Weather decided whether we would be outside. The forecast included thunderstorms, but storms are iffy in the mountains. We planned to find a swimming hole for grandson David if the temperature turned unbearable. If we were cool enough, we’d go to the arboretum in Asheville, which we’ve not been to yet. As we set out in the car, we headed for the arboretum. About five miles from it, I saw a dark cloud coming our way. The three of us dithered and decided to drive beyond it to the visitor’s center for the Blue Ridge Parkway. The center was lovely, having interesting displays about the building of this scenic highway perched on the mountain ridges from Virginia to North Carolina.
We heard thunder, and then came a huge downpour. We watched the video, looked at the exhibits, and examined the map of the whole parkway. I mentally pointed to the spot where our house is. I took a photo of John and David in front of the map. We left when it was only sprinkling.
Just down the road was the center for folk art. It’s a beautiful showcase for the work of contemporary mountain artists and includes a permanent display of historic crafts. I did not take photographs there, since most galleries do not allow it. It’s understandable that people might profit from stealing ideas. There were racks of clothing, Christmas ornaments, pottery, wooden utensils, musical instruments, paintings, furniture, jewelry, quilts, kaleidoscopes, and other decorative items for sale.
David and I got out at several overlooks on the parkway. I liked the foliage of some wildflowers and asked David to pose with white-bloomed autumn clematis.
On our way down the mountain, we stopped at David’s and my favorite waterfall, Sunburst. I took a photo of David with the falls. Where he is sitting is not a dangerous drop off. This is one of the places where people hop on the rocks and get closer to the falling water.
We were impressed with the low level of the water, and David held his phone out to get a closer shot. Light rain hit us at the falls, but it did not fall on the car a few feet away. At the bottom of the mountain, we stopped at Jukebox Junction to get David a milkshake.
On the way home, we stopped at a supermarket and a dollar store. If only I had restricted myself to looking for the things on my list, we would have made it home dry! John opted to stay in the car to watch lightning, but he came in to bring me my rain jacket. Just as we checked out, the deluge hit. We stood under the covered walkway waiting. It was amusing to watch people go through the rain to their cars. Some ran as fast as they could, and others shrugged their shoulders and walked. We couldn’t see past the parking lot for the heavy, heavy rain. When it slacked off, we waded to our car. Very few surfaces are level here in the mountains, and that included the parking lot. The water was rushing downhill as fast as it could go, but it was still an inch or so deep. The storm came down the valley, soaking Waynesville and Clyde. We live on the other side of Utah Mountain, and the roads near our house were bone dry. That afternoon we had several thunderstorms at home, and there was another storm raging when David and I went to bed at midnight. What an odd-weather day it had been!
As I was writing this the following day, a thunderstorm blew through. A photo of the deck in front of my computer shows heavy rain on the deck, with drops splashing up two inches in the birdbath. Behind the mountains were blue sky and white clouds.
Mehrling Muse 
Sounds like you made the most of the day anyway!
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Any day with a grandson is great! Perhaps we are learning to be quite flexible in our old age.
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With the crazy weather you have to be or else your are cabin bound all year long.
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🤗
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And no wasterhole swim for poor David anyway though it sounds like he waded through enough water,
Huge Hugs
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Swimming would be so much more fun if there were two going in the water. I might have been able to wade at one swimming hole, but I couldn’t navigate a steep drop at the last one. We all came home with wet shoes!
xxx Floods of Hugs xxx
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Isn’t weather interesting? I have at time seen downpours across the street as we remained dry. You just never know…..and the weather man doesn’t either most of the time.
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Weather keeps us guessing. I like that. So many things are tightly controlled by other people.
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Those all look like such neat places to visit! That waterfall area is beautiful.
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🇺🇸
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What crazy weather! We’ve had weird weather here today too- one moment torrential downpour and the next nothing.
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At least we are all still alive. The weather hasn’t sucked all the oxygen out of the air!
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That’s good!
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Your title pretty much sums up our life. We have had a couple of heavy thunderstorms come through this past week but they were during the night. Sunday night the rain just pounded on our roof. I have never heard it so loud.
I love the water fall pictures.
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Weather would have great impact on your life. We mostly just juggle time to work in the garden. John is very willing to drive David and me to our favorite waterfall regularly. We could go ourselves, but it’s more fun to be together.
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Been raining here the whole day too, sometimes just drizzle, sometimes heavy. I don’t like heavy rains, it makes me uncomfortable.
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I think wind bothers me more than rain, but I’ve never lived in a house that has been flooded. We had a tree hit the garage during a hurricane, and we live under a 200 year old oak tree now.
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We had five inches of rain the night of the tornado scare. Yet a few miles away only a trace. Cloudbursts have their own minds!
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I like wind not rain as much….
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That was such a scenic area for those photographs. Thanks for sharing some pictures of the mountains. It’s been many years since i have seem some.
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It took me 70 years to live in the mountains, and the wait was worth it. There is beauty everywhere here.
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Glad you told us that the dropoff where your grandson is sitting is not dangerous. I was worried about him when I first saw the photo! What a beautiful spot! And a milkshake afterward for your grandson – but not for you?
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There is a spot across the bridge that is very dangerous. Both son John $ and David have stood on a bridge support with nothing to keep them from toppling many feet below to huge boulders. *shudder*
John and I decided it was in the best interest of our health to forego a very rich milkshake. Once in a while we’ll share a small one. David has no trouble finishing a large shake, and he is still as thin as a rail. You should see him suck in his breath. There couldn’t be more than four inches between his concave stomach and his spine. He didn’t take after my side of the family.
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Yikes! I am pretty timid when it comes to hikes and heights.
David is young enough to still have a very high rate of metabolism. He can probably burn up a milkshake in no time! 🙂
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David always had a good sense of balance, and the doctor was forever telling him to gain weight. Such a problem!
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If only I could have that problem! 🙂
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I’m sure there are millions who would envy David’s inability to gain weight.
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That rock where David is sitting on is amazing – it may not be scary but looks like it is.
It sure made a great picture. The weather here has been very pleasant the last three days but we are headed into two days of stormy weather again – nothing severe as of right now, and we had some torrential rain a few times in the last week or so that sounded like it would knock the house down, or at least the patio awning. It pounded the roof and awning with such a force that it was downright scary.
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Our weather was cool today. We’ve had some heavy rain, but I think yours was much more damaging.
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Yes, we had those torrential rains … we’ve had heavy rains before, but the sound of the pounding rain – just crazy. Our weekend was delightful but the heat, humidity and chance of storms has returned … two days of that and then returning to a little cooler temps. The weather makes no sense anymore.
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Absolutely no sense at all.
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Dot and I got caught in a rare rainstorm here in Spain today. We hid under a tree for 15 minutes until it let up a bit, then raced home. Dot does not like to get wet.
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John is the one in our family who doesn’t like to get wet. Our cats didn’t like it, either.
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