Gertie's

For those of you out there who plan to do the TransAm, please listen to me when I say this.  You must bring LOTS of water with you when you get on the Pkwy because there isn't anyplace other than one visitor center to get any more.  We ran out of water, and we ran out of daylight.  Not good.

After all that climbing we were looking forward to the downhill that inevitably follows, but it was NOT FUN AT ALL.  The mountain side was so steep we had to burn our brakes the whole way down and it was pitch dark out.  We had our headlamps, thank goodness.  When we got to the bottom the campground we were aiming for was closed, so we headed into Vesuvius having heard of a country store called Gerties that let bikers camp out back.  A towns person told us the store closed at 8:00.  We got there a little before 9:00 and they were still there!  Tammy, Gertie's daughter and Boyd, her son-in-law stayed open for us, made us yummy sandwiches and let me whine about coming down the mountain in the dark.  Boyd also told me he would register to be an organ donor!!!  He said he had a lady come into the store the other day and she needed a kidney so he's been hearing alot about donation lately.  Boyd said that must mean it's time for him to do something good, even if he does have high blood pressure.  :)  Woohoo!!!  I didn't see them in the morning so I don't have any pics of them, but here is Gertie and the campsite:

Gertie makes a mean breakfast.

We signed their guestbook - which is the wall!

We slept GOOD.