Day 1 - Murphy NC

Miles today: 272

Miles total: 272

So I left the house with about 2/3 of a tank of gas and didn’t really give it much thought. Murphy is in the farthest western corner of North Carolina and my plan was to basically take my usual backroads out to the mountains (Lucia, Alexis, Lincolnton, RT 182 west, US64,Lake Lure/Chimney Rock, Asheville), then ride US74 and US129 out through the Nantahala to Murphy. But going through Lincolnton I was unable to find any gas. I stumbled on a Shell station with gas about 10 miles west of Lincolnton and topped off.  Given that little surprise I started paying attention to how many stations I passed after that had any gas. Answer: pretty much none.  At Asheville I started taking detours looking for gas.  Nothing there, nor Waynesville, nor Sylvia. 

In Bryson City I got lucky and found a BP packed with a line of cars. They limited everyone to $20 of regular - which I would have unhappily taken - but by some miracle my pump still had some 93 octane (at least that’s what they charged me for, who knows what I got). I should have taken a video of the scene: an absolute free-for-all. A poor pickup towing a trailer too long to navigate the pump islands bashed up the side of the trailer against one of the island guards while trying to escape.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll have no issues finding gas in Chattanooga tomorrow.

At least the motel gave me their primo parking spot for tonight ...