Ferguson and Blue Ridge Parkway
Weekend; not as it was originially planned, but okay anyway. As author Barbara Werba wrote: "Life is what happens while you're making other plans". Also correct in this case.
A Saturday with no stress
Saturday! The day
when an egg hunt should have taken place at the museum, but since Dick had
contracted covid-19 and Margaret therefore had to self-isolate, this activity
was cancelled. I therefore decided that I would stay in and around the house all
day instead of figuring out something else to do. It's also nice to just relax
once in a while without having to do anything - not least when you're on holiday.
At 10.30 I went up to the museum to keep an eye on whether there were going to
be any guests, to whom I could then explain that it had all been cancelled. I
hadn't noticed that Margaret (or someone else she had sent) had been there and
put up a note at the entrance saying the same thing. Therefore, only a single
car arrived, which turned out to contain a set of grandparents who wanted to see
their grandchildren on an egg hunt. They had actually seen the sign, but had
driven in to see if there was going to be anyone, which there wasn't - except me
that is, so they turned the car around and left.
Yadkin
River behind The Old Ferguson Home
I went back to the house, where
I made coffee, which I then sat on the small porch outside my front door and
drank while checking the happenings of the world online. The weather was hot and
humid, so it suited me just fine to sit quietly. After an hour and a half on the
terrace, I decided I wanted to go for a walk down to the river behind the house.
I had never done that before, but now I wanted to. From the house down to the
river it goes downhill. It's not that the walk is long, less than half a mile
each way, but I tend to forget that when you go downhill, you also have to go up
again! It proved to be relatively easy though, and I survived, although I did
sweat quite a bit on the return trip. The temperature was around 80 degrees F,
and the humidity was quite high already at thisa time in April. But now I have
been to the river, where it is possible, for example, to row in a kayak (do you
row in a kayak? *), to tube (floating in large tire tubes) and other things,
when the weather, the water level and the current in the river are suitable. It
turned out that this part of the river was also beautiful, just as it is
elsewhere in the area when the trees are spring green.
I stayed in and around the house, relaxing with my tablet, phone and a book
until around 5.30pm. Then I started the car and headed for Wilkesboro to get
something to eat. I chose to try a new restaurant chain that has not been
present in the city before, Dodge City Steak House, and it was located in the
building that previously housed a Ruby Tuesday, one of my favorite chains in the
US - not least because of their excellent salad bar. I ordered some BBQ chicken,
which was quite OK, but no more than that. It will probably never be a
restaurant chain I can't live without. After dinner, I drove back to the house,
where I drank evening coffee on the porch, while I sat and listened to the
buzzing of the bees, ande watching the sky grow darker and darker. Finally, I
went inside - partly to access the air conditioning, but also to shelter from
the thunderstorm that broke out while I sat outside.
A Sunday drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Today I should have
attended the sunrise service at the church that Margaret and Dick attended,
followed by breakfast in the church's meeting house. Later they were going to "a
real Easter service", but I had turned dpown the offer to participate. When they
had finished there, I was invited to Easter lunch at their house together with
some of their family members, including Margaret's daughter and grandchildren.
But due to Dick's covid, these activities were also canceled so I didn't have to
set my alarm clock for 5 AM, but could completely refrain from setting it.
Since I now had no activities planned, I decided to take a short drive on the
Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP), something I actually always do when I'm in the area,
but which I hadn't planned for on this trip. After breakfast, I headed for
Lenoir and from there on to Morganton - not the shortest route to an access road
to BRP, but the route I decided to take. From Ferguson there are approx. 35
miles (about 55 km) to Morganton by this route, a trip of just under an hour if
there isn't too much traffic, which there wasn't, so I was in Morganton around
10. Instead of driving directly to a BRP access, I headed north on North
Carolina Route 181 towards the Brown Mountain Overlook, where on two previous
occasions I had spent 4 evening and night hours per visit, keeping an eye out
for the famous Brown Mountain Lights, but without seeing any. Along the way I
bought a cup of coffee at a gas station and on this occasion I managed to drink
it without spilling myself; see the article
From 20
to 85 from the
spring trip 2019. At the Brown Mountain
Overlook I took some pictures and a little video, but I didn't stay there long -
you can't see the lights during the day, even though they are said to be there.
Price Lake
I continued north on NC 181
until I met BRP, on which I continued further north, with several stops along
the way as I recorded a video for my Glocal Explorer channel on Youtube just
showing things to see on and near BRP. I stopped at the Linn Cove Viaduct where
I went for a walk even though the path under the viaduct was closed. At Price
Lake I made a short stay where I went for a walk by the lake. Also at Cone Manor
(an old manor house that is now an exhibition) I went for a walk before visiting
the local small gift shop to buy a few presents for my granddaughter and a cold
drink for myself. Unlike our road trips, I hadn't bought a cooler on this
occasion. At The Lump (all these places you can read more about on the BRP
websites or in the app that can be downloaded from Google Play or App Store) I
went all the way to the top of the hill for the first time ever and enjoyed the
view from up there. Here, too, I filmed - including the sign that sparked my
interest in the Tom Dooley case. I made my last stop at the Northwest Trading
Post north of Boone, where I bought a few more gifts to take home. Heading north,
I was sent out on a detour as the BRP was closed for a stretch, but it was only
a short one and I got back to the parkway only 5 or 6 miles north of where I had
left it.
After visiting the Northwest Trading Post, I drove back south until I reached
the point where I had come back on the BRP after the detour. Here I left the
road (I had to, because it hadn't been opened in the hour since I last was on
site) and took US Route 421 (which I ended up on) to Boone. Also in Boone I
wanted to film, but it was a very short shoot as my GoPro ran out of battery.
The camera sometimes behaves strangely. It can be at 80% when you turn it off,
and then when you turn it back on later, it has dropped to 10%, and so it did in
this case - so the stay in Boone, which I have visited several times in the past,
was also quite short - and mostly a stroll on Main Street. From Boone, I took US
Route 321 through Blowing Rock to Lenoir, where I would have gone for a walk in
the TH Broyhill Walking Park, but since there was no power on the camera, I
abandoned that plan. I have also on previous occasions walked many laps around
the small lake in the park. Instead, I returned home, with a single stop at a
Food Lion, where I bought some fruit and something to eat for dinner that I
could cook in the microwave so I wouldn't have to drive again to get dinner at a
restaurant. After eating, I drank coffee outside and then relaxed inside for the
rest of the evening.
And that concluded the Easter Weekend 2022.
* I have now consulted kayaking experts and they say that you are "rowing a
kayak" even though you are paddling with a paddle when you are sitting in it!