Blowing Rock Picnic

Sunday, August 8, 2005

Sunday dawned cloudy and overcast with scattered showers forecast.  But that didn't dampen the spirits of this gang.  There were roads to be driven and picnic baskets full of food to be eaten (not necessarily in that order!)  Seven cars showed up at the Exxon meeting point, gassed and ready to tour.  Two brave souls even had tops down!  We departed from the Exxon around 10:00am.  Thanks to intell from Roland Kennedy, our WSPD liason, we set the cruise on 70mph and headed down I-40 west to Hwy 421 towards Wilkesboro.  We had to make one slight detour up an exit ramp to stop long enough for those "two brave souls" to put their tops back up.  Weather would not be cooperating today!

We headed on to Hwy 268, which cuts across from Hwy 421 to Hwy 321.  Hwy 268 wiggles it's way across the valley of the Blue Ridge mountains.  On a clear day, it's really a beautiful drive.  Even in the misting rain, it's still not bad.  Once we hit Hwy 321 it was a straight shot to Blowing Rock. 

As luck would have it, we found the perfect picnic shelter.  It was set in the edge of the woods with a babbling brook running across the back (see Mickie for further detail on the "babbling brook").  The shelter was huge, appeared to be fairly new and even had sky lights to make an otherwise dark picnic, bright.  The ladies quickly set out the feast.  And feast is no understatement!  We had chicken caserol, potatoe salad, mixed green salad, cole slaw, pineapple caserol, deviled eggs, fried chicken tenders, sliced tomatoes and bread.  Shelly Hamon and Martha Harding had prepared dessert.  Martha (assisted by Mickie, we understand) made a delicious pound cake and Shelly made one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever eaten.  NO ONE left hungry!

After lunch, we packed up and headed over to downtown Blowing Rock.  We spent the next 2 hours browsing the shops along Main Street.  We topped off our Blowing Rock tour with a trip to the ice cream shop.  Next stop wasTanger Outlet Center.  The trick here was finding a parking place.  It's hard to bully a woman in "shopping mode" driving an SUV twice your size.. the SUV, not the woman.  We all agreed on a time and place to meet back up and then went our separate ways to shop. 

Since we had spent more time browsing and shopping than originally intended, we decided to cut our trip a little short.  Instead of driving the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way back to Hwy 52, we got off the Blue Ridge at Hwy 421 just below Boone.  From there it was a straight shot home. 

Thank you Shelly and Larry for organizing the trip.  Everyone had a great time! 

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