From the Mountains to the Ocean

The start of September found us still in Maggie Valley, NC. We had time to do a bit more exploring around the mountains as well as checking out Waynesville again. The area has some great restaurants and breweries and luckily many had outdoor seating, which was always our preference.

On a cool day around the Labor Day holiday, we drove over to Looking Glass Falls. The area was pretty busy so we did not stay long, just long enough to snap a few pics of the falls which are right beside the road.

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Just down the road from the falls is the Cradle of American Forestry. Although the inside exhibits were closed due to COVID, the outdoor trails were still open and we spent an hour or so walking thru the forest and discovering old buildings from the schools early years.

The school was founded by Dr. Carl Schenck in 1898, who was also the chief gardener for Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate in Asheville. This became the first forestry school in the U.S. Many of the buildings from the school still exist and can be seen along one of the trails thru the woods.

Clockwise from top left: Cabin where students slept, Schenck’s office, plaque commemorating the school and founder, inside classroom, and Schenck’s home which was also used to house boarders upstairs.

On the 12th of September, we packed up and moved slightly south, back into Georgia outside of the town of Hiawassee at Bald Mountain RV Resort. We had a site that back onto a creek and was well shaded which was very enjoyable for the week we were there.

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This was a busy week of visiting as we had several friends who were living in the area. One evening we visited Sonja and Bob Short at their new home outside Murphy, NC. We hadn’t seen them since the mountain cabin was sold many years ago. It was great to see them and catch up on so much news and info about other friends and family.

We also visited with Hill and Bridget Kelly, two old friends of Jill’s from way back in her Lithonia, GA times. They have a great home up in the woods and we enjoyed just sitting on their deck and reminiscing about old times.

We also managed to connect with Bob and Cheryl Siler who also have a place nearby, just off lake Chatuge. We had last seen them when we were camping at Cedar Key, FL back in January. We got to see their new (still being refurbished) home and visit for dinner at a restaurant on the lake. All in all, it was a rather busy week for us given we were up in the mountains of North Georgia.

We also experienced the remnants of hurricane Laura as she swept thru the area, bringing very heavy rain. Our little creek got pretty full at one point but never got to a point of needing to consider evacuating to higher ground!

On September 19th, we headed back to the Atlanta area for our regular set of visits to doctors, hair stylists, friends, and family (not necessarily in that order). For the first time, we reserved space at a Corps of Engineers campground, in this case on Lake Allatoona. These tend to be very nice campgrounds with sites that are very well spaced out. It is also very inexpensive (about $28 per night) to camp. The catch – there are no sewer hook ups. Our plans had us at the campground for 10 days. That meant both our grey (water from our sinks and shower) and black (water from the toilets) tanks would have to hold out as much as possible since we could not hook up to a sewer. Our only option would be to unhook the RV and drive it over to a dump station in the campground, dump our tanks, then go back to our site and hook back up. The question was – how long could we go before we needed to dump?

In order to stretch out our time before dumpings we did not use our dishwasher, switching mainly to paper plates and plastic cups (yes, not the most ecological approach, we know). We also shifted to “navy showers” to limit the water usage (and thus less water in the grey tank). Laundry was done at Dan’s mom’s house so we didn’t have to use our clothes washer. We were able to stretch to 8 days with this method (good to know if we ever want to boondock in the future for a week) before having to unhook from our site and visit the dump station.

We spent most of our time visiting with family and friends while near Atlanta and of course that mean lots of time with our growing grand babies, Savannah and Skylar. Each time we see them, they have grown so much and their personalities are also coming out! At their 9-month check up, they both weighed exactly the same and they also were exactly the same length – true identical twins!

Lolli loving on her girls

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Meanwhile, our “girls” (the dogs, Adele & Brandy) got to meet their Grandma (Dan’s mom, Jean) several times, both when she came to the campsite and when we traveled to her place to do laundry.

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We had to have some of our mail and shipments sent to Dan’s mom because the COE campgrounds do not accept deliveries. One item we had excitedly been awaiting were our 2020 travel t-shirts (as you may recall, we designed shirts for 2019 titled “Mended Bones Tour). We think they came out pretty good!

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On September 29th, we left the Atlanta area, heading south for the winter in Florida. Our next stop (and last stop for 2020!) would be Emerald Beach RV Park in Navarre, FL. This area received some damage from Hurricane Sally, although most damage was farther west in Pensacola. The only real impact is that their 325′ pier is gone.

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And thus, we wrapped up September, 2020 back where we started, in Florida. A lot has happened and changed during that time and hoping the rest of this year is uneventful. Lots of doctor appointments in early October and then we’ll get out and about! Stay tuned for more info as we venture out and about during October.