Sherwin AND Williams Have Done a Great Job

We left Bakersville and headed for western South Carolina and the B&B called Three Pines View.  This is a beautiful facility in the SC town of Salem, run by Sharon and Andrew.  I think I counted more than three pines but they must have had their favorites.

Three Pines B&B

 Our room had a spiral staircase that went up to a loft with a second bed.  We opted to sleep on the lower level as late night bathroom trips down a tight spiral stair did not sound like a good idea.  We spent two nights at the Three Pines location and managed to get a full day of sightseeing to Whitewater Falls just across the nearby North Carolina border.

Room View From The Loft

We stopped at a Duke Power facility for recommended views of the area.  The overlook was worth the trip and fog added to the imagery.

Duke Power Overlook

We left our first stop and immediately crossed the NC border and entered the Whitewater Falls state park.  After a walk up from the parking lot, huffing and puffing, we were greeted with what looked like two flights of stairs descending on our right .  After rounding at least eight landings it was obvious the trip down was the least of our worries.  We were luckily rewarded with a spectacular view of the falls.  We knew there were two views, upper and lower.  Since we had seen the falls from an upper location after our trek up from the parking lot, and had just descended thousands of stairs, we must be at  the "Lower Falls View."  But, alas, this was only the Upper Falls View.  Sue and I looked at each other and then to the hidden trail down moss covered stone steps to the "Lower Falls View" and decided that the Upper Falls View was going to be the better vantage point.

Upper Falls View of Whitewater Falls

 I can only assume that Sherwin and Williams have the contract for painting all the trees in the southeast US.  If that is true, they must be running out of red, yellow and orange.  Everywhere we look the trees are painted in brilliant shades of those colors.  They left a few green for contrast but most have been treated to at least some coverage with their brushes.

Our Hunt For Red October was drawing to a close and we view it as a complete success.  We saw more fall color on this trip in 2015, than in any other year in memory.  We are now faced with our trip home to Miami.  We have stops planned in Savannah and Orlando.  It is at this point where I generally reflect on the previous weeks with some observations.

The Bible Belt (BB) is huge.  It is bigger than one of those World Wide Wrestling Belts, and those things are enormous.  It would seem that if a town in the BB has two hundred houses it must have 400 churches.  We regularly passed intersections with churches on all four corners.  If they didn't have room to build a church a giant cross would do.  The taller the cross, the bigger the commitment.  This area has not only a Bible Belt it has Bible Suspenders.  Hotel lobby televisions are regularly tuned to The 700 Club (CBN, Christian Broadcasting Network).   At our Hampton Inn breakfast area, an evangelical preacher was blaring on someones radio or TV from the back work area.  A small woman emerged from the room with a glazed look in her eye and a strange smile as if she were truly ready for The Rapture.  Televisions are either on FOX or CBN.  Don't ask for a station change or you will be branded as a Democratic heathen.

Travel has been greatly helped by the GPS.  It would seem that there was travel BGPS (before GPS) and now.  Before, we would unfold large paper maps and plot our routes.  The biggest challenge in those BGPS days was how to re-fold the map.  We would sometimes get lost but those experiences were part of any vacation.  Now, in the time of global positioning satellites, we regularly follow the pleasant voice of the female trapped inside our dash mounted electronic devices.

Our re-folding map dilemma has been traded for voice command errors.  Today I made the following query of our GPS:  Voice Command, Find Cracker Barrel.  Reply:  Did you say Funeral Parlor?  While I thoroughly understand the association of fried foods (served at Cracker Barrels) and the possibility of an unexpected coronary, any self respecting GPS should avoid making judgments and just provide directions.

Rest Area spacing on interstate highways must have been made by a twenty year old with a very good bladder.  Upon arrival you, the human, must pass the dogs who have been blessed with a toilet much closer to the parking lot.  Once in the facility, most have been equipped with automatic toilets that flush upon use, sinks that dispense water with motion under the faucet and hand dryers that blow slightly warm air on your hands just before you wipe them on your pants.  Once you exit the rest stop facility, one look around at a few of the faces of your fellow travelers and you have some understanding of why we haven't done a better job of selecting our government leaders.

Gas prices have been all over the map on this trip.  We paid $2.19 in Miami and as low as $1.63 elsewhere on this three week excursion.  Rest assured however, when you are down below 1/4 of a tank and are approaching the first gas station you have seen for many miles, it will have the highest prices in the area.  I think they have sensors in the highway and adjust their gas prices based on how full your tank happens to be.  Fill up for $2.09 and drive two miles and you will see another station advertising $1.72.

Truckers aren't what they used to be.  As a traveling kid, truckers were friendly guys who would toot their horns if you gave the universal arm jerk as if you were pulling on an imaginary cord.  Now our interstates seem to be completely occupied with 18-wheelers with room for just a few cars.  These giants of our delivery system are now infiltrated with idiots. They regularly sit in lanes designated for exclusive car use and pull into traffic lanes knowing that small crunch-able cars will yield to their dominant size.  It would seem that attaching a large engine to a rolling box of stuff and placing that configuration on an overcrowded highway is an ill-conceived and inefficient system.  Just an observation.

Typical View of My Rear View Mirror

I regularly passed under lighted highway information signs listing that state's current traffic fatalities.  If memory serves, South Carolina was over 700 for 2015 and Georgia was well over 1,000.  Where is our outrage?  While tragic, a single nut case that uses a gun to kill some number of people, will generate enormous press coverage demanding corrective action.  This news story is then followed up with a highway accident that killed three or four that day and it gets not much more than a yawn and looks of disinterest.  Our highway death toll certainly deserves more attention than it gets.  I write this after having driven a couple thousand miles on the highways and byways of our southeastern US and seeing much that should and could be improved to make all safer.

It is at this point that I must ponder, have more people been killed on our highways or by eating at my favorite highway restaurant, Cracker Barrel?  I may expand on this topic after I step on my bathroom scale at home.

Fall Color