A week in western North Carolina

We had a wonderful week in western North Carolina after the wedding. We stumbled upon the Quilt Trail. It is mostly in northeast Tennessee but I think there are parts of it in other places. Mostly they are on barns and scattered all around the countryside. If you are interested in knowing more, www.quilttrail.org has more info. We were always watching for a new quilt block to appear. We drove both north and south of Boone on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here we are, Shupes, Edwards and Wagenblasts. We did a few hikes to spectacular views. I wish you could see all the layers of mountains in the background of this photo. It is amazing.

Happy 38th Anniversary. We hiked down to Crabtree Falls. It was a beautiful 70' falls. Sunny going down, thunderstorm coming up. We were under the tree canopy so didn't get wet. Fortunately, the storm didn't go right over the top of us. Seems there was a thunderstorm every afternoon.

Here we are relaxing at the log cabin by the stream. It was a wonderful place to just sit, play horseshoes, eat, etc. We watched several hummingbirds during the day and synchronized fire-flys after dark. During mating season they all blink on and off at the same time.

Here is the deck overlooking the stream.

This was a fun evening. We went to the Todd General Store for dinner and performance by the Creek Side Grass Band. Basically we were in an antique/general store that set up tables in the middle of the store, served dinner followed by live entertainment. This was an entertaining blue grass band. Not in the photo was a banjo player and a bass fiddle player. The next night we went to a restaurant called Carolina BBQ that had a live country band, Distant Gold. We even got out on the dance floor.

We played "Sequence" 3 evenings this week. Oh my, do we have some with a competitive spirit. Ended up the girls won and have the title until we are all together again, 2 years from now.

Great Smoky Mountains

We had a beautiful drive today. We drove part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and then across the Great Smoky Mountains. Since the mountains are smoky the photos don't show the scenery as clearly as we saw it in person. It really isn't smoke but moisture given off by the trees.

We took a tour of the Oconaluftee Indian Village. We saw demonstrations of native crafts and heard stories about the Cherokee tribe. The demonstrators were making beautiful baskets, pottery, bead work.
Tonight we are in Pigeon Forge, TN. We will go to a musical variety show this evening. When we leave in the morning we are headed back to Boone, NC and will stay with friends at a mountain cabin. We will not have cell or internet service so I am signing off until next Sunday evening.

Biltmore, Ashville, NC

Dave and Becky are showing off their summer home, the largest home in the US. Today we toured the Vanderbilt estate, Biltmore, in Ashville, NC. We toured the home, gardens and winery.

Everything about the home and grounds is bigger than life. This lion, at the front entrance sets the perspective of scale for the entire estate. There are 250 rooms, over 175,000 square feet. The dining room is 3 stories tall with an entire pipe organ in the room.

Here are the Tri-Cities friends enjoying ourselves during our self-guided tour of this very large, ornate, beautiful home. Sanders, Shupes & Wagenblasts.

Wedding Day in Boone, NC

We made it to the wedding. It was a lovely wedding and reception. The family below is Steve and Barb Edwards, the bride Ginna and their son, the groom, Luke. On the left is their son Josh and his wife Allison. On the right is their daughter Sarah and her husband Craig. Steves aunt Phyllis was an honorary grandma for the wedding.

Luke was all smiles today.

They had a cool get away car for the trip to the reception in the nearby town of Blowing Rock. This is the 3rd wedding for the Edwards family. We have enjoyed getting aquainted with some of the other guests at all 3 weddings.
Getting to Boone, NC we added Georgia and S. Carolina to the map. +209=4923. Boone is in the mountains, the KOA is 4000 ft. It is cooler and not humid. We have enjoyed our stay here and have had time to relax.

Catch up

Today was a travel day +314=4714. Below is a map that is stuck to the side of the trailer. Gary adds the colored states as we pass thru. Today he can add Georgia and South Carolina. It was 102 as we went thru Atlanta. It is hot here near Greenville, SC. Thank goodness our air conditioner works well. We had a nice break from the heat at the campground in Huntsville. It was on a mountain (hill) in the trees so cooler. As we were walking in the campground after dark last evening we saw lots of fireflies. Karen, I thought of you.
We stopped at a produce stand this morning and got a watermelon, cantaloupe and peaches. George had taken us around his area looking for a watermelon, finally we have one. Yummm. The couple at the stand were really entertaining. They were who you would expect to have just come out of the hills. Thanks too George, for teaching us about Arizona tea. I have now been having iced tea for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
We saw a lot of tornado damage today while we were in Alabama. Especially along highway 431 near Gundersville.
We have had a swim, done the laundry and had dinner. Tomorrow we rendezvous with our Tri-City friends and the Edwards family in Boone, NC. Yippee.

Huntsville, Alabama

We left New Orleans headed for Huntsville, Alabama. We took the scenic route. This photo is a beach in Mississippi. We also went into Pensacola, Florida, just to say we got to Florida.

In Huntsville we visited friends George Giller and Gay Lynn Beard. Gay Lynn is a long arm quilter, meaning her quilting machine is really big. We got a wonderful, informative demonstration of her 2 machines and also wonderful show and tell of her quilts.

Gary and George are consentrating on moon landing simulators.

Here we got a chance to play with the controls of a space capsule.

This is the type of rocket that takes men to the moon. It was difficult to take photos here because everything is so big. George worked for a contractor here that had to do with NASA so he was a great tour guide. He answered all my stupid questions.

New Orleans

We rode into the French Quarter on the shuttle from the KOA this morning. Several of the photos I took from the van window. We had a knowledgeable van driver that took us on a tour of several specific sites along the way, so our very own guided tour in and back. Once in the city our first stop was Cafe Du Monde for beignets. There was a 45 minute wait for a table so we took ours to go and found a bench along the river to eat them. We had powdered sugar everywhere. They are a deep fried pastry, like a doughnut but square and without a hole in the center.

We walked down several streets enjoying the architecture as well as the people. Bourbon street was quite a scene even in the day time. Gary commented that it wasn't a place for women and children. It is one of those places I wanted to see but now I have been there I can check it off the list and don't need to go back. For lunch we went to a buffet that served local food. We enjoyed the meal but it is the same as the environment. I have tried those things and now I can move on.

The van driver took us thru a cemetary and explained how the above ground vaults work as well as pointing out some beautiful structures and stained glass windows in the vaults.

He drove thru a different devastated neighborhood with many boarded up, abandoned homes as well as some vacant lots and rebuilt homes.

We took a ride on a steam powered paddlewheeler, the Natchez. The Mississippi river is at flood stage so high and fast. Got to see the city from a different perspective.