The Trip - Saluda, North Carolina

We're visiting my aunt and three of her six kids (all grown) in western North Carolina. Most of our visit we've been taking it easy hanging out, except for the day we went to Costco and Target--which is a real treat for my mom and me not to have to do that in the motorhome.

Today we went to Saluda, near where they live, and wandered through some of the shops downtown. Saluda is located at the crest of the steepest standard-gauge mainline railroad grade in the U.S., a three-mile climb. I'm wondering if this is the place the Little Engine That Could climbed.


I'm not much of a shopper, so I took advantage of the opportunity to use my camera. This sign was in the window of one of the cafés.


Gotta love it.

They had a Stamping & Scrapbooking shop in town, Random Arts, and we stopped there. Things have changed in the world of stamping since I dabbled in it (and paper-making) about 15 years ago. My friend the cardiac nurse and scrapbooking afficianado would know what to do with all this stuff. Bekah would too. But I was overwhelmed.


I understood the contemporary crafts gallery, Heartwood, a lot better, though I didn't buy anything there either. These glass...things were beautiful with the sun shining through them.


They sell one-of-a-kind art pieces--glass, jewelry, woodworking, pottery, sculpture... This moose is shaping up to be the only one we're going to see on our trip.


After the art shop, we browsed a couple antique stores, and I spotted this vintage ad for Sunbeam Bread. You can bet they'd never use it today, for two reasons. First, the religious reference would send civil rights groups into a whirling dervish of a tizzy. And second, most of the country's younger generation wouldn't even know what the religious reference was.


After Saluda, we came back to town and stopped at the grocery store, where we found this cake that resembled Scooter. Too cute. It's in our fridge right now. We haven't eaten it, because last night we had homemade cheesecake, which I didn't exactly help make, beyond choosing both strawberry AND chocolate swirls. Then I watched to see how unintimidating cheescake-making really is. So our little "Scooter" will have to wait.


Also at the grocery store was the Globe's latest update on the President's marriage. They've been predicting divorce for the Bushes for the last year or two, showing photos of Laura's face distorted to look like she was angry at her husband. But, I suppose because the President's last term is coming to an end and the Globe won't be able to keep his marriage on the skids for too long without people knowing they've been making it all up, now they're reporting that George and Laura are patching things up. A happily ever after story, for the President, and for the Globe.


Note: In case you couldn't tell, this picture was Photoshopped.