I'm back

I just spent a few days with my sister and I'm home now. We were working on some painting projects at a fixer-upper house that her son owns. I took Otis and Riley along with me. It's always a great time when my sister and I get together and you would think we wouldn't get much work done, but we do! I planned on staying 2 nights, but it ended up being 3!

So I'm a bit behind on blogging and will try to catch up with everyone in the next day or two.

Let me tell you about a road trip that Galen and I took over the weekend.

We packed our bags and put Otis and Riley in the car and off we go heading toward the Blue Ridge Mountains. Otis and Riley love road trips.

We passed through Yadkin Valley where a lot of the NC wineries are located. We didn't stop at any of the wineries this time because we've been to some of them before; Buck Shoals Winery, Rag Apple Lassie, West Bend, and others.

This is a great old general store. It's run by the Amish. I bought some sweet stuffed peppers.

Here we are in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We stayed the night at the High Meadows Inn in Roaring Gap. Dogs allowed! What a great place and a lovely restaurant there too ~ Nickola's Restaurant.

I had a fabulous flounder dish.

Later, driving around we saw deer! Otis and Riley went nuts!

The next morning after breakfast we travel a few miles to Sparta for the "Blue Ridge Mountain Festival". All kinds of vendors ~ do you see those spoon wind chimes? I just had to have one!

Some entertainment ~ blue grass music, dancing and clogging.

Otis and Riley watch. Such good babies they are!

We get back on the Blue Ridge Parkway to see what else we can find to do.

We came upon the historical "Brinegar Family House" deep in the mountains.The Brinegars purchased it back in 1876 and lived there with their 3 children. They raised crops, preserved food, chopped wood, and even made their own shoes from leather they bought.

I love the garden ~ the old wooden fence and the plant markers. There were crops of flax, buckwheat, pumpkins, corn, and other vegetables growing.

This is their spring house.

Martin Brinegar died in 1925 from pneumonia. The State purchased the house in 1935. Caroline, his wife had a lifelong tenure to stay there, but chose to live with her daughter, Sarah, because she found it too noisy. She died in 1943 at the age of 82.

After visiting this site, it was back in the car again and we head south for home.

That's our road trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We had a fun, relaxing time!