Motorcyclists say US Highway 441 is undoubtedly the best road in America. I didn't know that. Locals say it's hands down their favorite scenic drive in the country. Or that. Tom Petty sings about it in American Girl. I would've played it!
It's all
fault. Not really. Yes, really. If it wasn't for her and 
, we wouldn't have been in North Carolina.
#HiveMeetUp
It's the second time we've got together with them and the second time I didn't snap one photo, not even of the ladies. Stranger things have happened iguess when in good company.
She reached out about two months ago, said she and DK would be in Asheville the weekend of November 6th. Give us a 48 hour window and we're in. Plants got with Pura (real name talk), Pura booked a room, next stop:
We met for dinner at a Lebanese joint, I didn't take pictures, you'll have to see it in words.
Pura and DK ordered chicken something, kebobs maybe, I wasn't paying attention. Plants had plants and tofu probably, whatever else, beans and potatoes I'm sure. I do however know exactly wtf I had—mujadara. It's a bomb ass lentil, bulgar, onions and spice dish I haven't had since a Syrian joint in England two years ago. My favorite mujadara so far is Palestinian, they make it with garlic. iheart Mediterranean food.
What Plants and DK don't know until now is during the two hour trek across state lines, we found a comedy club in Asheville called Beauty Parlor Comedy. When Pura messaged Plants about it, I forgot what she said.
We arrived at the same time, exchanged hugs, 'you're going with us tonight, yeah?' Plants said something like "I don't think so, we're gonna wake up early and" bla bla whatever she said. I laughed out loud. She's funny.
Toward the end of dinner which is one of the best restaurants we've been to since returning to the states by the way, now that we'd been in each other's company longer than an hour and they're unmistakably mesmerized by PuraDays, I asked what they're doing after dinner. "With you guys!"
It was an intimate little joint, maybe 20 chairs and a bar. I sat between the two baddest chicks there. Good thing we arrived early and froze our asses off in line to get in or we would've struck out. The headliner was Paul Hooper, funny dude from New York but maybe one too many covid jokes. I'm kinda over it. The opener, though, I looked everywhere for his name just now, couldn't find it. He was funny!
He's a pretty big dude, over 6 feet tall and close to 250 lbs probably. He said because he's big, all he has to do is walk on the sidewalk and people who are sitting in their vehicle lock the doors as he approaches. Said it hurts his feelings cuz he's not a bad guy but recently he found a way to have fun with it. Now when they lock the door in fear of him as he approaches, he waits until they're comfortably behind the safety of their locked car door and grabs the handle.
Hashtag GreatEvening. Plants and DK are good people. If it wasn't freezing that night, maybe our goodbyes wouldn't have been so rushed. But they had hiking in the a.m and I had a less developed route to Tennessee to find.
💖 𝒟 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒜
The following morning Pura found a breakfast joint and I found US Highway 441. I was just trying to avoid I-40, a major several lane heavily traveled Interstate that runs coast to coast.
I didn't know until I started putting this together it's the second most desired scenic drive in the country. Second only to a coastal, volcanic road in Hawaii. I saw a Hawaii license plate. The effort required to transport a vehicle from Hawaii to North Carolina is a lot.
The hotel parking lot was packed with out-of-state plates, everything from California and Texas to New Jersey, down to Florida, up to Pennsylvania. They came from near and far to cruise 441, we're not the only ones in town.
It's a 64 mile stretch of painted asphalt in the eastern United States that runs north and south between Georgia and Tennessee through Blue Ridge Parkway in the Smoky Mountains. What else you wanna know?
Breath taking views, there's that. Traffic, that too! Everyone had their cameras out. We cruised through after breakfast, probably around noon, what took two hours travel time the previous day on I-40 took five and a half hours to get back. Worth every minute.
It's a single lane highway, traffic in both directions with an occasional passing lane that weaves around and over the Smoky's. Plenty of pull outs to put the car in park. We were there for golden hour, the whole frikkin thing plus several hours prior.
The sun was out, not a cloud in the sky—picture perfect. Low-70's with just enough wind to scatter yellow and auburn and brownish, purplish colored leaves across the Highway. We heard them scatter from our tires as vehicles in front of us cleared a path. Windows down, sunroof open. We weren't supposed to be on that road that day—love it when things work out the way they're supposed to.
