Saturday 25th Oct
Saturday dawned cold, damp and cloudy in Boone. It looked like it was going to be miserable, so Sally and I decided to go to neighbouring Blowing Rock (a town and a local feature). We were no mre than 5 miles from Boone, but the sky was clear, the sun was shining, though it was still chilly (looking away north to Boone, you could still see the heavy clouds). We walked round Blowing Rock, which has a small but interesting main street, looking in the shop windows, which were all decorated for Halloween or Christmas, and listened to the local High School Band. As usual everyone seemed very friendly. As we passed a house the owner (presumed) was standing outside giving away apples from his garden, which was very nice. We had a quick chat as we each put a bright red apple into our pockets. It was very pleasant. We stopped in a cafe for some lunch then drove off to see the Famous Blowing Rock rock.
Blowing Rock, the rock was very interesting as there is a story about unrequited love for a couple of Indians that is attributed to the rock and the views are fabulous, looking out on to Grandfather Mountain and as far away as Mount Mitchell (highest point in the Appalachians and therefore the east coast of USA). After this, as the weather was still bright and sunny, we took a short drive along part of the Blue Ridge Mountain, Parkway, again some great views, to Moses H Cone (Yes that was his name)Memorial Park, which was very pretty and has a lovely house which is now used as a showplace for local arts and crafts. We drove back to Boone, which still had cloudy skies, and went to a local roadside grill for a steak dinner. In the evening we sat round our neighbours campfire and talked till late. They are a lovely family from Bristol TN. Tom and Sherry who have four children, The oldest of them, Tommy (fourth grade) was very interested in everything, I mean everything. We sat and talked and compared currencies, Bonfire night and Halloween, our weights and measures The Boy Scout Movement (they also use Jungle Book characters) and goodness knows what else. He seemed to want to collect all sorts of information for his social studies class at school. This was fair enough as he had shown us a salamander he had caught earlier in the day. We had given him some of our UK money. As they left to go home he gave us a toy butterfly that he had collected from Burger King, very touching.
Sunday 26th October
The much promised sunny weather hit Boone today, so we took the opprotunity of clear skies to drive another section of the BRMP. The section south of Boone is probably the most famous and busiest section. This was Sunday, the weather was really fine, it was also the end of the Fall season and Boone was heaving with people who had come for the college football game. The little single lane coutry (BRMP) road was practically bumper to bumper. Every park area was busy with families out for the day having BBQ,s. On this section is the famous (to some) Linn Viaduct, this is a dramatic viaduct that hugs the side of the mountain. It was also the last part of the BRMP to be finished (1987). It looks very impressive. Further on are the Linville Falls. Sally and I negotiated the short walk to the first of the Falls and enjoyed the view, it reminded us of our recent trip to High Force in Teesdale with Helen and Kim.
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