Another late sleep - man I love these road trips. Stayed at the Pineola Inn near Linville Falls... great location for this trip - right at the Hwy 181 intersection with the Parkway. I had planned to do 181 down the mountain and do some back roads to the in-law's house... I passed by it at first, then saw an Italian Restaurant, and a convenience store and a gas station and then Hwy 181....so I had to turn around, take advantage of all of them... pretty nice room, too.

 
Anyway - packed away the dirty laundry and loaded the bike for the last time - figure I'll be home this evening. One thing some of ya have picked up on by now is I generally plan for, say 6 nights and I end up spending 5 nights out.... after a while I just wanna get back home. But - I DO have that option to stay out don't I? Hmmm... maybe I better stay out once in a while so Kim don't just assume I'll be home a day early, right?

So when I checked emails this morning I got about 2 to 1 in favor of giving the guy's wallet back but keeping the dough... got a couple 'keep the cash and toss the wallet' emails ... glad you guys ain't riding behind me!... and a few give it all back's.... well... I called one of his Credit card companies last night and told them to get in touch with him and left my email address.... got his email this morning all pleased about not having to go through the crap it takes to replace everything - didn't even ask about the cash - and set up a meeting Sat to return it. I'll let ya know if he lets me slide on using some of it on the motel room....maybe I'll let it slip that the majority of you voted for that ... I figure if I start counting out $75 in one dollar bills really slow, he'll get the hint, huh? LOL

 
So, I pull out of the Pineola Inn at about 9am and head south on 181...great road, but not in the morning - the sun is in the eyes the whole way... but at the bottom of the mountain I hang a left onto bike route 2 (Brown Mountain Beach Road) that runs over to Collettsville. This is a sweet road. At Hwy 90 I head towards Lenoir and sneak up Seltzer Creek Roads to Hwy 268 and ride it over to Roy's "Rider's Roost Motorcycle Campground"...thats Roy and his place in pics #7-10. I still haven't had a chance to stay there, and good thing I wasn't planning to stay tonight, as Roy was just about to hop his ride and head to Florida as I pulled in, having shut down the campground for the season this morning. We spoke for a bit and parted ways. Hwy 268 is also a ride well worth the trip - very twisty with lots of hills and a little stream. From here I slide over to Moravian Falls for a quick pic of the falls - something I always do when I am near my Mother-in-Laws place. Helps me mellow out a little before I have to go visit!