Guess who's getting married today?

Well, we made it to Cashiers, NC on Monday. Barely. We left northern IL at about 7am Monday and got to the cabin in Cashiers at 11:30pm. 861 miles total. A long day's ride, and not helped by riding over the mountains at night, in the rain and fog, 2-up, and pulling a trailer. But we made it just fine. I was starting to get pretty tired, but we stopped and walked around, drank water, and stayed alert for the remainder of the trip. 1000 miles in 24 hours is doable without a lot more effort than that trip. Whew.

Tuesday we went raftiing on the Nantahala River near Bryson City. I had not been rafting before, Amy has. The water was COLD, but the rafting was a good time. The guide was a character and I would definitely go again. To get there we took NC-107 north, the same road we took south to Cashiers the night before. It's a pretty nice road for riding, but I didn't notice on Monday night - I wanted to get my bride and myself to the cabin safely.

Wednesday we went to the Smoky Mountain National Park. We took NC-64 west to Franklin and then 441/28 north to Cherokee. Of course we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls for some pictures. The park had some great views, and I'm sure we only saw a few of them. I hope the photos turn out. We took several along the creek as you go north into the park and used a tripod and a very slow shutter speed to blur the water's motion. I hope those turn out nice. Then we exited the park into a circus. Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are definitely not my style. We finally got away from that c(t)rap and on to Tallassee on US-129. We had a late lunch there and headed back south to Deals Gap. That was a nice ride. I didn't try to set any speed records, just rode at a decent clip and stayed on the pavement on my side of the road. They were pulling an HD out of the shrubbery as we went through, but no way to tell about the pilot. We stopped at the motorcycle place at 129 and 28, and then took NC-28 to Franklin, a nice ride, and then back to Cashiers.

MY BRIDE WAS SLEEPING ON THE BACK ALL THE WAY THROUGH DEALS GAP AND NC-28 TO FRANKLIN. I guess that means she trusts me - or maybe she would rather have her eyes closed.

More to follow...