Linville climbing trip

Spring recess is always a good time for a trip. That spring my wife said it was ok, and Tom and I headed south from Oxford, Ohio. Larry Sickman of Cincinnati recommended Linville and some other Miami people were kyaking and/or on Looking Glass at the time so it seemed like a good idea. Leaving Interstate 40 at Morganton NC, we entered a store to stock up on food.Asking for bagels our clerk replied ..uhh did ya saa beagles? Buying such food as she had, we headed up to the fish hatchery and Table Rock. The approach to the Table Rock parking lot was a 5.10. One of us had to get out of the car to spot what rocks to put the tires on to clear the rough road. Compounding the bad road was my 74 Mustang. The Chimneys were fun climbing and bouldering as was Table Rock. On the last day we headed down the gully separating the Prow and the Mummy. Larry had recommended the Prow 5.4. Opting for the former, I got the first and third pitch of which I remember the third as starting with a left move out of an alcove which should have had a hexable crack but it didn't. The wall above the alcove was steeper but took plenty of stoppers/hexes. At the next big ledge, I brought up Tom and was puzzled by the 3 pitch write up in our guide book,when there was obviously another pitch to go and evening was upon us. I cleverly turned the page of the guide and there it was. Soon we were on top thrashing through the kalmia and rhododendron. Amazingly while thrashing thru the Rhodo we bumped into JD from Miami who had recently done the Nose at Looking Glass.