This is one of the last pictures I got of fall conditions in the mountains this year. I was looking for a bit of fog (more accurately clouds at this elevation) here on a few mornings. There were mornings where I’d be driving in the soup along the viaduct at Grandfather Mountain only to descend out of it completely by the time I hit Boone Fork, just a short distance away… lemons to lemonade, as I always say, so I settled for this. Gives me something to shoot for next year.

For all my snot-slinging here, I’m quite thankful to have walked away with such a fine image, which fits given the season. Thursday is the day of Thanksgiving here in states… as always, I have so much to be thankful for. I’m delighted to be preparing two huge turkey breasts for a get-together with good friends and three foreign grad students from Duke University, two from China and one from Indonesia. There are many here who know about my mesquite smoked turkey… these students don’t, but come about 2:30 Thursday afternoon, they’ll be well indoctrinated. Given all the other goodies that are on the menu, they’ll likely be fat and sassy, too… should be fun!

Until recently, communist China has enforced a 1-child rule for families. On Thanksgiving Days past, other Chinese students, thousands of miles from home, have been amazed not just with the holiday and how we express it, but also with the American way of “family” with brothers and sisters and dozens of cousins. There’s prayer and food and conversation and laughter and games and hugs and fond goodbyes… inclusion just as though they’re family because for us they are. Many of the Chinese students at Duke are among the best of the best… they will earn their PhDs and return home as leaders in their chosen field. Makes one wonder what they will bring back home with them by being included as family here.

I’m thankful to God for the man He’s made me to be. I’m thankful for my wife, my family, and my church family. I’m thankful to be happy with even the small things in life… and I’m thankful for my friends, including you. Happy Thanksgiving wherever you are.

Boone Fork Creek Flows Beneath the Tanawha Hiking Trail Watauga County, Western North Carolina Accessed via the Blue Ridge Parkway (mp 297) Date...

Autumn Hike on the Tanawha Trail Watauga County, Western North Carolina Accessed via the Blue Ridge Parkway (mp 297) Date taken: October 2015...

The Tanawha Trail Crosses Boone Fork Creek Watauga County, Western North Carolina Accessed via the Blue Ridge Parkway Date taken: May 1, 2016

I...