Fall 2010 Road Trip: Day 10

10/25/10:  Chattanooga, TN to Asheville, NC!

We were awoken early this morning by thunder and lightning and torrential rain.  Poor Emily has to be at work by 5:45AM in this weather!   We aren't in a rush this morning, so we take our time getting up, and getting ready to head out.  It was 60 degrees and still raining when we left Emily's house at 9:30AM, after having a great breakfast of coffee and the desserts we brought home last night!  Yikes, I am going to have to get myself back on track when I get home!

We plan to make the trip back to Asheville (about 200 miles) at a leisurely pace, there's no hurry from this point on.  We're taking a route that follows the Ocoee River for a while, and then back through the forest surrounding the Smokies.  It's a rainy day but hopefully it will still be a scenic route!

One of our first photo stops was at Ocoee Dam #1, first in a series of dams built on the Ocoee River by the TVA.

Rock striations and reflections near the Dam:

Then we entered Cherokee National Forest:

Despite the rain, the fire danger was high!

More photos of the Ocoee along this scenic drive:

Bob on a bridge!

Further along our route, we happened upon the Ocoee Whitewater Center (near Ducktown, TN) which was the canoe slalom venue for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.  The Olympic race course was built in the dry riverbed of the Upper Ocoee River. 

You can see there is not much water in the river here:

Beautyberry:  we saw this beautiful bright purple berry
in several of the places we visited in the South!

Not long after this stop, it started raining heavily again.  This is a shot I took of the mountains and the road ahead through a very rainy windshield!  

Right around this time my camera shut down because my memory card was full and I had to delete some of the older photos.  I've been downloading onto my computer each night, but have been keeping all my photos on the memory card too,  just as a precautionary backup!  Just about the time I got my camera back in operating order again, we came upon this beautiful scenic spot, just as the rain stopped for a short time!  It must be a sign!

View from the bridge above:

On the road again,
we finally passed over the border into North Carolina!

We passed by a spot that held promise of a good photo op, but by the time Bob was able to turn around and went back, it had started to rain again in earnest!  I got the shots anyway, rain and all!

As we got closer to the Smokies, we found ourselves on more winding mountain roads!

This shot was taken for my Dad, who turned me on to Bryson City Tales, a book written about this area, by a young doctor who moved his family here right out of Duke University Medical School. 

Our route into the Smokies in late afternoon, with sunshine starting to peak through the rain clouds!

There was much more color in the hills now than there was when we left this area six days ago: more reds and oranges.  The color was just breathtaking, and we had to stop to get some shots!

We decided to drive into Cherokee, where we hoped to find some authentic Indian jewelry.  I have been looking for a very specific silver ring, to match one I bought for Bob several years ago.  Although that search was fruitless, we did a quick exploration of the town and I got a couple of shots:

More Bear statues, Cherokee-style! 
This one is Eagle Dances Bear

Sequoia Syllaberry Bear

By that time, it was getting close to dinner time, and we still wanted to check out nearby Waynesville, so we decided to eat there, and drive around afterwards!  After a good dinner (where I ate way too much!) we did explore the area, and decided we really like it here!

Getting dark out now, we started back to our motel - we're staying in the same Red Roof Inn we stayed at last week!   Life is Good!!  The only bad thing is that this trip is almost over! 

End of Day 10!

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