On the mountain

Tuesday, Sept 15

We've decided to go West rather that East from Raleigh.  We've left the motor home at Jordan Lake for the week.  No need to drive it (at 8 mpg) to the mountains and not using it.  So we came on up to the mountain house on Monday.

It's not often I get up early enough for a sunrise, but something woke me up about sunrise this morning and the view to the West (away from the sunrise) was interesting.  Clouds in the valley below us and an interesting sky.  So I rolled out of bed just long enough to take this picture.

September and October we often awake to clouds in the valley.

This morning the temperature was 42 degrees.  That's nice, if it didn't mean that summer is almost over.  We love summer and the warm temperatures.  We don't like winter and the cold temperatures. Reminds us that we need to be thinking about somewhere warm for the winter.

It's been a quiet week.  We have nothing to do, and we did it - watched a couple of movies, mowed the grass, read our books, and just enjoyed the view.

A nice view for breakfast

A nice view for supper

Thursday I drive Clara over near Banner Elk  to meet some girl friends from Beaufort who are staying for the weekend.  They'll shop until they drop and I'll pick up Clara on Sunday

Friday morning I drove over the Wendell and Dawn's new-to-them home on Nantahala Lake.  It's a 3 hour drive from Spruce Pine.  It reminds me that there's a lot of Western North Carolina West of us.

Once I got to the Nantahala River, I thought I was there, but there home is really isolated (as is Lake Nantahala).  It was another thirty minutes up and down, round and round.

They have a lovely home on some of the steepest property I've seen.  The entry to the house (after driving down the steepest driveway I've ever seen) is the top floor, with 2 more floors beneath it (probably a 50 foot drop from the first floor to the ground).  Then another 100 foot elevation drop down to the lake.  Steep!

Friday afternoon I took out Wendell's new 155 hp jet ski.  That thing is fast, and it's still in the break-in period so the throttle won't open fully.  Not sure I could handle it wide open.

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Nantahala Lake is a beautiful lake

Wendell's pontoon boat has some underwater lights on it

We rode his new pontoon boat around the lake (which is relatively small) and then went on the boat to the only restaurant on the lake (great catfish).

Saturday, I drove back to Spruce Pine and started getting the house ready to shut down for the winter.

I drove down to the Orchard to get some apples (they are plentiful and beautiful this year) and listen to some music for a while.  While there, there was a Overmountain Victory Trail reenactment.

Sunday afternoon, after having lunch with Sherri and Pat, we drove back to Raleigh, had dinner with the kids and settled into the motor home for the evening.

Monday, back to Beaufort.