10/14/08 (Tuesday): We're enjoying our last couple of weeks here. Yesterday and today we took drives on the Blue Ridge Parkway, where the autumn colors are just fantastic.

Yesterday's drive took us as far as the little town of Spruce Pine where we visited the Mineral Museum of NC. The town was established in 1907. It is located in the Toe River Valley, almost to the Tennessee line. Spruce Pine is home to one of the richest deposits of gems and minerals in the world. Mined for its mica, kaolin and feldspar, the area provides over 90% of raw materials used in plumbing fixtures, and Spruce Pine feldspar is found in many home computers. The quartz in this area is ultrapure, and virtually every silicon computer chip in the world came from this area, which is nicknamed "Silicon Mountain."

It was a gorgeous day--warm sun, cool breeze, very little traffic, good company and magnificent autumn color. Here are a few of the gazillion photos I took (there seemed to be another great shot around every bend in the road).

The picture below was actually takaen from a McDonald's parking lot!

Today was another one for the record books. We decided to re-visit Linville Falls and see how it looked with autumn colors rather than the spring blooms of our last visit. The area around the falls is studded with virgin hemlock, white pine, oaks, hickory and birch. It's a great combination this time of year--the colors were so beautiful.

As you can see, it's even prettier in the fall. We enjoyed a great meal at a BBQ restaurant in the nearby town of Linville.



All this beauty, and another day off tomorrow. It doesn't get much better!

10/9/08 (Thursday): Autumn is falling on Boone! About a third of the leaves in the high country have changed, but when you go down the mountain, it's still pretty green. Here are some pictures we took today on a (rainy) drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway after work.





Gorgeous, isn't it?! We've also got some great color going right here in the campground. Here's a shot from our front patio.We had two little adventures last week. We went to Hiddenite, NC, and sifted the creek for gems. It's pretty amazing--you get some beautiful stones in just about every sifter! I'm in the process of identifying what we found and I'll post some pictures another time.

We also took a drive into Tennessee and enjoyed some great autumn scenery.

This is the Toe River (really!). The road followed along its banks for a ways. Very peaceful.


Look closely and you'll see that these folks have lined their whole driveway with pumpkins!

When I was a kid, we used to see barns all over Southern Maryland with tobacco hanging to cure. I haven't seen that since then until we passed this small barn with tobacco hanging in it. Brought back some great memories!

And that's a wrap for another great adventure!