Category: States
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Driving to The Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Tuesday, September 21, 2021 It’s a 7-8-hour drive to the Smokies from Charlottesville, depending on how you go and where you are going, but Martha wanted me to break it up, so I booked a night in Highland Haven Campground outside Roanoke. I went down 29, which is pleasant enough. You just have to be…
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Leaving Cataloochee
Wednesday, August 18, 2021 We went for the wildlife drive. It was very foggy, but the forecast was for a sunny day and the rest of the week was just afternoon showers. We saw the herd in the field. Some were lying down, some in the road, but all were fat and happy. We drove…
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Hurricane Fred
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 Waking up early to a dripping rain. I made coffee and wrote up yesterday’s blog. Everything itched from the yellow jacket stings and my lip was still puffy. All-in-all it wasn’t too bad. I would wait until 8:00 to reconnect the truck batteries so I didn’t disturb Ginger. There were only…
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Cataloochee Campground and The Possessed Truck
I got up wondering about the possessed truck. Martha and I read the owner’s manual about the alarm system. The only thing it said was to unlock the door and start the engine, but we did that last night. We did find out where the horn fuse was, so I pulled the fuse and reconnected…
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Cades Cove to Cataloochee
Sunday, August 15, 2021 I had read about the 11-mile road into Cataloochee Campground on the east side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is a one-lane gravel road with tight turns down the mountain. Pulling a trailer wouldn’t be easy. As I hooked up, I saw our neighbor, who had been here…
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Work Day
Saturday, August 14, 2021 Karen went for a 6 mile run up Anthony Creek Trail while the kids had fun cooking pancakes, pouring batter in letters for their names, then adding caramel M&M’s on top. Of course they couldn’t turn them over very well, but they had fun with the project and readily ate them.…
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Abrams Falls and Tubing Little River
Friday, August 13, 2021 We took the morning Loop Drive, which is always fun. After breakfast the plan was to hike to Abrams Falls, about a 5-mile hike, then tube Little River in the afternoon. The Airstream’s vitals were getting low, so I opted out to go dump the tanks, fill up with fresh water…
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Hike Little River Trail, Cucumber Gap
We went on the Loop Drive in the morning, now the fifth time we’ve done it. We saw lots of turkeys early, but the highlight was finding a “bear jam” with a ranger present. There was a mother and three babies in a wild black cherry tree….all on one branch! We relaxed and hung out,…
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Biking Cades Cove Loop
Wednesday, August 11. 2021 At 7:00 everyone was still sleeping, so I went up to the picnic area thinking I would try fishing Anthony Creek for an hour. As I put my rod together, two guys in their 60’s parked next to me and got their hiking gear out. I asked if they were going…
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Hike Mt. Le Conte to the Bluffs
Tuesday, August 10, 2021 We had a rather lazy morning. I downloaded pictures from two cameras and the phone to the computer and wrote up the last couple of days. We were all tired from a very active day yesterday, and the kids didn’t get up until almost 8:00. They had a big breakfast of…