Daytona Beach, Florida

Leaving Weaverville, we headed for Daytona.  The trip was uninteresting.  Not once were we misplaced or lost.  It was a long trip but we made it without incident.  

   We easily found the Wyndham Resort where we will be for two days.   Our Wyndham Resort was on the boardwalk, making beach access very accessible.  Debby and Nancy took their own beach chairs and spent more than enough time in the Florida sun.  

   Our first evening was too late to view the sunset from our 14th floor balcony but we did enjoy the Birdseye view of the area.  

   Ron and I had reservations for the next day’s VIP tour of the Daytona Speedway.  It was only a few minutes drive and our one o’clock appointment gave us plenty of time to get there.  I bought a new hat and a pair of sunglasses at "Wings", a local souvenir shop across the street from our resort.

   Our tour of the speedway was very good!  We had a small group of only 13 and we got to visit much of the area.  We began with a visit to the Archive  Building.  This was a place where the owner stored all of the stuff he had collected over the years that had to do with racing.  One of the exotic vehicles stored in this building was the Blue Goose, or Spruce or chicken or something like that.  It was a long speed car with a single seat in a narrow chassis and high tail fin.  

   We got to go out and see the speedway track interior where the mechanics shops were, the Winner’s Cirle and some VIP seating.  There was much more  because this complex was enormous!  Our guide s said it was so big that every major professional, non0professional and college stadium complexes could be put inside the Daytona facility.  There was even a lake inside the track perimeter where they allowed drivers and VIP’s fishing rights!  The lake was formed when, during track construction, digging enough sand to pile up on the turns to create a 30 degree bank was done.  Most of the material removed was sand.

   The early days of this stock car auto racing began on the Florida beach and eventually evolved onto this 500 acre facility, as envisioned by the owner.

   There was more to see.  We watched a couple of drivers doing practice laps .  Their engines were very loud and because the track was "hot", we could not drive out on the track in our VIP tour.  (Bummer!). 

   After the tour ended, we were dropped off at the Museum and got to roam around in there as long as we wanted.  TYhere were cars galore from old racing days.  All in all, it was a good tour.  If you like stock car racing, this would be a great tour for you.

   

   The next day we headed out early because we were meeting up with friends in Ft Lauderdale.

The Moose Cafe

                                                                                  BBB Today was our first day in Weaverville.  Debby and Nancy planned to take a tour of the magnificent Biltmore Estates, a gorgeous 1895 era American castle on 8,000 acres of rolling hills and beautiful gardens.  It wasn’t something that Ron and I wanted to do so we made other plans. 

                       

   Nancy went in and picked up their tickets at the ticket building and we drove towards the Biltmore.  We were stopped at the entrance gate a couple of miles before the castle.  The lady was checking to make sure people entering the grounds had a ticket.  The girls showed their tickets and Ron told her that were just dropping them off.  The lady said I would have to get out because the two of us would not be allowed to enter the grounds.  It didn’t matter to her that we weren’t staying.  

                       

   Ron wheeled around the ticket inspector’s booth and took me up to the ticket building to wait.   Got out and walked in with my hat, sunglasses and white cane to wait inside.  A man hurried up and warned me about some steps and asked if he could help me.  I told him I was fine; that I was waiting on my ride.  I told him the lady back down at the entrance had kicked me out of the truck and made me wait for Ron to return.  He looked surprised but did not offer a comment.

   As I waited, I wondered if the ticket checker would not want me to see anything without paying.  Amazing.

After dropping the girls off at the Biltmore, Ron and I had breakfast on our minds.  The man at the ticket building where I waited told me about a cafe nearby called "The Moose Cafe", so that’s where we headed.  The gps came in handy for this one.

   The Moose Cafe was not that large and there were several ahead of us waiting for a table.  We were patient as could be as we were bathed in sweet aromas of breakfast.  

   Soon it was our turn and we took a booth next to the window.  The waitress was prompt and brought coffee as we pondered the menu.  She also dropped off a couple of home baked biscuits that were 3  times the size of a regular biscuit.  

   The man at the ticket building who told me about this pace was right...this was good!  I had bacon and eggs with home style potatoes, gravy, fried apples, applesauce, sorghum and another large biscuit!  Ron skipped the bacon and added a fried chicken breast with his meal.

   Life was good as we waddled outside to go take a hike!

Dupont State Recreational Forest

Ron and I took a hike while the girls went to the Biltmore Estate for a tour.  Ron and I were ‘Castled" out from all the cool places we saw in Europe.  We chose Dupont as it was a very popular place.  The drive was much longer than we had thought but an hour later we made it.

                   

    We got a map and headed off along the well traveled trail.  We followed a route that took us to "High Falls".  This was a very large falls that cascaded down a rock face.  It was a whole creek of tumbling water.  This fall was one of the three falls shown in the movie, "Last of the Mohicans".  We headed back uphill and took a turn that led to a large shelter with picnic tables and a view of High Falls.  We noticed a covered bridge above the falls and decided to go take a closer look.

                     

TYhe bridge was built across the creek about 100 yards before the creek plummeted off the cliff.  It was old but in good shape and very solid.  We took a few photos before heading back.

                                  

   Along the way we decided we had had enough hiking and tried to figure out how to get back to the lodge.  It was a bit confusing as several trails kept intersecting ours.  We asked one young family’s about the trail back and he said we were on a most difficult, long trail that went down to Triple Falls and suggested we not go that way.  As we were growing tired anyway, we walked back along the trail with 

him and headed for  !

   Ron and I make up about half a person anyway, so it was best we get out of the woods!

               

Weaverville, North Carolina

                         

                      

   Because it was dark (and very late) we were not able to see what kind of place we had rented for the next two days.  The house, however, was very unique, resembling a moonshine cottage in the country.  The inside was decorated and pleasing.  The upstairs bedroom had a large bathroom with shower.  The downstairs bed was a couch conversion.  Ron and Nancy had brought an inflatable mattress for this purpose.  It made sleeping much more comfortable.  We all turned in almost as soon as we could.

                                 

   The next morning, we took a look see at the outside and decided it was very cool!  The yard was very large because the owners lived in another similar home on the property.  Their little six year old daughter had a tree house complete with a zip line across the yard.  The chicken house and pen was unique as well.  With free WiFi, it felt much like a normal place.

                    

   The original owner had found these two houses in Tennessee.  They were simple log homes with rock fireplaces, pretty much a one-room construction.  He had disassembled them and brought them to this small acreage and reassembled them.  The logs were weather beaten; gray from age.  The concrete seal between logs appeared to be the same old color.  The current owners were construction builders and completely remodeled both houses, complete with add-on’s; loft, kitchen, dining room, two bathrooms, instantaneous endless hot water heater,     ductless wall hung heat and cool unit, etc.

      We would certainly recommend this cool moonshine shack type cottage (as we call it).

                           

                                                       

Blue Ridge Mountains.

     

   Our motel units were comfortable enough to give us a good night sleep.  The free breakfast was a bonus.  Packed and ready, we checked out and once again set our GPS units to get us up the road towards the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The gateway to our piece of the Parkway was Glowing Rock, Tennessee.  This time, however, we did not solely rely on gps to get us there.  We did the old school and grabbed a map!  It was still a long drive and actually took a little longer than we had thought.  We arrived unscathed without being pulled into the Bermuda Grass Triangle at Tupelo.
    

About mid afternoon we drove up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed South towards our destination of Asheville, North Carolina.  The drive along this stretch of the country is normally very beautiful with awesome views of the Smokey Mountains.  Today, however, everything seemed to be "smokey" because of the weather.  A light rain occasionally fell on us as we traveled south.  The wind was blowing and there was a distinct chill in the air.
   We often stopped along  the way, trying to get a good photograph of the distant mountains.  The sun would occasionally peek out and tease us with a gorgeous rainbow.  Those occurred at places where we couldn’t pull over and lasted only seconds!  So we did the best we could with our photographs.
   One of the most amazing feats along this stretch of the parkway was the construction of the Viaduct, a "bridge" built along the curvature of the mountain.  We could not get a really goo picture of this part of the road but we did our best.  We stopped at a Visitor’s Center and looked at photos of this Viaduct.  I also took a short hike to an observation point where I could see a portion of the Viaduct.  The trail went beneath the road and up onto the mountain on the other side of the road.  The last part was a bit rough as I made my way across stepping stones, tree roots and boulders.
   It started to rain again, so I made my way back towards the parking lot.  Debby came up the trail to see if I was ready to go.  The fall colors were beginning to show with yellows and reds but still too early for gorgeous colors! 
   We made another vista stop or two, snapping photos as quickly as possible to avoid the biting wind and rain.  About 20 miles from Mount Mitchell, the highest point on the parkway, a young family pulled up alongside of us as we began to pull away from our parking spot to tell us that the road was closed at Mt Mitchell with snow and ice falling!  So much for making our destination in good time, we had to turn around and travel a few hours out of our way to get off the mountain.  The two lane highway we took was a twisting turning mess of switchbackswith some 190 degree turns.  After taking our motion sickness pills and descending this mountain to the valley floor, we finally made it!  Passing residential homes and various businesses...and a Trout farm, we finally pulled onto the Interstate.
   It was about ten o’clock when we reached our destination.  We were tired and worn out enough that we turned in quickly.  Tomorrow will be another busy day of uncertainty!

On the Road Again

   Up at dark thirty to catch our United Airlines flight to Memphis, Tennessee.  Although I am not a big fan of United, not from personal experience but from what I hear on the fake news network or what you can read about in the local Fish Wrapper.  I have never been mistreated by United like the guy who was dragged off his flight, or all the reports of reservation cancellations and lack of proper compensation.  Stuff like that.But our flight to Memphis had no hiccups, delays or emergency landings.  I It was a nice kind of "had o hum" flight.

   While picking up our luggage in Memphis, Ron and Nancy Pinkerton, our traveling companions and long time friends from Arkansas met us at the baggage pickup.  Soon we were loading up the last bit of remaining space in their vehicle and headed out.

   Our first stop was to be at the Rendezvous Restaurant, a Tennessee BBQ joint in downtown Memphis.  Looking forward to their BBQ ribs, we were soon seated and salivating over the menu until our ribs orders arrived.  I don’t know what Debby and Nancy had...I don’t really care because my single mindedness had me focused on RIBS!   They were, of course, delicious...not the best in the world, but delicious.  I have a taste for their dry rub and cooking method.  The Slick Pig in Murfreesboro.   

   The four of us codgers, being trained by our grandkids to be techno-savvy, set our iPhone, Samsung and Garmin GPS devices to take us to our Motel in Lebanon, Tennessee.  Our GPS devices were all in agreement that we take this highway, turn on that highway and follow I-22 for a leisurely drive through Nashville and on to Lebanon.  We were looking forward to being in our motel rooms about dark, or before.  

   At first, we were not too surprised to see signs along our route about Mississippi.  A few hours down the road we stopped for fuel and a few snacks.  Back into the truck we were on the road about an hour when someone noticed a distance sign to Tupelo, Mississippi and a light came on.  Looking at our GPS directions, we were still on track for Lebanon.  The only problem seemed to be the miles were increasing on us!  As it turned out we drove about 7 hours instead of the normal 2 to 3 hours!  

   We put our heads together and decided that between the 4 of us, we could come up with actually 1 brain!

Maybe one more Road Trip!

   So after more ideas and more planning, we settled on yet another adventure.   This Friday we fly to Memphis, Tennessee  where we will meet up with our long time traveling companions, Ron and Nancy Pinkerton. After sampling some delicious Memphis barbecue at the Rendezvous Restaurant, one of Tennessee’s great places for renowned barbecue, we will begin our road trip traveling down the Blueridge Parkway for a few days of sightseeing.
   Our son, Eric, will remain at home taking care of the house and working.   As winter approaches there is always much to do to prepare for the cold. Although recently our weather has been very nice, just like the Indian summers we used to know, it could always take a turn .
   We plan to spend three or four days in Fort Lauderdale Florida, taking a few sightseeing excursions like a boat ride on the Everglades and a trip farther south to Key West.
    We also plan to meet up with some longtime friends and some friends we have yet to meet, about 32 of us, getting to know each other a little better on a 10 day Panama Canal cruise.
   After the cruise, we return to Fort Lauderdale to continue our road trip with Ron and Nancy heading west along the Florida coast and on to New Orleans.
    As we make our way towards Arkansas and Missouri we will take a few days to sightsee and sample that Southern cuisine made perfect by Paula Deen. Looking forward to seeing Savannah Georgia again!
     We plan to spend the remaining time in Missouri visiting with family. Looking forward to seeing Branson one more time. This year, our Thanksgiving will be with family and people we love. It would be nice to see the Christmas lights of Silver Dollar City if things work out and all the work gets done. If not, maybe next time.