I highly recommend Gia's Italian Kitchen!

Last Saturday we had our second remote "cooking experience" with Gia's Italian Kitchen. We connected remotely with Kelley Cole, owner of Gia's Italian Kitchen, and each of our 3 sons and their families. Kelley is fantastic! She gave us choices for our menu. A grocery list, recipes, and a preparation/cooking schedule were provided to each of us prior to Sat. Kelley prepped and cooked right along with us. Questions could be asked ahead or live. A fun way to spend time together and the food was delicious!

Whether you are separated by miles like us, or are sharing one kitchen, wouldn't that be fun? And it makes a great Christmas gift! Check out the web page above and see what Kelley has to offer. You'll also find some great recipes and free tutorials.

On top we are on the left, Kelley in the middle and Josh, Zia, and Samira on the right. On the bottom Chris is on the left, Toni, Clara, Alexa, Lilah, Emma, and Eric on the right. Picture courtesy of Gia's Italian Kitchen.

On the menu: Roasted Vegetarian Lasagna, Butternut Squash with Maple Walnut Pesto, and Italian Lemon Apple Cake.

No dishwasher for us! Also just a microwave convection oven but we did it. Our biggest issue? Internet. We were on the Blue Ridge Parkway in a National Forest with basicly no internet or cell service. The campground had wifi but it wouldn't have supported a Zoom call. Fortunately, we could pay extra for better internet which got us through. 

I actually forgot to take pictures! Toni made her Italian Apple Lemon cake into cute cupcakes. The cake was unbelievable!

We arrived in Gaffney, SC today (Thurs.) for Liemon's annual and 5-year service. Can't possibly have been that long! We can stay in their lot and they provide free electric. 

Quite a line-up waiting for Friday's service appointment. 

Wednesday was our final full day at Spacious Skies RV Resort and Campground. We had been there a full week. Weekly rates you often pay for 6 days and get one free, monthly rates you often pay for 3 weeks and get a week free. We really liked it here. I will really miss it, but I won't miss walking up all of those hills!

Multi-tiered Linville Falls, with a 90 foot drop over the Linville Gorge, is probably the most famous waterfall on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was amazing! The steep walled Gorge is known as the "Grand Canyon of the Southern Appalachians." The 1.6 mile trail had four overlooks.

The first photo at the top of our blog is the lower Linville falls and this is the upper falls

Below this rock the water from the upper falls actually flows down behind rock to the lower falls  almost making it look like they aren't connected. 

If you zoom in to the left of both arrows you can almost see the upper falls.

Looking down river from the falls.

What is it? Old storage? An entrance of some kind?

Considering it's September we saw so many beautiful flowers.

Spotted touch-me-not were my favorite. 

This is not my picture. While we were in the area I thought it would be fun to see the views from Grandfather Mountain's Linville Peak (elevation 5,305 feet) from the mile-high pedestrian swinging bridge. America's tallest pedestrian suspension bridge by the way.  A private entity we discovered, with a $24 per person fee to drive up and see it, a nature center, trails and restaurants. Pat looked at me and I vetoed it. Pat asked if it came with a lobster dinner, lol.

Tuesday we took a final hike in our campground to see a two-tiered waterfall. 

We must have walked close to this all week and missed it. There wasn't an age limit but it said not to jump with back problems so I figured I best not, but I was really tempted.
Where are the Piepers now? Gaffney, SC