Nice weather in NC

We in NC were gifted by the weather gods and had some mid 60s in the western NC mountains. Brian and I spent Friday night in a hotel in order to maximize daylight on Saturday. We hooked up with Eric and Doug in Highlands around noon. The temps were fantastic, but the roads had some snow and ice at the cols as well as a lot of salt and sand. Against my better judgement, I will have to wash the salty mojo off the RT. Doug reported that the Dragon was an icy handful in the AM hours, too. Some high lights:

1) Brian did his best imitation of "Wild Hogs" by colliding with a bird! I've never witnessed that before. The bird took a good hit.

2) We all had many nervous moments and skids in the salt and sand. Sometimes, especially 441 over the Smokeys, had patches of ice and snow.

3) Once into Tenessee, the roads were fantastic, but the day was about over.

4) We had one, maybe two, solid radar saves--Radar detectors RULE!

5) I made a moron move. I was taking the small loop road under Bridal Veil falls and found the exit blocked by snow. Instead of starting my U turn on the low side of the narrow road, thus using the engine to go uphill and gravity for reverse, I started on the high side. Once my front tire was pointing downhill, I needed Brian to grab the RT rack and pull me back up to complete the turn. MORON!

6) We only had a cell phone with us as a camera, which sucks, but here's a picture of Bridal Veil Falls from last year and the one from this trip. Look at the ice curtains!