A Way Better Day Than Expected

The forecast for most of the area I was going to be riding today was for rain; as much as 90% probability.  It seemed to rain all night and was raining when I got up.  But techno-nerd that I am, I got on the computer and checked the radar image for the area.  It appeared the storm was moving northeast and the trailing edges were not too far away to the southwest.  So, using my Garmin software I planned a modified route that would take me back the way I had come on a road paralleling the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I started out in the rain with full rain kit, but it quickly became mist and then just wet roads.  Unbelievably, it wasn't long before the sun came out and I even had to open my jacket vents at one point.  The modified route turned out to be a good one, if somewhat shorter than originally planned.  That's OK, I needed a short day to get some bike maintenance done and get some rest.  I ended up getting to my destination, Johnson City, TN about 4 pm.  The autumn colors in the sunshine were really impressive and the roads were scenic and curvy........what more could a guy ask for.
Here are some pics from the day:

Another view of the same tree.  It is already losing some leaves.

Bucolic country views:

I have a couple more videos to show you.  The first is the last one I took on the Tail of  the Dragon.  You probably noticed that on the first video I came up on a truck pulling a trailer at the end of the video.  I actually did that three times, and after the first time when I saw he either couldn't or wouldn't pull over and there was no way to pass, I did the old motorcyclist trick and stopped to let him get ahead of me so I could ride my own pace for awhile until I caught back up.  In the following video I catch back up again, but he lets me by.  For you moto heads, be sure to turn up the volume.  Even though I have the stock exhaust and it's very quiet, you can hear the acceleration, shifting and braking.  I like it even though I was there.

The other video is a short segment of Mark and Stacy when we were first starting out on the Dragon.  You can hear the Harley chugging away.