For a while last night, Steve Rodnon, Mike Knowles, and I were the membership in attendance. Theresa Lovallo and maybe a few others from Georgia popped in for visits, but I'm thinking that even Mike went home for the night since none of these folks live very far away from TWoS.
Early this morning, Mike was back. Mike, Steve, and I (and some non-MSTAers) enjoyed a good breakfast. Elliot and Janet Parsowith rode over for a visit in the afternoon and brought a bunch of clouds with them (I'm kidding). Kirk Wintersteen stopped by for a while. Theresa stopped by again. Ron & Joan Walkenspaw were expected, but with everyone coming and going, either I missed them or they didn't make it.
I did a short ride today around the area just to photograph a couple of places. I went over by Brasstown Bald and went up to the top. The shuttle driver (I took the shuttle up and walked back down) said today was an unusually clear day (it WAS beautiful this morning) with visibility rated a 10 out of 10! The driver also recommended limiting walking in the area because of the high number of venomous snakes that had been seen on the mountain...lots of copperheads and rattlesnakes. Driver even spotted a copperhead coiled up next to the road as we ascended and pointed it out to us. He had to grab a lady who was ready to jump off the shuttle to take a picture of the snake. Walking back down the asphalt trail, I had a non-venomous snake slither across the path right in front of me.
The afternoon brought a brief shower, and it seemed like everyone took it to heart that much more was to come with the remnants of Florence. The radar certainly looked ominous. The storm didn't go nearly as much north as previously expected, and instead, seemed to be coming due west...aiming right for northern Georgia. Steve said he was heading home. With the prospect of being almost the only MSTAer on site, I decided to punt as well. We ARE a social club...right? Sometime during the day, an MSTAer from Louisiana checked into one of the camping cabins, and while I hated leaving him there as our sole representative, I wasn't enthralled with the high probability of a long ride home in the rain on Sunday either.
The roads were sporadically wet/dry up to near Blue Ridge where I got caught in a pretty good shower. But as I approached the Georgia/Tennessee state line (McCaysville/Copper Hill), I finally got north of the showers and had an absolutely lovely ride home the rest of the way. From here, I find it hard to remember how intimidating the skies looked in Suches.
While it wasn't a big crowd of our members, it was good to see everyone. Maybe we can again next year and pick a weekend when the weather won't be such a big part of the conversation.
Steve...thanks for doing this!
