We are always striving to stay on The Path of (Collage) Totality

Friday, August 4 -  We drove through some very hard downpours of rain today to one of our favorite regional towns, Brevard, North Carolina, for a long weekend of mountain fun.  We had a very nice house rental there in Sherwood Forest, a neat Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary development, where the houses blend into the natural woods very well with as little disturbance as possible.  Our friends Wayne, Charly, Wendy, Partick and Michelle joined us for the weekend.

We had dinner at  Magpie Meat and Three, a hip joint  with great food built within the town's old converted lumberyard.

Saturday, August 5 - Despite a bit of cool mountain temps, we headed over to the Pisgah National Forest to take a few runs on the famous Sliding Rock Falls.  This was a repeat for me, Ashlee and Wayne from a couple years ago (https://collagebarrage.blogspot.com/2015/07/some-more-summer.html), but a first-time experience for the others.  The place was super-crowded, but we all finally found parking and were able to do at least a couple of successful and breathtaking plunges down the rock and into the cold, cold pool at its base.

Here's the whole gang after surviving Sliding Rock Falls just down the road at beautiful Looking Glass Falls.  Nice shot by Wayne thanks to his long arms.  We also swam beneath this waterfall which was a new experience for us.

After a long day in and out of the mountain waters, we headed back to the rental house and enjoyed the evening on the large deck and in the hot-tub there.  We stopped at the excellent little Whistlestop Market near the house and loaded up on some excellent fresh veggies, grass-fed beef cuts, fresh pasta, etc. for a quality dinner we probably couldn't have found in town.

Sunday, August 6 - After another great breakfast prepared by Patrick, we reluctantly packed up to head back home, but we had beautiful weather at least for the drive so we decided to amble back north to the interstate via beautiful NC Highway 215 which winds its way back through more of the Pisgah National Forest.

Our first stop on scenic NC Highway 215 was at Living Waters, a private religious retreat that graciously allows visitors to explore the three waterfalls on their property.  This is the confluence of French Broad Falls (background) and Mill Shoals Falls (foreground) creating quite the idyllic setting.

A short walk downstream reveals Cathedral Falls just below another cool sliding rock cascade.

Highway 215 overlook as you approach the intersection with the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Our last stop on Highway 215 was Sunburst Falls, a long, stair-stepping series of cascades that flow under the road itself.  Before jumping on the interstate for the drive home, we stopped in beautiful  downtown Waynesville, NC, and had a tasty lunch at the Boojum Brewing Company.

Thursday, August 10 - Live on the Green 2017 started tonight and we bought Backstage VIP passes for this opening night of St. Paul and the Broken Bones, and Michael Franti and Spearhead.  There was also a good opening set by The Arkells out of Canada.

A great big smile on Michael Franti's face is easy to catch because he always seems to be upbeat and happy...just like his music.  Another great show by one of our favorite live artists ever.

The backstage view with our passes led to some interesting perspectives as St. Paul and his Broken Bones band performed before the huge crowd.

Saturday, August 19 -  Our good friends, Amy and Jeremy flew in today today from California to visit and stay with us during the solar eclipse happening on Monday.  They Uber-ed over from the airport when they landed and met us as for dinner  and drinks at 3rd and Lindsley downtown before the Dan Layus opening for Will Hoge SOLD OUT show.

We had great balcony seats as Will Hoge put on a great show as usual.  Dan Layus sounded great as usual although we were a little disappointed that he didn't play any Augustana tunes during his set.  

Sunday, August 20 -  We headed up north today to show some of  the famous Kentucky Bourbon Trail to Amy and Jeremy who had not been to the area before but are fans of that style of whiskey.   We had great visits to Maker's Mark Distillery, Limestone Branch Distillery and the Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown.

Although we had been to Maker's Mark Distillery before, it's still a beautiful place to visit and  they give a great tour.  Plus, we had the added treat of seeing several pieces of glass art by Dale Chihuly on display throughout the campus for a limited time and the tour now includes being able to go inside the new Maker's 46 Cellar facility built right into the limestone hill and keep at a cool 50 degrees year round  We also had a delicious lunch here at the new cafe on site called Starr Hill Provisions.

The gang in their goofy eclipse T-shirts (thanks, Amy!) on the Maker's Mark campus with more Chihuly in the background.

Our next stop was the relatively new facility for Limestone Branch Distillery.  While the building is new, the history of this distillery is long and they have a large amount of interesting artifacts from the distilling past.  We had a great (and generous) tasting here of several of their wares including a great Jalapeno Sugar Shine.

Monday, August 21 - The 2017 Solar Eclipse finally arrived today and it lived up to all the hype.  What an amazing event.  We threw a pool party for the occasion and had a great time.

This amazing photo was taken in our back yard by our good friend, Wayne Hutton.  The diamond-ring effect in its perfection.

Ashlee snapped this photo during the mid-afternoon during the eclipse went it went dark for nearly two minutes.  Eerie and amazing all at the same time.