backlogged update 1

After my general exams, father came to visit and we picked up my sisters from their schools during an overnight drive across 5 states.

(May 20) The next morning, we set out for a family vacation, also to take P to North Carolina for her internship.

We first drove down to Winston-Salem to check out Wake Forrest, where P would be working. It was a long drive; I slept most of the way while my sisters drove. We got there late so we just crashed at the hotel. (Well, we made an attempt to go out and play mini-golf, but my sisters decided that the course looked tou dumb and simple and decided against it.)

(May 21) The next morning, we went to check out Old Salem , unfortunately, P didn't see the line in the guidebook where it says that, it being a historically Moravian town, observes the religious practice where Sunday doesn't really start until 1 in the afternoon. So our poor planning led to our visiting a mostly empty town, save for a helmeted guinea hen that we met in the back streets. While around the visitor center, we saw this little pedestrian's footbridge with a cute sign (lower left hand corner) that is basically a guideline for little kids and their chaperones when they visit Old Salem (things like "Be sure to remember which bus you were on and when it is leaving: going home on a mule cart would be cold and will take all night.")

Another interesting thing that we saw at Old Salem was its green stop signs:

After our brief excursion to Old Salem (the town being closed and thus have not much to see), we went on to our next destination--Ashville--via the Blue Ridge Parkway. The weather that day was really nice, but up in the mountains, it was still a bit chilly due to the strong winds We stopped by the Moses Cone Park and Craft Center on the way. The craft center features different local and foreign craftsmen to showcase their work. When we were visiting we had an Irish guy making pendants, rings, and other silver jewelries. After coming out of the culture center, we took a stroll around to take in the scenary, when T spotted some horses tied on a post outside of the bathroom. Since she had been taking some riding lessons, she decided to go and talk to the people. It went something like this:
T: Are those your horses?
Men: Yep. You ride?
T: Yes, a bit.
Men: hop on, let me see how well you ride.
At which point T climbed on. She apparently managed to impress the guys with how well she handled the horses, so they took her for a short trot in the area... while the rest of us stand around and looked silly. Well, the guy whose horse T was riding on was as bored as we were, so we struck up conversation and learned a lot about the keeping of horses and the habits and cultural backgrounds of these groups of people who, regardless of what day job they take, keep a few horses in their backyards and would drive 45 minutes to the Blue Ridge, to Tennessee, to Kentucky, just to find a nice trail and ride all day on the weekends. The guy was extremely nice. He also told us a funny story when we saw a mule walking by.

I was riding with my buddy the other day [pointed toward where the other guy and T went, so I only assume he meant the other guy] and instead of our horses, I took a couple mules from my farm. They have nice smooth rides, slower but better for rough terrain. So we just got back on after going to the bathroom when two middle-aged ladies approached us and asked us a question. I reckoned from the accent they must be from up north, Connecticut or Massachusettes. One of the ladies asked, "Pardon me, but what breed of a horse is that?" Me being the kind of guy who loves to joke around, I said, "Ma'am, this is a new breed that we just imported from China. Rides real smooth." And my buddy and I rode away, neither of us bothered to explain that we were joking. As we left, I heard the lady saying to her friend, "see? I told you we'd learn something useful if we get up and ask. Fancy that, importing horses from China!"

Apparently mules are a lot more comfortable to ride on than horses. And different breeds of horse rides differently too. According to T, the horse she rode that day is a lot smoother than the ones she is used to riding.

We then stopped at Little Switzerland for lunch. The place is so called not for a Swiss population, but for the view. The founding brothers observed a striking similarity of the environment there and the Swiss Alps. The town was a big mining town producing some precious metal and plenty of gemstones. Now the mines are mostly shutdown, but they still run tourist business based on mining and mining life. We only stopped for food and to take in the views. In the garden we saw a gigantic asparagus

After that we stopped by Mount Mitchell State Park. The peak, the highest East of the Mississippi, is named after Rev. Elisha Mitchell, a professor of UNC Chapel Hill, surveyor of the mountain, who died after slipping and falling into a waterfall on a return trip to verify his measurements of the height of the mountain. His remains was found by Big Tom Wilson (not Tim, as the ncnatural website states), noted tracker. Mitchell was born in Conneticut and was educated at Yale.

After Mount Mitchell, we finished driving through the parkway, and arrived at Ashville.