Blowing Rock/Boone Weekend

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It was a strange week with a trip planned to Spain getting cancelled. I was looking much forward to getting away with my friend Scott to the mountains area. Coronavirus mania had dominated the news and life had been turned upside down. It was a 3 hour drive from the apartment to get to the Air Bnb. It was a windy curvy road to get to the home. We passed the driveway at one point to the place, but finally went up a steep hill to get to the top. Thankfully it wasn't icy outside or it would have been even tougher to get up the driveway. The outside of the home resembled a beautiful cabin in the woods. We had the bottom floor of the house to ourselves. We walked inside and saw a moose chandelier, wooden floors, king bed, waterfall shower, bowl sink, wide array of bathroom soaps and shampoos, as well as a Keurig machine with 4 coffee pods. In addition, chips, popcorn, water and fruit flavored water was provided to us. It was pitch black when we got in at night so we both went to sleep and rested for a busy Saturday.

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast at the house. We left for Blowing Rock first. It was about 15 minutes from the house and it wasn't crowded. We paid $8 to get in and the views was breathtaking. You could see Grandfather mountain along with the rest of the Blue Mountains. It was like something you would see in a Thomas Kinkade photograph. We walked around to different parts to check out the views and went into the convenience shop and left for Boone. At 12:00pm you can park your car in downtown Boone for free. It was a very walking town with a lot of people out and about. There was a wide variety of shops opened ranging from general store to designed socks. We went to Wildcraft Eatery for lunch. All the tables was getting sanitized and cleaned after a table got up from eating. The food was delicious and eclectic. I got a venison burger, but the menu ranged from Asian to Cuban. We went to King Street creamery for coffee and Scott got ice cream. The coffee was only $1.50 for a large which was a great deal.

We left afterwards to go find the Boone United Hike. It was so confusing to find the trail that we asked locals walking the street. It was behind a church and the path didn't even indicate the name of it. The trails wasn't the best designed and at one point we even got off the regular trail and somehow made it halfway up the path. It was beautiful looking with trees all around. At one point, we started to make our way down and it began to ran steadily. We made it back to the car and headed back to the house. A funny thing occurred as the owner of the Air Bnb was supposedly away, however to our amazement our coffee was refilled from the morning with 4 new coffee pods. It was almost like it magically appeared. We relaxed and went to Pedalin Pig for dinner. It was a cute BBQ place that had no wait to get in. We got a 2 for $30 sampler that came with 4 sides, Texas toast, brisket, pork ribs and another meat dish, along with hush puppies. I enjoyed the onion straws side dish that we got as one of the four.

We left dinner for the Martin house area in downtown Blowing Rock. It was a bit smaller than Boone, but still fun to walk through. It seemed like a more seasonal town with some shops closed on the offseason. We went to Killwin ice cream for dessert. It was delicious the ice cream and pretty crowded place. We saw a garden area nearby with about 500-1,000 prayers hanging off trees. You could write a prayer and hang it on a tree. We left back for the house and rested for the remainder of the night. We got up the next morning and went to Glen Burned trail. It was a very muddy, slippery and steep path, especially coming back up the trail. It was a lot better of a path to follow. We saw Glen Burney and Glen Marie falls, along with large trees with the Blue Mountains in the backgrounds once you reached the falls. The trail did have some beautiful homes that showed exquisite views of the trail. We finished the trail and went to Blowing Rock Ale House for lunch. It had somewhat slowish service, but a good spicy chicken sandwich with fries. We left and made our way home. It was an easy trip and such an enjoyable weekend. There was and continues to be so much uncertainty with the awful virus, but having the break from it all, even for a day and a half made it all worth it.

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