Life can get hectic and sometimes you just need to get away. That's exactly what we did last weekend. We packed up our tent and headed to Boone, NC. Of course, our getaway was coincidentally timed to match a gathering. And we coincidentally had camp sites right next to the Flory Family and the Little Foxes.
The gathering was very laid back and wonderfully put together. Thanks Shoafsters for all you put into it, especially all of the planting you and Sweet and Sour did. We were able to find many boxes and see most of the highlights of Boone and Blowing Rock.
The Boone Greenway is home to several boxes. Our fambly had a wonderful walk first thing Saturday morning on this paved trail. Walking it left us longing for one in our town. The girls slowed us down a good bit, though, and it wasn't because of their walking speed. It was all of the jewelweed lining the path. They love popping
the seed pods.
Bring a picnic lunch and make a day of it. There is a baby apatasaurus that needs to be rescued, after all.
When we returned to the shelter we found the playground series. The girls loved digging them out of the sand. What a neat idea. There were several very cool event stamps. I especially loved the shredded carrots. That had me fooled, for sure. I'm glad I didn't get a spoonful of PZ cut on my salad. I blinked and almost missed Mama Wolf-with no cubs in tow- and jeepsterhound. I did miss Mountain Scorpia. I think she was somewhere acquiring the sweet nectar of life I like to call good coffee.
After spending a good part of the day here, we headed back to the campground where the dads and kids wanted to stay. Considering the awesome rope swing, the river full of trout and the cool bouldering area that came with our campsites, I don't blame them.
But Erica and I were itching to get at those boxes, so we headed out and got a few on our own. We got some of our passport stamps and ran into The Little Foxes along the way.
We returned to camp just in time to make dinner and smores. Yum!
The whole time we were licking the sticky off of our fingers, though, we were remembering which boxes we had missed. So Erica Flory and I decided to find some in the dark after the kids had nestled down in their sleeping bags. The dads held the tents down while we were out on the town. Hey, at least it was letterboxing. And we managed to NOT attract the attention of any police. We did learn that one of the boxes is near a gazebo that is lighted all night, great for midnight log-ins. And the Performing Arts Center looks even more magical at night when it is all lit up. However, for the Blowing Rock box we highly recommend 2 flashlights with working batteries. There is a bit of a drop off there. We did make it back safe and sound.
Sunday we said goodbye to our camp buddies and hit the road with as many boxes mapped out on our way as possible. We really didn't need to say goodbye to our buddies, though because we saw them again and again along the way. We never knew who was following who.
The Candy Barrel was a great stop for the kids. And then we, of course, had to go see the original Mast General Store. We were treated to live bluegrass music on the back porch.
Now our only passport stamp left was the Grandfather Mountain one. We mapped the parkway boxes out and got one or two, but were short on time. Since 'd' had been so patient we did the viaduct with him.
He loves engineering feats and had never driven this section of the parkway. It was amazing. The Missing Link had to be one of our top ten all time favorite boxes EVER! We are all about the place when it comes to boxes and this box was in such a wonderful place. But then the stamp turned out to be a treat, as well. WOW!
We finished up our trip with a stop at Grandfather Mountain. It was a sweet victory to get every box in that passport filled in. To top it all off, the last box was near monuments to two of my favorite botanists, Asa Gray and Andre Micheaux. Micheaux is known for discovering Oconee Bells, a subject of one of our Woodland Wildflowers series. His feet have trod Grandfather Mountain in search of the many diverse flora and fauna. I hope that ours will follow one day.
After finishing our passport, we were content to ride off into the sunset. Too bad we had to go back to the real world!
