Blue Ridge Parkway Journeys

Bob Henard working the show ...

I am convinced that if the Lord was remaking this man’s blood today, he would replace his hemoglobin with the Blue Ridge Parkway. The oxygen molecule would be substitued for a Parkway view.

Bob live’s in Raleigh and of the thousands of miles that were put on his Goldwing last year, most of them were accumulated driving from Raleigh to the Blue Ridge Parkway and back home. “Once I am on the Parkway, I feel like I am at home.”

Bob’s wants his Parkway motorcycle license tag in the worse way but also in the best way – he volunteered to man a booth for the entire weekend of the Goldwing Regional Rally this past weekend in Asheville. I would check in with him by cell to see “how he was doing.” Read more »

There are many people out there promoting our good work. Some we know, some we don’t. Most recently, I was at Doughton Park talking to suspecting individuals about the new Blue Ridge Parkway license tag for motorcycles. When I saw the BRP eurosticker on the back of this well- manicured and well-maintained Honda Goldwing, I knew that I had a dead-ringer.

My opening question: “Do you know about the new Blue Ridge Parkway license tag for motorcycles?” His response: “Do I know about it? I have distributed over a thousand of your applications and I just finished talking to those two guys over there asking them the same thing. By the way, who are you, anyway?” Well, I had to tell him.

I knew Bob only from the telephone conversations that I had overheard with Lynne Fletcher (our director of donor services) when he was asking her to send him more tag applications, almost on a monthly basis. Our Doughton Park conversation was the first that we had ever had in person.

Thank you Bob, you are a real champion for the Blue Ridge Parkway. Your very praising word-of-mouth referrals make you one of the best missionaries we could ever have. Thank you!

For nine years now a rag-time team of good friends has been doing their own thing to support the Blue Ridge Parkway. In their words which are annually renewed when I meet them is “we want to help” and “we wish that more people would join us.”

Under the banner of Cruis’in the Blues, Richard McDevitt of Charlotte and Ray Mayeu of Asheville have provided the leadership for a very small scale event when they ride from one end of the Parkway to the other — sometimes, north; sometimes, south but always staying in the best that the Parkway has to offer — Peaks of Otter Lodge, Doughton Park, and the Pisgah Inn. I have accused them of riding, eating, and sleeping; riding,eating, and sleeping; riding, eating, sleeping. They do not deny the accusation and I witnessed the same when after what I consider a very full meal at Tuggles Gap Restaurant, deserts were ordered almost all the way around. Read more »

A reader has commented …

I have only (1) major concern for someone that needs to really give thought about bicyles on the Blue Ridge Parkay. A lot of folks come to bike and enjoy and leave scared to death. If anyone thinks by putting up \”biking\” signs on the side of the road makes its safe really needs a reality check. Lets make funds available to put a bike lane. Today there are more bikers than ever and more trails than ever. Let folks enjoy there family/clubs time but safey should always be #1. There is now and always been only room for two vehicles on the parkway, God forbid if there is camper travling. Either fix the problem or take the signs down. Right now even motorist are in danger as well.

The national audience regards the Blue Ridge Parkway as one of the grandest bike routes in the United States because of its mostly gentle grades and yes, low traffic volume. One would expect that bicycle / automobile incidents would be fairly common; but the fact is, that they are not. Almost no accidents between cars and bikes occur within a season and the belief that the Parkway is unsafe for joint use seems to be untrue. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Bike lanes have been suggested a number of times by various interest groups for the Parkway but we must remember that the Parkway was created in 1935 as a pictorial canvas and as the largest landscape architecture construction project in the history of the United States. The Parkway is now poised to be designated National Historic Landmark and to change the Parkway’s aesthetic character by widdening the road, creating bike lanes, whatever … would significantly alter the Parkway’s original design intent and signigicantly alter the subliminal experience that our travelers currently enjoy.

More later about biking the Parkway safetly …