Charlotte - Day 2

Our 10 hour trip home has you a bit worried doesn't it??

Before we left the next day we made a brief trip to Charlotte Yarn. I'll have a full post about that fun experience on Monday. After that, we headed out. We decided that we wanted to stay off the highways as much as possible and enjoy a more scenic route back. Instead of going through South Carolina we headed north towards Asheville and went home that way. We wanted to take some time and cruise on the Blue Ridge Parkway and really enjoy the leaves beginning to change. It has been a LONG time since I have been on the Blue Ridge Parkway and I had forgotten how beautiful it is - especially at this time of the year.

We got to see some great scenery and stopped to take a lot of pictures.



The Blue Ridge mountains are some of the oldest mountains in the world. That is why they aren't as tall as the mountains in the western US and other places. They have been around for so many millions of years that they are at the point now of being worn down instead of being built up. They used to be much taller. Check out this picture. You can see the angle of the rocks and how they were forced up. Pretty incredible.


During the ride we also stopped at a local farmer's stand and bought some cabbage, tomatoes and cheese. I can't wait to dig into that smoked cheddar! We have been craving some cabbage soup so we got 2 huge heads of cabbage and will make some soup and then cook the rest for canning.

Did you know there is a place called Bat Cave, NC? Well there is. That is where we stopped at the veggie stand. Check out this cool address marker we saw on the side of the road.


We also stopped by Lake Lure and had lunch.


And we traveled over the Broad River which I believe is the same river that travels through Athens, GA.


Also, before we got back we were about 1.5 hours from home or so just outside Murphy, NC. Wayne had gotten a text message and since he was driving I opened up his phone to see who it was. I was in the process of typing a message back to his son when all of the sudden Wayne puts on the breaks and I look up just in time to hear him yell - BEAR!!!! There was a large black bear right by the side of the road! When I looked at him he was just sitting there looking out over the road looping kind of stunned. I couldn't believe he was just sitting there so I reached for the camera. Of course, as soon as I got the camera up and ready to take the shoot he took off running back into the woods. However, I did manage to get a shot of him running away (just for proof of my story) so here it is - Bear butt.

It was a wonderful 10 hour journey home - we had such a great time. I love how my husband is always willing to take the "road less traveled". We stopped and talked to some really interesting people at some of the overlooks. One couple we met was from England and had started their US tour in DC, then went to Roanoake, then Asheville and were then headed to Savannah and Charleston before heading back. It is always interesting to hear about the US through people who have never been here before!