By Kathy Ahrendt

On October 22 thirteen CVBMC members gathered for a fall foliage tour. We had been checking the foliage forecast for a week or so and it was listed as the possible peak weekend for viewing the fall colors. What we didn't know was that it was also the coldest weekend since March of this year. Brisk was an understatement.

We met at the Coffee House in Lenoir and headed for Wilkesboro to catch the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Parkway wasn't as busy as we had expected so we managed to get down to the Blowing Rock area with ease. Then we switched to some of the local roads that twist and turn making the LBCs prove that they are fun to drive.

Our first stop was at the Mast General Store in Valle Crucis. This is a local landmark and it has everything that you could ever want. We stopped for a while to see what was new and to make plans to head out to lunch.

At this point we "lost" two people to the call of antique shopping but gained two who live in the area. We drove off and headed to Beech Mountain to see what the view was like from the top of the mountain. It was very clear so we could see for miles. It was also very cold! Around 35 degrees according to the cell phone. Mittens and hats all around for those of us without side curtains.

We headed down the mountain to a local BBQ restaurant for lunch. We had a large party so we weren't sure how soon we could be seated (fall weekend + tourists + good weather) could have made for a long wait. We agreed to split up so we did get seated in a short amount of time.

After lunch and a fuel stop we headed back via Grandfather Mountain. And this is where we met up with about 10K of our best friends. . . the road was so crowded that we were going about 5 mph and the clutch feet and tempers were getting frayed . . . we all did a U-turn and headed down the road to take another route home.

We had a great time and got to see some new back roads of North Carolina. Thanks to David Poe and the Harris's for a great tour.