Happy Birthday, Francine!

We just met her at Thanksgiving, but she instantly became a family favorite. Today is her birthday and I do hope she realizes how much she means to all of us. We hope to see her again soon.

Happy 22nd Birthday, Amanda

Okay, this year is playing havoc with my concept of age. I simply cannot believe this daughter of mine is 22! What a beautiful young lady she is! Happy Birthday, my oldest child, I love you.

Murder Mountain Ride

No, there's no "Murder Mountain" in WNC. This ride derives it's name from two interesting sites we passed along the route. What message do you see in this skywriting?

The ride started on NC 80 between Spruce Pine and Burnsville. We took the parkway to get to NC 80.

Flag at Craggy Gardens.

The Driver.
The Navigator.

Such oldness still out in the country. We spotted this old crank type gas pump on NC 80 just before getting to Kona where the title of our ride got its name.

April is showing her true colors.


Just passed the yellow bells was the quaint town of Kona - not much of a town now but it used to be a feldspar mining town until the EPA shut it down because the people were suffering from "white lung." As we rode through the town, we noticed the church with a graveyard in the back.

Not just any graveyard, though, this one holds a few entertaining stories.

According to the sign, George Silver, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, is buried here.

He was born in 1760 and died at the age of 79. Now the fact that he was a War veteran is cool enough but add in that his son is also buried here and now you've got a real story.

This is the head stone of Charlie Silver, son of the Revolutionary war veteran, George. He was born in 1812 and was murdered by his young bride three days before Christmas in 1831 at the young age of 19. THIS is why the ride is called, "Murder Mountain."

Notice the three gravemarkers with the initial CS? Well the story goes like this: Charlie married Frankie - a small girl barely 5 feet tall and not more than 90 pounds. One night Charlie came home (many think after carousing around) and Frankie was so enraged with him that she used her axe and murdered him.

She then scattered him around town. They took her to trial and the townsfolk found most of him and buried him. After the funeral, a few more parts were found and since it wasn't proper to disturb the grave, they buried those parts right next to the original grave. A few days later, they found even more of Charlie - thus he has 3 graves.

I thought it was kind of ironic that Kona Road was a Dead End :)

This is George and Charlie's cabin in the valley of Kona. It was built in 1794 and is still one of the largest homes in Kona with two stories and two chimneys.

We saw lots of these signs on this ride up to the mountain part of the ride.

We went through Loafer's Glory, home of the Bonnie & Clyde restaurant.

And this very patriotic house right on the river. The other side of the home sports a waterwheel but we were traveling to fast for me to get a good enough shot of it.


Okay, yes, I'm cheesy. But who can pass through the small community of Bandana without taking this picture?

At the top of Roan Mountain, we were on the Tenn/NC state line.

Roan Mountain and Carver's Gap are considered some of the most popular national forest land in TN. Behind Frank is Carver's Gap and the grassy balds.

Our ride for the day. Now 21 years old! Wow! Still love riding her every chance we get!

On the final leg of the trip through Burnsville we saw all these quilt squares painted on barns, homes, and businesses. One day I've got to go back and find them all. One day when I'm not on the back of a two-wheeler.

Foggy Morning Drive

This morning I had to be at Blue Ridge Community College for the Our Kids, Our Future Event. On my way, I kept seeing all the fog rising off the ground and over the apple blossoms. It was beautiful. All the while I was wishing that the camera in the seat beside me had a memory card. Ugh. All of a sudden it hit me that it did have one in it. I missed all the really great shots but here are three I managed to capture before the fog was gone and before it was my time to volunteer at the event.

Happy 21st Birthday, Amy

Hillary & Zack

This is Hillary, she is like one of my kids! She and I work together at the paper and she is always such a pleasure. She calls me her work mama and we are pretty sure, based on how much our parents are alike, that we are related. I love that she has found this super guy, Zack, to go out with. I know she reads my blog so I wanted her and everyone else to know how special she is to me. She is one of the best people you will ever meet. She loves God and is a constant reminder to me of how good He is. I thank him every day for her presence in my life.

Happy Easter

John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.








Today we celebrated Easter at Mom and Dad's with Angie's family. We had delicious ham, potato salad, beans, mashed potatoes, pineapple casserole, mac n cheese, and strawberry shortcake ... and wonderful fellowship! We also got to see 'Paul's' biggest fan - Diesel and his mom and dad, Ashley and David.



I'm so glad to have this time with my family. I'm including some of today's pictures along with some from last night's egg-dying. Frank had fun tye-dying the eggs to put into Harmony and Xyla's baskets. Hopefully we will get to see them soon, too.

Cascade Lake

Today, I had to go out Crab Creek Road to visit with a customer so I decided to take a trip around the loop I grew up on in Little River. I remember how much I hated riding the bus up to Cascade Lake and Campground but decided today I would drive up and see if it was as bad as I remembered. It's comforting to know that we do grow out of our fears but all the memories of turning around in the school bus and riding down the bumpy curvy road came flooding back. One thing I had never done before was get a look at the boat ramp. I didn't realize there was such a pretty view up there. When I started the trip I was looking for an old rusty truck in a field, what I found was this very serene view of the sky reflecting on Cascade Lake. Nice how God puts in front of me what I need instead of what I want. The lake was just the peacefulness I needed. (PS>Mama, I went by Judy's but it was either too early or they just weren't there.)