Last night we decided our one last hurrah in the mountains would be to drive to Mt Mitchell (the tallest mountain east of the Rockies) and then off to Charlotte. This morning we were greeted with low overcast skies (again) and decided to head to the mountain on the hope it was below the clouds. So off we went through Spruce Pine to the Blue Ridge Parkway (again). The many bicyclists out for a ride on the parkway only added to the fun of a twisty mountain road with occasional rain and fog. When we got close we could see that Mt Mitchell was enveloped in cloud, so after a quick consult with our paper trip planning and map app we decided to drive past the turn off to the mountain from the Blue Ridge Parkway and head to the pinnacle crag trail.

Sometimes you have to formulate and take plan C on the fly, like when they close the road you are on at the turn off you no longer want to take. I suppose we could have returned to plan A, crawled along the road to the peak in dense fog and hope eventually the cloud went away, but we decided instead to head back the way we came and take a road to the south and lunch. So back we went, back thru the bicyclists (I only had to come to a stop once for a car passing a couple of bikers), past the overlooks that only gave a view of clouds, until we reached a ridiculously steep and winding road (NC 80) that took us south to Marion, around the flatbed tow truck crawling down the mountainside, to flat straight roads and lunch.

After a stop at Lake James it was off to Charlotte to deliver the three heavy tubs of memories to Erin. Everything else on this trip was secondary to that goal. After the three tubs were safely ensconced in her living room it was hugs all around and the fun of visiting began.

Tags: NC2021

Today again dawned gray and overcast. I know I sound like a high priest of the church of meteorology, but there is a skylight right above our bed so it’s kind of hard to miss, and the weather is kind of important if you’re spending most of your day outdoors or on mountain roads.

We decided to hike the Crabtree Falls trail. The trail was challenging and the falls amazing, so if you’re ever in the area go ahead and hike it, just wear your waterproof hiking boots so you don’t care where you put your foot. And yes, we drove thru Spruce Pine again.

I treasure all the people we meet along the way, but today was tough. Not the guy with the Texas plates and (maybe) customized van who looked like he was working remotely from a scenic overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Not the gal we met on the trail from Florida visiting Asheville for a bachelorette weekend who was getting her hiking in before her unathletic friends showed up. Not The waitress at the Chalet Restaurant in Little Switzerland (what a view!) who discussed life in the mountains and, yes, the weather. No, it was the three older people, well just the older gentleman who did all the talking. We first caught up to them just where the loop trail split and I’m just going to leave it that after four different conversations I came to the conclusion that he was utterly clueless yet always wrong. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

I’ve noticed that most people drive pickup trucks up here in the mountains of North Carolina, what a surprise I know, but I am surprised at how many Subarus I see on the roads here. Honda CR-Vs, not so much.

Tonight laundry, Tomorrow Charlotte

Tags: NC2021

Today dawned grey and overcast but not raining. So I went for a run, at least until a dog defended the far side of a bridge against me and with memories of an evening misspent in the Fannon County Regional Medical Center due to a dachshund bite I turned tail and bravely ran away.

By the time we set off for Blowing Rock the sun was shining and blue sky outnumbered clouds. What a difference a day makes. What a difference great weather makes. What never seems to change is everyday we drive through Spruce Pine. At least we were on a different stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway today – alongside Grandfather Mountain.

When we stopped at Price Lake to admire the view we decided to take the 2.3 mile loop trail since it shouldn’t take longer than 45 minutes. Why bother putting our hiking boots on, the trail just goes around a lake, not up a mountainside. Somehow we forgot what happens after days of rain culminating in one final day of deluge so it took over an hour as we were delayed by avoiding all the muck and flooded parts of the trail.

We had a nice lunch and strolled around the touristy part of Blowing Rock and forgot all about muck. We bought a tri-scented candle we were assured would burn for 150 hours. I’m a little bit more of a record keeper than the average bear but I think I’ll just take their word for it. By the time we split a piece of cheesecake I forgot all about yesterday’s rain too.

And then it was time to leave before our full bellies put us to sleep. So we headed back down the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Rough Ridge trailhead. This time we put the waterproof hiking boots on and we were glad we did. There was a waterfall right at the parking lot and the trail itself was a stream flowing down the mountain. The trail’s claim to fame are two pride rock overlooks and then a view from the crest of the ridge into the valley opposite the trail head. We decided the view into the other valley wouldn’t be materially different than the valley we were already looking at so we turned around at the second overlook.

One the way home we followed a semi for miles. Normally I’m a trifle unhappy when stuck behind one but we were amazed at how fast he could take even the tightest curves and just the skill of his two lane mountain driving. When we got back to the Airbnb we sat out on the deck until the sun got too hot. Today really was a special day.

Tags: NC2021

Fred is not playing nice with us. It was raining when we woke up and it’s raining now and it will rain until sometime tomorrow morning with the all too infrequent break. I’ve kept a lookout on a couple of rocks in the creek across the road all day – when both went underwater I started to keep track of the biggest one and now it’s almost underwater. Fortunately we are perched high above the road so as long as the whole house doesn’t slide down the hillside we will be fine. As we sit here watching TV tonight, when the rain gets heavier we lose the Dish signal and the lights blink. Yeah, I know, first world problems. Keep Haiti and Afghanistan in your prayers.

Jammie time lasted extra long this morning until MBH said let’s go out for lunch. So we put our game faces on, clothes too, and drove to Spruce Pine again for lunch and were surprised that place was hopping on a rainy Tuesday (it is Tuesday, isn’t it?) noon unlike a nice Sunday night. I kind of like the drive there because you can consistently go 55 mph on the stretch on NC 226. The start on 226A and the end on Roan road I briefly make it to 35 mph. When we head to Charlotte on the interstate I won’t know what to do with myself.

Pictures today are from earlier in the trip.

Tags: NC2021

This morning I got off to a slower start than usual, probably due to the heavy rain disturbing my sleep. We’ve seen every level of rain while driving from barely misting to heavy (thankfully no toad stranglers) so we’ve been able to keep going while using every setting on the wipers (MBH helpfully told me forward is faster on the intermittent settings). Today we even got some fog/cloud driving in.

We did manage to get going and headed to Linville Falls. Beautiful. Then it was off to Linville Falls winery for a late lunch. We bought one of their box lunches that contained a couple of mysteries in addition to the obvious goodies. We had to ask – is the flower edible or decorative, and what is in the sealed straw? Edible, and honey. The honey tasted as expected but the flower surprised me by being tasteless, the last thing I expected. Travel is such a learning experience.

Then we set off down the Blue Ridge Parkway for another hiking opportunity at the Chestoa view trail. AllTrails claims it heavily trafficked but we were the only ones on it and loop at the end was barely a trail. Not that I’m complaining.

One thing we’ve noticed is the profusion of churches, with names we are not used to. We’ve passed the Heaven Bound Baptist church adjacent to the Greater Remnant church several times. One wonders about the theology discussed through the separating chain link fence.

Tags: NC2021

Today was a nice fall day for Ireland – cool with varying levels of moist. The roads are also reminiscent of the most scenic parts of Ireland – narrow and twisty with aspirational speed limits even the locals can’t reach. The only thing missing are the stone walls at the edge of the road.

Undeterred we hiked the Appalachian Trail. A tiny portion of it anyway, from Carver’s Gap and it’s all important parking, along the Tennessee/North Carolina border, over Round Bald to Joan’s Bald and back. As is our wont we had our lunch at a scenic spot on the trail, today supplemented with a few wild blueberries growing nearby.

Then it was off to downtown Bakersville, both blocks of it. The art galleries were open and little else, and after just one we had reached our limit, although we had a nice chat with Jennifer who moved here from Tampa a couple of years ago. The longest she’s been snowed in is three or four days which she didn’t think was too bad since the whole area kind of shuts down in the winter anyway.

Apparently people around here don’t eat out on Sundays as most of the restaurants were closed (not that there are that many to begin with). We called one possibility that doesn’t have an internet presence of any sort and got no answer, which left a single restaurant in Bakersville – after yesterday’s long drive we were trying to minimize our time in the car. When we pulled up in front we could see the hand lettered signs telling us they were out of business. So we put plan B into effect and headed off to the larger town of Spruce Pine (well, which one is it?) where it was deja Vu all over again. Our primary target was closed, so we began wandering around between Oak and Locust streets trying to find a place to eat. We found El Ranchero open so no need to resort to cannibalism or our emergency almonds. Whew.

Tags: NC2021

The alarm went off at 5 AM and we were on the road again by 7. My how life has changed – I only wake up to an alarm on vacation post retirement.

We weren’t sure of the full route until we approached Mount Vernon as our various map apps swung between the route thru Nashville or thru Lexington for the past week. As we drove thru the corn fields Google said one and Apple the other, but I preferred to minimize my exposure to Tennessee where half the people drive 90 mph and half 60mph which makes life interesting times. I don’t like interesting times. Three things remain certain if you’re traveling to Charlotte: death, taxes, and Knoxville, so Tennessee was unavoidable.

The nice thing about driving in overcast is you don’t sweat so much, the bad thing is water can fall from the sky at almost any moment. MBH observed after the first extended rain at least the bugs were gone from the windshield. She looks at the bright side of life; I’m your man for a detailed risk assessment with an emphasis on worst case scenarios.

The sky looked scary as we left Johnson City with our hopes, fears, and groceries. MBH pulled up a weather map and thought we might be able to thread the needle thru the storms; I kept my thoughts to myself – I’m an old hand at the husband game. A road trip is a lot like Zeno’s paradox – the closer you get to your destination, the slower you go. Between the rain and the back roads over the mountains (every good road trip leaves the interstate as you close on a destination) we got very slow indeed.

And then we stopped in a line of cars with their flashers on. We could see the tree across the road, a pickup pointed towards us on our side of the tree, and the lead driver in the line of cars out and about under her umbrella. After consulting the driver of the pickup, she got back in her car and began maneuvering her car. Is she trying to turn around? Does she think she can back up past the whole line of cars? Misdirection! I was focused on the wrong car: the pickup makes a move and the tree whips off the road. More maneuvering and the pickup slowly drives by the line of cars dragging the tree behind it like Achilles dragging Hector around the walls of Troy. I gave the driver a thumbs up as he goes by. Sadly, no pictures or video of the event.

We made it to our Airbnb after coaxing our SUV like a mountain goat up the steep and windy driveway. That moment I did manage to capture while unloading the luggage.

Tags: NC2021