Saturday - Drive to Joe's Family Mountain Cabin

Pam and I were up and ready to go by about 10am, as per the plan. Joe and Elizabeth were going to meet us at Pam's place, we'd transfer their luggage into Pam's car, and the four of us would drive off for Joe's family cabin in the mountains.

Pam checked her voice-mail messages, and sure enough Joe had called earlier that morning. He said that Elizabeth had threatened death at the idea of waking up so early, so we were on an hour delay. Pam and I futzed around for stuff to do while waiting. We made sure we'd gotten everything we wanted/needed. We packed most of our stuff into her car. Joe called an hour later to extend the delay a little longer. Pam was doing a good job keeping low-key, but she had to give it a little effort. I was fine with it. Been married 20 years to a woman who was *always* late getting out for a trip. I'd learned well not to get overly upset at delays starting a pleasure trip. So I conveyed this attitude to Pam, and hoped it was helpful. Seemed like it was.

Finally 11:30 or so, Joe and Elizabeth arrived. I had a small suitcase, two pillows, and a fold-up chair. Pam had a couple bags, a fold-up chair, and a large cooler with lots of food-stuff (including the breakfast fruit I had brought). Joe and Elizabeth had rather quite a bit of luggage as well. And with all seats in Pam's car spoken for, most of it all had to squeeze into her trunk. Joe and I set to optimizing the trunk packing, and did rather an amazing job (wish I had a photo of it :). We had to put a fair amount of stuff in the passenger compartment, most of it soft stuff going between Joe and Elizabeth, and a little of it at my feet.

Climbed into the car, stopped off at a quick-mart for an OJ on the way out, and by Noon, we were on our way! Stopped off at a McDonald's near Greensboro an hour later, for a bathroom break and simple lunch. Pam and Elizabeth talked it up all through the drive and I joined in here and there, while Joe dozed on and off.
Cut North from I-40 just after Winston-Salem for 20 minutes, and then Northwest out towards the northwest NC/VA border. Crossed the Blueridge Parkway, and 10 minutes later, we were solemn-ing down a country road, with Pam's Mario Andretti-like race car driving, to the cabin.

Wine Tasting on the Blueridge Parkway

We arrived at the cabin at around 3pm. Stopped at a little side-of-the-road fresh produce store just before turning off the main road, so Elizabeth and Joe could pick up a few extra items for the cabin. The cabin was a modest looking place on a hill, with a lovely pond overlook in front, and a beautiful big tree-farm hill rising up on the other side of the road.

The home was much larger on the inside than it looked from the outside. An addition had been put on the back side of the original 3 bedroom house, with a very large den and equally huge fireplace on one floor, and wonderful large 4th bedroom on the 2nd floor. We unpacked the car, Joe and Elizabeth settled their stuff into the 4th BR, and Pam and I selected and settled into our BR choice on the 1st floor.

After settling in, we all hopped into the car again for to try to make it to a wine-tasting venue on the Blueridge Parkway. Joe showed us a short-cut through to the Parkway - a road that eventually became a nearly single-lane gravel path, winding it's way up to the Parkway road. Really pretty drive! The road came up to the Parkway suddenly, with a sharp up-hill stop. Joe warned about the uphill stop sign to the 'next road', but said it wasn't a very big deal cause the road is lightly traveled. Well Pam got nearly half way into the lane before stopping, and then we realized that this 'lightly traveled', no big-deal road was in fact the Parkway. Oy! Well, fortunately, there was nobody on the road when we jutted into it, so we pulled on, and drove south.

About 6 or 7 miles along, we turned right onto another side-road for maybe another mile or two, and then pulled into the winery, set into a slight valley. Interesting place, with a small-ish sales room. We browsed it for just a few minutes, but it was fast approaching their closing time, so we sat down for some of the wine tasting they had to offer. We tried small quantities of quite a few of them, while the tasting-guide explained them. Pam followed the sweet white varieties, and I followed the more full-bodied reds. We purchased a few bottles of our favorites, and headed back for the cabin.

Dinner back at the Lodge ;)

When we go back, Joe and I set about getting a fire going in the big den fireplace, and Pam and Elizabeth got started prepping dinner. One of the neighbors stopped by and chatted it up for a while. Later, Joe turned on a radio in the den. Pam and I chatted and danced a bit in front of the fire. Eventually we all sat down to dinner. Elizabeth had made a fabulous low fat, healthy lasagna, toasted up some french bread with garlic and butter, salad, wine, roaring fire, classical music. Pretty idyllic.

After dinner, we cleared and cleaned up the table. I switched the music back to the rock station it was on earlier. We sat in front of the fire and enjoyed the warmth, and being full, and a bit more wine. At around 10 or so, Joe changed into shorts and a T-Shirt. We joked with him, and so then I went and changed into shorts and T-Shirt as well. Added the touch of keeping my gray socks on with my flip flops. Pam was mortified, HeHe! At 11:30, we broke out the special cheesecake Pam had made for the evening -Mmmmm YUM. Shortly after, Joe started dozing off, so he turned in. Elizabeth and I set out prepping some chestnuts for the fire. She had picked them up at the road-side store earlier. We nipped off the ends (to keep them from exploding, as directed by the guy at the store), and put them into a heavy iron skillet. Then we stuck the skillet directly on the fire embers.

Unfortunately, none of us had ever done this before, and nobody had any idea how long to leave them on. Of course, we left it on too long, and when we finally took it off the fire, all the chestnuts were scorched. Oh well, it was fun to try :). We dumped the burnt chestnuts on the patio outside, and I stomped on them to make sure they weren't still glowing red and a fire hazard. Shortly after, Pam and I turned in. I'd have probably been willing to stay up a bit longer, but I had a small headache, which I managed to keep from getting any worse. But I was therefore tired, and an earlier night was a good idea.

Sunday - Breakfast in the Cool Crisp Morning

Pam woke an hour or two before me, and went out to walk the property. I was still nursing my headache, so I slept in for more rest. Got up around 11 I think. Joe, Elizabeth, and Pam had set the living room coffee table, along with 4 chairs from the dinette table, outside in the front yard. I microwaved up a hot tea, grabbed a plate of chow, and joined them. Crisp cold air, but sunny and no significant wind. Felt great. The overview of the pond and the hills beyond was a really nice breakfast idea. Elizabeth had fixed up a breakfast egg and spinach quiche the previous night. It was perfect, along with the fresh cut fruit, potato-bread, and cinnamon-rolls. Finally, we cleaned up from breakfast, put the table and chairs back, and packed up the car again for the drive south for the grand event in Statesboro.

!!! Balloon Festival !!!

We followed the directions Joe gave us down to I-40 and then into Statesboro. Followed the roads around the airport to a grass parking lot, paid the entrance fee, and settled into a spot on the field. The balloon event was setup on a huge open field (but of course). Around the edges were various vending kiosks, including a stage and live music. We split up and Pam and I wandered around checking out the handful of things up for sale. We wandered around to where some of the trucks and their balloon baskets were set out. Launch time was supposed to be at 4:30. It was getting late, and while yes we saw some balloon baskets here and there, and bunches of trucks and vans, it really didn't look all that busy. We wondered if the mass-launch was going to happen within any reasonable time of the published schedule.


At 4:30, the band stopped and the announcer came on to talk through the launch. The folks with their vehicles and equipment in the field got real busy rolling out their balloon fabrics, and getting going. One black colored balloon with a large AT&T logo on it started inflating. They inflate the balloons with regular unheated air, with one or two big fans just blowing air into them. The when maybe 80% full, looking partly deflated resting on the ground, they fire up their air torches on top of their baskets and aim them into the gaping balloons. After not too long, the large mass of balloon begins to rise vertical, until finally a handful of folks had to stand on the basket to keep it from lifting off.








Once the black AT&T balloon was ready, the announcer said something, the balloon's tether was unhooked, and the balloon went soaring up.




This was apparently the coordinated signal that all the other balloons could take off when ready as well, and the place became a frenzy of blowing fans filling balloons, fire-breathers torch-heating the air, people holding down their baskets, filling them with riders, and letting go.
I thought this was going to be pretty cool, but being there up close, walking in and around all of them doing this, it was way more exhilarating than I imagined it would be. Balloons everywhere. Bumping into each other on the ground. Dozens floating off into the sky in a visual cacophony of color and sight.



These things float up surprisingly quickly. I'm told that they give rides to people (for $100+) for about an hour or so. They float up and drift on the wind, wherever it takes them, and then come down and land. There's a 'chase' truck for each that follows it along on the ground - must be quite a task. They'll pick up the guest fliers, and drive them back to the launch point.

Tailgating, and the Drive Home

After the launch was over, the field cleared out. We all hung around until it was almost empty and the sun was setting before heading out to the car. We knew the egress was going to be a madhouse. Even so, the traffic from the lot was choked up. We had lots of food left over from the previous day, so when we got to the car, we simply tail-gated a while waiting for the traffic to finally start moving. We had bread, crackers, and cheese, and some wine while, and chatted. (No worries, our driver had half a glass of wine :).

Finally the traffic in the lot started moving well, and we drove off. The drive back was long, but we had good company. We got back to Pam's place at maybe 10pm or so, unpacked the car, and Joe and Elizabeth headed home.

A great weekend!