Stuck in the mountains

I'll start with showing this cabin that we have rented for a week starting Sunday night (10th).   We didn't see many pictures when we rented except some of flowers, but it turned out to be cute and comfortable.   (You read in the last blog that we have to spend time away from the boat while it's being repaired.)

 

 

I can't get the remaining pictures on this blog to go bigger as I usually can.  Sorry.

 

This is the coat rack.

 

 

 

Tom likes this very simple, but functional kitchen.

 

 

 

Now back a ways:  When Tom was working last week, I had chances to go out to find hikes around Knoxville.   I took one around a lake at Big Ridge State Park.  Toward the end I got to see this grist mill.  The sign that explained it was what touched me:  It said that everyone from every walk of life brought their corn there to be ground.  It turned out to be a big social event - they traded knives and horses, some played music and all got chances to visit with people from around the area.   Sounds like the nicest time.  We don't have many ways to meet and share needs and funs with others in our communities any more

 

 

The day after we left Tennessee, we explored North Carolina a bit.  Below is Tom looking out from the Falling Off Rock near Hendersonville, NC.

 

 

 

I have to tell you about the visit to Carl Sandburg's home.   It's a 247 acre national park that Sandburg's wifepractically gave to the country a couple of years after his death.   She left everything "as was" and walked away with a suitcase.  So it' not replicas of anything - it's all just the way they left it - a huge beautiful house overlooking the mountains with open fields and gardens.

 

Sandburg was a poet and biographer.   He got that way from traveling the country on the rails during the depression, learning to sing the songs he heard and accompanying himself on the guitar.   He was consulted by two presidents about how to be effective in communicating "with the people."   Below is where he sat to write each morning.

 

 

 

 

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I especially liked seeing the kitchen "a la" 1953.

 

 

His wife became renowned for raising the best goats, especially the best milkers.  She had the world's biggest producing milker record for ten years.  Descendents of the herd are kept there by volunteers who encourage people to enjoy and interact with the goats.

 

 

 

Tom came away from them saying he may want to raise a pygmy goat!

 

Sandburg wrote about how it's important for a man to get away from the worldly environment and think..  He often came to this chair site on a granite boulder near the house when it was nice to sit alone or write.    Tom looks just right there, maybe thinking high thoughts.

 

 

 

 

Okay, change of subject: today, we drove and explored the small town Saluda near the cabin.  Then we headed off to Lake Lure.   It turns out to be a beautiful lake set among mountains.  Many of the mountains have rock outcroppings that make them more dramatic than just plain 'ol mountains.

 

 

Toward the end of the day, we hiked up a steep mountainside at Florence Nature Preserve where we followed a small stream and eventually saw this small waterfall.  It is just so good to walk hard and breath hard, climbing up.