Blue Ridge Mountains

October 15, 2012

Cumberland Gap, Tennessee

We have hit the 5000 mile mark on our trip!  After leaving Lexington we head south ending up in a middle-of-no-where campground east of Knoxville.  This is a  campground that might have been active in the middle of the summer but is now all but abandoned.  We follow the GPS on Neal’s phone and end up on another hilly winding road with switchbacks.  We call the campground for directions and the manager tells us, “Well see, you came in the back way.”  “Oh you’re in an RV.......   well the road narrows and you have some switchbacks ... but you can probably make it.”  We  worry about another Blue Mountain experience.  As it turns out it isn’t too bad.  We stay one night and I'm glad to hit the road the next morning and leave the place behind.   

Next day is great.  We reach the Smoky Mountains taking Rt.  129.    This is a really beautiful road and though there were switchbacks, the road is really good.  There are mostly motorcycles on the road with us - lots of them and on many turns photographers taking photos of all the passing vehicles.  They have  signs up with the website name  to contact and purchase pictures.  It’s a big parade of the motorcycles and us.

We stop at a beautiful campground - Fontana Lake - in the high mountains.  This is the kind of beauty you might  think of when you dream of camping far out in nature.  The stars are sparkling, the Milky Way is clear, you only hear crickets, frogs, insects, the water - nature is not quiet, but it’s very peaceful.  

Next day we move on eastward and we have another interesting trip, now in the North Carolina Rocky Mountains.  We pull into a gas station that is roofed and grab the attention of motorcyclists there.  “Well, I’m not sure you’ll be able to pull the RV through.” “Your air conditioning is to high.”  “I don’t see any light between the top of the RV and the roof”  and so on.  So there was much chatter and standing around.  But when we get back in and pull forward, we don’t hit the roof.  They were right though, it was close.

We stop in the little town of Bryson City.  It has a “Western” feel to it.  It’s filled with tourists, motorcycles, trains, bars, outdoorsy stores, and souvenir shops, all with a mountainous backdrop.  We find a “just right” campground here.  They have goats for Gwen to feed, lots of playgrounds and a creek.  It’s loaded with families in RVs and tents.  Everyone has fires going at night, and dogs to walk.  We decide to stay 4 nights here as the kids will have a lot to do.  We buy lots of tubs of goat food for Gwen and also sometimes for Phil.  Gwen feeds the goats one pellet at a time so her tub will last a long time!

We head for Asheville.  This turns out to be a great city.  Large and active downtown filled with restaurants and shops and the like.  All nestled in the mountains.  It’s pretty everywhere you look.  Neal and I both thought it had a trendy feel to it.  

Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway

We take the Blue Ridge Mountain Highway up to just below Boone, NC.  It is a beautiful but exhausting drive.  We take lots of pictures.  But it is cold tonight and windy and we leave our campfire at dusk to come into the warm RV.  Tomorrow, Boone and then east through Raleigh to the the North Carolina shore.  It’s getting cold up here.  I notice our temperatures here are a bit lower then those in Charlottetown, Prince Edwards Island.  Low tonight in the high 30’s.  In the RV, this means head for warmer temperatures!