Whoever said blogging isn’t hard work was wrong! I skipped two days due to sheer exhaustion. Our days were very full and  I was too tired to take up the pen… and upload the pictures and tweak them in photoshop and try to be interesting and informative and… Whew! Right now I am sitting in a Quality Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. This is one beautiful state. Reminds me a lot of the wet side of Washington.

 The man at the next table was wearing a shirt that said “I survived the Dragon”. My friend, who rides motorcycles with her husband had told me about this crazy highway in the area that was really dangerous and had some series curves, most of them being hairpins that everyone wants to test their courage on. So I asked him about it. Apparently it’s a train wreck waiting to happen, or car or motorcycle etc. I went to You Tube and there are lots of videos on this stretch of road. Amazing! It’s only 11 miles long and starts in Tennessee and ends in Deal’s Gap, NC. Hwy 129. There are shots of semi’s trying to navigate and rolling over, jack knifing and motorcyclists with helmet cams racing around corners and motorcyclists going over. I saw one where the woman was wearing shorts and tank top. I know what a floor burn feels like, I can’t imagine what road rash all over my body feels like. This guy said the highway patrol was everywhere up there. I imagine the EMT’s do a good business also.  

 So let’s back peddle. We stayed in Blue ridge, a quaint little town with the most beautiful red rose I’ve ever seen. I stopped someone on the street, she said it was called the “knockout” rose. It comes in red, pink and yellow and is resistant to black spot and japanese beetles. She also said it was very low maintenance and needed very little care. The color was incredible and it was covered with blooms. I might try to get one at a local Home Depot and put it in  my checked baggage.

 We stopped at Mercier’s Orchard for a quick look around and some fried pies. They had every kind you can imagine. We call them empanadas in my neck of the woods. This is apple country in Georgia, similar to our very own Greenbluff. They had some beautiful views and yummy pies.

Deb and her husband had found a place by just wandering around called “Field of the Woods”  which is a spectacular side of a hill with the Ten Commandments on it. We set out to find it. On our way there I noticed that the medians between the highway were planted with the most spectacular wildflowers. The NC DOT must have planted them because we saw them almost all the way to Asheville.

 Through trial and error, we finally found this spot in the woods. It was built by the Church of God and the entire Ten Commandmants were set into the hillside, on the opposite one was a wall with Psalms of Praise and prayer walk. There was even a recreation of the tomb Jesus was in with the stone rolled away. Very pretty. 

 Getting hungry, we ate in a town called Murphy in NC at a place called Chops. According to the server, the chef had cooked for some of the presidents. This was some of the best food I’ve had in a long time. I had a chicken and ham sandwich and a bacon corn chowder soup that was to die for. I could have licked the bowl clean if it hadn’t been a public place. Who knew that you could find such superb food so far away from everything. It was a billion calories that were worth doing. The server, Dustin, I think, was wonderful and made us feel most welcome.

 The next stretch of the journey involved a very scenic, very windy, very narrow road. We passed several waterfalls, one of which was called Bridal Veil Falls. There was one you could drive behind the water if you wanted but the 15 foot drive had a sign that said the road was closed. At this point it started getting dark so we were trying to get through this stretch of raod pretty quickly. At the top we found a little town called Highlands. It was cute, reminded me of our towns like Winthrop and Leavenworth. Obviously a tourist town, there were more country clubs and golf courses that I have ever seen. I suppose if you don’t qualify for one, you can always start your own. Reminds me of the Andy Griffith episode where he and Barney try to get into one. 

This road was beautiful but I started getting car sick and I never do that. It was probably the tunnel effect of the trees and the winding road and the fact that we were trying to down by dark.

 We got into Asheville about 10 pm. Deb’s gps is a piece and we had a had time finding the hotel. We decided she deserved a name; Dora, Dumb Dora when she doesn’t make sense. We were exhausted by the time we got there. To be continued…