Our Day in Lexington, NC

Today is our first full day on vacation without traveling. We are at the Forest Lake Thousand Trails campground near Lexington. After fixing pancakes and eggs for Nelda and I we left to see the sights of Lexington. Its a nice little city not unlike Gadsden in many ways. Found a CVS to get Nelda's Fosomex refilled then went downtown to the Candy Factory, a store filled with candy of all kinds and sorts, and antique collectibles. Bought a box of sugar free chocalate assortments, then went to the Black Chicken Coffee Shop for a Mocha Coffee Frappe. About 10 a.m. and temp was up to 88 so a cold drink tasted real good. Then we went out to the Bob Timberlake Gallery, a local artist with national reputation. His paintings are beautiful colorful realist pictures of the simple life in North Carolina in scenes of all kinds. Reminds me of Thomas Kincaid but a different style and less impressionistic. Anyway, too expensive for us to buy, but enjoyed a fantastic array of his art and many other things. Definitely recommended as a place to see. Well, about noon local time and getting hungery, it was time to find a good North Carolina BBQ place for lunch. There are 21 BBQ resturants identified on the visitors map, but with local recommendations went with Lexington BBQ. The place was overflowing and the parking lot was packed, but the line moved quickly and we were soon eating the best BBQ, cole slaw and hush pupppies I've tasted since coming to the South. Butch was right! Lexington is known for its Annual Barbecue Festivalin October. They say the streets are filled and I believe it. Everywhere you go downtown are statues of pigs (fiberglass replicas) on the sidewalks in front of the businesses. They auction them off every year at the festival. Well, full of pork we next stopped at Childress Vineyards for a tour and some wine tasing. The vineyard is fairly new and features an impressive list of wines. Its owned by Richard Childress of NASCAR fame who also has Racing Museum nearby. We didn't make it to the museum, but headed back to our campsite to get ready for an afternoon swim. More later, maybe.