Mountain Trip

Thursday, October 15th, the kids and I, along with Kelly's best friend Renè and Sean's girlfriend Ashley, went to the mountains for the day. (Renè and Ashley go to the same church we go to.) I wish Charlie could've been with us, but he was in either Texas or Louisiana at the time. My mom couldn't go because she was working.

We left the house a few minutes before 9:00 AM (I wanted to leave earlier, but wasn't able to) and after picking up Ashley, who lives about 2 miles from us, we hit the road. (Renè had spent the night with us.) We drove west on I-40 to Winston-Salem, got on 52 north, and, after eating breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Mt. Airy (aka Mayberry), then got on the Blue Ridge Parkway soon after arriving in Fancy Gap, Virginia.

We took the Parkway south to Boone, stopping at several overlooks along the way and hiking a few trails. It was a gorgeous day. Not a cloud in the sky, temps around 60°. The wind was chilly at times, but we all had light jackets.

**Click on photos to enlarge them.

Renè, Kelly, Ashley, and Sean. Fox Hunters Paradise overlook.

Stone Mountain overlook.

Mahogany Rock overlook.

Brinegar Cabin

Renè, Kelly, Sean, & Ashley. Climbing the rocks at Alligator Back overlook. I went up there, too.

Taken from the top of the rocks at Alligator Back overlook.

Alligator Back overlook.

On the trail at Bluff Mountain overlook.

Renè and Kelly on the Bluff Mountain trail.

The Lump overlook. Tough climb, but doesn't take long.

View from the top of the big hill at The Lump overlook.

Another view from the top of the big hill. Christmas tree farm in the distance.

Mt. Jefferson

When we got to Boone, sometime between 4:00 and 5:00, we went to Dan'l Boone Inn Restaurant for dinner. My family and I have been going there for years. Love their food!

We were going to go to Mystery Hill House after eating, but they were closed. :-/


We had a really good day in the mountains. Charlie was hoping to go when he got home from Louisiana (he had started off in Georgia back in mid-September and from there had gone to Kansas, Texas, and Louisiana before finally coming home last week), but not only has it rained all week so far, but our dog Pippin got really sick with pancreatitis and had to stay at the emergency vet Friday night through Sunday (we picked him up around 10:00 PM Sun. night), costing us a lot  of money. So, we probably won't be going to the mountains this week. We were wanting to go straight to Boone and do some things in the area - Linville Caverns (my kids have never been), Blowing Rock, Mystery Hill House, Grandfather Mountain. I hope we can do that before it gets too cold.

A Day Trip to the Mountains

Friday, October 17th, my mom, my kids, and I took a trip to the mountains. It was a beautiful day. The colors weren't perfect (more green than reds, yellows, or oranges), but the weather was.

We didn't get started as early as I wanted to, but that was okay. We were going to eat at a Cracker Barrel here in Greensboro for breakfast, but we weren't hungry. Well, Sean was. So we went to McDonald's for him to get some pancakes to go and then began our trip.

We took our usual route (I-40 West to 52 North to Fancy Gap,VA, where we get on the Parkway and head South), stopping at the Chick-fil-A in Mount Airy to eat.

It was around 11:00 AM when we got on the Parkway. Again, not much color, but still a gorgeous day.

Virginia

Virginia

Stone Mountain, NC, overlook.

Mahogany Rock overlook. NC.

Hey! Some color! I think this might be Air Bellows overlook. NC.

View from the trail at Bluff Mountain, NC, overlook.

Tree along the trail.

Sean next to a stream on the Bluff Mountain trail. The stream had several little waterfalls. I took pictures of them, but don't want to overwhelm this entry with so many photos. There are already going to be quite a few in this post.

Okay, maybe one.

Sean, Kelly, and my mom. Fixin' to climb the very steep Tom Dula hill.

One of the views from the top of the hill.

Going back down the hill. My mom (whose hair is growing in quite thick and curly after chemo), Kelly, and Sean.

Mt. Jefferson, NC.

A Christmas tree farm in Boone, NC.

There were several other stops we made at overlooks and many more pictures that I took.

When we made it to Boone around 3:30 or so, we went to the Dan'l Boone Inn Restaurant for dinner. (We've been there many times in the past.) They serve their food family style. There's no menu. They just bring several dishes of food and place it on your table. Fried chicken, country steak, biscuits, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, stewed apples, salad, country ham biscuits. For dessert, you have a choice of 2 or 3. It was 3 this time. Chocolate cake (what Kelly and I had), banana pudding (what my mom had), or strawberry shortcake.

As I always do, I brought the country ham biscuits home to eat. They're so good!

We made one more stop, in North Wilkesboro at a produce stand (I bought a few different types of apples), before coming home.

I think next year we may go to Asheville and drive north to Boone. See parts of the Parkway that I haven't seen in many years. I'd like to also go back to Boone soon and do some of the fun things they have there. Grandfather Mountain, Mystery Hill House (we went last year and the kids want to go back), Blowing Rock (the kids haven't been there yet and Sean wants to see it), Linville Caverns, Linville Falls. Hopefully we can do that before it gets too cold.

I'd also like to go to Biltmore Estate in Asheville this year after they've decorated it for Christmas. I've been three times. The last time was in 2008 when we took the kids for the first time. I'd like to take my mom this time, as well as the kids.

A Day in the Mountains

Thursday, October 31st, my kids, my mom and I went to the mountains for the day. (Charlie has been in Oklahoma working for a couple weeks now.) It was nearly 10:00 AM when we left Greensboro, but it only takes just under 2 hours to get to Boone. It was lunchtime when we arrived in Boone, so we went straight to the Dan'l Boone Inn Restaurant to eat. We love their food (my favorite are their country ham biscuits) and eating there was one of the things we were most looking forward to doing while in the mountains.

After leaving the restaurant, we went to the Mystery Hill House in Blowing Rock, just a few minutes down the road from Dan'l Boone Inn Restaurant. This was the place Kelly, and maybe Sean, was most looking forward to going. It was a cool (around 60°), windy day in the mountains and those winds seemed to be especially high at Mystery Hill. We felt like the wind was pushing us across the parking lot.

Anyway, we had fun at Mystery Hill House with its crazy sloped room (kind of messes with your head and throws you off balance a bit) and other little things to check out. There's also the Appalachian Heritage Museum next door (old furniture, toys, and books) in an old, white farmhouse, and the Native American room full of arrowheads in glass cases. I hope someday they have more than arrowheads on display. I reckon we'll have to go to Cherokee if we want to see and experience more of the Native American culture and artifacts.

Kelly on the left, guide in the middle, Sean on the right.

Shoppes on the Parkway (near the Blue Ridge Parkway) in Blowing Rock was our next stop. My mom wanted to go to the Coach store (she loves their purses) and see if she could find anything she liked. She bought a purple, sparkly toboggan (what you non-Southerners call a knit hat) and a purse.

Sean wanted to go to the Blowing Rock next, but unfortunately we were running out of time and I really wanted to go to Grandfather Mountain. So, we made our way there, got our tickets at one of the booths you drive up to, and headed up the mountain. On our way up, we stopped at the museum and animal habitats. It was cold and windy up on the mountain and I was very glad that I had brought my coat and scarf.

In the animal habitats we saw deer, cougars, bald eagles (they can't fly; one of them only has one eye), and bears. There used to be a couple golden eagles, but they died not long ago, and the otters, which I've enjoyed seeing in the past, weren't out at the time that we were there.

Female cougar playing with a ball.

Male cougar.

One-eyed eagle.

 After leaving the animal habitats, we quickly made our way to the car (cold and windy!) and went the rest of the way up the mountain. Mom got out with us and walked to the edge of the parking lot, but then went back to her car, because it was so cold, while the kids and I went up to the Mile High Swinging Bridge.

The view from the edge of the parking lot.

Sean and Kelly on the bridge.

Part of the view from the bridge, obscured a bit by clouds.

Taken from the other side of the bridge, looking towards the parking lot and gift shop. 

There weren't a lot of people up there (no surprise), but those who were there had ventured out onto the rocks beyond the bridge. Sean and Kelly wanted to go out there too, but I didn't think it was a good idea on such a windy day to be walking out on uneven ground near the edge of a mountain. It's not really a good idea on a good day, let alone on a day when the winds are so high. So, naturally I said "no".

The winds were so high that the suspension cables hummed and sang as the winds blew against them. It was also a cloudy day and we had seen a few drops of rain when we were down in Boone and Blowing Rock, but up on Grandfather Mountain we saw a few snowflakes or sleet. Despite the cold and wind, we enjoyed being up on the mountain.

It was close to 5:00 when we came down off the mountain. We stopped by a produce stand on our way back to Boone and bought some apples and honey. We made one more stop, at a gas station in Boone for snacks and drinks, before heading home.

We had a good time in the mountains and hope to go back to see the places we didn't get to visit on this past trip - Linville Caverns, the Blowing Rock, Rough Ridge (a friend recommended it), Hickory Ridge (a living history place) in Boone. I'd like to go back in the spring.

I'm hoping to make another trip up to the mountains before Christmas so that we can take my mom to Biltmore Estate. It's so beautiful there at Christmas (well, all the time really) and my mom has never gotten to see it.


Speaking of my mom, she just has two more rounds of chemo and she'll be done. The last round she did was about a week after her final radiation and that combined with the shot they gave her the next day really wiped her out for the whole week prior to our trip to the mountains. She didn't have the energy to do much of anything. She's feeling good right now though. Hopefully the next round of chemo (this Friday, I believe) won't be as difficult.

Day Trip

We got a later start to our trip than was originally planned because I had been up late last night writing a long and important email (and I always do a lot of editing before sending emails of that kind) and then when I did go to bed, I had a hard time going to sleep. *sigh* So I was up at 8:00 instead of 7:00. (Though I actually woke up about 10-15 minutes before the alarm.) I ended up getting only about 4½ hours sleep.

We ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel before getting on the highway. We like to take I-40 to Winston-Salem, go up Hwy. 52 north a little into Virginia where 52 meets up with the Blue Ridge Parkway. Then we head south towards Boone, NC, stopping at many overlooks along the way.

It was a beautiful day. Absolutely perfect. The leaves were mostly past peak, with the leaves in the valleys not yet at peak I don't think, but the weather was so gorgeous we didn't really care. It was in the low to mid 70s with a lovely breeze and almost completely clear skies. Only the occasional wispy cloud. We kept commenting on how beautiful the day was.

As I said, we stopped at many overlooks. Fox Hunters Paradise, Air Bellows, Stone Mountain, Mahogany Rock, Bluff Mountain, Alligator Back, Mt. Jefferson and a few others. I took a lot of pictures. There were a lot of ladybugs at some of the overlooks we stopped at. Especially at the Stone Mountain overlook.

Sean and Kelly at Fox Hunters Paradise overlook.

Fox Hunters Paradise overlook. Pilot Mountain is in the far distance, left of center.

Air Bellows overlook. Christmas tree farm(s).

Stone Mountain overlook.

Stone Mountain overlook.

We called this a Halloween tree. Located at Stone Mountain overlook.

Mahogany Rock overlook.

View of Stone Mountain from across the road from the Mahogany Rock overlook.

At Bluff Mountain overlook, there's access to a trail. We've walked it before and walked it again today. Well, part of it. There was no time to walk the whole thing. It's very pretty with all its lovely trees. I just love trees.


Towards the end of our walk, my mom jokingly said that she couldn't believe I made her walk that. lol Her knees were hurting her and my thighs were hurting me, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

At Alligator Back overlook, there were some high rocks that we climbed. It was an easy climb of course. We wouldn't have climbed something too difficult or dangerous. I took several pictures at Alligator Back.

That's Sean's head at the bottom of the picture. :-/

You can see Kelly on the left.

Somewhere along the Parkway, about 30 minutes or so outside of Boone, you come to the Northwest Trading Post. We always stop there. Kelly got an amethyst bracelet, Sean got some kind of aviation art kit, Mom got a brownie (she said her blood sugar was getting low) and I got a jar of honey (I've been craving it) and a small loaf of pumpkin bread.

Mt. Jefferson is a favorite overlook of mine. It's just so beautiful to me. I took several pictures there as well.


As we got close to Boone the Parkway was closed and we had to take a detour. We saw many Christmas tree farms along the detour route, just as we'd seen a lot of them along the Parkway.


It was after 3:00 when we got into Boone. We went to the Dan'l Boone Inn Restaurant, a place I've loved for years, for an early supper. They serve your food family style. There are no menus. Just one set price, all you can eat. (Except for the country ham biscuits, which I love and always bring home with me. As a matter of fact, I just finished eating them as I was typing this paragraph.) They always serve fried chicken (which was a little dry this time), salisbury steak, corn, green beans, biscuits, country ham biscuits (yum!), cole slaw, mashed potatoes and gravy, and stewed apples. Then you get your choice of two or three desserts. Today's choices were chocolate cake (what I got), strawberry shortcake (what Mom and Kelly got) and banana pudding.

With very happy bellies, we got back on the road and headed home. When we were somewhere outside of Boone, riding with my window down so I could take some last pictures, I heard this zzz-zup! kind of sound and at the same time I felt something wet hit the right side of my face. I said, "What the heck was that?!" I thought Kelly, who was sitting behind me, had flicked water or something. When I wiped my face with my hand and looked at it, I saw that it was bug guts! Ugh! It also got on my sunglasses, the upper part of my seatbelt and the inside of the car near where the seatbelt connects to the car between the front and back passenger doors. It was so gross, yet kind of funny. I don't know what kind of bug it was. It was too busted up to tell. Ick.

It's not unusual for me to fall asleep if I'm in a car for more than an hour. As a matter of fact, it would be unusual if I didn't fall asleep. So naturally I fell asleep somewhere between Wilkesboro and Winston-Salem. I was very tired. I still am, but I wanted to get this written and get some pictures up.

We had a really great day and now the kids are in bed sleeping. The only low point was a crappy email I got from someone. :-( God, give me strength.

Anyway, I forgot to mention that when you take 52 north out of Winston-Salem, you pass by Pilot Mountain. I haven't been there in many years. Not since my early 20s. I'd like to take the kids up there soon. Maybe within the next week or two. The views from the top (well, near the top) are quite lovely.