NC Fall Trip

Mark and I left home on October 9th after work at 8:30PM, drove over to Alan and Sigrid's house and picked them up.  Mark drove from 9PM-2AM, announced that after five hours on the road, he was seeing double and was ready for a hotel!  Alan said he wasn't tired at all, and so he drove from 2-5.  Since I slept soundly for a few hours prior, I stayed awake, concerend that Alan would fall asleep at the wheel, and so I chatted with him from the back seat.  Sigrid slept soundly.  After three hours driving, Alan pulled over and asked if we wanted a hotel or if anybody wanted to drive.  Oh we were so close, and being the only awake person, I took over.  I drove under the speed limit through sometimes heavy rain and we arrived in Boone at 9AM, four hours of driving for me.  The sun was up at about 7:30, so early morning driving was perfect for me, albiet in the rain, as I am happy to see the sun rise and the world open up.  I passed the turn for Banner Elk and Beech Mountain and continued on to Boone, where Sig and Alan were to rent a car.

That Saturday, October 10th, was our 28th wedding anniversary.  Because we arrived so early in Boone, Sigrid and I decided that the Saturday morning Farmer's Market would be good.  Everything is home grown, mostly organic.  We got apples, small white sweet potatoes, free-range eggs, salad greens, tomato, onion, an eggplant, and organic ground beef.  Alan and Sigrid bought us a bouquet of flowers for an anniversary present. We took them to the rental place for a car.  They have a home on Beech Mountain, and they went to their home and we went to ours. 

I made a good dinner using the ground beef, eggplant, and canned tomato sauce from a new cookbook. We invited our friends over for dinner, played cards, and had a nice evening.  The next day, barbeque chicken dinner at their house with two other couples, neighbor friends of theirs.   Again, we played the card game that I hope NOT to forget.

On Wednesday we picked Sigrid up from the car rental place, where she returned their car, then on Thursday we drove Alan and Sigrid to the Tri-Cities airport so they could fly home.  Twelve hours by car is only one and a half hours in a plane.  Amazing!  They have two children still in high school and needed to get back home.

Our week was so nice.  The leaves were all vibrant reds and yellows and oranges, and the air was crisp and chilly.  It rained on and off all week, but it wasn't miserable weather at all.  When Friday came, the temperature dropped drastically and we got snow!  It snowed in very teeny tiny dots of white with an occasional flake drifting down.  Saturday morning the snow covered everything with a thin veil of white.  Mark and I went to the Valle Crucis Fair and the ground was so muddy, covered with a layer of hay, but it was still gross.  Then we went to the Wooly Worm Festival, which usually isn't as nice as the Valle Crucis one, but this year it was better!

The snow continued and Saturday night, we had about an inch and a half.  Sunday morning there was about another inch and the temperature was 21F. 

We had a fire in the fireplace Saturday night, but ugh, even though the fireplace people came and checked everything, cleaned the pipe, etc, and even though I verified the flue was open with a flashlight, and even though we had NO wind at all, we got a house full of smoke!  The wind drafted up, we could see it was blowing upward, but somehow still, the house fills with nose and eye-burning smoke.  Our fireplace is awful and Mark and I are both so frustrated.  We are looking to see what we can do to make it a better fireplace.  We like wood-burning, and wonder if a simple fix, like glass doors, would be the charm?