A wonderful mini-trip

What lovely adventure we had over the last couple of days. We headed out about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, going to Franklin, NC. We were meeting Stephanie - a long-time internet friend, but our first time in person.

After finding her house and getting acquainted with this lovely lady, we took her driving through the mountains to Bryson City, NC, and the Nantahala Outdoor Center. We ate lunch at a café right on the river, and were able to watch the rafters and kayakers for a while. We drove back to Franklin along a different twisty, mountain route - at least it was paved the whole way, and even had a yellow dividing line. LOL

After planning to meet for dinner, we took Stephanie home, then headed for our motel to check in. She had recommended a neat little restaurant, stuck onto the back of a filling station. We had wonderful dinners of sautéed clams (Stephanie and me) and mussels (John).

This morning, we started out in a lifting fog to drive a long, scenic route getting home - the Blue Ridge Parkway, through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and along the Foothills Parkway. This such incredible scenery and the weather was perfect! At lunchtime, we were in Townsend, TN. We were lucky enough to spot a Cuban Café, so we stopped for Cuban sandwiches - a definite winner. We finished up our excursion on the interstate, but only for about 60 miles and got home until after 4.

What a fun trip - a nice break. We’ll definitely have to do some more mini-trips like this one. Photos will come later.