NC Exchange Days 5 and 6

Beautiful blue skies when we woke up this morning. First thing after breakfast was to head to Blowing Rock to get the postcards from the post office and put stamps on them. On the way we came across a sign that said "Mowing Ahead" nothing unusual until you catch up to them. They weren't mowing the grass, but the trees! The post office had all of Laura's postcards plus one more, Laura stamped all of hers in the post office and sent them off.

Since it was sunny and blue skies we decided to head north on the Parkway since we had only gone part way earlier in the week. Great views to the east as we were above the clouds, then we would descend into a valley and go through some clouds and back up again. The photo is basically the same shot I took on our first day, but with clear skies and a slightly different angle. Stopped at the North Trading Post and picked up great ham biscuits and dried apples along with a few other small gifts for co-workers. That got us through to a late lunch which we enjoyed at the Blue Ridge Music Center.

We went through the exhibit and asked the lady inside what was going on as there were a number of people setting up outside. She wasn't sure, but thought it was a crew from Dollywood who was hoping to film with some fall color for background. We sat outside and ate our lunch while listening to a local group, the Timber Rattlers, and watched some cloggers. We were going to pack up and continue on when Laura started visiting with the lady bass player for the group and said we should stick around as the next musician would be Wayne Henderson. Of course, we didn't know who he was, so she explained that he was a guitar picker and that he has played for the president. We're glad we did, boy could he play.

We continued north into Virginia which gets tamer and more rolling hills. Still not seeing much fall color, especially at the lower elevations. Fields of cabbages have replaced the fields of N.C. Christmas trees. We stopped heading North once we got to Mabry Mill. The mill was used for wood cutting and corn grinding. Nice place to stretch our legs and talk with some of the interpretive guides. Saw to great, romping Basset Hounds stretching their legs prior to getting back in the car.

On the way South it appeared to be wooly worm migration season in Virginia, saw a dozen or more trying to cross the roads, but didn't see any in North Carolina. We came back through Valle Crucis. Ended up and Mike's Inland Seafood for dinner, we couldn't leave without at least one more great seafood dinner. We both had scallops and shrimp. The scallops were huge and just melted in your mouth. After an hour of leisurely eating we headed off to hear a concert we had seen an advertisement for. The band was Clann and Drumma a Celtic group that had a piper and three drummers. One of the drummers sang anti-English songs. Most of the band's followers were older then us with a few younger ones mixed in.

Day six was up early to clean house and do the laundry. Once we shut down the house we headed out the gate and turned Right instead of left, the way we had always gone. We knew it went toward Lenoir and thought we would wind our way back to Charlotte in that direction. Shortly after turning right we ended up on dirt roads. We made guesses on turns as nothing was marked, but civilization was there as we almost got run over by a bright red Hummer. We made it to Lenoir, a big furniture producer, but couldn't do any shopping as furniture generally doesn't fit in our luggage. Another sunny day and looks like it might hit 80 degrees.

We stopped in Hiddenite to try our hand at the Emerald Hollow Gem mine that we had seen on the travel channel. We ended up digging lots of quartz and found several other interesting stones in the sluice box. Really, needed someone to explain more, but had fun. Continued on to just North of Charlotte where we stayed with family friends of Laura's. Where Laura got her kitty fix, with the bonus of two Corgi's being available as well.

NC trip Days 3 and 4

I can't believe it has been two weeks since I've updated this.

On day three we were up earlier. Still foggy but we decided to travel south on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Asheville. Along the way we stopped at the Moses Cone memorial park, which has a beautiful mansion that houses the arts and crafts guild. Laura ended up getting a bracelet charm of a possum with two babies on its back, Laura is a twin. And I picked up a CD of women blue grass performers. There is also a nice nature trail that explains about the different plants, so we took a walk and prior to leaving, the fog cleared up some for a view out to lake.

We continued down the Parkway until we were detoured off and around some construction work on the parkway. When we got back on, we didn't have too much further to go until we reached Asheville. We stopped at the Folk Art museum and enjoyed the exhibit and a little more shopping. Then we went into downtown to walk a bit and enjoyed a good meal and beer at The Green Man. Laura had a Saison ale and then Spaten Oktoberfest, which was on tap, with her Sheppard Pie and I had the house Porter with a flank steak sandwich with an onion and apricot spread on it. Interesting combination but very good. When we left The Green Man the sun was finally out for our drive home on the interstate.

Day four and foggy again, time for more shopping. We headed to Blowing Rock, which we never did see, but prior to leaving we saw a very large woodpecker outside the kitchen window. Not a very clear photo, but it was take through the kitchen window and screen. It was also another foggy rainy day. After shopping a bit in Blowing Rock we end up in the Storrie Street Grill for lunch. Laura calls it a good accident because we went there because she saw an advertisement in the restroom somewhere along the way. I had fish and chips, but had them replace the chips with sweet potato casserole, yum. Laura enjoyed great barbecue, vinegar based, with fries. We waddled out for a bit more shopping and kept running into Romeo, a miniature beagle who was wandering with his owners. Our last stop in town is the post office so Laura can send out 20 post cards and rush to Grandfather's mountain since the sun is out.

Shortly after we pay our entrance fee, $28, the fog closes in on us again. We get occasional views as we drive the winding drive to the top. We park and start to climb to the suspension bridge and we only see half of it, due to the fog. Laura thinks its kind of cool and Brigadoon like. She'd like to come back in the summer for their highland games. In the parking lot we discover that the stamps that should have been on the postcards, remember the postcards?, are still in the car. We go back to the gift shop and beg the use of the phone and a phone book. Laura manages to get in touch with the post office and sure enough they had just gotten them out of the post box. They will hold them for us and we can stop by tomorrow and put stamps on them. On the way down from Grandfather mountain we stop at the Nature Museum. Wonderful exhibit of carved birds and the largest amethyst found in the U.S. and a small zoo with animals in more natural habitat.

They had six bears that we saw and three cougars, two of which ran around playing most of the time and one that just sat and posed for us. Also, a couple majestic bald eagles and some white talked deer. Don't know why they had the later as they seem to be quite common all across the U.S.

Back on the parkway the fog lifted again we were able to see what we had missed on the drive up to Grandfather. Got back to our Deep Gap home and had our own deer in the yard, including a fawn. Unfortunately, it was too dark for good photos. After dinner, while doing laundry, we found the seed corn for the deer so maybe we can entice them back in daylight.

NC Day One and Two

After a failed attempt to get the hot water heater going the night before I went to the basement in the morning and found that it was as simple as moving the circuit breaker for the hot water heater into the full off position and then moving it to on. Ten hours of sleep after a long travel day helps.

It was a cloudy morning, so after a leisurely morning we headed out to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Laura (that's the 'my wife' from previous posts)was interested in going to West Virginia, so after some time on the Parkway we exited at Highway 21 and headed toward Independence Virginia.

We finally made it to West Virginia but the picture Laura tried to take of the Welcome sign didn't turn out well. Along the way we didn't see any interesting places to eat. Everything was fast food chain restaurants. We decided to detour to Bramwell since they'd had an Ocktoberfest the previous day. Still no food, but a nice visitor center and interesting train cars that they hope to turn into a restaurant. One of the few remaining tobacco storage train cars is there. We ended up eating a snack we had brought along and continued on our loop back to Boone. As my wife put it in her journal, "After 3,298,546 winding turns we made our way to Bristol, TN, and eventually back to Boone and a dense fog. This is also the day we were suppose to go to Kentucky, too, but after 11 hours that didn't happen and we didn't care if we got there this trip."

The next morning was foggy again. So we decided to spend time seeing the shops in and around Boone. Found the Farmer's Supplies store and it was great, only it isn't supplies any longer. It was in the old building with tin ceilings and brick walls and some of the old storage bins and cupboards. However, it was now an arts and crafts gallery, with very good prices. We then found great food at Mike's Inland Seafood and after lunch headed to Linville Cave. Since it was still raining out we figured exploring a cave was just the thing.

The tour was interesting and the guide was both informative and had a sense of humor. He referred to different formations as "dread rocks," "mother-in-law's nose," etc. He also pointed out that flow stone takes 125 years to grow one cubic inch, so one wall was more than 6 million years old. About mid-way through the tour there was a stream with fish in it and at one point the guide mentioned that they had dropped a cable down more than 250 feet into the water and had not found the bottom. A little further on the guide had us experience total darkness. We were 2,500 feet under ground and he turned out all the lights. Talk about dark. He told the story of a couple of explorers who lost their lights, this is before the permanent ones were installed, and it took them two days to find thier way out. They stayed with the stream and just kept working their way up stream to the get to the entrance.

After the cave tour we took a walk to Linville Falls, since it wasn't raining and the sun was trying to come out. The falls drops 90 feet and the gorge created by the river is the deepest east of the Grand Canyon. Some of the trees were just starting to turn, but I think we were just a bit too early to see the true fall colors.