What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.

Taking up where we left off in my last post, we headed up towards the Blue Ridge Parkway after we left Chimney Rock. The kids were holding out for a Burger King lunch (do kids ever desire anything else to eat besides fast food?!) but were both whining by the time we got to the outskirts of Asheville and found a Sonic drive-in. Due to the hunger factor, we didn’t do as much exploring as I’d like to have, on some of the back roads along #9 (why can’t a road just have ONE name until you come to its end?!). Maybe next trip…

Having refueled on some modern poison, we evaluated our present position and planned the next and final leg of our adventure. It was here that we really began to see some breathtaking views of the fall color in the western North Carolina mountains! We didn’t get to spend NEARLY enough time on the Parkway either, nor travel it as far as we’d have liked, but the views were stunning along the entire route!

As for my photography, I bow the knee in worship to the great god of camera raw format. It was bad enough that I took off without remembering my tripod or monopod, but adding insult to injury, I noticed that in the excitement of the day, I had been shooting in full program mode ALL DAY. What a total IDIOT. Photographer’s tip of the day: NEVER use full program mode with a DSLR! And make that a DOUBLE never when using any sort of filter over your lens! In spite of my stupidity, my camera raw images saved the day and I was actually able to salvage at least SOME of the pics.