Furnace??? Heater??? 🍂

Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.

It's hard to believe but after months of 100° temperatures we are experiencing fall. On the Blue Ridge Parkway we have been having low 70's during the day and 50's at night. We tried the furnace early Monday morning to take the chill off. After all of the driving and rough roads you can never be sure anything will work but it did. Since electric is free with our site I notice Pat has the heater on this morning (Tues).

Had to break out my new slippers this past week. I miss Kriikit terribly but the dog smell in my old slippers was just too much and NOTHING would get rid of it

Beautiful and remote campground. Sites are huge, isolated, and come with a fire ring and table. Also, a few bugs.🦟🙃 Mosquitos don't bother Pat much but I offer them a feast!

"Careers" on a rainy, dreary Sunday. This is the 1965 version, I think, where $500 yearly tution was not unheard of for a state college. This game has been well used and the print is getting just a little hard to read. 

Late afternoon the sun unexpectedly came out. 

We usually see a fisherman or two on the fishing side. 

We've seen a few hearty kids swimming, or at least standing, on the platform with swim suits!

A separate koi, or maybe goldfish, pond.

Maybe in the next month or so we'll get some fall colors? I hope so! We're back to "living" now though. A lot of touristy stuff over the summer but more day-to-day stuff now as we get ready for our wintering months. We are actually back to cooking. In the heat the last thing you want to do is compete with the a/c, so simpler meals were the norm. In the last two weeks we've had Meditteranian bean soup, lasagna, pot roast followed by beef and noodles, apple crisp and Tuesday is a "stay-at- home" day with chores, Pat's BBQ ribs--yum, and oatmeal cookies!

Monday we took a strenuous hike, fortunately only 3 miles, from our campground to a waterfall. The path was well worn but it still felt like walking through a jungle. It was one of the most rugged trails we've been on, with very long, steep inclines. Despite the large quantity of tree roots, uneven, and steep terrain, I managed to NOT fall at all. I think I may have torn something in my knee last week when I fell so I tried really hard to go slow and concentrate. We went clockwise on the loop. When we got to the end there was a sign, "Enter at your own risk, bees." Well, they could have posted it at both ends! Fortunately we weren't bothered by any, but pretty sure I heard some. 

Poisonous??

According to Google this could be a Lobster Mushroom.

We hope you are moving into a beautiful fall season!

Where are the Piepers now? nestled in the Pisgah National Forest at Spacious Skies RV Resort and Campground, Bear Den, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina