Clouds, fog sitting on and around the nearby mountains

Drop down two posts to get the story of how we ended up in this neat place

 

Moore's Knob in the early morning light and whispy fog...shot with a cup of coffee nearby.  The 'Knob" is the highest point in NC's Hanging Rock State Park
 

Doing the 'relative' shuffle

 WESTFIELD, NC - - We've played this game before:  We meet a relative of Lydia's; casually mention we don't have a place to stay for the next few nights and - - usually - - get an invitation to bunk in at their place for a night or two. This time we ended up 'lodge sitting' in a restoration of a former hunting lodge way up in the sauratown mountains.  So, for a couple of nights it was two people in the Singletree Gun and Plough which can sleep 16. Since there were a number of road/trails branching off the single track road to the lodge we did a lot of hiking around.

Sunset and con trails.  I added a bit of red...it was 90 degrees

Freight train coming...

 SOUTHERN PINES, NC - - I could have been standing closer to the tracks, but then the force of warning blasts of the freight train's whistle would have probably tumbled me into the line of magnolia trees between the railroad tracks and the streets on each side.  Since I was standing quite near an intersection the whistle blasts were quite frequent and, maybe, the engineer was trying to figure out why the grizzled old guy was standing too close to the tracks.  At this location in Southern Pines if you wait long enough you're bound to catch a freight rumbling by.

Some days you get lucky

Long leaf pine cones provide the majority of the fox squirrel diet

PINEHURST, NC - -  The chubby, dark colored fellow with the long, fluffy tail is a fox squirrel.  We've been visiting NC yearly since we retired (16 years) and before also.  We had heard of the fox squirrel, a sort of mythical creature and very (camera) shy.  Something like the Kaibab and Abert species we encountered out West...just never close enough to get a good photo.

     Our buddy here showed up outside near where we're staying and literally posed for photos. ..not once or twice, but three separate times. The Sandhills Region of NC is the home of these nearly 2lb rodents/tree squirrels which makes them about twice the size of the ever-present grey variety.  They used to range farther along the southern coastal plain, but timber loss (long leaf and southeastern pines) curtailed food supplies squeezing them into a smaller location. 
 

Are we there yet??

Look closely, there are six ducklings

 
 SOUTHERN PINES, NC - - By the time we return to Southern Pines in Oct, these fuzzy little quackers will be fully grown.  So, we're on the road and eventually heading Westward while keeping a close eye on forest fires and   unsettled weather.  It gets worse each year.  Eventually, we'll be in Oregon and Washington where, on the Pacific coast, it's a bit cooler due mainly to coastal fog.   We'll see.

Up in the mountains

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - It's 1996.  We're in Switzerland and that is the Matterhorn in the background.  I'm standing right at the edge of the railway tracks a ways away from our base with a great view.  We stayed in Zermatt at the base of the mountain and the one lingering memory of the famous town were the numerous graveyards populated with the remains of those who tried and failed to climb the mount since the first ascent in 1865.