Sunday On The Blue Ridge Parkway

Something of a photo essay; Sara and I went up to do some photography of the fall leaves on the Blue Ridge Parkway; we entered off of I-26 on the south side of Asheville, and headed north, leaving the parkway at NC 80; along the way we passed Mt. Mitchell, the highest mountain in the eastern half of the US.

Because we went during the early morning, the sun was bright and washed out much of the colors of the sky and the foliage.





There were a fair number of people on the Parkway, most of them armed with cameras:









When we came down off the mountains we were in the town of Pleasant Garden, NC; we ate some barbecue at Smokey Que's, where they have an unusual BBQ cooker out near the road in addition to the ones in the kitchen:



Here's the restaurant itself:



When we arrived several of the local police were inside the restaurant, just finishing up a meal. After they left one porky corporal lingered outside talking to an elderly gentleman, as I watched I noticed that the corporal had a habit of resting his hand on his sidearm, as if he were expecting every moment to engage in a gunfight. No pic, I didn't think to carry the camera inside the restaurant with me, but I have to think that the corporal is going to one day find himself in a world of hurt if he doesn't learn to keep his hand off his pistol unless he's about to draw it. Being from a mountain town in NC, maybe his boss only lets him have one cartridge, kept in his shirt pocket.

As for the barbecue it was pretty good; the restaurant offers about 5 different sauces you can top it with. Accompanying the 'cue was corn fritters and french fries, along with the usual hush puppies; these pups were of the spherical variety, and if you've read my 'cue reviews before, you know that I have a low opinion of ball-shaped hush puppies, and these were simply confirmed my prejudices.

We got back to Charlotte around 3:30. All in all, a pretty nice little trip.