Mount Mitchell

We slept in Saturday.  Our goal was Mount Mitchell, the highest spot East of the Mississippi.  But first some reminiscing along the way. In the early 90s I used to take CC to Rutherford County airport to eat at the 57A cafe.  That used to be the airport code but it has since changed. The cafe never made sense to us.  It had about 8 seats and was run by a guy named John that both cooked and played guitar while you ate.

Never could figure how this place stayed in business and surprise it has been running 27 years.  One more fun fact it was only open 3 hours a day for 6 days a week.  The place was only a 10 minute detour on our mountain trek. We headed to Rutherford but stopped to take a stroll at the Purple Mountain Greenway, the big attraction in town.  It was a nice walk, nothing spectacular but was a good way to build our appetite.

We arrived at the airport and there it was, just like I remembered.  I had looked it up online and knew he opened promptly at 11. We walked in at 11:02 and found John but no food.  He had hurt his shoulder and was in too much pain to cook. We ended up chatting a bit and then with hungry bellies headed off to the mountain.

The drive to Mount Mitchell takes you up some winding roads.  We again interacted with drivers that liked to brake on the straight always and come to near stops in the turns but eventually we made it up the mountain.

We enjoyed the views and can now say we have been to the highest place East of the Mississippi (6684 feet). It does not compare to the Rockies but was a lot of fun.  On the way down we took the side nature trail. It was cool up there, low 40s. We had Jackets and gloves as we walked along the shady trail. There was a good bit of ice slowly melting and we kept passing people in shorts and T-shirts.  We are Floridians.

Heading off the Mountain, we once again got stuck behind slow pokes on the Parkway.  It is not just the slowness, it is the unpredictability of them braking at random, makes it much harder to pace behind them.  We did follow some people that were driving less than limit but predictably, it was much easier.

Eventually we came off the mountains.  We were getting hungry and I was on the lookout for food.  Saw several chains and then Smokey and the Pig was there and gone.  I spun around and headed back to check it out. CC had the pulled pork and I had the Brisket.  Food was very good and we met the owner. By the look of his Apron, he is in great shape.

We headed back via Lake Lure.  It was nothing special and we were soon back in Greenville.  Our friend had invited us for dinner so as the sun set we headed over.  He grilled some tasty steaks and we had a nice night eating and chatting. 

Saturday it was cold out for our departure (40F). The ride was a bit unusual. First we did not have much headwind and second we had no storms to dodge. I associate coming home from Greenville with a line of storms at Savannah to circumnavigate but today was clear.