October 23, 2010

Uncle York, Mrs Uncle York, and I drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday to view the beautiful colors and eat breakfast at the restaurant next door to the Mabry Mill. There was quite a wait because the restaurant closes for the season at the end of October, and hundreds of people enjoy the buckwheat and sweet potato pancakes as well as the Fall colors!
There are many, many produce booths along the parkway and in the small towns nearby selling mountain apples and cabbages, mums, sweet potatoes, and countless other fruits and vegetables. A wide variety of apples is available. We also saw numerous fields of pumpkins ready to be shipped to canneries or sold for jack-o-lanterns.
The colors weren't nearly as vibrant this year as in previous years probably due to a lack of rain this past summer,but it was still a most enjoyable day with the temperature being close to ideal in the lower to mid 70's.

October 2, 2010

The North Carolina 7th Cavalry participates annually in a Civil War Encampment & Living History at Laurel Hill near Ararat, North Carolina. I started attending these presentations several years ago when the father of one of my students, a member of the NC 7th Cavalry, let me know that he'd be participating.


I've attending each year since then because Private Bullock makes sure to stop by school to let me know when they're held. This year his daughter is in my fifth grade class and is participating in the Living History weekends herself, much to the delight of her dad.

If you get a chance to view one of these presentations, please do so because they are an accurate portrayal of a part of the history of this great nation. We would not have become so great without having been sorely tested and tempered first!