I don't know about you, but I greet each fall with a sigh of relief. Here in central North Carolina, fall means relief from a sauna-like sticky heat, no more mosquito bites, ACC football time, and my personal favorite holiday, Halloween. In my hometown, it is also a time to catch the riot of fall colors before the trees drop their leaves. Fall is traditionally the driest season of the year before we settle into our customary gray winter days punctuated by freezing drizzle, so it's no wonder we search out the best places to catch mother nature's last big show before things settle down.

Growing up, it was tradition to travel the Blue Ridge Parkway of North Carolina and Virginia this time of year for warm fall coloring. It's a perfect time for camping, hiking, and tours of the historic sites along the Parkway. This year, however, I will be fortunate enough to be in one of the areas TODAYShow.com named one of "8 great and unusual fall foliage destinations." That is, Tennessee, at Sugar Hollow Retreat.

"To see the best foliage, stay in East Tennessee for the second and third week of October, then go to middle Tennessee for later foliage sightings."

  -TODAYShow.com

I'll be up there for a wedding. Mine, as it happens. I'm sure I'll have a lot on my mind, but I'm going to take a little time to appreciate the scenery. I'll be in the perfect location at the perfect time. Higher elevations like the retreat get the colors earlier and weather conditions favor brighter colors in the leaves. (Don't ask me how this works. Something about cold nights, frost, and sugars within the leaves.) My goal this year is to pick a favorite. I'm going to take in the colors of the Dogwood, Sweetgum, Red and Sugar Maples, Oak, Birch, Beech, and all of the rest of the roughly 100 types of trees in the Smokies and say, "This tree is my favorite." I'm not sure why it's important to have a favorite fall tree, but thinking about it will probably be a welcome change from thinking about catering, rings, vows, and keeping my friends and family from doing anything embarrassing while we're at the Retreat.

While at Sugar Hollow, I'm going to do some hiking, of course. Three-hundred acres is plenty of space for some quiet walks at dusk. Sunday morning, up shortly before dawn to catch the mist and sunrise on Watauga Lake sounds great too. But I'm really looking forward to taking my bike over the winding mountain roads in the area. Picture this: Cool, sunny day. Brilliant red, orange, yellow, purple leaves drift down slowly to land on the curvy mountain highway. The wind rushes by as you give the bike a little gas. Maybe someone special is on the bike behind you, holding on tight.

I can't wait.