North Carolina Mountains

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Since the end of June I have been living and working and Raleigh, North Carolina.  This new job affords me the opportunity to travel within the state to oversee nutrition education programs with older adults (seniors).  Last week I had my first solo travel experience and got to see the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains of northeast North Carolina.  I traveled to Caldwell County, whose city center is Lenoir.  On the way, I traveled through some beautiful mountain areas and stopped in the really cute towns of Boone and Blowing Rock. 

The area is a large producer of Christmas Trees

My picnic in the park in Blowing Rock, NC

Dessert at Kilwin's Ice Cream

Cows grazing

From Raleigh, Lenoir is almost 4 hours away, so traveling there one day and back the next day was rough.  Driving the one of the state's hybrid cars (Prius) made the trip more bearable (except for the cleaning solution smell when I got the car).  It was my first time driving a hybrid and it was cool to see my fuel efficiency as I drove:

If you look closely, you will see I was averaging about 48mpg and was regenerating energy with breaking (this came from coming down the mountains). Also notice the temperature outside was 99 degrees!  It was interesting to see the changes in temperature as I drove.  Temperature in Raleigh was 102, temp at the base of the mountains was 99 and in the town of Blowing Rock it was 75!!


While the trip overall was enjoyable, it is always nice to be back in the comfort of your own home.  Traveling for work is not the same as for pleasure, especially when you have to drive 8 hours in two days by yourself!  Seeing new things is exciting, but it is always much better to experience these new things with others.