NC Mountains 2014 - Days 19 & 20

Day 19 - Tuesday  8/26/14 This morning we had to wear a light jacket when we did our walk as the temperature was 57 degrees. Some of the trees have some fall color in them and the thoughts are it is going to be an early Fall in the Smokies.

We went to Bakersville NC about 18 miles from the campground to The Dellinger Grist Mill on Cane Creek. A music group called The Dellinger Gang sang and played music from 2-5PM. We decided to go early to have time to look around the mill before the crowd got there. We arrived at 10:30AM and was the first visitors to arrive. The current owner Jack Dellinger was there setting up things so we got to talk to him. He is a fourth generation miller. After retiring from IBM he returned to the mountains and restored the mill that had sat idle for more than 40 years. He spent 3 years getting it operating again. Now he grinds corn meal, grits and polenta using the same equipment that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather used. When he worked at IBM he was a Electrical Engineer doing computer programming work on the NASA Saturn/Apollo Space Program which placed the astronauts on the moon.

The drummer for the group, Eddie Graham, was the drummer for Elvis Presley for a few years. I could see why Elvis hired him - he was very good. He also has played for many other big name entertainers plus heading up his own bands.

We really enjoyed the day. Great entertainment and the price was right - free but for the first time in the 6 years they have done this, the mill owner passed around a bucket to collect money for the band members plus all water sales went to the band.

Day 20 - Wednesday 8/27/14 Well Happy Birthday to me. We did our normal morning walk followed by breakfast then drove South on the Blue Ridge Parkway to an area called Little Switzerland for lunch at the Little Switzerland Café. We ate here a couple of years ago and they had really good sandwiches. They didn’t disappoint us today either - very good. Then we went next door to a book/coffee shop and had a latte and cappuccino.

From there we drove back North on the parkway and stopped at The Historic Altapass Orchard. We had heard there would be a music jam session going on there. The music was good. While we were waiting for the music to start Lena checked out the things for sale and found that their pint jars of honey sold for $18. We have bought three pint jars from our campground neighbor for $6 each which is about the going price for pure honey from the bee keepers in most places we have purchased it.

Then we returned to the campground and read to almost dark. We packed up all the outside stuff in preparation for leaving here tomorrow. We will be going to Doughton Park near milepost 240 on the parkway for 4 days so this might be the last post for a few days as we will probably not be able to get a cell phone signal there to allow us to get on the Internet.