Western North Carolina

"Not all who wander are lost."
--J.R.R. Tolkein

We returned yesterday from vacation. Our usual place for getting away is western North Carolina. On Sunday, we met some friends in Brevard and drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We took a little hike to a rocky overlook and ate some delicious pie from the Pisgah Inn Restaurant.
We stayed in a cabin on Cold Mountain, made popular in recent years by the book and movie. (Interestingly, though, much of the movie was filmed in Romania.) With a magnificent view, we stayed on the deck a lot, reading or just staring at the trees. I got in a great amount of hiking.
Having been a camp counselor in that area, I was reminded of the daily weather patterns. Our days would typically start out clear but by afternoon a storm would brew. On Wednesday night we got thunder and lightning and mucho rain. We slept with the windows open--a gift compared to our hot summer in the flats.
Our closest town was Waynesville. One day we drove over to Lake Junaluska, a United Methodist retreat center. Another day, we found an Episcopal retreat center and camp pretty close to our cabin. A kind man (the director?) greeted us on the road and gave us some of the history.
The gravel lane that led to our driveway didn't get much traffic. Maybe 10 cars in five days. Every time we heard the familiar crunch of gravel, we'd run to the deck ledge to see what kind of car it was. This is the kind of entertainment I seek on vacation.