Well, I didn’t see any of those shows (one was sadly cancelled, and plans changed on the other nights), but I got a whole different kind of show for my birthday. A cold, wet and windy, but gorgeous one.
We woke up Saturday to find the porch of our hotel room at the Pisgah Inn covered in 4-6 inches of snow, my first snow in years!
I was supposed to get up early and drive back to the snowy but much warmer Asheville to take photos at a Farm to School Conference, but with roads closed and wind howling, that couldn’t happen. So I stayed in and had breakfast with Mom and Dad at the Inn’s restaurant, our second delicious meal at the restaurant with one of the finest views in North Carolina, I am going to boldly exclaim, despite knowing few other restaurant views. But man, it’s spectacular up there, right on the Blue Ridge Parkway with views of Pisgah Mountain to the North and East and mountains to the South that hide the Cradle of Forestry (America’s first Forestry school prompted in part by George Washington Vanderbilt) and dozens of waterfalls.
The night before, I was treated to a spectacular dinner of roasted duck with a baked potato and salad and a massive slice of decadent chocolate cake for dessert. (I use the adjective decadent only because I always see it used to describe food, especially desserts, but now that I just looked it up, likely for the first time, it seems, it doesn’t seem to be appropriate. While there was great pleasure involved, I don’t really think I sacrificed any morals, and the probable decline of my figure or brain capacity through that sugar influx was not great enough to earn the a moniker of decadence.) Instead, I’m just going to say it was delicious.
Eventually, after another rich meal and dilly-dallying around hoping the wind would not threaten to knock me off my feet when I was to carry suitcases out to my car, I finally braved the wintery weather. I had to pour water on my windshield wipers to loosen up the ice grip they had on the windshield and crack the doors open with considerable effort to just get in the car with any hope of making it down the mountain. I also found the wind had managed to blow a layer of snow into my trunk, where it covered my cooler and suitcases. I would have to deal with that later.
Once started, it took only 15 minutes down the mountain to leave the snow behind, and found a gorgeous scene of snow-capped orange and yellow trees beside flowing creeks in a bright, sunny, crisp fall atmosphere. By the time I left Pisgah National Forest completely, I had to take off a layer because it had warmed up so much. Of course, by the time I got back to Asheville, significantly late for my event, it had started snowing again.
Everyone says how unusual it is to snow here so early in the season, but many are also calling for a harsh, long winter this year. It warmed up by Monday for a nice week, but as of this writing, it’s starting to get down in the thirties again at night. For this Florida boy, another adventure is in store.
By the way, great thanks to Mom and Dad for that refreshing, relaxing couple days in hotels and on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a great birthday.
Love you guys.
Some photos:
the cabaret 
And you didn’t even mention your shoes. haha 🙂