Print Photos  |  View Full-Size Image

 

It all started when my brother took a vacation to Seattle and created a blog about his trip. A couple of weeks later it was my spring break. Since Jill had just started a new job (and was working 1.5 jobs anyway), she couldn't get out of town with me. But I really needed to get out of town. If I don't leave town, I'll plan to do relaxing reflective things but never actually get around to it. So at Jill's urging, I decided to visit the NC high country (Blue Ridge Mountains and Great Smoky Mountains) for a couple of days. I'd been wanting to do something like this for a while. In particular, I'd wanted to hit the road with our Ben, our black labrador retriever. He's not getting any younger, and I figured his twilight years should include more time in our national parks.