coming to a stop. When he attempted to dismounted he dropped his bike and broke off the hydraulic clutch lever. They all were having a problem as they couldn't start the bike or shift it. I helped them figure out a way around their problems. Eventually after a "bump"start they were off in search of a motorcycle repair place down the mountain. We all had pushed the bike to start it. The other riders had to move fast to catch up. Down the mountain the first rider went with his buddies in hot pursuit. The last we saw of them was their wave "thanks and goodbye" as they were rounding the first steep sharp corner.

We then continued on our ride. At each new overlook stop we will meet additional interesting people. It is fun to be with Carol. Everyone seems to enjoy meeting us. They usually ask if we are newlyweds. At the next stop one nice couple took our picture for us. We in turned did the same for them. We have a nice chat with them while exchanging trip stories. During this trip we have met such interesting people. So much fun we are having.


Amazingly there is little traffic on the Blue Ridge Parkway. After reading about the crowds we are surprised. As we continue south we are now running from thunder storms. Today we are lucky and will stay dry. Carol is very interested in nature and finds the cloud formations fascinating. She will even take pictures of the clouds while we are underway. We see some wet areas on the road ahead of us and we are lucky again as none of it lands on us. Tonight we will end up in Maggie Valley, NC. It is located on route 19. We enter town from a long steep mountain grade. Over the intercom Carol and I discuss how it must have been for travelers during the “old days.” We make it a special point to have dinner at a local restaurant named “Maggies.” Tomorrow will peruse some of the local places including a Motorcycle museum and the house that Maggie lived in.Maggie Valley seems to be a pretty historic town.

After dinner we ride back to our hotel . We are staying at the Comfort Inn which has high speed internet , a new requirement of Carols to write our blog. We use the pool and hot tub which felt marvelous. Rain is in the forecast so we park our bike under the hotel lobby front entrance overhang and cover it up good for the expected rain. Tired from our long day we turn in early but happy. A good trip so far. Carol is always excited about the up coming new day. A good passenger she is. We are having a lot of fun.
Chriss and Carol

Blue Ridge Parkway To Ashville, NC

Dinner At The Top Can't Go Any Higher

Chriss Horstman and Carol Ann Hoff

Wednesday, August 7, 2008

Hi Again:
We woke up at about 6:am to thunder lightening and RAIN. Went back to sleep very depressed. Woke up again about 8:30 to sun shine. Happy Day. We had a wonderful day. Got up repacked our three motorcycle hard bags, showered, dress and had a very nice breakfast (FREE) supplied by the hotel. We got on the road at 11:30. Since the day was a surprise for us we decided to have some fun and throw plans to the wind. We headed back toward The Blue Ridge Parkway in NC. We rode some nice back roads and picked up Spruce Pine, NC Route 261. It was a fantastic ride with nice wide sweeping turns and it was an extremely clear day with great panoramic views See this map, click........ BRP.

Quite warm in the valleys but nice and cool and sometimes near cold on the mountain. We started this trip with summer "open mesh" riding clothes. We stopped a few times to put on an extra shirt. We were expecting temps near 105*F, what a mountain surprise. While on the parkway we pulled into one of the overlooks..... what a view. While there we talked to a bunch of Harley riders. I asked Carol if she would like to get off the bike and stretch, she said no? I don't know why she didn't get off as the Harley riders looked like a nice bunch of guys. We wave goodbye to them as they ride off. From there we rode to the top of Mount Mitchell 6800 feet up and had dinner at the restaurant overlooking the valley. The view from our table was beautiful mountain ridges and we had a great fresh trout dinner. While at our table we talked to some natives and a few travelers like us. The restaurant wasn't crowded because the parkway was closed to the south of the restaurant due to a mud slide. All of us had to back track back down the hill the same direction to the north as we came up. It seems the landslide was early in the year and the road has been closed since.

After we ate we rode the rest of the short way to the very top of Mitchell mountain, just because we could. On the way back down we saw a narrow local side road called 80. It was like no other road I have ever been on with many switchbacks and twisties. It was a difficult ride but Carol took it in stride, what a great passenger she is. We decided to head for Asheville, NC to find a room for the night. Once we found a place Carol again stayed on our bike as I was checking us into our hotel at the Quality Inn. When I came out there were a few of the same Harley guys we had met up on the mountain talking with her and laughing. They were with good nature, teasing Carol about staying once again on the bike. Surprise, Surprise they are staying in the same hotel and just checked in before us.....small world. They had heard about Rte 80 and didn't want to ride on it as one of their members did a tip over while attempting the first tight turn on the entrance ramp. They all decided to completely backtrack to the north entrance of the parkway and didn't have the time to stop and eat as we did. We told them all about our ride to the top and dinner. We all laugh about it and finally say goodnight. More adventure tomorrow I am sure, but for now we are exhausted and ready to sleep.
Chriss and Carol

Luray The Next Morning

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Hi again:
Another interesting day. Today’s plan was this…... get up early, have a nice breakfast at a diner next door and go to Luray Caverns. We would take the 1 hour tour, come back pack the bike and leave for parts unknown. A nice ride on the Skyline drive through the Shenandoah would be nice. Sounds good? Well this is what actually happened, Mother Nature had other plans! We are getting the bike packed when we feel "a lot of moisture in the air" and a few rain drops. We realized our planned cavern tour wasn't going to work. So we looked at the Weather station on the TV and saw that the rain was over a very large area, it was half way across North Carolina. So we quickly packed, got on the bike and took off. Instead of boogieing down the Skyline drive where we would have gotten drenched with no place to get out of the rain we headed west directly to I-81. This route kept us out of the rain all the way to Wytheville,Va. We made it almost to Tennessee before we got dumped on. It started to rain very hard. I tried to stop under a overpass but the road grade was too steep. So we proceeded on and quickly we got off 81 and headed to a gas station that had large covering over the pumps. The rain and wind intensity increased so much that we were soon out of protection. We then noticed an empty small automatic pull through car wash in back of the gas/convenience store.


We quickly relocated to the covered automatic car wash. I didn’t think it would be in use during a rain storm; I was right. Before leaving New jersey I subscribed to weather radar and reports for use on my cell phone. It will now turn out to be so handy. Using the cell phone we could see the weather info and determined that the storm cell was overhead and moving away fast. We waited for about 1/2 hour for the storm to pass.

Back on the road (Rt 81) and on to Bristol, Tennessee where we felt a couple of rain drops again. We pulled off and found a very nice clean Best Western in Kingsport and decided to call it home for the night. It is supposed to rain hard tonight. The front desk man helped Carol and I to get the bike up on the motel sidewalk and under a large overhang for the night. Everyone were so helpful and friendly. The next morning we will find it very difficult to get the bike down and off the elevated sidewalk. The manager also recommended a good Italian restaurant next door who gives a discount to Best Western customers. Good deal we thought and off we went. We had a “great” Italian meal along with a very nice waitress. So the day ends, more adventures tomorrow, and it looks like more rain for the next two days.
More tales from the road tomorrow,
Chriss and Carol

End Of The First Day

Hi all:
Arrived safely in Luray, Va. The weather held, no rain but looking dark near the end of the day. As soon as we started the Skyline Drive, we saw bambi, and a cute little teenage bear waiting by the side of the road. He watched us until we slowed then ran away when we got closer. Carol thought he was adorable. No major traffic problems after the NJ blasting and a traffic tie up before Delaware Rt 80 bridge. We took 611 to Easton to avoid it and had free sailing from there. The big Kaw C14 behaved fine and we kept the rubber side down. We arrive at our motel late, its sunset and we are behind schedule by a few hours. The motel owner helps us to park our motorcycle around back under a walkway roof. So helpful they were.

We are told there is a diner called the Southern Station Diner a short walk away but we must hurry as it is about to close. We take off on a run with all our riding gear still on. This diner is the only place still open. We have a good meal and a friendly talk with our waitress. We return to our room very tired but in high spirits. We carry in both saddle bags and the 50 pound top box and unpack them looking for all of the things we should have packed on top. Off to bed we go tired but happy, looking forward to the next day.
Chriss and Carol

The Southern Station Diner We made It Just In Time For A Good Meal