Blue Ridge Parkway - Am I insane??

[7rider]

Well - the long and short of it.
Yes...I am insane.
Ride went really well. We had a few glitches, but nothing that ended the ride for anyone (not even a busted fork that was fixed by a great LBS in Boone, NC, when one of the guys inadvertently drove under some low wires when his bike was on the roof of the van. They kept the shop open late for our guy, and had an Orbea fork that fit his bike and saved his vacation. Props to them.).
I myself made the HUGE mistake of doing this ride with a brand new saddle. I put my faith in the awesomeness of the Terry Butterfly saddle, but I think you need more than 18 miles to break it in. Consequently, by Tuesday, I could not bear to sit on my saddle, so I took Wednesday off the bike. That was good and bad. Bad, because it was a beautiful rolling day with lovely scenery from Bluff's Lodge to Tuggles Gap. But good because it was the only day we saw rain. It rained lightly or misted for about 80% of the day - not enough for the rest of the guys to bail, but enough to have them want to keep moving, as they got chilled if they stopped too long.
But, by Thursday, I was healed and back in business to enjoy the rest of the trip.
No one rode the WHOLE thing - as we broke up days with shared SAG duty. Having the 2 vans was amazing. For the second rest stop, we'd break out the cooler, the folding tables, and picnic with fruit, pb&j's and cold cut sandwiches.
Only 2 guys made the climb up Mt. Mitchell. Our mileage each day was so long, and we dallied so much enjoying the views and the company, that we worried about our time on the road and the ability to recuperate enough overnight for the next day's onslaught. And, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "It gets late early out there." So, Mt. Mitchell isn't going anywhere. We'll tackle it another day.
The parkway in NC definitely had steeper climbs than VA. I distinctly saw a 15% and a few 12's on my Garmin during the first brutal day. Unfortunately, I have mileage, speed, but no map of day 1. I've never had that happen before and don't know what happened with that file.
Here are some pix - view a slideshow with more here.