Oy! My legs aren't speaking to me anymore. What's funny is my bum knee is pretty much okay. It's my calves, specifically my right one, that are killing me. Hiking 1.5 miles up a mountain, then 1.5 miles down another path on said mountain, then following it the next day with a one mile hike half way up a mountain to see a waterfall, tends to piss off various muscle groups.

But it was fun. I had a scary moment the first 15 minutes in to the first hike when I seriously thought I wasn't going to be able to keep going. My mind and spirit were willing, but my heart, lungs and legs were all "WTF? Sit down you crazy ole wench. You are too old for this shit."

I knew, and I turned out to be correct, that once we got past the nine billion stairs (yes, real stairs) and on to the trail, I'd be fine. I walk almost continously during my 12 hour shifts. I can walk, literally, all night long, and an uphill grade doesn't bother me. After that, it was a good hike.

So, what did I do on my summer vacation? We went on a lake cruise of Lake Lure. We rode the elevator to the 'chimney' part of Chimney Rock, then as mentioned above, hiked to the top of the waterfalls there (past where some of Last of the Mohicans was filmed and where I irritated Jason by acting out scenes "Stay alive! I will find you!" (mmmm...drool..Daniel Day Lewis....mmmm) Oh! You're still here. Sorry. Then we hiked down to the base of the waterfall and over to the parking lot level.

Then we went to Black Mountain and Montreat, where I got seriously, I mean SERIOUSLY, creeped out. Okay. Montreat is a religious spot and they were having what appeared to be several summer camps and meetings and education things going on. The place was wall to wall people. I'd noticed almost immediately, but didn't say anything until Jason noticed too. There was not one single person of color anywhere to be found. There wasn't even anyone with a really good tan! After an exhaustive search, I did spot one young lady who appeared to be Vietnamese. It felt like klan heaven or something. Not what I am used to by any rate.

Then the next day, we drove to Brevard and went to see some waterfalls there. We saw Looking Glass Falls (along with nine billion other people), we hiked up to Moore Cove Falls. We tried to get in to Sliding Rock Falls but the parking lot was full. (Tell you how old I am, as a kid, we went there when there was barely a road through the forest and it was just a dirt path to the falls.) Now you gotta pay to get in. So we drove up a gravel road to Slick Rock Falls, but it was getting dark with an approaching thunderstorm, so we called it a day then.

Ate a ton of yummy breakfasts at our B&B, the Gaustehaus Salzburg. The local food wasn't all that great, but okay. I'm sure the food is better at some of the fancy resorts around there, but us po' folks just got to eat regular.

Sorry, no pictures from me, mine are all crap. Seriously. Well, except for this one:

You knew I'd find a vacation kitten, right? This is Tigger who lives at the Gaustehaus. He was found at about three weeks of age and bottle fed in to this gigantic lizard terrorizing specimen of feline-attude.