Warm and Well in NC

We left Raleigh on Friday morning and arrived in the wonderful world of South Toe River Campgrounds on Friday evening.  We realized that camping would be tough because it was Memorial Day, but this was a campgrounds like no other.It looked like Levittown on a good day, or the Folk Festival on a bad day.   However, the folks were wonderful and most curious about Celeste.  We had so many visitors that we thought about putting out a sign saying "Tours by appointment only".  However, Southern folks being the way they are, every one of them left our little site with the offer of help, or firewood,etc.  And when we left, one camper even moved all his stuff so we did not have to back out.

Our first jaunt was to Mitchell Mountain which is the highest peak east of the Mississippi.  You won't see any photos however, because, being in the Smokey Mountains, we didn't see it either.  It was so fog covered that we could not even see the parking lot near the summit.

Down the mountain was all sunshine and blue skies and we had a wonderful hike to Crabtree Falls.

The best part of the day, however, was our night at the R-Buckle rodeo in Arbuckle, NC.  We started off with bronco riding...thre riders, no winners.  Then we moved on to sheep riding with 4 year olds plunked on an unfortunate mutton, held onto its back by two men and a thrid dragging the animal around for 3 seconds, at which time they let go of the kids and off he fell.  This was followed by calf riding where 8-10 year olds di sit on a bucking steer and manage to hold on until it at least got out of the pen.  One kid went up and came down like a rag doll.  This was topped off by the steer riding, which would have been a real event, had not the second of three riders gotten bucked off and lay motionless in the areno for 20 minutes while waiting for the ambulance.  All of this was accompanied by great country songs, our favorite being the famous love song, "Let me Search for your ticks."

Today we are in a lovely campgrounds near Asheville and have spent Sunday afternoon in this lovely city following a walking tour of historic sites.  Here Ellen is at a site commemorating mountain music and David is at a site commemorating the flatiron building.



The weather is warm and wonderful and we are now off to make dinner of cornish hen and hominy with, of course, a pepper martini.