Cabin Repairs, Hwy 64, Blackrock Mountain SP

 

Blairsville, Georgia (high 68, low 48)

On Tuesday, we drove north through Dillard, Georgia and had a delicious lunch at the Cupboard Cafe.  We ate there when we were here the last time and I’ve been dreaming about their fried okra ever since.  It was as delicious this time as it was the last time, plus I had some of their equally delicious collards.  Yummy.

I caught Al’s cold and I wasn’t feeling great on Tuesday, but I figured I could manage a drive, especially since I didn’t have to drive.  :)   Hiking was out though.

After lunch we went to Black Rock Mountain State Park.  It’s one of the nicer parks in the area and when we were there last it was a clear sunny day.  Unfortunately, it was foggy on Tuesday, so the views weren’t as spectacular.

The ride up there was quite nice.

  

 

Despite the fog, it’s still a pretty nice view.

 

We didn’t stay long because I was freezing.  I think I had a chill due to my cold, because Al was fine.   We went into the park gift shop and bought ourselves a sweatshirt.  It warmed me right up.  :)

 

After we left the park, we decided to up to the very scenic Hwy 64 that goes east/west  through North Carolina. 

It’s one of several scenic highways in this area.

Unfortunately, we again forgot to clean the front window and neither of us felt like bothering at this point, so many of my pictures didn’t turn out too well.

It’s a nice road with shoulders and not too many sharp turns.  You can actually drive and look around, as opposed to some of these roads where the driver can’t really take his eyes off the road.

The higher we went, the more color we saw. 

 

Al is outside right now (in the dark) cleaning the windshield!   Many of these roads have no place to pull over, so if you want a photograph, you have to take it through the windshield.  So….today we’ll be prepared!

The trip home was a little rough for me.  I had so much drainage in my throat that it made me cough, and it eventually made me sick to my stomach, to the point where I had an accident all over my new sweatshirt,lap,  camera bag, etc…..  That darn automatic door lock was my downfall!!  I couldn’t get out the door fast enough!

anyway….

I have been hesitant to take any cold medicines because of the high pressure issue I have had with my eyes.   There are a lot of meds that I’m not supposed to take, but that night I took 1/3 of a Benadryl to dry me up.   It worked, I slept well and when I awoke the next morning my cold was pretty much gone.  Of course I had been taking my heavy doses of Echinacea   (4 pills 3 times a day).

On Wednesday, the guy came to replace some boards on the side of the cabin.  We didn’t notice when we bought it (too excited I guess) that the boards were warped and water could get inside.  We got an estimate a few weeks ago and Wednesday was the day he came out to do the repairs.  You can tell I was still not up to par, because I never even thought about taking pictures.

He finished early afternoon and we decided since rain was coming, we had better stain it.   We knew the stain we had been using wasn’t going to match since it had darkened due to weathering.  It didn’t.   So now we have one side that doesn’t match at all.   We used Cabot Timber Oil stain.  It’s a waterproofing stain and they say you can’t put on another coat until it weathers off, or it will peel.  We bought a darker color, but they didn’t have many choices so it doesn’t match.  Nothing we can do about it now.  We’re hoping the sun will darken it over the winter and we’ll see what we can do next summer.   Again, no pictures.

Thursday was movie day since it rained most of the day.  We watched the new Great Gatsby and a true story called The Imposter.   We  enjoyed both.

Today, our plans are to head to North Carolina to drive the 37 mile Cherohala Skyway.  When we were there last the colors were starting to change, so we’re hoping for a scenic and colorful ride.

Before we go, we’re going for a very unhealthy breakfast of country ham, eggs and grits!    

Stay tuned for lots of pictures tomorrow!