Well Tuesday was another perfect Fall day with cool temps in the 40's to start the day and it reached the upper 60's by late afternoon. It was a shorts and light shirt all day except for the early morning power hike to the top of the mountain. We took a late morning ride to West Jefferson to walk the streets while the girls perused all of the many shoppes. Dan and I soaked up the sunshine and people watched. The first three groups of people we interacted with were all from Florida. It's no wonder the town was alive with folks.
We slept in until after 7 to start the day. It was down into the low 40's so we had the heat on again in the cabin and we donned long pants and sweat shirts initially. I did my morning routines as Dan and Carol are on their devices first thing. After my blog and a few quiet moments to honor my Creator and lift several up I headed out for the first of two hikes of the day. I saw no one on top and no animals for a change.
We travelled down the Blue Ridge Parkway to West Jefferson and got there just before noon after a mid morning snack before leaving the cabin. That held us until we ate around 4'ish. We were planning on trying out this new eatery called Copper Mine Grill on Rt 88 just north of town. The girls were in their glory walking around shopping in the many stores and now most do not require a mask. We did see several kool aid drinkers wearing their masks outside in the beautiful air. There were lots of dogs on leashes as this is a dog friendly town. It was going on 3 ish before we left town and made a quick stop at the Wall-Mart for a couple items before heading back up towards Sparta. We found the eatery and while the outside is nothing to brag about the inside service and food are worth all the great reviews. It's small and it seems an old building was renovated; we had a small room with two booths to ourselves. Our server was fantastic and the food was very plentiful and delicious as well as cooked to order. The girls all had burgers, Dan had BBQ and I had salt and pepper cat fish which was the best ever with fried okra and pinto beans beans as sides and hush puppies. DELICIOUS and I had to beat Nancy away from my plate as she too loved the fish. I had two large fillets and the fixins for $11.99 less than what I paid for a burger at the Muddy Creek which wasn't fillings.
We got back to the cabin after 5'ish as we made several stops for the overlooks on the parkway. The views were awesome as always. No one wanted to hike so I made another power hike to the top alone and saw where there was no work on the new house this day. Most everyone was inside but I did see Billy out and we chatted for a few. I got back to the cabin and we decided to play a game of 5 Crowns and then a game of 12 rounds of domino's. Nancy was the big winner on both games. We watched the Ray's game from afar and they finally evened up the games with 1 win a piece in the best of 5 series after losing the opener 9-3. It was after 11 before I hit the sack, LATER
We failed to take a picture before we started eating but decided to show you our fare after partly eaten. The old church in town had a beautiful tree in full color
