Tuesday, May 22, 2012

A visit with Mike and Mary

With a good tail wind it didn't take anytime at all to reach aunt Mary and uncle Mike's hobbit home. As I mentioned before Mike and Mary are building a mountain home but while that home is being built they have rented a quant little one bedroom mountain cottage that has become known as their little hobbit home.

I was lucky to have that tail wind because I made it just in time for happy hour. We traveled down the road (by car) to a small micro brew called Blue Mountain Brewery. We enjoyed a glass beer as we watched the sun begin to set behind the mountains. Realizing that we still had steaks to consume at the hobbit house we decided it would be in our best interest to get a Growler to go.

Back at the cottage I got Mike and Mary caught up on all my stories from the road and they shared their experience becoming recently retired.They would say something like "we just wake up in the morning and decide what to do, when we get tired we go to sleep and wake up when our bodies feel rested. If we get tired of somewhere we come see how the new house is coming along or go visit family." We agreed that retirement sounds a lot like bike touring.

The next morning they took me up the Blue Ridge Parkway to the build site of their new mountain home. I made sure I staked a claim to one of the bedrooms for my future visits.

On the way down the mountain I couldn't stop thinking about the Blue Ridge. Although I had been intimidated by the climbs I was intrigued by the cool crisp air and beautiful vistas. With the help of Mike and Mary I convinced myself to abandon my original plans of following the coast and follow the Appalacian's down to Georgia.

After we got off the mountain we stopped at a great little hole in the wall BBQ. My mouth began to salivate from the smell of the smoke coming from behind the building. I am convinced BBQ is with out a doubt the best fuel for cycling.

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