Detours are half the fun

 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NP, NC -- One week into the adventure of 2015, we have already dodged a hurricane.

 Well, it wasn't really a hurricane, but a tropical storm that was serious enough to claim the A-spot on this year's list.  Ana.

 Our plan was to visit the Outer Banks in North Carolina, an area rich in history of pirates, shipwrecks, lifeboat rescues, submarine warfare and foul weather.  It's one of my favorite places, and it has been too long.  I was last there in 2003.  Prince Charming has never been.

 Hours before we left home, we discovered a tropical depression was forming off the coast of Florida.  As we headed up I-95 it appeared the storm was tracking us, and  heading straight for the Banks, which are a long and compicated trip from Florida, including a 2-hour ferry ride.

 Our proposed trip was not necessarily dangerous, but it did promise to be miserable due to poor weather.

 We are nothing if not flexible.  We veered west in South Carolina and spent our second, third and fourth nights in three different campgrounds along the Blue Ridge Parkway, working our way from south of Asheville to Boone.

 We drove to the top of Mount Mitchell, highest point east of the Mississippi.  The last time I was there was 1989, and I arrived by bicycle.  This trip did not provide the same feeling of accomplishment, but it was a lot less painful.

 From Boone, we backtracked to Greensboro for a couple of days to visit required relatives.  And now we are westbound again, headed for a house-sitting gig in Tucson beginning at the end of this month.

 It is great to be back on the road again, even if the road is full of detours.