Today I experienced the all too famous quickly changing weather scenario on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Judy and I were driving up 215 to the Parkway. It is a wonderful and beautiful drive and I must have told Doug fifty times I was going to come back to this road while we were on it when he was here. On a Tuesday there wasn't much traffic and we were able to amble at our own pace. I had sworn Judy to secrecy and to never divulge anything about my poor decision on a one lane road and how Miss Dyslexic even with a backup camera came back down the hill. But here I am telling you something about that. It all happened at Camp Logan and what happens at Camp Logan stays at Camp Logan except for the extra mud on my truck. Anyway, such a beautiful drive and we came upon the Parkway and we were headed for Graveyard Fields. Except we encountered fog of the worst kind...really bad. In fact, we drove past Devil's Courthouse and I made a mental note to stop at the overlook on our way back to take a picture of all the water coming out of the rock. Only thing all the fog had rolled in and the rock wasn't even visible. Nothing much was visible. It seemed like one could take a step into the mist and be in heaven but we knew better than that and pretty much stuck around the car. We came back down 215 in order to stop and take some pictures of waterfalls and trees. Then we drove over the back way to Waynesville for lunch. We had a great day and hope another trip is in our future or lunch.
Now it is Wednesday. I should have worked more on my blog last night but I sat around and read too long into the evening. Everything is pretty much ready for our guests this weekend, but there are always the last minute things that need to be done. Hopefully, I can knock a few of those off the list this evening and finish up tomorrow.
This time last year Dena and I were staying at the Inn on the Biltmore Estate and got up early to take the first shuttle over to the house because it was the day they were bringing in the huge Christmas tree to be arranged in the banquet hall and decorated. It was very exciting and such a fun thing to do. Today, I was in the area, over in Biltmore Village but not on the estate to see all the happenings. I did see all the traffic as cars were lined up in so many lanes of traffic trying to get onto the estate. I took the left and found a parking place. I had breakfast at the Corner Kitchen and then I did some walking around the village browsing through shops. Only at Williams Sonoma did I buy something and only some holiday tea and holiday swizzle sticks for hot chocky. My hair appointment was at noon and since Christine had just been to NYC and had learned a new technique with having a razor cut, that's what she did. She always takes the opportunity to help her interns or lower level stylists learn, so Kelly was there watching it all happen. As Christine described me I liked how after tall she said and Nancy...ok, she is scrambling for another word for fat or big...has a presence when she enters a room. Now that was right nice of her to say that...time for a bunny trail...On a drive home from being up here Roy and I were having great conversations and we were there in Jackson Mississippi going onto I 55 when he says, everybody deals with their looks. The handsome and beautiful deal with their looks as they age and might not keep the outstanding looks they have possessed for most of their lives and then he said, there are the others like us, who dealt with our looks when we were younger...we knew we weren't a part of the pretty crowd, so you deal with it and hope for the best as the years go by. He is very insightful, that Roy. I like how Christine said presence because I thought about someone who said something once to me that really was a farce. This person, who wants to be the benevolent dictator says to me one day at church out of the blue, Nancy, do you know you're pretty? Now she was not saying this because I was but she thought if she said that to me, she was giving me some confidence that would be attributed to her and her insight but not power...this person never wants to give anyone power. So I responded, yea, all the time! Heard it all my life...gee, what made you say that? I can still remember how she looked so self satisfied as if she had given me a gift and I knew the deal was sealed in her mind, when the head tilt came. But then came the look of shock at my response. Well, that hadn't gone the way she had planned. Anyway, bunny trail and all, I like my haircut. It is getting less and less complicated and on my next visit...we are going to add back highlights. She is thinking in a coppery tone since my hair tends to the warm side. I don't know...I have gone that way before and I end up looking like this cranky lady that used to go to First Baptist. At least now I look like a younger Harper Lee and I am good with that.
I knew the crowd would have dissipated at the Biltmore, so I went over to take advantage of pass holder appreciation. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful drive. Still so much color to observe and commit to memory. I remembered that I 26 coming home was down to one lane, so I took an alternate route. Off the main highway I got behind a school bus which was delivering elementary kids home from school. The kids almost to each one would run to meet whoever was meeting them at the stop. Another thing, if they had to cross the street in front of the bus, they lined up and waited for the signal from the bus driver to go across the street. One stop along the way was a trailer park full of single wide trailers. A group of rag tag kiddos got off the bus but no one was there to meet them. The driver stayed longer at that stop watching each one reach a door. It was a sad looking trailer park and I have never noticed it before. The next stop was at another trailer house, that has tons of trash outside of it. The windows and what little curtains that were there just screamed hopelessness. The next stop was a latch key kid at a small home and he was very aware and trying not to forecast he had to pull a key out of his pocket to get inside the house. The irony of just being at the world's largest private home and then watching these little kiddos probably living below the poverty line and who knows what else exiting a school bus.
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