He always dresses for the occasion...
Your dedicated Captain set the alarm for a 7AM wake up on this special morning. In addition to the excitement over all the fireworks we will see celebrating Opie’s birthday, we will be relocating the Queen to a new realm...Mountain Falls in Lake Toxaway, NC
...the trip was 355 miles. The last bit, crossing the Great Smokey Mountain ridges, was over some roads which make a plate of spaghetti look straight.
...the Commodorable, in Happy Birthday Opie attire...
The Captain grew up competitively racing across mountain roads in western Virginia, but decided to play it very safe (given the Queen’s decided lack of sports car handling characteristics), taking some curves at a mere 15 mph. The 355 miles was an exhibition of the incredible comfort and handling qualities of the Queen’s London Aire blood line. The trip was perfect...but for the last 4 miles...
You, Dear Reader, may not know this but, motorcyclists LOVE to push their Harleys, Gold Wings and rice rocket bikes through the “twisties ” at safe, but challenging speeds. (Most of them)
There was one Harley rider coming downhill in the opposite lane from us as we chugged up at 12-15 mph.
The rider enetered the extreme switchback turn at excessive speed for the bike and the rider’s skill level...
...this is NOT the road we were on...ours (NC 64) was far more curvy, but this one gives you the general idea.
Note well, you forensic investigator types, that the Queen has a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of 54,000 pounds. The Queen is 45 feet long. The Jeep is 16 feet long and weighs in at a feathery 5,000 pounds. Counting the tow bar assembly, we roll down the highway at a total of 65 feet in length and 59,000 pounds of mass.
By comparison, a newer Harley Davidson Road Glide is about 8 feet long and weighs in at less than 1,000 pounds.
Ya see where I’m going with this? IF you are on a motorcycle riding a very curvy mountain road, and IF your are going too fast and down a steep hill heading into a blind curve...good counsel would be to remain firmly in your lane. If, for some reason you were to “meet” a fully loaded motor bus towing a fully loaded Grand Cherokee going the other way... the result could be this, or far worse...
...don’t believe we can buff that out...
At any rate, the oncoming copper-colored Harley was unable to remain in his lane...your heroic Captain swerved, as much as the microscopic width of the road and the guard rail on the right (Starboard) side would allow.
We missed! I may have given him another 18-20 inches, but alas, there wasn’t THAT much room. The right rear wheel dropped off the pavement, the Jeep in tow went off the pavement, nearly sideswiping the guardrail. Seconds later, maybe only one second, the Captain was using all 605 horsepower to pull fully back onto the pavement while steering through a curve so sharp it required hand over hand steering to get around it.
It was only later when the adrenaline had returned to pre-crisis levels that the Captain, in an uncharacteristicly gracious frame of mind reminded himself that he, too, had made a similar mistake in the past...but not into the path of an oncoming behemoth with the necessary mass to nearly vaporize a motorcycle.
Soon enough, we arrived at...
...Mountain Falls entrance...
While Leslie was checking in at the office, your Captain disconnected the Jeep and surveyed the damage...
... these coaches virtually hug the ground. Dropping off the pavement caused the stone guard to catch on something and it ripped one side completely off!!!
...soon we were settled in on a fabulous lot...
Dutiful Captain wrestled with the remaining fasteners on the stone guard and FINALLY got it detached from the mother ship. Aforementioned Captain will no doubt purchase another stone guard while the Queen visits her birthplace in Nappanee, Indiana...
...downtown Nappanee...
While the Captain wrestled with stubborn bolts, bent washers, and an inadequate tool set for the job, lovely bride meets our new neighbors, Kurt and Michelle...
...they are friends with our friends and neighbors in Naples, Ann and Lance. It’s really a small world.
Later we went down the mountain for a bit and had a good lunch at MICA’s restaurant. Our lady server referred to me as Leslie’s BoyToy. I love this perceptive service person and her keen and instinctive sense of Who’s Who.
Soon, we will do some tourist stuff, maybe...
...this is our view...
The next day we were delighted by a visit from my pretty sister Dianne and her really cool hubby of 40 years, Bob Clark...
...Dianne is the one in the white shorts...really cute for a granny...
Later we walked about and took more pictures of this spectacular location...
It turns out that this magnificent scenery attracted George W Vanderbilt to build his monument to a pre-income tax era in the United States...known as the BILTMORE ESTATE...
...under construction circa 1890...
Finished “home” in 1895...
The home:
Was built between 1889 and 1895
Is on a 125,000 acre estate
Has 250 rooms
Has 35 bedrooms
Has 43 bathrooms
Has 65 fireplaces
8,000 acres of FORMAL gardens
175,000 square feet of living space (over 4 ACRES). The Captain’s home is .055 acres living area...
Question. Does John Deere produce a riding vacuum cleaner/floor polisher? Ol’ GW would certainly need one at Biltmore.
The home was built by 1,100 men using 11,000,000 bricks which were produced right on the estate.
The 30 year old owner/builder of Biltmore.
Later...
We had a great wash, wax and detailing of the Queen, who after being rained upon for days, need a good spa session😎😎. Turns out that the young man who did the work (Mitch) is the nephew of Mark Fields who is the premiere coach spa master in the Naples area. Mark has been our go-to guy since 2014, when he took care of the Beast for us.
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