Traveling in the south

Several days ago we started south to visit friends and see some different plants and animals. This morning I am sitting chatting with my long time friend Mark in Weaverville, North Carolina. It’s 46F outside and foggy. All of the women (Susan, Adrienne and Bev) have yet to join us, so we are having. great time catching up. Back in the 1990s I worked with mark in the Insect Division at the University of Michigan where he was the collection manager.

Now the whole adventure started two days ago when we left Michigan, stopping for lunch at Las Marias (a delightful Mexican restaurant). It’s always fun discovering a nice place to eat, avoiding fast food whenever possible.

By the end of the day we got to Richmond, Kentucky where we spent the night, having dinner at Texas Roadhouse, where we’ve never eaten before.

The next day we were going to Weaverville, North Carolina but were stopping a favorite rest area in Tennessee. Unfortunately it was raining all day – well until we got to the Tennessee Welcome Center.

The view from the top of the trail at the Welcome Center. Here we have a bunch of plants that we look for. We were fortunate in finding them.

Fungi, both lichens and a variety of polypores were rather abundant.

Winged elm.

Our real “target” was cranefly orchid. Typically, we find one or two. But yesterday we have close to a dozen, which was quite pleasing.

More later…