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At the last minute it turned out I had March 8^th off, and since the weather was as nice as you can ask for in early March, sunny with a high in the low 60's I decided to make the best of it.  Murphy and I got in my good old Jeep and hit I-40 headed west, and then taking US-52 north.  Stopping at a Subway and Burger King in Mount Airy I picked up a sub for me and a plain double cheeseburger for Murphy.  We then headed up to the picnic area at the top of Pilot Mountain... yes my dog got a cheeseburger, dogs are for spoiling after all!

After lunch we went about a mile down the Grindstone Trail, and down is the right word.  Grindstone Trail starts off at the mountaintop picnic area and winds down the side of the mountain to the family camp ground and it REALLY goes downhill, there are steps down part of it and signs along the trial warning about the cliffs.  This is a popular mountain climbing area and people were climbing while we were there.  One of the guys was climbing up "Three Bears Gulch" and got a real surprise when he popped his head over the edge of the cliff and saw Murphy looking at him!

It was a beautiful day, and the views from Pilot Mountain were great, you could see the towers of downtown Winston Salem 30 miles away.

After leaving Pilot Mountain we didn't want to do the Interstate grind all the way home, and it was still such a nice day so we drove through the town of King and then east on Mountain View Road, north on  NC 8 and then east again on Sheppard Mill Road.

One of the places we need to get back to, and it's one of those places I've passed many times before, is Moratock Park, just south of Danbury on NC 8.  It's the site of an antebellum iron furnace, the ruins of which are still there.

This was the kind of drive that a good road trip is all about.  Those roads wound through the hills with the Sauratown Mountains marching along to the north.  There were old houses, farms, log cabins, beautiful scenery, views, even a real live general store, the Priddy General Store.