FORTH GO

We went to the mountains for a long week-end, expecting to catch some fall color. But the only leaf color I saw was green. Maybe next week-end will be good as the cool weather finally blows in this week…

Flipping through the local paper, the Moutain Breeze, we saw that my dad, Buddy Gregg, was the “golfer of the month” with a nice picture of him and his dog Elmer, a. k. a. my step-brother.

To my surprise the Prius got great mileage even in the mountains, getting over 52 MPG traveling around Lake Lure and Asheville. I guess that regenerative breaking is good for something.

We just returned from six days in eastern North Carolina (a.k.a. the Coastal Plains), first in historic New Bern and then at Atlantic Beach. The photo is the Harmony House B&B where we stayed in New Bern. There’s a lot of history in New Bern, being the state’s first capital and second city, but it was also interesting to hear how the town made a concerted effort to become a tourist destination, including little things like burying the utility connections in the downtown area.

The Prius loved the flat roads of the coast, getting over 54 MPG for the trip. It’s the first time I’ve seen it get better city mileage than highway mileage since it could often get by on battery power for a few blocks at a time. The coast is probably a decent approximation of the actual EPA test.

In an effort to keep up with the Jones’s, Bonnie and I went to the NC mountains for the week-end. The photo is of Bald Mountain, I think. It’s one of the mountains around Lake Lure. I got to use my kayak for the first time since my Dad took it up to their house there, but most of the time was spent racing him with Gran Turismo. He won most of the time.