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Yesterday morning we packed up and left Beaufort. It was a great place to stay and we had a wonderful time there. We got up early and had leftovers for breakfast and then began the seven hour journey across the state. We stopped for a quick lunch at a Dairy Queen near Raleigh and then headed up the mountains to Asheville. The leaves are changing and the colors are absolutely breathtaking. Early afternoon we arrived and found the hotel I had found last minute online. It is an apartment complex that was renovated and turned into a suites hotel. It is an amazing place, beautifully appointed, and a wonderful place to stay. It has a large jacuzzi tub and big screen televisions and huge, comfortable furniture along with a state of the art kitchen. What a find!
We walked to the Village shopping/dining area just down the road and had a great dinner at the Corner Kitchen. I had gourmet meatloaf (I know, I know)and Kathy enjoyed a steak. We split a souffle for dessert and then walked back to the hotel where we took advantage of the hot tub.
We got up this morning and went to breakfast downtown. It wasn't as great as the concierge said it would be, but it was good enough and we set out to find The Blue Ridge Parkway. Even with GPS we got horribly lost and wandered around in the most amazing beauty I have ever see. Beautiful fall colors, rivers, streams, lakes, gorgeous mountains and a drizzling rain combined to delight the senses. We had in mind that we would like to see some waterfalls the concierge told us about but we were totally lost and the GPS either malfunctioned or sent us in bad directions every time we tried to find them. Finally the rain stopped and I pulled into a gas station to ask about a road that might lead us to Hooker Falls. While sitting in the car fiddling with the GPS I looked up and saw the street name we had been looking for. We headed down the road and made the necessary turns to get us to the falls. What a gorgeous drive! We hiked a half mile to the falls and sat for a while enjoying them.
We then walked back and found signs pointing to two other waterfalls. We hiked a mile in to see Triple Falls and High Falls. This involved some pretty steep trails, but the end result was breathtaking. The forest was rich in color and the clouds and mist made the starkness of the colors even more so. What a delightful day.
Getting back to the SUV we put in the coordinates for the hotel and then intentionally turned left when it said to go right. We did that because we thought we had seen a sign for a McDonald's and we were looking for a bathroom and a drink. We never found the McDonald's and finally arrived in a town called Pisgah. Pisgah is the mountain Moses climbed to view the promised land. We stopped at The Fish Camp restaurant and I had some fresh caught broiled rainbow trout served with green beans the way mom used to cook them, hush puppies, and a baked potato. It was delish as were Kathy's spicy shrimp skewers.
I asked the nice lady at the counter about how to get to the Blue Ridge Parkway and she suggested we go through the light and take the road up through the Pisgah Forest. She said it was 'sort of a pretty drive'. She also promised that at the top we would be able to get on the parkway. What an exhilarating drive! Gorgeous views at every turn and even another beautiful waterfall cascading into the river that paralleled the road. Sort of a pretty drive indeed! At the top we turned onto the parkway but chose to make GPS squawk by turning away from Asheville. We drove for a bit marveling at the views until we were driving in the low hanging clouds and visibility went to near zero. We found a place to turn around and headed back home which allowed GPS to calm down. At some point we left the parkway and took a narrow, winding road that took us down the mountain toward home. I have never driven in a more beautiful place. The slow setting sun and the dampness of the trees and the steep inclines that allowed us spectacular views combined to blow our minds at the beauty God makes even in the slow dying of autumn. We laughed at how ignorant and unorganized we were and how God chose to give us a delightful trip better than any we could have planned.
We got back to the hotel and I took a bag of the frozen shrimp we purchased in Beaufort and cleaned and deveined them and then sauteed them in some butter with a bit of salt, pepper, and garlic. We feasted on the shrimp along with some apples we had swiped from the hotel we stayed at the first night. It made a great simple meal. Tomorrow we are considering going to the Biltmore and touring the largest home in America, but we may opt for getting lost again. What a wonderful day we had. God is gracious to us and has given us a time to remember. | 
