Into the Blue Ridge

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Smokemont Campground, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina

(We do not have phone service here, so I don't know when these posts will get out!)

I'm sitting here on the edge of Bradley Fork Creek as it flows rapidly and noisily through tree-lined banks. The water is flowing over smoothed boulders, bubbling up white in many spots. I look at its continuous stream and wonder how there could be a water shortage. Although we slept pretty well last night, it seemed like it was raining all night, but it was the creek right behind us. It is cool this morning - I even have my MisterParks fleece on. I suspect it will warm up some today, but I'm hoping that we've left the high heat and humidity behind for a few days. We have made it to our last bucket list item for this trip - Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We will be here a few days, but I can tell there is much to experience here.

A day late and with a slightly lighter bank account balance, we resumed our trip westward out of Raleigh yesterday. It was a long day - a little over 300 miles - so we pretty much rode I40 the entire way. There was construction work in several places, merging traffic into one lane, so that didn't help. Even though we got a fairly early start out of Jennie's driveway, we didn't make it to our campsite until about 5:30. Weather was warm and acceptably humid all day.

We talked about the trailer brake incident some. Although I'm not at all happy that brakes that were brand new at the beginning of the trip somehow fell apart so soon, I am kind of OK that we had the experience of a mechanical emergency. We managed to figure out what to do, found resources, and developed reasonable plans on-the-fly. We still had to pay for one night at this campground that we couldn't use, but $10 isn't a huge loss. We may be able to add another day on to the end of this stay, depending on whether someone else has reserved this site or not. But we had allotted five full days here anyway, so chopping off one day won't matter a whole lot. What was important, I thought, was that we had managed a mechanical failure, even while tired, and it didn't wipe out our travel plans. Of course, if the brakes had locked up while on the freeway at 65 mph, it might have been a dramatically different experience. We'll just ignore that part for now.

Most of the ride was just typical Southern Highway - a double ribbon of pavement laid down in a strip carved out of green forest. As we moved westward, I could tell that the tree composition was changing - more hardwoods, fewer pines, and the palmettos had completely disappeared. Raleigh is at the eastern edge of the Piedmont ecoregion, so as we moved westward we say increasing amounts of hardwoods, especially oak and hickory trees.

We stopped for lunch at one of those Piedmont towns, Statesville. Joan found us a pub in the middle of downtown, which made parking a challenge. But we found a 'two-hour parking spot' right on the edge of town hall I think. We took about five of those spots and I wondered if I would get a ticket, but we didn't. We enjoyed a great lunch on the patio with the girls. I had a good pimento-cheese burger, Joan had mussels, and we both enjoyed a good Chardonnay.

Back on the road, Joan abandoned me and went to the back seat for a short-lived nap. However, it wasn't too long before we actually started seeing mountains. After two months without any of them, it was a stirring sight to see them rising above the landscape. Shortly after Asheville, we were actually in them. And the views were spectacular. We seem to have timed our visit almost perfectly to catch the springtime wildflower blooms. In fact, because I was admiring the sea of red, yellow, blue, and lavender flowers just off the highway to the left, I missed an important exit to the right. We ended up driving through small mountain towns on very narrow roads. Thanks to my driving experience in the Rockies, this was a piece of cake. At one point, we ended up on the Blue Ridge Parkway for about 15 miles. This wasn't exactly planned, but was a terrific experience. I would rather drive it without the trailer, but maybe later this week.

We've entered yet another eco-region, The Blue Ridge. This region is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established to help preserve a part of it. It should be an enjoyable next few days.

Anyway, here we are. Our last Southern Charm! And it is a big one. (17.1.70)

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Photos

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Joan, Creekside

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About 20 feet from our Trailer Door

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Our Smokemont Campsite

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Another View

Comments

[Randall]

Just rec'd 3 posts
Have fun!