With family in Florida

It's not like southern Black Mountain. It's just like itself...Florida. I'm in the central west area - Tampa, St. Petersburg to be exact.  And I'll be coming home by the time this gets posted anyway.  But I have a minute on this whirl-wind

visit, so will post some of the great photos that I have taken (ok, not so great, but attached to great memories and of course great relatives.)

After I looked at the above photo, I suggested that Will (in blue) open his eyes a bit more...and this is the result. My oldest son, Marty on the right, and his daughter Cayenne on the left.

So when Will and his sister admitted to both being aliens who could shape-shift (thus looking like this human person...) I kind of believed them!

They really are sweet kids, and blogger is playing around with the spacing and layout, which is driving me crazy.

They both tried to play with the cat...and you know how cats are...

Cat is black object lying on the tower. The cardboard robot behind (with square silver face and box for body and holding the broom handle) was part of some costume effort when my grandchildren were little.  The green bird on a wire is being flashed for the cat by my granddaughter, with little effect!

 My youngest son needed some new clothes, so we went to the Brandon Mall...and parked next to a Tesla. This is probably as close as we'll ever get to one!

 A 2 story merry-go-round looked like fun...but the bunny (?) hanging from the side was a bit scary.

I liked the Manatee fountain.

Not my style...and fortunately my son found almost everything he needed in one store.

Ah the dogwoods!

 

And a nice early azalea too!

Crossing the Mountains to Sea Trail

This is about as close as I'll get to this thousand mile trail.

 Apparently it comes up Mount Pisgah!

Looking north (other direction along the Blue Ridge Parkway) as we left Mount Pisgah.

Cathy used to go on this trail where it crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville.  I couldn't stop and take a photo there, it's near the US-74 exit though.

And I have also seen it on Mt. Mitchell ( tallest mountain east of the Mississippi) as I climbed the path up to the top viewing platform.  Here's my photo that I took of it, many months ago!

OK I "duck duck go'd" it, the Mountains to Sea trail is 1140 miles from end to end.  Here's their site.

Flying down the road!

You have very little opportunity to take photos when flying down an interstate highway (as the driver at least.)  So I was happily surprised that some of these actually show what I was aiming at.

 One of the steep grades downhill as I left North Carolina a few days ago.

 After leaving the parking lot known as Interstate 95, I was glad to pull over at the Georgia Welcome Center.  Here even worse slow traffic is going from right to left headed north.  I had pretty bad cross-winds the whole way on Wed. afternoon on I-95, but felt for the slower traffic going north.  And there's one of many Walmart trucks I passed (reminding me of my cousin who drives one!)

I broke up my drive to give my feet a chance to have blood circulating...at my age that's more likely a problem than you'd imagine. They don't exactly go to sleep, just turn off, a worisome thing while driving.

The welcome center had some very nice displays...including this turtle replica.

By 5:00 pm I was thinking of stopping for the night in Brunswick, GA...my original plan.  Then I talked with my son, who I was headed to visit. We considered how on Friday there was due to be a huge line of thunderstorms coming across the south...so I said I'd try to get a bit further before I nested for the night. My aim was to stay somewhere near Jacksonville.

 But I zipped right around the outskirts, and then headed to Gainesvilel FL.  My trusty map guide on my phone gave me some good short-cuts, and before I knew it I was on the other side of my old Alma Mater town, (go Gators).

Paynes Prarie was suddenly there, as well as 20 or so cars parked along US 41 South.  I didn't know why, except I remembered this as a great place to see birds and stars.  I remembered I went to see Haley's Comet but it was too foggy.

 The full moon was just coming up on one side.

And the sun was going down on the other side of the car.

Once I got past Gainesville, I saw no reason to postpone till the next day the 2-1/2 hours of remaining travel.  And it was fun not having bad traffic nor the cross-winds when I got on I-75.  I just stopped one more time before I got to my son's house where I was welcomed by my grandson, Michael.  My son was home later in the evening, after I'd happily closed my eyes, while behind my eyelids the earth was still coming toward me between white lines at 80 miles per hour.

And the storm did come through, inundating my home town of Black Mountain NC, and giving a good dose of thunder showers in Brandon FL while we were eating lunch.  I would have pulled to the side of the road if I'd still been traveling.

Those mountains

Sitting in a rocking chair looking out over the mountains to the south of Mount Pisgah...oh that is the life.  But the sun was hot, and the air thin, and my friend sunburns easily, so we limited our time. Otherwise, I might still be sitting there!

 Great display of which mountains are which. I never figured it out however!

 Maybe they didn't figure out the display either!

 Those clouds cast wonderful shadows that played over the mountain slopes~

These folks have the right idea.  The road coming around the bend behind them is the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Pisgah Inn visit

 Fun display in the gift shop...after we'd eaten, then we felt leisurely enough to "window shop."
(Window shop just means "not buying anything.")

 Rather high quality post cards and other local art work...including some nice pottery!

 Here's the limitation of phone cameras...either too dark if you want to see the light naturally...

 Or too light if you want to see the foreground.  Oh well. Just looking.

 Fun book selection. I imagine sitting in a room in the nearby motel and reading something (especially on a rainy day, of which we've had plenty!)

 Or how about one liner signs to send to friends?

 Since the Inn and restaurant just opened April 1, there wasn't a big crowd like there will be in the summertime.

 The new viewing deck was almost for ourselves alone!

 I couldn't resist getting a multiple image through the window, to the other side of the gift shop, including yours truly reflected! The bright half of my face is of the little stained glass items on the other window with trees outside it.

Some of the structure of the viewing platform, which is handicap accessible.

More to come...of our journey before going through 9 tunnels on the way home on the Blue Ridge Parkway.