No, I did not go dark or “ghost” you. Bigfoot nor bears did not snatch me from the woods of North Carolina. We have avoided the WalMart and been home by dark...as in nothing good happens after midnight...not to mention the roads are just too curvy without street lights for this designated driver. We have had company for the last 10 days, add in pregame and post cleanup ... you can understand why I have not written. We welcomed bff of 34 years, Terri, and George for seperate visits. While sitting in the woods in 55-75 degree temps are good enough for Eddie and I, friends and family that make the 2 hour and 30 minute flight to Charlotte (or 30 hour return flight, thanks, United-right Terri?) then the 2 hour car Trip North into the mountains—-our guests expect a little more. While I could bore you with the smallest of details, I will simply recap.
First, an Eddie update...because that is always the nugget of these things. When I last wrote, Eddie was scheduled for a 2 hour fly fishing lesson at Chelota/Orvis fly school on Tuesday. Terri arrived Monday-so I had a running buddy for shopping and more importantly, a witness. We dropped our fisherman off complete with hat, Simms shirt, UV Long sleeved under shirt, zip away pants, rod and reel with his snappy utility vest at 10:00 am. Terri confirmed that my description pretty much was spot on...all the way down to what would be said. She even had to sneak a look at the Tackle Trunk in our bedroom-confirmation. After 43 years, I know him so well., and really do not embellish the facts. I just report what is actually happening...truth in journalism no bias, and all that. While we explored downtown Blowing Rock, climbed said Rock, Eddie worked on his new hobby. The lesson was more of a 2.5 hour deal, so we walked the grounds and took pictures and videos of baby swans, ducks, geese and Eddie, of course. He left with renewed confidence and homework to practice. Eddie would not make a good musician, athlete or anything that required daily practice—-the rod has remained in its case since the lesson 2 weeks ago. I have watched from the kitchen window him visualizing and making the arm motion from his rocking chair on the porch-guess that counts. Kinda like the kid playing air guitar or drums, right? In fact, last evening while in cocktail hour discussions, he admitted that he liked my old school dad reel with automatic take up better than his fancy light weight aluminum reel. duh! They do not make the heavy thing I like anymore, everything is uber light weight so you can pack in to remotes locations..yeah, that is so Eddie...snicker, snicker. Today, he is planning to assemble the rod and practice....will let you know if that happens.
Beard update —- I am thinking he can get part time work during the holidays at the Mall 🎅. I drew the line on Man Bun so he had a $10 senior day special haircut at the Great Clips yesterday as the Spa/Salon wanted $50.
So, on to our visitors and their adventures-highlight reel. When planning any visit, either for Eddie and I or for others, food and an eating schedule is part of the package, North C is no exception. Last year we were blown away at the Blowing Rock restaurants-better than good food at a fairly reasonable price. This year, as my mother would say, “it is just not as good as it was last time”. I gave our visitors web links to the best and allowed them to select and made reservations accordingly, except for Sunny Rock our favorite, always consistent breakfast hash house....always a line out the door, best omelettes in town....we are not open on Sundays and do not take reservations, dogs welcome on patio, thank ya’ll for come in.
10 days, 7 different restaurants, and only one repeat. Funny, that one was our favorite last year. With 2 visits within a 4 day time frame, it has been moved down the list-inconsistent and not worth the drive to get there...oh well. I think we must be getting to that age and stage-too rich, too much food, too expensive-let’s just fix something light at home.
While the town of Blowing Rock is textbook charming with shopping, centuries old churches, well manicured flowers and landscape and groomed hiking trails, you can do it in a day. Boone is a college town, while is has some shopping, it is more second hand stores, tat parlors and a number of beer microbreweries—-you can see which guest chose which adventure. After that it is a butt in the bucket drive to explore the region. While the mileage from our little cabin the woods to destinations beyond indicate 20 miles, it is a 45 minute trip...anything over 50, Plan two hours to make the drive.
As Terri had never heard/been to of Biltmore (the largest privately held residence in the US), we spent a long day traveling there and back. In hindsight, should have probably booked a room so we could have explored the town of Asheville which has grown into quite the destination. But leaving Eddie alone, careless with only his fly gear...probably not a good thing. Biltmore—-Truly a step back in time...too bad we were two months too early for Downton Abbey meets Biltmore. We could just see the Crawley family et al moving about the grand house. While Eddie would have joined us, as he is a big fan of these old homes, Downton A and all things early 20th century, he stayed home to practice his fly technique...yeah, right. He has been feverishly working on yet another needlepoint stocking...and as the various Christmas shops remind us Christmas is a mere 130+ days from now.
As for George’s long day travel, he chose a white water rapid trip down the Nolichucky River-in Tennessee. What can I say, we have discovered that most fishing or water related pursuits are not here in our immediate area. Yes, there is water, lake creeks, brooks and such, but to get moving water for stand in the stream all Orvis style or find Class III and above rapids, your butt will be in a vehicle for at least hour or more each way. While I could have joined George...ha ha, that boat, ship or raft has sailed...I chose to go to Jonesboro, Tennessee a 25 minute drive from Ervin (put in point). Jonesboro is the oldest town in Tennessee so it has the quaint and historical thing going on. As this was a George adventure—5 breweries, 3 wineries-I decided to stop at J’s Tennessee Hills Distillery to see about the local liquor. Hey, my great grandfather was a designated Jack Daniel moonshiner during prohibition (which started in Tennessee in 1910)meaning Lem Motlow (one of Jack’s Nephews) got local moonshiners to make Jack Daniel’s to-keep the market alive. Yeah, proud moment in my family tree for sure. Tennessee Hills is probably never going to reach the level of quality as JackD—-more of the moonshiner without a good recipe. Growing up in North Alabama close to the Tennessee state line, there were Public service commercials reminding folks that they could go blind by consuming liquor from illegal stills....yup, it was like that. #nosale #firewater
If you did not know it, North Carolina is the Trout fishing capital of the world. One would assume that there are plenty of said trout ready for purchase in the various grocery stores. Nope, we have looked...until yesterday when we stumbled upon Lowe’s Grocery...yeah, that Lowe’s as in Big Blue Hardware Store. Lowe’s the hardware store originated in this area, and the son of Lowe’s decided to be the H-E-Butts of NC instead of going into dad’s lumber business. It is a good store, not H-E-B mind you, but proudly full of local procured items. After traveling the byways...not to be confused with interstates or limited access highway—-farm to market here is much more a thing than you could ever imagine. There are more produce stands, fresh bread, cookie, ham processing, apple orchards,jam and pickle, local honey, cheese and butter companies, here than there are Mexican restaurants in Kingwood/humble. As a sign on one place said “if we did not grow it, we know who did” ...I believe they speak the truth. ‘Cos everyone here is friendly and will tell you a story if you look half way interested.
As for trout, I guess it is a catch your own kind of thing, we (meaning Eddie and I) have looked. We did discover a Trout Pond (reasonably close 15 miles/28 minutes butt in bucket time-one way) through the various tourist maps and brochure stands. Eddie reasoned that they would have trout (ABC-already been caught) filets available at this fine facility for sale. So, as it was located closely to the Grandfather Winery (yes, on the George destination list), George and I grabbed our frozen water bottle ice packs, insulated cooler and were off for another adventure.
Back in the day when the kids were small, we took them up Loop 494 around New Caney to Beaver Lake (a stocked lake) to experience fishing—-the only way to make someone a fisherman is for them to catch fish early and often. It was a small lake/pond a little rough, but reasonably safe. While it did time a later as a nudist camp, it is now again a private fishing lake...complete with high green fencing left from the nudist colony days. Well, this adventure was kinda like that only the three ponds were smaller...all together maybe the size of Fosters Mill Duck pond. No nudists, but it was an authentic country experience....George and I both heard Banjo music. Obviously, Trout don’t care if the pond is crowded...or deep....or scenic or odor free. We could see tons of large rainbow, brook, brown trout swimming in the current in each of two open ponds...number 3 was closed. The NC State Hatchery comes weekly to provide the fishing experience...trout in, trout out, repeat. There is old school bookkeeping to report daily numbers....hash mark four, diagonal slash equals five fish out. Nope, we don’t sell trout filets, you catch ‘em, we clean ‘em, we provide the fishing equipment, bait -3 worms and a serving spoon for Green Giant can corn kernels, pay/filleted when weighed. So, for the next 20 or so minutes, we fished for our dinner. 6.5 pounds of rainbow trout, 2 fish, and a big ole grin on George’s face with his 3.5 pound trout Facebook moment...we had our dinner for the evening along with a repeat dinner for Eddie and I last night. Grilled or panfried-Best meal so far.
We are currently regrouping/provisioning for Lauren/Drew and kids. Our adventures will change, but the delightful weather will not. We continue to discover new places and things daily, so we are never bored. I will end on a funny Karen story...for the 2 plus weeks before Terri arrived, we assume that our cabin had only basic cable. We were thankful to have cable and great internet...never mind that the Spectrum Cable remote (looks a lot like Comcast) had a big green “on demand” button displayed in the center of said remote. Since we really don’t watch TV during the day, we were satisfied with network news, Jeopardy and ET! Followed by and hour or so of history channel, PBS or something that we found that would work until bedtime. Heck, I even went video diving in the $3 bin at WalMart (before ElPaso, or Mississippi incidents) to make sure the kids would not be bored. A couple nights into her visit, we accidentally hit the Green On Demand button...to our surprise (yes, three adults wide eyed looking at each other with surprise) we have a full deck of premium channels and videos. darn! Too bad I had taken the wrappers off all of the videos.
According to my Channel 2 weather app, Frank said it is hotter than usual for August in Houston—-now there is a surprise, not. Stay safe, drink plenty of liquids, and water plants and pets. We will be continue to be on the porch rockers, watching early signs of leaf changes.
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