Thanksgiving in the country

On Thanksgiving Day, we took our normal tour of Eastern North Carolina. We left Wilmington in the morning and arrived in Snow Hill to have dinner with Donna's extended family. It was fairly cold and overcast so all of the kids stayed inside for the most part. Since the weather did not permit too many candid family photos, I took the opportunity to snap some pictures of the barns and farm equipment that was on their property. Some of the stuff is really old and I was able to get some great colors and textures.

Thanksgiving in the country slideshow (29 images)



After Snow Hill, we drove to Havelock to visit my grandparents. Grandma was crazy spry and made some great coffee for me. Grandpa was full of stories as usual. After Havelock, we drove to Davis to visit my parents before heading back to Wilmington before midnight. It was a very long day but I enjoyed spending time with family and friends. Waking up at home meant we could head out at 6am on Black Friday to get some deals. I'm still reeling from all the receipts on Friday.

Football Playoffs

I was able to get out to the 2nd round of the NC State high school playoffs on a cold Friday night. Hoggard played county rival New Hanover for the second time of the season and looked very strong in the 49-15 win. Did I mention it was a really cold night?

New Hanover at Hoggard slideshow (57 images)

Being Mindful

We decided to take a leisurely Sunday drive through Cades Cove in Tennessee on a recent getaway. At least it was intended to be leisurely. As it turned out, the place was packed which still would have been okay if some folks had been mindful of others. You see, there are lots of scenic areas in Cades Cove from old churches and homesteads, to glorious views of fields and mountains, to wildlife. About the wildlife... There seemed to be a good number of deer out on Sunday so naturally, people wanted to get out and take a peek as well as snap a few photos. However, these folks either did not see or read the signs about using the pulloffs to allow others to pass by. We ended up bumper to bumper 50 cars deep at one point. When we got to the top of a hill, we saw the culprit…a little white Nissan in the middle of the road looking at some deer in a field. It really got me thinking about how someone could be so oblivious as to not pull over and let 50 cars by especially with pulloffs available. I also began thinking of my actions and how they may affect others. This isn’t some sort of “walk on eggshells around everyone” type of thing but rather the idea of being mindful of others as we go throughout our day. I can only imagine the domino effect like ripples in a pond that one driver caused on a Sunday afternoon by not being mindful.

General Lee

Here are some fun pics of a childhood icon...the General Lee. We were heading back to NC on 441 North. As we entered Gatlinburg, TN, Donna and I both saw the General. Fortunately, there was no one behind me because I hit the brakes pretty hard and turned into the parking lot. Each of us had our pictures taken with the General when were were young although neither of us can find the Polaroid images.




Here's a shot Donna took of me taking photos:

View From Look Rock

We found a road just west of Townsend, TN called the Foothills Parkway West. It was a nice two-lane road about 17 miles long that ended at Abrams Lake. About halfway along the parkway is a place called Look Rock. At the top of Look Rock is a tower which has 360 degrees views of the mountains and valleys below. The 1/2 mile hike to the top is pretty strenuous though. I'm not a big fan of heights so when I saw a spiral staircase with see-through steps, I started getting a bit worked up. I convinced myself that I was going to tough it up. But when we arrived at the staircase, we saw that it was locked. Darn.



View approaching Look Rock tower:



Seriously, the staircase was locked:



I think the architect may have been a Star Wars fan. Compare the two images below with the ones up top.

I See Dead Maple

I was really hoping to take some great photos on our recent trip to western NC. You know the kind…the full page spread of lush red and gold leaves. When we drove through Asheville, I really got my hopes up because the trees were still in decent shape. However, about 15 miles west of Asheville, most of the trees had already lost their leaves. I knew that we would be pushing it heading west so late in the season but due to some scheduling issues, this past weekend was our first opportunity to get away. There wasn’t too much fall foliage left where we were staying in Sylva or Cherokee. I was pretty beat up about it and it took me a few hours to get the sulking out of my system. The next day we headed over to Townsend, TN and found a road called the Foothills Parkway and it didn’t disappoint as there was more color there than anywhere on our trip. We even found a half-mile trail to Look Rock which I’ll write about soon. The views were majestic and the color was amazing. Our next Fall getaway to western NC/eastern TN will be next mid-October to make sure we hit the leaves at the peak of the season.

Western NC when I was being mopey:



Eastern TN when I saw some color:

Sylva at night

They say that the Jackson County courthouse is the most photographed courthouse in North Carolina. I figured I would just add to those stats. The courthouse sits on top of a hill in Sylva as it looks straight down the Main Street corridor. Sylva is this quaint little town in western NC that is quickly becoming one of our regular stops in the mountains.

Fusion 2006

A couple of weeks ago, Port City Community Church had "an experience for small group leaders" called Fusion. It was a fantastic night of music, food, worship and message. I'm a big fan of tension fabric so I thought the set looked great. The David Pray Trio performed during the dinner and, as usual, was amazing. After the dinner, Chris Kuhne, Olivia Cheyne and Duane Mixon led worship which was followed with a talk by Mike Ashcraft. The small group leaders have such an impact on so many people and it was nice to have an evening set aside for them.

Check out the slideshow from Fusion 2006.