Tuesday Morning

Well Monday morning found us socked in with fog and overcast skies but after a morning hike we decided to show our guests some of the different areas of the county and once we got off of Rich Hill Mountain and Foggy Mountain Road we saw blue skies and bright warm sunshine. Wow what a difference a few miles make away from the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had a great time exploring new roads in the county with our friends Becky and Jerry Hoffman from the Tampa area.

We started the morning off with a mountain breakfast. I fried up on the grill a skillet of some of the best bacon ever brought to us courtesy of Mike and Dee from the Shenandoah Valley. Along with bakery bread, homemade jelly and dippy eggs with orange juice to wash it down. I of course had a fresh garden grown Serrano pepper cut up in my eggs to awaken the taste buds and get the gastric juices flowing. After the cleanup and we headed out to the top of the mountain for our first of two hikes for the day.

We headed out after the hike for roads unknown and never seen by us on an adventure. We found an old wooden bridge and stopped to gander and do some photo shoots in the warm sun light. It was in the 50's to start the day and finally warmed up to the middle 60's by late afternoon. Wow did we ever see some beautiful country and then stopped by the Bald Knob Farm House for a few shots as well. Our dear friends the Crouse's own and rent out this beautiful old 1918 house where we have stayed many times with friends before completing our cabin in the 90's. What picturesque landscapes we saw as we travelled in the western part of the county.

We came back into Sparta around 3 and had a fantastic pizza at JB's restaurant. We brought about half of it home as it is such a filling delicious pie. We then walked around downtown Sparta and while the gals had a special drink at Becca's Bean Coffee Shop I walked down to the library and stocked up as well on books. We then headed downtown to the local butcher shop and found once again a great bone-in loin roast for future dinners with family next month. I found the new book TO DANCE WITH THE WHITE DOG written by a local author Terry Kay and it is a fantastic read as

I started it last night after a marathon night of Euchre. This is a new card game taught to us by the Hoffman's and I must say this is an exciting, challenging and fun game as we played well after midnight with the guys prevailing in the end, LATER