Concord to Lake Lure NC 10-23-15 to 10-28-15

10-23-15 Friday The campground was busy this morning with most everyone packing up and leaving for their next destination including us. We departed about 9:30AM and drove 100 miles to Apple Valley Farm Motorcoach Resort. We were here for two days in August. This is a nice quiet place surrounded by some nice mountain views. We set up in site 121, the same site we used in August. We have an appointment on the 30^th in Gaffney SC to get our motorhome serviced so we needed a place to stay until then.

Resort pond 

Entrance to Resort

After getting setup which only took a few minutes we drove to Chimney Rock to eat lunch at Genny's Restaurant. We ate there in August so we decided to try it again. They have a Chicken Fried Steak special that is really good.

10-24-15 Saturday After breakfast we decided to go to the Folk Arts Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville. We stopped at The Lake Lure Flowering Bridge Gardens in Lake Lure on the way. The state replaced a bridge over the Broad River with a larger modern bridge so the people in the community of Lake Lure have taken the old 1925 era three arc bridge and turned it into a beautiful flower garden. There is a winding stone paver walking path across the bridge and all kinds of flowers are planted along the path, with a few benches to sit on along the way. A very nice way to make use of an old bridge and create a beautiful attraction for the town.

The drive through the mountains to the Folk Arts Center was really beautiful as the trees are in their full Fall display of colors. The center was really busy with lots of people out enjoying the nice Fall weather. There was a professional woodturner there demonstrating so I got to talk woodturning with him a few minutes. We drove a short distance up the parkway before turning around to head back to Lake Lure. The traffic in Chimney Rock was really bad on the way back. There is only one road through the towns of Bat Cave, Chimney Rock and Lake Lure and there were lots of “Leaf Peepers” out enjoying the beautiful Fall colors. We were going to stop in Chimney Rock for lunch but could not find a parking place so we went on to Lake Lure and stopped at Lastrada Restaurant.

10-25-15 Sunday We walked around the resort a couple of times before breakfast. We relaxed, watched the NASCAR race and did some reading for the remainder of the day.

10-26-15 Monday We woke up to rain and it rained most of the day so we stayed in and read.

10-27-15 Tuesday It is still raining. We were getting “cabin fever” so we got our rain coats and drove to Chimney Rock to check out some of the shops and get something to eat for lunch. There were not many tourist today unlike Saturday when we could barely get through town. We stopped at the local Ingles grocery store to pick up a few items on the way back to the motorhome.

10-28-15 Wednesday It is still raining but is supposed to clear today so we decided to do some exploring around the area and hopefully get some good fall foliage photos. We stopped in Black Mountain at The Dripolator Coffee Shop for a latte and a cookie dough chocolate brownie. They make a really good latte and have a good selection of sweet treats.

Then we drove back along highway 9 and was able to get a lot of good photos since the rain had slowed down to just an occasional mist and before we got back to the motorhome it had stopped and the sun was out. The drive along highway 9 from Black Mountain to Bat Cave is a beautiful drive but do not take a large motorhome on this road. It has several very sharp curves.

Lake Lure