Blowing Rock is the tourist shopping destination for the High Country. So, our last day with brother and SIL, we loaded up and drove the very short distance to BR. The downtown is about 2 blocks of small retail shops, many of them galleries showing fine artwork and jewelry. We poked through the shops, brother and Stuart spending most of the time waiting outside on the sidewalk. It rained last night, so all the convenient benches are wet. Our last stop downtown was the BR museum. Nice display of old hotel pictures, and a chatty volunteer manning the tiny place. Lunch. On the bypass, a good barbeque place that just called out to us. Woodlanders. On the wall just inside, there is a framed thank you note from Billy Graham. With the note, a photo of BG, with George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter taken at the opening of the BG Library last year. Woodlanders catered the lunch, which was apparently much enjoyed. And to think we just stumbled on the place! Our waitress was awol for a while. We learned, when she returned, that there was a woodchuck in the parking lot who had caught the attention of all the kitchen staff. Doncha love a small town?
Thursday, after brother and SIL loaded up and headed east, Stuart and I went to the Moses Cone National Park. It's an estate on the Blue Ridge Parkway, just outside of Boone. Moses' father moved to America in the mid-1800's from Germany. Changed his name from Kahn to Cone. Moses lived the American dream of working hard and making big money. In 1896 he and his wife bouhght 3,600 acres of land around Flat Top Mountain. Between 1899-1901 they built a 14,000 sq. ft. house on the land. He died a few years later, Bertha lived many more years. She left the estate to the hospital in Winston-Salem, who gave it to the National Park Service when the Parkway was built in the mid-1950's. Today, the house is an American folk art gallery, and the estate is a quiet place for hiking and wildlife. The 25 miles of old carriage roads are open for hiking and horseback riding, not cars allowed. Stuart and I hiked to the family cemetary, picnic on my back. It was terribly windy, so we hunkered down behind a little ridge to eat. If the wind had not been blowing to wildly, we would have hiked further. The trail led us through some pasture land, and up a ridge for great views.
Dinner over the campfire, just the two of us tonight. Lovely day.
Thursday, after brother and SIL loaded up and headed east, Stuart and I went to the Moses Cone National Park. It's an estate on the Blue Ridge Parkway, just outside of Boone. Moses' father moved to America in the mid-1800's from Germany. Changed his name from Kahn to Cone. Moses lived the American dream of working hard and making big money. In 1896 he and his wife bouhght 3,600 acres of land around Flat Top Mountain. Between 1899-1901 they built a 14,000 sq. ft. house on the land. He died a few years later, Bertha lived many more years. She left the estate to the hospital in Winston-Salem, who gave it to the National Park Service when the Parkway was built in the mid-1950's. Today, the house is an American folk art gallery, and the estate is a quiet place for hiking and wildlife. The 25 miles of old carriage roads are open for hiking and horseback riding, not cars allowed. Stuart and I hiked to the family cemetary, picnic on my back. It was terribly windy, so we hunkered down behind a little ridge to eat. If the wind had not been blowing to wildly, we would have hiked further. The trail led us through some pasture land, and up a ridge for great views.
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