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Chris met us at the airport and took us home to their lovely house on Lake Wyley.
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DSCN0833.jpg-1 Chris met us at the airport and took us home to their lovely house on Lake Wyley. |
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DSCN0834.jpg-1 On Friday we relaxed and visited around the neighborhood . . . This is a preserve across from the front garden |
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DSCN0839.jpg-1 Chris built a dry-stack wall in the back yard. Quite worthy of a Churchillian amateur |
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DSCN0840.jpg-1 We also inspected the new stairs to the deck before. . . |
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DSCN0842.jpg-2 . . . We got into some SERIOUS relaxation, secure that the deck would not collapse under us. |
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DSCN0843.jpg-2 On Saturday we all took a road trip to Blowing Rock in the mountains. A delightful little town with a nearby estate. It got its name from a rock overhanging a 1000 foot drop to a gorge. The wind blows up the gorge to the rock so hard that you can lean almost horizontally over the drop. We didn't. |
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DSCN0844.jpg-2 We managed to decipher a map Margaret had printed out from the Internet and set off on a short walk |
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DSCN0845.jpg-2 The trees were just beginning to turn colored since we were over 4000 feet |
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DSCN0863.jpg-3 This tree was covered with fungi that looked like barnacles |
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DSCN0869.jpg-3 The next day Peter and Diane rented a car because Margaret and Chris had to tend to their slave-duties at work. We set out for the Smoky Mountains and drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway past a beautiful waterfall. This county has hundreds of falls. |
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DSCN0872.jpg-3 The Parkway is over 450 miles of gorgeous roadway from the Smokies to the Shenendoah in Virginia. The area we were in it is a two-lane, S-bended, up-and-down road in beautiful country. |
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DSCN0873.jpg-3 Of course, there are the old farts who are doing 10 mph looking at the countryside along all the double yellow lines, but an expectation of a 20mph average makes that bearable |
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DSCN0875.jpg-3 And speaking of bears, there are (reportedly) lots of them although we didn't see any. The Cradle of Forestry museum was a few miles higher up and had a trail with artifacts to look at. This was a stationary steam engine to drive a saw mill |
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DSCN0878.jpg-4 The old logging train was pulled by a steam engine. Who's driving? |
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DSCN0879.jpg-4 Right !!! |
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DSCN0884.jpg-4 Peter was relegated to grading the track. |
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DSCN0886.jpg-5 The museum part was very interesting with manikins doing various jobs. One visitor started asking one lifelike manikin questions |
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DSCN0887.jpg-7 As we went higher the colors and berries got better and better |
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DSCN0899.jpg-7 Eventually we got to our woodland cabin |
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DSCN0894.jpg-7 It was a square box with a bedroom, |
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DSCN0895.jpg-7 a bathroom |
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DSCN0896.jpg-7 and a kitchen. It was comfortable and quiet. |
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DSCN0901.jpg-7 Next day we headed for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, intending to do the grand loop around it. Almost immediately we came across a flock of turkeys |
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DSCN0903.jpg-7 taking a dust bath. But they were not too eager to meet us and |
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DSCN0904.jpg-7 ran up the hill. Eventually they all flew off with a major racket through the leaves of the trees |
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DSCN0907.jpg-7 Some of the most beautiful sights were the trees with a creeper that had turned bright red. |
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DSCN0908.jpg-7 Next stop was a picnic lunch at the Fontana Dam run by the Tennesee Valley Authority. |
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DSCN0910.jpg-7 Diane and her Father wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail so one of our objectives was |
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DSCN0912.jpg-7 to walk along as many segments as we could find. |
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DSCN0916.jpg-7 Yet Another Trail Intersection(YATI) |
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DSCN0917.jpg-7 And the trail |
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DSCN0918.jpg-7 YATI |
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DSCN0919.jpg-7 And the trail |
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DSCN0920.jpg-8 We were now up to mid-afternoon (after a late start) and only one fifth of the way around the park so we went home a shorter way up a beautiful valley |
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DSCN0924.jpg-8 We discovered a railroad with real trains and YATI |
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DSCN0925.jpg-8 with its trail |
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DSCN0926.jpg-8 It is now raining but we still got a short walk on this piece. |
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DSCN0927.jpg-8 OOH, AAH, OOH, AAH |
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DSCN0928.jpg-8 The next day we went directly into the Park |
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DSCN0930.jpg-8 And it was spectacular |
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DSCN0932.jpg-8 When we got to the summit we could look back at the way we had come. |
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DSCN0939.jpg-8 NO, she did NOT hike in flipflops ! |
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DSCN0940.jpg-8 We continued over the summit into Tennesee |
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DSCN0942.jpg-8 Gatlinburg was a cute little town overrun by tourists but |
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DSCN0943.jpg-8 We found a lovely little walk alongside a stream where we could have lunch |
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DSCN0944.jpg-8 And look at nature. This is either a beetle attack or lunch for a Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker. We're taking votes. |
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DSCN0948.jpg-8 Back up to the summit and YATI |
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DSCN0951.jpg-8 PROOF that we were there |
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DSCN0953.jpg-8 It was now beginning to cloud over |
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DSCN0955.jpg-8 but that didn't spoil the beauty |
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DSCN0960.jpg-9 YATI |
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DSCN0968.jpg-9 The next morning we headed back to Margaret and Chris's via Cherokee - the headquarters of the tribe |
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DSCN0970.jpg-9 A hundred years ago, an elder of the tribe had the curious notion to communicate by writing. After a failed trial of one symbol per word (like Chinese) he came up with one symbol per phoneme |
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DSCN0974.jpg-10 and the signs are all bilingual. Note that both Cherokee and Indian begin with the same sound. |
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DSCN0971.jpg-9 The village was full of symbolic sculpture |
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DSCN0972.jpg-9 They also had a wonderful collection of bears all painted differently. These were scattered throughout the village. |
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DSCN0985.jpg-10 Ever wonder about the name "Smokies"? The trees give off moisture even when it isn't raining, and it looks like there is smoke coming up. |
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DSCN0986.jpg-10 After being in the clouds along the Parkway we emerged for a last OOH, AAH before going back to Lake Wyley. |