View of Grandmother Mountain

Driving along, looking at these buildings, but what is on the top of that mountain in the distance?

Really hard to get the phone camera to focus in the distance. Would that I had a zooming camera lens right now.  But my friend was willing to turn into the driveway, and was glad I pointed out...

the swinging bridge on Grandfather (Grandmother) Mountain.

We didn't drive up to see it.  But we did keep going along saying this is our first time seeing the back side of it.

As we returned to the highway, I snapped some of the pretty landscaping.

We found Linn Cove Viaduct

Only on a Monday afternoon in August, can we go slow, and not have traffic to block the views!  This was so great, and the vistas were the result of no cars on either side of the road.  That explains why we never saw the beautiful bridge the last time, because if you add a stream of cars on the road, the bridge can barely be seen.

On 8.18.18 (yesterday)

I stopped by the Tailgate Market in Black Mountain.  Ah, August is the best month, especially on a cloudy cool Saturday morning...though about the time they closed at 12 noon, there was rain starting to come down.

 Did I mention live entertainment?

 I had just been plied with a sample of crystalized honey with a bit of cinnamon in it, ready to spread on anything.  But the sample was enough for me!

Roger didn't need to convince me to bring home some fresh shrimp.  Straight from the Outer banks of NC, to the mountains.  Of course I'm taking it to visit a friend in the piedmont tomorrow.  This will be well traveled shrimp!

When people seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Can you believe your eyes?

Three Children at the Battle of Vicksburg, by Ann Warren

I had ancestors on both sides of the battles during the American Civil War.  Many died.  But I didn't know of any children that were actually with their families at the sites of battles.  Thank heavens.  But this photo proves that they did come with the many women who helped out in the camps.

Come over to Sepia Saturday this week and see what others have come up with following this prompt photo. 

Parachute Jumper (Bain News Service, 1915-20)

Library of Congress Collection On Flickr Commons

DANGER  :  JUMPING  :  SKY  :  FLYING

Boone NC

Driving around Appalchian State University on Aug. 13, 2018, the streets were wide in the sunshine, the buildings were tall and built of red brick, and it was clean! New looking.

Traffic was not too heavy, and yet we got turned around a few times.  I'd looked at a map before coming, but it didn't take into account the hills.  That's what mountain towns will do for you!

There was some construction going on across from this interesting building...part of a theatre complex I believe.  I'd already checked and found the APU's fine arts museum was closed on Monday.

But we found the heart of the town, again so clean.  Then we parked on King Stree and found a fun place to eat.

 "Feed all regardless of means"...FARM.  It offered different price plate sizes with recommended donations.  We chose simple sandwiches, Helen preferring a vegetarian one, mine was chicken.

And Helen took home some soup for later in the week.

When asked how we liked it, I was honest and said my chicken was tough.  I'd had to take the meat out of the bun and use a knife to cut it.  The manager came after us outside and offered us our next meal gratis.  We smiled and said we lived out of town, but thanks for the offer.  She was very gracious.  Since we ate around 1:30, it's possible my sandwich had been sitting in a steam tray for over an hour...which is why the lettuce wilted, but I wasn't saying anything about it.  We both were glad to promote the ideas behind the restaurant, where people who can't pay can sign up to volunteer to help the staff.  I sure like that philosophy.

We walked up and down on the shady side of the street, since there weren't any shops or other interesting places on the other side.  We did find an area map in front of the Town Hall, and yet confined our exploration to several blocks of this street.  Later when we were in the car we explored some of the back streets, and decided it was ok that we'd visited where we did.  We also got on various highways on our way to Blowing Rock and saw many of the big box stores that exist in every college town.

I hope this theatre stays alive.  Loved the ticket booth, imagined what the interior might look like.

We were drawn to a "bookstore" but found it much more than that.

 There were some great gift things as well as "New Age" books.

 Then we paused to browse in a hand crafting co-op...lovely work, well displayed! And the prices were very good. 

Our foray looking for a rest room led us through a nice clothing shop up the back stairs where this lovely form greeted us.


The Boone Post Office was a sweet classic building that I captured on King St.

Next stop, getting on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Blowing Rock. Helen was determined to show me the Linn Cove Viaduct, which we'd driven on before, but somehow missed paying attention to the last part of the Parkway that had been built.