Herb's in Murphy, NC...

Today we drove down to NC to visit with an aunt and her family/friends/neighbors for a big party weekend. We drove down to IL yesterday afternoon and thereby we took my parents' van (them too) and it took quite a long time. There were 2 accidents and another long unexplained delay in getting there, so it took quite a bit longer than we expected. With the time change, we didn't get there until about 8:30 pm for dinner. Dad has been on a BBQ kick because a friend of his is a BBQ judge/taster so we went to Herb's. It's on this NC BBQ website thing (linked for you there if you're interested).

Umm, it was okay. The food had been done for hours of course so it wasn't that tasty, kind of cold. I mean it was okay and we were starving, having subsisted on rice krispie treats and mini bags of chips for several hours, but I wonder what it would have been like hot? They said on their website that you're supposed to be able to cut your pork with a fork and I definitely needed a knife. Not as tender as advertised. Oh well, it was food and dad was thrilled.

We got to our cabin/house rental. It was a nice place, no one had used it for a while, but it was nice enough anyway. The only complaint I had was that the beds were hard. Although since I was exhausted I slept. It was about the same price as one hotel room, but of course there were 2 bedrooms plus more available beds, so we got a good deal versus buying 2 hotel rooms. Part of our deal was that for my parents' anniversary (40 years this December) we paid for the room. They were not expecting it and were happy. Hopefully they will do something else fun with the money they saved. It was a long day and we were happy to just get there safe and sound. Oh did I mention it was WAY up in the mountains and the last mile of road was gravel and really winding? No cell service either! Talk about getting away from it all, we did it! There was a creek AND a pond in the back yard, a firepit (which we didnt get to use) and a screened in and regular porch both. Definitely better than a hotel room!