Up and at 'em early - on the road by 7. We were going to a place called Grandfather Mountain. Rick and Sue had not been there so it was an adventure for everyone.
Need to start with a small piece of information: Charlotte's elevation is 751 feet.
We drove and our ears were beginning to need to be cleared. We were glad Sue was driving because the road was worse than driving from Klamath Falls to Ashland over Greensprings and Sue gets car sick if not driving. We were using GPS for navigation and the road kept getting narrower and narrower until we were on a STEEP, dead end driveway of an undeveloped piece of property. Then the GPS tells us to make a U-turn. We all laughed and then had to back out of this very narrow, steep, long driveway - not fun at all. We decided to make an educated guess as to which way to go. Were driving on very windy road, looked up and realized we were going in a circle and would soon be where we were 20 minutes or so before. We did what any normal person in our predicament would do: the next road we saw we turned onto. We drove a little more and came to an intersection with a little country store. We pulled in hoping for a bathroom but instead saw a sign that again made us laugh. "Welcome to the place for confused GPS users." All this and the store wouldn't be open for 15 minutes. We have been on the road for 2 hours and 45 minutes - we were supposed to be at our destination in 2 hours. They felt they knew how to get us to Grandfather Mountain so we took off and lo and behold a sign - the first the entire trip - so we are no longer wandering aimlessly and we are close to our destination.
A couple of things about our journey: 1) we drove over a viaduct that is so famous it is on postcards: 2) we are in the Blue Ridge mountains and there were stunning views of mountains and vallies, and 3) we are at 3300 to 4500 feet in elevation. We have never seen anything like these vistas.
At the visitor center we are told we can't go to the top of Grandfather Mountain because it is too windy - about 65 mph with gusts to 90. We only had to pay 1/2 price and could go to the museum and a small area with some animals in cages. We went to the museum and watched a video about the ecology of the mountain, had some lunch and got ready to leave. But the winds had died down to about 24 with gusts of 39 and we could go to the top - YEAH!
At the top is a swinging bridge (which is a mile above sea level and 80 feet above ground and is about 228 feet across) that takes you to a place of 360 degree vistas of the mountains. It was windy but we went - so incredibly breathtaking. People could go further on rocks to a peak but that wasn't for us older people on such a windy day. The stiff winds created loud hums and whistles as it blew through the support cables of the swinging bridge.
Grandfather Mountain is named thus because the contours of the mountain look like a face of an old man. The warmest temperature recorded is 83 degrees, the highest wind speed is 120 mph. What an experience.
We were so blessed. If we hadn't gotten lost we would have arrived and left before the top was opened. We would have missed the swinging bridge and grand views.
We continued our journey to a town called Boone - guess who it was named for (Daniel would be the correct answer)? There was actually a nice, fairly straight highway and it didn't take any time at all to get there. Boone is at 3333 feet elevation, has a college that Rick and Sue's daughter attended a number of years, has grown a lot in recent, and seems to be somewhat touristy.
We wanted to eat dinner at the Dan'l Boone Inn but understood it didn't open until 5:00pm so had some time to kill. There was a store (Mast General Store - a small version of Wall Drug in SD) that Rick and Sue wanted to take us to but still had a little time.
Found a "mountain village" museum from the mid to late 1800s. A tour was just starting so we were able to see and hear how people in the mountains lived back then. It was very different than what it would have been in Charlotte. Learned more about a different culture - the mountain culture of the mid 1800s.
So back to this story. Don't know if there was something specific going on but in this town of 17,000 it took 15 minutes or more to find a parking spot. The streets and stores were very crowded. We got what we wanted and off to the restaurant. It was 4:40 so thought we would have to wait - NO it was open continuously from 9:30 because of Veterans Day. We had to wait in line for about 15 minutes to get a table but the food was wonderful and the ambience was great. Dinner was served family style. The food good, quantity great and service good. After kidding the waitress during dinner we were told we should lay low for a few weeks. Perplexed, we asked why. She told us that Thanksgiving is coming up soon - in effect, she kidingly called us turkeys.
After a wonderful meal, drove 2 hours home. Got home about 8:00pm. A wonderful, fun filled, learning day with great friends.
Blue Ridge Mountains view from Grandfather Mountain
Swinging Bridge