We had so
much fun today. We took off on the bike
once we figured the neighbors were up.
Starting up the Harley too early in the morning doesn’t make for good
neighbors. We still had one little
neighbor that was “up in arms” about us moving around. This little crawdad (spelling?) was looking
for a fight.
The first
stop was Barbara and Anne’s mountain cabin for breakfast on the deck looking
out over the river. What a way to start
the morning!
From there they were kind
enough to be our travel guides for the day, up and down the mountains and into
quaint little towns we wouldn’t have had a clue existed.
Sliding Rock
is amazing. This is a natural rock
formation that people line up to slide down.
The sliding was restricted to people over 16 because the water was
running faster and deeper than usual today.
They looked like they were having as much fun as they would at an
expensive water park and they could do this all day for $1.00 per person.
Looking Glass
was our next stop. A beautiful waterfall
you can normally see through and walk behind, but today the water was running
stronger here also. Still a beautiful sight
to behold.
Next we
headed for the Blue Grass Parkway. This would
be a wonderful ride on the bike – lots of curves and breathtaking scenery. Right now there are a few areas that have
some minor mud/gravel slides onto the road that might not be a nice surprise.
They
promised we were going to the large farmer’s market – they weren’t
kidding! Unfortunately, I got so
engrossed in buying fantastic produce, I forgot to take good pictures. This is what we came back with from the
market.
We were
getting pretty hungry at this point so we headed into the Frog Level of Waynesville. We went to a local deli (I’m going to have to
get better at documenting the names of the places where we eat). We ate lunch on
the deck overlooking a rapidly flowing creek.
Eating and water in the mountains – we are getting into a wonderful
pattern here.
After lunch
we checked out just a few of the many interesting stores in Waynesville. Mast General Store had a massive display of
all kinds of candy downstairs which we couldn’t pass up. Then we went to Steeplechase English Toffee
where we picked up half a pound of the most delicious toffee I’ve ever tasted. Then, as if that wasn’t enough sweet stuff
for us, Barbara and Anne sent home cookies and banana bread.
Our last
stop before heading back to Barbara and Anne’s cabin was a self-sufficient organic
farm that belongs to some of their friends.
We met Kathy (sorry, I’m not sure of the spelling of her name) who is a
wealth of knowledge about plants and living in harmony with nature. Lots of things to see there, but one of the
most interesting was a mother peacock and her four babies, one of them was
white. Kathy told us that they have to
wait until the white peacocks are at least two years old to see what color
their tail feathers will be.
Kathy shared
some of her rhubarb and squash with us along with a jar of blackberry jam. Tomorrow night we’ll be having rhubarb crisp.
When we
headed back to the motor coach the bike was loaded down with all of our goodies
from the farmer’s market, candy stores, and Kathy’s farm. We are going to be eating good for days to
come. For supper we had leftover shrimp
and bread from our wonderful supper last night (I got the recipe!) along with
cottage cheese and the purple Cherokee tomato from the farmer’s market. I really like North Carolina.
We were in that area a few years ago. We need to go back and spend more time. Thanks for the posting.
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