North Carolina - Part 2

Originally published on 12/09/2018

You can read about our first day in Asheville, North Carolina here.

Our second day in North Carolina, I drove over to Bryson City. I wanted to purchase tickets for the Polar Express train ride scheduled to begin the season on Friday November 9th. It was a really, really good thing I did because I got the last two seats for the time! I'll write more on that experience later in the post...

The colors in North Carolina were absolutely gorgeous! The trees were gold, green, red, brown, and so vibrant! Pictures do NOT do the colors any justice! Oh, and see the map on the dashboard in the picture above? That's from our really awesome Ford Fiesta! I plugged my phone into a USB port in the middle console, and it synced to the car! Momma's gotta get me one of them! Haha! Anyway, while I was in Bryson City, I wandered around some of the shops. In a small corner bookstore, I found two items I had not ever thought I'd find!

Disney never released the "Song of the South" in the United States because of the "Tar Baby"... So glad they finally did! I should have had my camera ready when I gave it to Larry back at the motel!

I first saw this book being read by an English grandmother to her grandchild, and it was hilarious! Amazon wanted over $300 from a third party seller at the time as it was out of print. Scored this copy for $8!

Larry bought me these adorable stuffies from a nearby toy store. I love stuffed animals!

I got some tacos at a little restaurant near our motel called Taco Billy's. They were tiny stuffed tacos that I paid way too much for... Anyway, I had to leave for my Leaders' Summit right after eating lunch, and got there after it started. There was SO much traffic to go park, then I had to walk to the hotel they were in. I realized afterwards that if I had gone up the hill, it would have been a straight shot... I chose the path that took me up a gazillion more stairs. Definitely got my workout on this trip!

One day, I will be in the front. This company is amazing and I am so blessed to be part of it!

I learned all sorts of awesome stuff about the company, how to lead from the front, and more during this few hours. When it was all said and done, everyone within my upline was invited to a pub (there are SO many pubs in NC!!) for dinner, music, and dancing. The food was amazing (it is the South, after all!), and I got to meet my mentor's mentor, Kia Bailey. She's a spunky lady that helped me realize part of what I wasn't doing in the homes of these people I meet with.

Kia and I took this picture and I sent it to my mentor, Chris Olson. He's been a great leader for me! I hope I can make them all proud soon!

When we had had our fill, Larry and I went back to the motel. Very productive day! The third day was full of Make-A-Wish Foundation fun. Some people did a 5K Fun Run, others participated in a dodgeball tournament (our team was Team Reggie!), and had food and campfires later in the afternoon/evening. Larry and I cheered the 5K-ers, and the dodgeball team. It was starting to mist, so Larry and I decided to wander around Asheville some more.

For dinner, Larry and I found a pizza/pasta/pub joint that looked fun. I don't even remember what I ate, but it was delicious!

Our fourth day was the most exciting! Well, for me anyway... Larry and I went to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park first thing in the morning. I got to drive part of the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way in, saw some more beautiful scenery, got my National Parks Passport stamped, and we went on into the park some more. The only bad part about all the scenery was that we couldn't see very much of it because it was SO foggy! We determined it was time to turn around when the fog got thick on the road and not just in the deep valleys, and the rain began to come down more. It was a good thing we left when we did though, because the entrance portion was closed off. They were only letting people out of the park, not in.

Since I had already bought the tickets for the Polar Express ride that evening, we decided to head over to Bryson City and see what we could see. The first thing we did was go into that bookstore I mentioned earlier and grab another copy of the "Song of the South" DVD for a family member. We wandered around town toward Bojangles for lunch and came across some thrift shops we wanted to check out after lunch.

Bojangles is a chicken and biscuits joint that was really tasty! I found out after we were back home that I missed out on a Bo-Berry Biscuit (I think that's what it was called!)! Sounds delightful!

Famous Flies of the Appalachian Region

We found a Fly Fishing Museum! Larry loves to go fly fishing, so we took a look around. They had a scavenger hunt, so we tried finding everything on the list... there was still one item we just could not find! I've never gone fly fishing. Well, I didn't go officially... When I was very young, my grandpa Stanley took me out fishing with him during one of many summertime camping expeditions. I had seen people throwing their lines out for fly fishing on tv, so that's how I started out. My grandfather looked at me and said, "What do you think you're doing?!" Apparently there are specific poles and flies you have to have! Who knew? ;)

One thing I can say about North Carolina is that there's loads of artwork and carvings all over the place! Larry was taking a picture of the City Building, so I took a selfie while I waited...

He's a cute bear!

We headed over to the Train Depot not long after so as to pick up our tickets and head into the souvenir shop... I have to admit, souvenirs used to be my downfall. I would get a snow globe, or some other shelf-sitter, I felt obligated to buy a souvenir spoon everywhere I went (I used to have a huge collection!), and more. However, since my downsizing expedition this summer, I've determined one item I should get is a magnet. Why, you ask? Because they don't take up valuable shelf space, they are useful, and they are small. So, I bought a Polar Express magnet of the ticket with "believe" punched out of it. I also bought a couple of small tumblers for hot cocoa. I really wanted the pajamas, but since I need two completely different sizes for top and bottom, and they only came in sets of one size each, I had to pass. I almost bought a blanket, because I love blankets (and you can never have too many!), but I passed on that also.

We also discovered an extra piece of paper with our train tickets: free entrance to the train museum! That was a blast! I was in the middle of doing a Facebook Live video when I realized that I probably shouldn't be doing that... For some reason, I found that many shops and places don't seem to like people doing FB Live. I would think it would only drum up more business for them, but I will respect their wishes.

There were loads of scale model trains and scenes!

They had models of probably every single scale train ever made!

The last bit of fun for the evening was to get on the Polar Express! We had loads of fun! They gave us hot chocolate in specially made paper cups, sang some of the songs from the movie, got to ride slowly through the North Pole, read the book, and when we were getting close to our return destination, Santa Claus came on board and gave everyone a special bell! I thought only the kids got a bell, but all the adults did, too! That will be a special souvenir to keep for sure.

Larry and I waiting for the train.

Our tickets!

The Polar Express

This is our staff for our train car, the Dillsboro.

Santa Claus... if you don't believe, you should!

My Polar Express Bell

When we got back to the station, we went across the street for some grub and then headed back to the motel. Phew! That was fun! Stay tuned for the fifth day!