Fall 2010 Road Trip: Days 12 & 13

10/27/10:  Homeward Bound through NC, VA, WV, PA, and NJ:

Day 12:  Even though we may have been able to drive straight through (approx 11 hours) we decided to take it easy, and allow  ourselves 2 days to get home.  There are still so many things to stop and see along the way, and we don't want to push ourselves too hard, since we have the rest of this week off work.  If we get home on Thursday, we'll still have three full days to recuperate before going back to the ol' grind!  Plus, I just want to stretch out one more day of vacation!!

It was a foggy, rainy morning when we left Asheville, and as we got on a highway heading north, we realized after a short time that we were on the wrong highway, so we pulled over at a rest stop to figure things out.  While there, I got some great photos:

Once we got turned around the right way, we decided to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway again, and enjoy it's beauty for a  few more miles!   As we drove along the curves, dips and valleys of the Parkway, it was so foggy in spots, we could barely see a car's length in front of us.

We drove through some neat tunnels:

We stopped at some overlooks, where we couldn't see much due to the fog!

We then decided to get off the Blue Ridge Parkway and head toward Mount Mitchell,  the highest peak of the Appalachian Mountains and the highest peak in the eastern United States.  Mount Mitchell is located near Burnsville, North Carolina, in the Black Mountains subrange of the Appalachians, and about 32 miles northeast of Asheville.  We never actually made it to Mount Mitchell State Park, as we decided it was a bit out of the way.  But we continued our trek northward on rural roads and saw some great things!

Now on winding backroads, we saw some strange and some beautiful sights!  The first thing we saw was this billy goat, chained to a very large tree stump!  It was not directly near a house or a barn, so we couldn't quite figure out why!  A Guard Goat, perhaps :)

We also passed ramshackle barns,
rundown but great photographic subjects:

Horses in the the rural countryside:

Sheep grazing on a hillside:

We also saw dilapidated vehicles:

and acres and acres of Christmas Tree Farms:

A strange "hex sign" on a barn:

A Covered Bridge

Over this little creek:

Orange Foliage and fence:

After spending a good part of the day doing more exploration of the back roads of western North Carolina, it was time to hit the open highway and get to Virginia, where we planned to spend the night.  

Even though we were officially on the way home, it was another very good road trip day!!  We stayed the night at a Red Roof Inn in Staunton, VA and will continue on home tomorrow!

10/28/10:  Final Leg: Staunton, VA to New York City!

Day 13:  Today will be our final travel day, with all highway driving.  The sightseeing part of the trip is over, and now it's just "homeward bound"!  

We drove from Staunton, VA into West Virginia, and stopped at a rest stop just over the border.  This is my FINAL photo of the trip!

Home safely around 4:00 PM!   What an amazing trip, full of beautiful memories and images!  And now with this blog, a great way to remember them!

END OF FALL 2010 ROAD TRIP!!

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Fall 2010 Road Trip: Day 11

10/26/10:  Exploring the Asheville area, including Brevard, and the tiny little hamlets of Lake Toxaway, Sapphire, Cashiers,  Tuckasegee,  Cullowhee,  Dillsboro,  and Sylva... plus downtown Asheville!

Another rainy start to the day, we set off for Brevard to check out that area.  The rain came down in earnest on our trip there, but it was worth it.  Interestingly enough, Brevard is located in Transylvania County!  It's a great little college town, with very friendly folks at the Chamber of Commerce, who gave us a great sales pitch about moving to the area!

The pouring rain was knocking the fall foliage off the trees:

The fall foliage created colorful reflections on the pond near the Brevard Music Center:

Canada Goose swimming on the pond:

More country roads through woods!

We decided to take the back country roads from Brevard back to Asheville, driving east for a while, then north on mountain roads!  By the time it was lunchtime, we were deep in the woods on a winding mountain road.  We stopped at a place that advertised food and souvenirs, but when we went in, we were told that the cook had not yet arrived, so there was nothing to serve, but we were welcome to wait for him.  We didn't, but this incident gave us an idea of how casual and informal things are in this part of the country!

At one point on these winding back roads, we drove around a bend and almost hit a very large branch lying in the road, because we hadn't seen it until we were nearly upon it.  It could have caused a serious accident, especially if another car had been coming in the opposite direction!  We pulled off the road onto the shoulder, and Bob walked back to drag it off the road.  This is a photo of him returning to the car after his good deed!

There were several dams and a hydroelectric plant hidden in the back woods:

We also saw some ramshackle farms along the drive. This one seemed very picturesque against the backdrop of the woods and some lingering fall color:

After driving all morning and stopping for lunch at an all-you-can-eat-buffet, we finally headed back to Asheville.  By this time, the sun was trying very hard to make an appearance:

It was pretty nice by the time we reach Asheville, where we spent the afternoon exploring the downtown area.  Here are some shots of me that Bob took - not bad, honey!

Here he caught me just getting ready to change positions, I think!

A cropped version of the first shot - I really like this one!  I even made a cartoon version of it!I may even use one of these as my avatar on Facebook or Daily Pics!

We had a great afternoon exploring downtown Asheville on foot - we had soft drinks from an old fashioned soda fountain, browsed through a market full of local art, checked out the library and did a little shopping.  Here is some cool wall art we saw near the place where our car was parked: 

Another great day - unfortunately our last in this area!  I love it here, and will miss being here.  There is so much more to see and explore!!  Maybe, just maybe, this is our retirement destination?  It really feels right to me!

End of Day 11!


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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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