What goes up...

Earlier today, we took a drive to meet up with a friend of Cheryl's who did the favor of bringing back quilts that were recently shown in Northern Virginia.  We met at the Books and Beans in  Little Switzerland - a cluster of businesses making not quite a town north and east of Mount Mitchell from us (Norris' navigation system  recognized neither the place name, nor the addresses on the highway.)

 

Notice the quilt block in the top middle of the picture. According to the Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina, the block is "Books and Coffee Cups", and I would guess it to have been designed for the shop as part of the Quilt Trails project.

Here is Cheryl, with young Jack, Sarah, and Sarah's mother outside the bookstore.

There's another block from the Quilt Trail behind us.  It is a traditional pattern the Quilt Trails project calls Dream Ship, though it is known by several other names. 

Sarah and Jack are visiting her mother in Shelby NC and no, Little Switzerland is not in the middle, it was a similar distance for both of us and a place Norris and I hadn't been. We enjoyed lunch right next door with them after shopping, but then headed back to Weaverville via the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We didn't stop at all the beautiful scenic overlooks but we took a few photos.  Norris monitored the temperatures as we drove - we started at 79 degrees in Little Switzerland, which is at a higher elevation than our house.

 

There's a lot to see along the parkway in addition to the scenic vistas at the overlooks. It's fascinating to drive under the bridges and through the tunnels when you remember the Parkway is 75 years old and much of the labor was manual, done by the CCC in the 30's and and the conscientious objectors during WWII. 

 

 

Conditions were not perfect today for long range visibility, but everything is green and lush.  There were also some beautiful Flame Azalea and Mountain Laurel still in bloom as we climbed. These are the Black Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge, and they are the highest range in the Appalachians.  

 

Most of these photos were taken looking to the north side of the parkway.

 

Though this was taken looking south. 

As we went up, Norris noted the temperature was dropping.  By the time we got to our last stop, just outside the entrance to Mount Mitchell State Park and 1700 feet higher in elevation, it was only 69 degrees.

But it was all downhill from there to home - where the weather station tells us the high for today was 82 at 2:00.