Another full day

By the time we woke this morning, (Mary-Margaret)Peggy had already left for church. She is the minister to a small Episcopalian (Church of England) congregation about an hour and a half from where she lives. In fact, we were so slow to get going, we were still finishing our wonderful breakfast of duck eggs and bacon when she returned home.  She was greeted by Juliana as she entered..

Peggy showed us some of her beautiful vestments which she has made. These are garments you can not buy. Sewing and embroidery skills are essential.

Next stop was to visit the farm where Juliana's pony, Napoleon, is kept. He is a small pony. Leslie keeps him in top condition. The pony is also very well trained which Leslie is taking time to continue.
Juliana helps to groom the horse.

For the last few months Leslie has put together a light carriage and is training  him to pull it. The horse seems to enjoy being worked. Leslie drove him around an arena set up with cones, firstly just with her in the carriage, then with Juliana, Wanda and Chris. It was a hot and humid day, but Napoleon never broke into a sweat.

While Leslie and Juliana groomed Napoleon after his exercise, Leslie drove us into Harriman to show us the downtown area. This was a prosperous area when the town was established in the late 1800's, and has some fine examples of Victorian architecture.

By the time we packed our bags and were ready to leave it was already 4 pm. Fortunately we weren't intending to go far today. Our plan was to ride due east and cross the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on our way to Waynesville NC. The road to Marysville was a highway on which we could make good time.

From there we travelled into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on TN 73, then turned right when that road ended at the T junction with US 441 which took us across Newfound Gap at 5043 feet.
People swimming and diving in the rivers along the way.

Motorcylists stopping for a swim.

 From there it was literally all downhill into North Carolina. At Cherokee we turned onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed for Waynesville.

It was getting on towards 8pm when we turned off the Parkway after 13 miles. Well before we reached Waynesville, found ourselves riding through Maggie Valley, a charming town with dozens of motels. We found a terrific motel at a good price and set ourselves down. We took the owners advice to eat at the Salty Dog Seafood and Grill, about 200 yards from the motel.