Saluda visit

 Our trip to Saluda NC.

The rock shop was closed, but shared it's lovely geraniums with everyone outside.

Apparently Wednesdays the town of Saluda goes on siestas. As we had visited Thompsons Market in the past, we didn't even try to see what was happening there. Here's an older post of that visit.

What do you call an angel that's also a mermaid? Maybe a Mer-gel? Ange-maid? We had such fun window shopping at Heartwood Gallery. It was a slow day, according to the hostess. It was ok with us, because we found some lovely treasures, and just looked!

Jane Voorhees was represented, a watercolorist from Asheville NC.

All the eating establishments were closed. A lot of them had construction crews working - perhaps getting ready for the big Arts and Crafts outdoor event May 21...with 90 vendors!

We finally found the Green River Bar-B-Q. And our vegetable plates were full of lots of fun tastes!

Mine (at bottom of photo) had sweet potato fries, Bar-b-q pork & beans, sweet and sour tomato and cabbage slaw, and baked potato salad.  Delicious!

Saluda is known for the steepest railroad grade as trains come into the mountains.

Saluda Grade is the steepest standard-gauge mainline railway grade in the United States.^[1] Owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway as part of its W Line, Saluda Grade in Polk County, North Carolina, gains 606 feet (185 m) in elevation in less than three miles between Melrose and Saluda. Average grade is 4.24 percent for 2.6 miles (4.2 km) and maximum is 4.9% for about 300 feet (91 m).

Captain Charles W. Pearson was assigned to select a route for the Spartanburg and Asheville Railroad to ascend the Blue Ridge front; the area where the rolling hills of the Piedmont end at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Despite numerous surveys, no route was available for a railroad to ascend the mountains at a tolerable grade, and the best route followed the Pacolet River valley and gorge. The line begins its climb at the bottom of Melrose Mountain, where Tryon is today, at 1,081 feet (329 m), and continues on the south side of the Pacolet valley. At Melrose, the Saluda Grade begins and climbs to the town of Saluda, cresting in the center of town at an elevation of 2,097 feet (639 m).

Because of accidents involving downgrade runaway trains in the late 1880s, the then Southern Railway built two runaway safety spur tracks. These were originally manned junctions, which were always switched to a 60-foot (18 m) pile of earth, which could stop downgrade runaway trains. Only upon hearing a whistle signal from the downgrade train would the signalman manning the spur junction throw the switch to keep the train on the main line. In later years, CTC signaling was installed along with automated switches and timer circuits for the one surviving runaway safety track at the bottom of the grade at Melrose. Trains running downgrade were required to maintain 8 miles per hour (13 km/h) when approaching the runaway track switch. This would allow a timer circuit to determine if a train was under control, in which case the switch from the runaway track at Melrose would be aligned to the mainline. But for speed greater than 8 miles per hour (13 km/h) the switch would remain aligned for the runaway track. Saluda Grade was one of the few grades in the country where uphill trains could travel faster than their downhill counterparts. Most uphill trains had to double or triple the grade, splitting the train into sections to be taken up the grade to Saluda one at a time and reassembled there for the rest of the trip to Asheville.^[2][3]

Norfolk Southern suspended freight traffic between East Flat Rock, North Carolina and Landrum, South Carolina in December 2001,^[4] thus ceasing operations on the Saluda Grade. In April 2003, Norfolk Southern severed the line from the rest of its system by placing mounds of dirt over the tracks and disconnecting the rails at mile posts 26 and 45.

Source: Wikipedia

My mother's father worked in Texas as a conductor on the railroad. So there's a connection here.

Sharing with Skywatch Friday.

Today's quote:

To create a work of art is to create the world. —Vassily Kandinsky