Hanging in Beaverdam

The long and winding road trip has us hanging in the sleepy hollow known as Beaverdam Gap just below the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's hot. Very, very hot. My Aunt says we are having a dog day summer. Life moves slow here, there's no internet at the house, so this Yankee has made friends at the closest coffee shop.

The thought of sitting next to 3 or 4 deputies every morning of my visit intrigued me. I was anticipating overhearing some really juicy crime investigation details. So far I've been disappointed and bored. It's just as well because I need to plow through planning out the last leg of our trip and manage all the minions in my life from afar.

Up Beaverdam

Hummingbirds antics occupy a lot of my time these days, they seem to love my dad's simple back porch. It's not unusual to have 7 of them buzzing around taking turns on the feeder. Walking up the creek, target practice with the bb gun, reading and picking flees off of the dog have my girls occupied much of the time.

Yesterday, we were all fed up with the unrelenting heat and lack of air conditioning so we did what any respectable mother daughter trio would do and made our way down the mountain to the nail salon for pedicures. It was an hour of bliss watching Judge Judy in the cool of the salon, having our bug bitten legs lotioned and rubbed. I caught up with the girls eating french fries at the diner next to the salon, who were not in the mood for my picture antics when I wanted a memoir of their purple and blue selections.

Today, we are going to drive up on the parkway in search of bears and hit the Arboretum. Then I'm getting a lesson canning green beans. Dinner today will be compliments of 12 Bones in Asheville because it's too darn hot to cook again.

Tomorrow begins our last leg of the long and winding road trip to our new home in Austin, Tx. We are stopping in Memphis and then continuing on through Little Rock, Dallas and through to get a look see at our new house near the eastern edge of Lake Travis. Mercy!