Observations and ramblings

Today was one of the best so far! We planned a drive to Spruce Pine, about an hour northeast of here to visit a "Potters Market." We thought we would do some leaf-gawking and hopefully a little geocaching too. The trees north of here are beginning to display their fall foliage.

The Potters' Market was pretty phenomenal. There were about 30 well-known potters exhibiting in a huge warehouse. It reminded me of the Christmas bazaars Meryl & I used to go to, only it was ALL POTTERY!! And these were rock-star potters. We talked to Mark Peters for a few minutes. I think he eventually remembered that I had participated in a woodfiring at his home/shop a couple years ago. Actually 2 years in a row. You can see Steve & I in some of the photos on this page. I hope I can remember some of the forms I saw today so I can use them for inspiration when I start my class in a couple of weeks! We drove past a lot of places we had visited when we were in Bakersville for the workshop.

Our plan was to circle back on the Blue Ridge Parkway and take in the scenery and do a little geocaching. Unfortunately, we discovered that he Parkway was closed near Mount Mitchell and we had to take a detour. Steve was a little miffed because he had checked the website for areas that were closed and couldn't find any. The bad thing about driving through the mountains is that when there are detours, they can add many miles to your planned route. So that's basically what happened. We ended up spending the whole afternoon figuring out the best route back to Asheville. I'm not complaining too much because we were treated to some gorgeous scenery, but we didn't have time to do any geocaching so that was a bit of a bummer.

And we ate lunch pretty late which made us somewhat cranky because we weren't sure where we were going! We ended up eating at a little greasy spoon type diner that offered "all things fried" on its menu. Well, I had a burger, which wasn't deep fried, and was actually pretty tasty. And Steve got a milkshake that taste like homemade ice cream. So, healthy it wasn't, but tasty it was!

As we were driving up highway 80, we saw a rickety little suspension bridge (for pedestrians) that spanned a beautiful rocky creek. I hollered for Steve to stop and we took some pictures. Well, he took the pictures from the middle of the bridge because I couldn't bring myself to walk out on it. My apparent fear of heights just wouldn't let me walk out there. That and the sign warning that the bridge could only hold 4 people. I mean this was AFTER our meal at the
greasy spoon diner. I didn't want to take any chances!

The road names are so interesting down here. Names like "Tater Town" and "Shake Rag" just make me smile! I find myself wondering who came up with them.

When we got back to the campgrounds we just kicked back and relaxed. We did a little laundry and on my walk to and from the laundry room I was treated to a most gorgeous sunset. I snapped a photo of it at one point. The photos just are not doing this place justice, but at least I can look at them and remember what we were treated to. I call this photo "Heaven Came Down."

A little while after I took this photo, the sky turned deep red and Steve and I watched it fade away. It was one of those moments when you don't want to say anything because it feels so holy that talking seems almost disrespectful. We came back to the camper and had a little campfire and ate dinner. Then we folded laundry and we'll probably be heading off to bed soon. The end of an extremely enjoyable and relaxing day!