crazycarolinaladies

Our journey started out at Sandy's where we gathered at 8:00 AM. The weather was fine. I drove and was accompanied by Sandy and Eileen. Mary Sue drove her Toyota with Joye as her rider. We went towards I-26 via Hwy. 61. The traffic is fierce down Hwy. 61 in the opposite direction. We stopped at the rest area closest to Columbia. But it was closed due to a plumbing problem. Not a good thing! We had an unplanned stop at the Hardee's on US 1 to use the facilities.
We stopped for lunch at Fatz on the north side of Spartanburg. We filled  our cars with $3.00 a gallon gas at a nearby station. Imagine being delighted to get gas at that price! Then we proceeded to the mountains of North Carolina. We stop in Black Mountain to do some shopping before going up the mountain. After getting to Montreat we unpacked our cars and made our beds.Mary Sue drove us into Black Mountain for some pizza. It was a real treat as some of us had not had real pizza in a very long time.The next morning brought a delightful surprise: SNOW! At first someone thought it was just fog. But I went out and discovered that it was not fog but little flakes of snow. It snowed more than we had ever seen at the South Carolina Home. It snowed almost all morning.


Snow gathered on the walkway railing.

 

Snow fell on the porch but melted quickly.

 

Our cars were covered with lots of the white stuff.



Snow makes any landscape look pure and clean.

We drove to A Stamp Artist Place in Swannanoa. Some of us bought some papers and Cuttlebug plates. Then we drove to Asheville. We thought we were going to one place but ended up at the Cross Stitch Corner. Eileen got some beautiful cross stitch cloth. This place was north of Asheville. Our next stop was due south. We went to Wendy's first and then to Asheville Cotton Company which boasted in its advertisement that it had over 8,000 bolts of cotton fabric for quilts, etc. It did! It was overwhelming. I bought some plain green and red fabric to make some holiday kitchen towels. Next on our shopping list was Biltmore Village. Most of the shops were clothing establishments. We went to the Christmas Shop and two gift shops. Joy purchased a present for one of her grandchildren. I bought a witch's hat which was half price. I will put it on our witches head next October. It is really neat.
We returned to Black Mountain for dinner and some more shopping. We had our evening of crafts. We made potpourri hangers from old Christmas cards. We also made an ornament from circles I had cut out. You can also cut the circles from old Christmas cards but that would have taken us too long.But we had a great tie making these crafty items.
On the way home this morning we went to the Moose Cafe for breakfast and afterwards walked through the Western North Carolina Farmers' Market. We bought candles, roosters, baskets, breads and cheese. Then on to the Dish Barn and the apple stand! We arrived back in Charleston before sundown. This was one of the best trips! Was it due to the unexpected gift of snow from Mother Nature? Or we tried new places? It was probably both...but the snow was definitely an unexpected delight.
Here are some links to the places we shopped:
Western North Carolina Farmers' Market
Asheville Cotton Company
Black Mountain, North Carolina
The Moose Cafe
Biltmore



Labels: Asheville Cotton Copany, Biltmore Village, Black Mountain NC, market, Montreat, Moose Cafe, shopping, snow

It is another beautiful morning here in the NC mountains. It is almost 60 degrees and predictions are for it to be over 70 degrees this afternoon. Sharon, Teresa, and Herman arrived last night around 10 PM. Henry and Herman are out playing golf at the nine-hole golf course here in Franklin. We plan on going gem hunting this afternoon. Took some panorama photos out on the parkway.

Labels: mountains, parkway, travel, vacation

What a gorgeous morning it is here in the mountains. Our plans for the day are to visit a store to get a fireplace log- we are not into chopping wood- and to take a drive on the Parkway. Henry is cooking right now and also cussing. He is not a cook but he didn't ask me to do it for him. Oh, my ears are burning. He is such a drama king and of course it will be my fault somehow.
We spent a delightful hour in the hot tub last night enjoying the stars and a glass of wine. We will probably do that again this evening before Sharon, Herman and Teresa get here.
Ever onward!

Labels: cooking, hot tub, parkway

The fog rolled in down the valley.

The dawn broke late as this mountain was covered in fog.
 We ate breakfast and watched the local news.  I made brownies. The brownies are not the Weight Watcher kind but I think I can resist but the smell is wafting through the cabin. Hope to go to Waynesville or maybe Murphy today. We  are thinking about driving the Smoky Mountain drive up to Mt. Mitchell tomorrow.

Labels: brownies, cabin, fog, Franklin, mountains, valley, Waynesville

Labels: Franklin NC, patterns, quilt, sewing, wal-mart

Drinking coffe on the front porch in the cool morning

Labels: Bryson City, coffee, Franklin Golf Course, golf, mountains, porch

Our Mountain Retreat
Day 1
We left the sunny area of Charleston to stay a week in the mountains. Henry and I have not had a real vacation in a very long time. We arrived here at the cabin around 3:30. It is very much like the pictures we saw. It is really out in the sticks. Henry says if we need more sunshine it will have to be piped in. But we like it.  It has a very mountain cabin feel to it.
The leaves were beautiful on the way up here. It was coolish and now that the sun is going down we will have to shut the windows. It is getting chilly. Can't wait until we can have a cup of coffee tomorrow morning on the front porch. We can see mountains from the back deck and from the side windows. Looking forward to exploring Franklin tomorrow.

Leaves are just beginning to turn.