And End-to-End Retirement Gift

As a retirement gift to myself my wife and I decided on a trip of the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway on our BMW K1200LT motorcycle. We rode up to mile marker zero to ride the BRP south back towards home in the Atlanta, GA area. At mile marker zero we were greeted by VERY thick fog and slowly ventured south towards the Peaks of Otter for our fist night's stay. Even in foggy weather the parkway affords some very beautiful and enjoyable scenery. Even though we also got rained on a few times it was still a fun and wonderful trip.

Along the way we stayed again in Virginia off the parkway, spent 2 days in Little Switzerland, NC, and spent our last night in Maggie Valley, NC before getting on the parkway for the short remaining distance to Cherokee and the end. Along the way we met friendly people, saw deer, coyotes and a lot of wild turkey. When we got to the higher altitudes in NC, the leaves were already getting colorful. Even with rain while for part of the day from Little Switzerland to Maggie Valley it was amazing. It seemed we almost had the BRP to ourselves for the week.

We intentionally planned to take our time and as long as we did to enjoy it more. We plan on more trips. Maybe not end to end but more on the BRP.

- Chris and Donna from Acworth, GA