Philip's report:  Day13, Monday, August 2: Mount Pisgah toLinville Falls, NC at mile 316 of the Blue Ridge Parkway -- 93 miles
 

Philip left the Pisgah Inn at 6:30 a.m., without his bike bags.  Goldie will be bringing them to the next overnight stop.  Heading north, the Parkway runs through nine tunnels, which are a bit intimidating for a bicyclist because of fast traffic.  But there was very little traffic at that hour, and Philip was using front and tail lights on his bike, so it was not quite so intimidating.  “The road kill of the day,” Philip said, “was sure to be worms instead of the usual racoon or rabbit or armadillo.  The worms must have come out after the rainstorm last night.  They were everywhere, and they weren’t moving very fast.”   The weather was cool and overcast at first, then sunny with cold winds from the north.  “It was chilly going down those hills, but very refreshing.”  About nine miles up the road, a huge bug hit Philip’s face, just above his right eye.  When he tried to remove the bug, it stung him.  He stopped and applied some of the cortisone cream that was recommended to him for bug bites by a pharmacist the day before.  He rode another 16 miles to the Folk Art Center at mile marker 382, where U.S. Hwy. 70 intersects the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The Center is operated by the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild.  He waited about half an hour for the Center to open, so that he could ask someone what might have bitten him and what he should do to treat the bite.  By then his eye was quite swollen.  “I looked like I’d been in a fight.”  He eventually talked to a park ranger, and was concerned about having an allergic reaction to the bite.  “If you were going to have a reaction, you would have had it by now,” the ranger told him.  He recommended to Philip that he use some cortisone cream.  Philip was one step ahead.  He walked around the Folk Art Center for a while.  “It is one beautiful place.”  He bought a couple of gift and arranged to have them shipped home.  His ride had been mostly downhill to the Folk Art Center, but after, there was a 25-mile climb to Craggy Gardens Visitors Center at mile marker 366.  There he met Jake Farmer.  “Jake had done everything, everywhere.  He had been a U.S. Army ranger in 1951.  He said that he was next going to get into bicycling, and he wanted to see my bike.  He gave me some antihistamine for my eye.  By now my eye was very swollen.”  Philip got through the rest of the day.  “It was pretty tough!”  He finished the day at Linville Falls, with 93 miles, average speed of 12.13 miles per hour, climbs totaling 9,400 feet, and 7 hours and 40 minutes on the bike.  By his bike computer, he’d ridden 1033 miles to-date.  He and Goldie spent the night at the Parkview Motor Lodge, just off the Parkway at mile 317.4.