Saturday

Today was a touristy day with a sleep in this morning until after 7 then a lite breakfast of oatmeal and fruit after our quiet times. I headed out to check on the garden after the breakfast clean-up. We did have a little rain last night but hardly enough to be measured. We were planning on heading out to the Piney Creek area which is about 10 miles west of Sparta for a grand opening of a feed store. The new owner of the store is the son of our "mountain mom" Helen's hair dresser and she invited Helen to come out as there would be free barbecue sandwiches, red slaw, baked beans and homemade cookies. We decided to wait for Joe as he wanted to go with us but by noon his new washing machine had not arrived from Lowes so we headed out without him.

The grand opening was held at the old Kennedy general store which has been in the family since 1907. It reminded me much of the general store where I grew up in Mountain Falls, Va. The old store held lots of antiques, an ice cream and soda machine as well as sold fresh farm eggs, milk and a few groceries and of course pickled eggs and pigs feet. Chewing tobacco, cigarettes and bread where evident as well. This was truly a country store. There was a 4 piece Bluegrass band with a banjo, fiddle, guitar and bass fiddle playing some down home music on the front porch. The grand opening was for the feed store where cow feed, horse feed and laying mash for chickens was being sold as well as dog food. We though maybe they would have some farm supplements but it was strictly animal feed plus the old general store.

We decided on the way back to take a few different roads through the hills and finally wound up at Magnums Pottery. We have been there several times and got to know the owners a couple years ago and unfortunately the wife of the owner passed away at an early age a couple years ago from lung cancer. One of their apprentices also our neighbor on top of mountain passed away about a year later from the same illness. We often wondered if the being around a kiln with all the gases was the culprit for this deadly disease. After a nice visit with the owner and his new apprentice we headed back to Sparta for a stop at Kerr Drugs to pick up Nancy's prescriptions.

We decided to visit the Blue Ridge Gallery and our old friends Joe and Melia who are both very talented. He makes all kinds of jewelry and she is quiet the artist as well but unfortunately they were doing a show in the Ashville area and her sister was running the shop. We had a nice visit with her and love the great views of the mountains from their shop. We headed on back to Helen's to drop her off then headed home.

We definitely had some rain as well as a strong wind as our flag and its bracket was ripped from the side of the house. The screws holding the bracket were broken in half and ripped out, yikes we have never seen that before. It looked as if it was going to rain again so we cancelled our hike and stayed close to the cabin. I grilled some pork chops along with some cut up spuds and onions wrapped in tin foil and placed on the grill. Wow did that ever taste great along with a fresh garden salad. The weather cleared up and with a nice breeze we ate outside on the deck. After the cleanup it started to rain again so we cancelled our mountain hike for the day. I did manage in between rain showers to check the flowers for beetles and did collect about 25 or so; once again the crunch of their bodies on a rock was music to my ears. We decided to watch the Olympics and chill the rest of the evening. I managed to get the Oriole vs Rays game on the tube but wouldn't you know the Ray's got whupped 4-0, LATER