Kimberly and I took a trip to the NC Blue Ridge Parkway for Thanksgiving weekend. The first day was rainy, and the next two days were below freezing with very high winds, but it was beautiful!
Our dog Mazie (short for Amazing… yes, Amazing Grace 
) loved the walks, sticking her nose into every clump of grass and chasing deer and chipmunks (to the end of her leash). She didn’t have much use for the vistas. Our digital camera has about a 2 second delay, so getting a good picture of her is nearly impossible.
The road names ’round them parts was quite colorful–Racoon Hollow, Lump Road, Ox Cart Road–and for some reason a lot of streets named after naked people: Don Bare Road, Hiram Bare Road, Doyle Bare Road. There was also a Bare Creek, which may have started the whole thing (I mean, you’ve got to bathe somewhere). Speaking of bare… there was a hot tub in our cabin (only half the parties in the tub allowed for picture taking). Oh dear, TMI!
Kimberly and I had a debate about Christmas trees, which were stacked on the roof of every 3rd car on the road–like there was a pine tree fire sale. “I’ve never seen so many christmas trees getting hauled home… maybe 1 out of 10 cars would be reasonable, but this is crazy,” I said. She responded, “Oh, there aren’t that many. Count the cars: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 8,9,10 and only one Christmas tree.” Then the next 3 cars had trees on top! We saw one Christmas tree in the bed of a pickup truck that was bigger around than the truck, quite literally. Other holiday cheer was spotted now and again–we saw 3 Santa Clauses hanging from a fence by the country road. As we got closer, we saw they were stuffed like scarecrows… and were headless. Like a Tim Burton movie.
On the way home we stopped in the little town of Floyd, VA for lunch at a local joint called the Oddfellas Cantina and were delighted with french toast made from homemade cinnamon bread and live music from a local crooner–I’d show you the picture, but I don’t know how to get them off my cell phone. It really was a very pleasurable trip.
Janathan Grace Reflections 
Oh that looks so wonderful! The things you can do with only one dog that you can’t do with 4!! I really miss our trips to the mountains. But also I think you guys are a lot closer to them than we are!! It’s a 6-hour trip for us to get to the mountains. lovemardi