A Quiet Week

Here it is Sunday again, and I haven’t written anything. That’s partly because we haven’t done any true sight-seeing.

Our friends left on Monday, around noon-time. They had a short drive to Atlanta where they were going to get to see their new granddaughter for the first time. After they left, we went out and did some grocery shopping and then hung around and had dinner in.

On Tuesday, we made a big circle around Asheville. We had wanted to get some goodies from the Biltmore store, so that was our first stop. We had bought a key lime cheese ball mix last summer, but gave it away. So we had to get one for ourselves this year.

Our next stop was at a Super Wal-Mart. (The regular Wal-Mart here has been found lacking.) There was a Kohl’s store right next door that we wanted to pop into as well.

Then we were off to find Heidi some food. We didn’t get what we really wanted until we got to the third pet store. And what a challenge that was. We wound up on the phone with the owner to get directions until we pulled up in front of the place. (Microsoft Streets and Trips had been no help at all.) But she had everything we needed so it turned out to be worth the effort.

Besides, we found the restaurant we had liked so well from last year. So we just had to return to Thai Basil for lunch. It was every bit as good as we’d remembered and were so glad we had found it again.

Wednesday was a do-nothing day. We read. I scrapbooked a little. We played cards. Just a relaxing day.

On Thursday we decided to return to the casino. Turned out not to be such a good idea. Neither one of us had any luck to speak of. But we had fun. And the lunch buffet was terrific as always.

I got my hair cut on Friday (isn’t that exciting?). She really cut me short. I guess it will last longer that way. After I picked Julian up at the grocery store we stopped at a restaurant for lunch that he’d been eying since we got here. It turned out to be fairly mediocre, at best. But now we know.

I’m on a mailing list for upcoming events in North Carolina. We wanted to do something on the weekend and I found the 3^rd Annual Blackberry Festival in Mars Hill, north of Asheville. We’d enjoyed the Mater Festival and decided this could be just as fun. So we decided to go.

It took almost an hour to get to Ebbs Chapel Community Center, where the event was being held. What a gorgeous locale.

This “event” was little more than a church bazaar, but we sure enjoyed it. There were only about a dozen booths, if that. We gave them high marks for getting this festival onto the state's tourist bureau web site.



The craft items were nice and of good quality and we’re pretty certain they are all made by the folks of this little church community. Only one of the booths was selling anything blackberry related. We bought blackberry jams. The same booth also had different bean and split pea soup mixes, which we had to purchase. Definitely some yummy-looking stuff.

The best part was this guy:

Yes, this little, tiny Festival had an Elvis impersonator. The funniest part was that he was really quite good! Obviously, not that great to look at, but he really could sing. Really!

We headed back to Asheville to find some lunch. The scenery was as marvelous here as everywhere else we have been in North Carolina. This turned out pretty well for being taken through the window of a moving car. It really shows some of why I love the views up here. These mountains are beautiful.

This may be the last entry for another week. We are leaving here on Thursday for Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. We’ll have internet there, I think, so I will probably post after visiting the caves. Until then, happy trails to you all.

Great Smoky Mountain Railroad

It’s been a very busy week – that’s why the blogging got a little behind. Monday was the trip to Devil’s Courthouse. Tuesday was a shopping day, groceries and other necessities. We had dinner out with our friends at a marvelous restaurant called Sweet Onion. Wednesday found us just about as far west as you can go in North Carolina to walk the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Thursday was gambling day. Yes, we went back to the casino, but this time we actually brought home more money than we left with! No, there weren’t any big jackpots, but it’s still a huge win to have even a few dollars more in you pocket when you leave a casino.

This brings us to Friday and a wonderful train trip through the Nantahala River Gorge. We went with our friends again and with their daughter and her husband who are visiting for a few days. We drove less than an hour to Bryson City where we boarded the train at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad depot.

Here’s a view towards the front of the train shortly after leaving the station.

This is crossing the Fontana Lake Trestle. You can see how low the lake is. They are having a drought here, too.

Even with the water so low, there are still quite a number of house boats out there. They are all under strict code, can only be accessed by boat and only in certain of the summer months.

After passing Fontana Lake, we entered into the Nantahala River Gorge. (It’s not what I expected with a name like “gorge”, but it was quite beautiful.)

Once past a certain point, we started seeing lots of whitewater rafters. This was not heavy whitewater and something a beginner could handle. It was fun to watch all of them pass by. It looked like they were having a terrific time.

The train stopped at one point and maneuvered the engine onto the opposite end of the train. Then we began retracing our “tracks” towards home. We stopped in a small village where we had an hour to get lunch and walk around a bit. We were right by the river, near a spot where all the rafts were taken out of the water. We saw about a dozen come in while we were eating our sandwiches.

This little water fall was right near where the train was parked.


Then back on board for the return to Bryson City. Since the train itself didn’t turn around, they asked that everyone switch sides for the return trip. We quickly discovered that we had enjoyed the better views on the way out. We could see some body of water (rivers and lakes) on the entire trip. It was mostly rocks and trees on the way back. Coupled with full tummies and the rocking of the train, we found ourselves getting a bit sleepy.

Once back at the depot, we went into the model train museum right next door. That was a definite trip down memory lane. They had a huge table, maybe 15 or 20 feet square, set up in one room. They had every kind of railcar and every auxiliary piece of gear you can think of: mountains with waterfalls, whole cities, little people and everything. The round house had at least a dozen engines inside individual “garages”; there were all types of switching gear, a coal plant and loaders, passenger trains, cargo cars, you name it – they had it working and rolling around this huge display. It was awesome.

Along the walls and in a couple of other rooms were hundreds of other engines and cars in display cases. Some were shiny and new, one set was even gold-plated. And there were also the old ones going back to the 1920s. It was really something to see. Julian and Larry were trying to find the same models they had enjoyed as kids.

It took me back to the great table that we had in the basement, on pulleys to take it from the ceiling down to rest on the pool table. I could even smell that familiar smell when the trains were in motion. We were glad we stopped in there! Ah, sweet memories!

On Saturday, we went up the road to Canton to the 4^th Annual Mater Festival. It’s a small event, but it was fun to walk around to see all the crafts. We bought a couple of tomatoes, but haven’t tasted them yet. Then we went for lunch to a Mexican restaurant. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t Colorado Mexican either. We’ll have our share of good Mexican while in Colorado and New Mexico later in this trip. You just can’t get it out here.

Today is Sunday. We’ve done the laundry and cleaned the house. Later we’ll play cards with our friends and then all go out to dinner. They’ll be leaving tomorrow, so it will be sort of a farewell dinner. We’ve really enjoyed them being here. And with them gone, we probably won’t be out doing quite as much sight-seeing. Check in here anyway, you never know what we might find to share with you.

“Only God Can Make a Tree”

It’s not like we haven’t seen any trees since we’ve been in North Carolina. They are everywhere and of every kind. But our hike through Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest was something else!

This was another excursion with our friends, the Demalines. Here we are at the base of the 1¼ mile trail which passes by the memorial.

This is the first sort of water fall/stream that we walked over. It was way cooler in person than this picture shows.

This is a sampling of what this forest was like.

… and how tall the trees were.

… and how big around they were.

The trail makes a loop through the forest and this memorial plaque is more or less at the midpoint of that hike.

Here are just some additional shots as we made our way back to the parking lot.



Like Joyce Kilmer said, “…only God can make a tree.” I think He outdid Himself here.

Devil's Courthouse

On Monday, July 30, we went to Devil’s Courthouse. This is a rock formation off the Blue Ridge Parkway. We took Heidi with us and our friends also took their dog. We figured it was time to include the puppies in our outing.

The drive to this particular spot was just as beautiful as every other drive we’ve taken. North Carolina is a beautiful state. We are in constant awe!

We parked the cars in the lot and took the pups for the half-mile hike up to the lookout. This was a fairly steep walk, which we tried to capture in these pictures. Photos just never do it justice though. This is Larry & Barb in the early part of the trail, where it was still paved.

The last part of the trail was gravel. This is Julian and Larry with Panda in the lead. She’s a 9-year-old Boxer who loves to hike.

When we got to the top, we shot this photo back down to the parking lot. Our cars are the two farthest to the left side. Can you make them out? It’s a LONG way down there!
We were told that on a clear day you can see three or four states from this vantage point. Well, it wasn’t a clear day. The fog kept coming and going the whole time we were there. It was so pretty up there, in spite of the fog. Here’s proof that Heidi and Donna made it up to the top, too. Honestly, Heidi is a huge wimp when it comes to walking, so we were pleasantly surprised that she made it up and back without a problem. She actually seemed to enjoy it. After we got back down to the parking lot, the fog had rolled in even worse at the top. We were sorry we hadn’t taken a picture of it when we arrived, it was much clearer then. So we kept snapping pics until the fog wasn’t so bad anymore. Here’s Devil’s Courthouse from the parking lot. You can make out some other hikers up at the top.

From there we drove the Parkway a mile or two until we came to a picnic area. We had packed hot dogs and all the trimmings for a nice picnic lunch. Larry did a great job cooking the “dogs” while Barb managed to spoil the (other) dogs with treats. We had a really good time even with the fog coming and going.

Then it was time to head home and just put our feet up. It was quite a hike and we were all a bit tired. But it was definitely another wonderful day in North Carolina.

Successful Fishing!

So last Friday, our friends from home and Julian & I went to Cherokee (again) to see if we couldn't get lucky fishing on the reservation. We bought our one-day licenses & worms and found a great spot on the ponds just outside the KOA campground.

Not long after we arrived, we saw the hatchery truck dumping fish into our pond. We certainly hoped that this was a good sign. Lots of fish in the pond must mean that we'll catch them, right?

Barbara and I took the chairs and found a nice, shady spot on the bank. Certainly you didn't think we'd stand, did you?


It wasn't too long till Larry had a bite. He even hooked that bad boy - or so we thought. We did see it - as it escaped his hook just before he got it onto the bank. No really, we did see it. I'd guess it was about 6 or 7 inches long. But tricky enough to get off his line before it was too late.


Julian was the winner, though. After we had lunch, he reeled in the one and only fish of the day. But that counts. One fish is better than none. One is better than being skunked. One is better than we'd done there last week... or last year for that matter. Wanna see the big honkin' prize-winner? Look closely!


You may want to click on this photo and see it in it's larger format. The big bad fish is hard to see in this reduced picture.

Julian says he's been catching fish in the creek behind our coach. He even kept one, hoping for more and enough for a meal. But when they stopped biting, he nursed the one back to health and released him back into the creek. I know he's been catching them. I believe him! He just hasn't been taking his camera so that he can prove it to everyone.

Day Trip to Cades Cove

Since the last posting, we've been doing some of the more mundane things of life. We went out to dinner one evening. We did laundry. We cleaned house. We took our walks and just generally enjoyed our place in the world.

And then on Monday afternoon, our neighbors from Leesburg arrived. They will be here for two weeks and it will be fun having them around to do stuff with. They got their motor coach shortly after we did and this will be their longest trip out in it so far.

We’ve had lots of rain this week and have had to dodge the storms to do anything. Yesterday turned out to be no exception.

We took off with our friends at about 10am. We drove through Cherokee and the Smoky Mountains into Tennessee and had lunch at Gatlinburg.

From there we drove west to take a tour of Cades Cove. This is a beautiful area that has been somewhat preserved since the 1800s. It was very interesting to see how the people lived in that era. I’ve always said I would not have made a good pioneer and seeing these homes and buildings surely reinforced that.

Our first stop was at the John Oliver Place. As you can see, we had a bit of a hike to get up to the house.

The house itself was just one room with the big fireplace on one end. There were steps to the second floor, but they were pretty steep, so I didn’t go up. The guide book says that’s where the sons of the household slept. Everyone else on the main floor.

This is the back of the house, with Julian and our friend, Larry, to the right. Looks like they had some heated debate going on.

We passed by three different churches, two Baptist and one Methodist. As time was getting short, we didn’t stop at any of them. We did stop next at the Cable Mill and Visitor Center. This is a shot of the house there, which was built in 1879 and enlarged over time.

This is the grist mill, which still works.

Here’s the Cantilever Barn.

They had a demonstration near the barn of different toys the kids played with back then. It was like sitting in grandma’s house! They had the button on the string, only they used small wooden disks cut from branches and with two holes in them. People were amazed by these things and yet I remember them so well from when we were kids.

This is the smokehouse. It still smelled smoky in there.

Here’s proof we were really there. This is in front of the house, which was little more than three rooms and an upstairs.


From there we headed back out of the “park”. It’s a long, slow drive on a one-way, narrow road. And people kept stopping in the road to take pictures of the deer. But we managed to be almost out by the time the rain started to pour down on us.

We drove back home by a different route, which seemed to go faster than the way we had come over that morning. It rained on us the whole way home and then for a couple hours more. Poor Heidi, who hates water of any kind, had a hard time of it. And her dinner was late, to boot!

So far today we have sunshine and nice weather. We’re a bit tired of the rain, so we hope this weather will hold up for a few days.

Until next time, happy trails to you all!

First Stop: Creekwood Farm, North Carolina

In spite of it taking me a week to get this first entry, we did arrive here in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina on Monday, July 16, after spending last Sunday night in a quaint little RV park in Canadys, SC. Arriving here at Creekwood Farm RV Park was a little like coming home. We were both very excited and happy to get here. Here’s a look at our “home” after we got fully set up and settled in.

We’ve been walking about 2 ¼ miles most days since being here. We’ve been to the casino in Cherokee – with no luck. We’ve been enjoying the weather here. After the high-90’s of Florida, the mid- to low-80’s here feels fabulous. We’ve had rain most days, but that’s been kind of nice, too. And Tuesday evening we had cocktails on the creek.

It was reminiscent of last summer, but our friends aren’t here this summer. So we invited the ducks.

On Thursday, we went onto the Cherokee Reservation to do some fishing. We’d heard good things about the fishing there, but weren’t able to prove any of it. But we have proof we tried!


Julian’s been fishing on our creek here at the campground and has had some success. Nothing big enough to keep, yet, but there’s always tomorrow.

While on the reservation we found Mingo Falls. I should have taken a picture of the steps we had to climb to get up there! It was a long way up, to say the least. But the trip was worth it. The waterfall was very cool.
Saturday was waterfall day. We drove south into Transylvania County in search of a few falls to enjoy. We got our fill by the end of the day and got more exercise than we’d bargained on in the process. Here are the five that we stopped at, starting with Sliding Rock Falls. Anyone could get into the water and slide down into the pool at the bottom. It looked like it would be fun on a really hot day.

Next was Looking Glass Falls. I don’t know why it’s called that, but it was nice.

The next one we stopped at was called Connestee Falls. Unfortunately the viewing was from the top and we were not in the mood for what looked like a very long walk down (and then back up) for a better viewing. So this is as good a photo as we got.

Heading down the road and into DuPont State Forest, we got to see two more. The first was Hooker Falls. In spite of signs posted to the contrary, some teen-ager was jumping over the edge into the lake below. He was just plain crazy!

From there we had the hike of the day. We probably wouldn’t have done it if we had known ahead of time. The guide books said “hike upstream about 1000’ on level ground.” Well, there wasn’t anything level about it – all up hill. But in the end, it was worth it. Triple Falls was the prettiest of those we’d seen all day.

Those are the highlights of our first week of this three month adventure. We’re having a great time. We hope you are enjoying your days as much.

Where in the World?

Where in the world are the Coles? Well, we are at home, packing up the coach for our three-month adventure. But tomorrow morning we will be taking off. We'll drive about 350 miles and spend one night in South Carolina. From there, we'll make our way to Maggie Valley, North Carolina. After we get settled in there, I'll be posting more pictures and stories. So check in from time to time to see just where in the world ARE the Coles?