The day started with me up at my usual 6'ish time despite some gastro issues the night before. I'm not sure if it was the smoked ribs or the ice cream dessert neither of which I eat very often but I did have to take a glass of ginger laced drink which calmed the tummy down almost immediately and let me sleep rather well the rest of the night. It's amazing the use of the spices and herbs in the cupboard that will alleviate many health issues and the ginger spice is great for any stomach discomforts, oh well. I did my morning quiet time to honor my Creator, lift up those I know and love and pray for those who need some special consideration due to issues of health, traveling mercies and life decisions. Our guests were still sleeping and we were thrilled the issue of heat in the upstairs was not a factor as we have no a/c. The chill is great that envelopes the cabin overnight and most mornings we awake find us closing the windows until sometime mid morning. We finally got some rain while we were away to the tune of nearly and inch. It has been many days since we last saw some of the wet stuff from the skies and it perked everything up immediately.
We encountered some road work on the parkway south of the exit to Boone and there was a delay for about a half hour so we came back a different route. We reached the Moses Cone House somewhere around 12:30 and it looked as if rain would keep us from walking around but it held off until we reached Blowing Rock then the skies opened up. This Cone House was built 115 years ago and was very majestic at the time nestled in the woods just off the parkway. It's 14000 square feet with ginger bread moulding and the porches are magnificent. There are around 3600 acres in this estate which was given to the park service to care for and while its still awesome in its splendor it needs some paint and renovations. We weren't allowed in the upstairs area as it's only by an occasionally tours. It's free to visit the house and the grounds and there are horse back trails as well as carriage rides when available. We noticed lots of out of state cars in the parking lot and several from Florida.
The ride over to Blowing Rock is awesome with great vistas. We stopped and parked on main street and saw where the beautiful Bob Timberlake building was now a restaurant called the Mellow Mushrooms. I spoke with a few folks leaving the place and they informed me the food was very good and plentiful; just our kind of eatery. We shared a bowl of their mushroom soup and then shared red potato pizza which was the best ever as well as a calzone and a very nice salad. We all partook of a little of each others dish and were able to watch the pizza chef throw the dough into the air while enlarging the pizza dough. We should have taken a picture as he was very talented and never missed with his throw and catch. We had great service and the food was very tasty and unique. We had no idea this eatery was a chain.
Afterwards the gals tour the many shoppes on main street and Patrick and I did some errands into Boone. We decided to head out in the rain shower around 4'ish towards the town ofWest Jefferson. We noticed what appears to be new construction all along the 321 RT which takes us back towards Sparta. That will be nice as the two lane road is often slow due to farm equipment and the wood industry prevalent in that part of the country. The scenery is always beautiful with some very majestic homes in the hills as well as some old farm houses and of course the ever present mobile homes with hunting dogs tied up outside. We stopped at a super Wal-Mart to pick up a few items before taking a different route to the parkway which brings us to our turn off towards the cabin.
Well since we had a late lunch I passed on anything the rest of the evening while Patrick and Nancy finished the left over dessert. We decided to get in some Euchre games and the gals squashed us two games in a row( we were just being nice, but they weren't) . We spoke to our third party in this Cool Peoples Club, the Botbyl's in Florida and its down right hot and muggy there. They are wanting to retire so they too can play around here in the mountains and be a tourist. Dan is looking for a buyer for his successful auto repair shop in Seminole, oh well!!! We then face timed with Patrick's brother, Howard out in Arizona where it was over a hundred degrees while he was playing golf today but that was cool as compared to other days. We had a nice chat with him and oh how he loves the greenery here in these mountains. Well it was going on 10'ish when we decided hit the showers and call it a day, LATER
