Rain Fizzled, So Cades Cove Exploration Happened

Awww! It’s April already and my Great National Retirement Tour is almost over. It rained hard all night. I was afraid my campsite might flood. There was a mountain peak right behind me and across the road. I could just picture water pouring down from the mountain and taking my poor little camper down into Walden Creek.

It was bright and sunny by 10 am, and only Campsite #12 right beside me is flooded. I was high and dry. Spent the morning (Friday, April 1st) downloading photos and adding them to the blog. Finished blogging about Charleston and started the Raleigh stop. Didn’t get going anywhere until after 1 pm.

Had breakfast at Mel’s Diner on Wear Valley Road. Very friendly staff. Huge meal! Don’t order the sausage patties – everything else is pretty good.

Wasn’t going to do anything because of the rain, but it stayed mostly sunny all day, so I decided to do Cades Cove – an auto tour loop of an historic farming community inside the National Park. First stopped at Sugarlands Great Smoky Mountain National Park Visitor Center to buy a stuffed animal (a request), and a long-sleeved T-shirt for me. Then drove to Cades Cove. A cove (in mountain lingo) is a flat valley between mountain ranges where farming can happen. The landscape, nestled at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountain chain, was gorgeous. The National Park Service explained that Native Americans had been planting and harvesting grains here for thousands of years, and they are engaged in a process of burning off the European grass and replanting native grasses and grains. One of the photos below shows this. Another shows baby fir trees trying to grow to replace the dead and dying ones.

Cades Cove is an 11-mile road loop thru an historic site where few people live now and most of the homesteads are owned and managed by the National Park System as historic preservation sites. The road is a one-way loop thru the cove that no one but tourists use – so the speed is less than 20 mph not because it is signed, but because people are going that slow to see stuff along the way. The oldest homestead is from the 1820s, the newest from the 1870s.

Wildlife:

Saw my only wildlife in the Smoky Mountains so far on this drive – a total of 4 ducks and about a dozen deer foraging in a fenced pasture. I’m sure they can, and likely do, jump the fence. Oh, and I saw a dead red fox on the road on the way to Cades Cove.

Cades Cove Homesteads:

1. The oldest homestead belonged to John Oliver, built in 1826, round log home. I did not walk up to see it because I was doing the map the wrong direction at this point.

2. Two churches: I walked up to and inside the Methodist Church. It was disbanded during the Civil War because the congregation was divided in their loyalties.

3. Elijah Oliver, son of John Oliver, 1865. I did walk up to this house and its 4 outbuildings, and took some photos. It was built from some round and some square logs, but a log home none-the-less. It was interesting to me that the kitchen was separated from the house by a covered porch. I suppose that kept the house cooler in the summer.

4. Grist mill: The mill was built on this site and operated by the side of Mill Creek. John Cable built the two mills here in about 1870; he operated them and did some farming. There are 5 other buildings on this site now, but 4 of them were moved in by NPS. One was a “drive through” barn. The mill is what was called a “slash” sawmill. Most of the milled log homes in the cove show signs of being slash milled, according to the brochure. I did park and walk around, took some photos. There was also a water powered sorghum molasses mill there. Both pretty moss covered. NPS could probably do a better job of making sure they are not moss-covered if they mean to preserve them. The other building on the site was a house that was built some years later and rented out by Cable to a couple who ran a general store out of it.

5. Dan Lawson house, 1856, son-in-law of the grist mill owner, has a brick chimney which was unusual for this time. This is called a “transition house” since it has some milled logs and some lumber construction. It also has a very Scandinavian looking storbord – or granary. I walked around a little and took some photos.

6. Carter Shields cabin. Still in remarkably good shape. I did not walk around. Did text Richard that I was parked in front of it.

It was very easy to see why people call places like this a “hollow.” That is exactly what it looks like. It was also easy to see why people had to leave – everyone here was eventually related. And I can better understand why the National ParkService is so involved with the National Historic Register. They own a lot of historic buildings like these inside Park boundaries.

I realized on the way out that the road is much shorter taking the Townsend Road to Wears Valley Road, which is just a stone’s throw from my campground. Wears Valley Road has a lot of river tubing businesses, a couple of really local restaurants, and a few moonshine distilleries that it might pay to investigate on a return trip.

I stopped at Boss Hogg’s little roadhouse for some BBQ since I noticed the smoker outside. It was fabulous and had a sauce that defied description, but seemed to owe more to mustard than to tomatoes. I would go back. And they were so nice. When I said I wanted to buy some sauce, she just gave me some since they had closed out the till already.

The internet worked tonight, so I loaded a couple of blog posts on there. I did talk to the guy in the office who promised to reboot it. Must have worked.

Exploring Great Smoky Mountains, Hiking to Chimney Top

It was very, very, very windy last night. Not constant, but big wind gusts would blow down from the mountains occasionally to rattle the tent and make me worry. I didn’t really sleep well. A big storm and a cold front were moving in for Friday.

The winds died down by 7 am today (Thursday). I added a couple of blog posts and some Shreveport and New Orleans photos to Facebook. Wrote a couple of blog posts. Then headed for Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Got to the entrance sign and realized I left my camera in

the camper. Back-tracked and redo. Took some photos of me standing in front of the sign (as I always do), and some more photos of the mountain views, including some selfies with the large tripod. Think I got some good ones of both views and features of the park. Stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor Center, bought some postcards, bookmarks, and magnets, got my Parks Passport book stamped, and got some good advice. No longer a shuttle service to pick people up at Clingman Dome if they are hiking in on the Appalachian Trail. He suggested I hike the A.T. to Charles Bunion and then drive to Clingman Dome.

I picked up quite a few maps – I love maps. In fact, I started scrapbooking because of maps. I wanted to include my maps in with the photos, but can’t do that in a photo album.

First stop: Chimneys Picnic area. Really beautiful river running downhill over huge rocks there. So picturesque! Dozens of picnic tables on cement slabs and two WPA-era local stone restrooms. I took some photos of the WPA style picnic structures, of the scenery, and of some of the flora there (lichens and wild flowers). Lots of people there enjoying the day and the water.

Then on to Chimney Top for a trail hike. There are 2 trails there – Prong Road is 0.9 miles and Chimney Top is 2 miles and requires one to crawl up to a mountain top over very steep rock for the last several hundred yards. I opted for Prong Road. I walked uphill for 1.5 hours and thought I would never get to the end, so I stopped on the 3rd set of bridges and turned around. Little did I know that the Prong Road Trail ended at the end of that bridge. Missed it by that much.

But the scenery along the way was fabulous, and everyone walking on the trail was so friendly. It was great to be out in that clean, fresh mountain air enjoying the day. As I was almost back to the start, a light rain sprinkle started. When I got in the car to go to Clingmans Dome, a real

rain started. Clingmans Dome is 6,600 feet above sea level, so I was in the clouds on the drive up and really in the rain when I got there. Very dark and foggy at 2 pm, so headed back to my campsite. I did snap this photo of it.

Did stop at Clingmans Dome to check my lights, and sure enough the right passenger side headlight was out, so stopped at an auto parts store for a replacement light. He showed me all the stuff I would have to rembove to replace the light, and then gave me the phone number of a mechanic who makes house calls. Took a short nap, downloaded photos, made myself another Smithfield bologna sandwich with Chimayo red chile pepper power (delish), and then went to the Comedy Barn for a night of entertainment.

The Comedy Barn is HUGE! And stuffed full of kitsch. The comedy was clean, but sort of stale, and mostly came from making fun of audience members who volunteered to go up on stage for skits. I admit that I did laugh at them too. Maybe feeling uncomfortable and laughing helps. Would not go back on a return visit.

Smoky Mountain Opry

Woke up about 7:30 am on Wednesday, March 30. Brushed my teeth and went to the office. They don’t open until 9 am. Went to McDonald’s just down the street for breakfast. When I got back, the maintenance man brought over a heavy duty jack, jacked the front of my camper out of the dirt (it was in a good 2 to 3 inches), put the wheel on properly, and helped me push it back near the electric box. I set up the camper and spent the rest of the morning playing on my computer. The campground has attraction brochures. When I went to take a shower, I brought the ones for Smoky Mountain Opry and the Comedy Barn back to the camper. They had a special if you buy tickets to both at the same time. So I did.

Did the laundry, put Shreveport and New Orleans photos on Facebook. Went in search of a grocery store. Found a nice bakery and got cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow. Had to buy buns at Kroger – yuck to the gun nuts.

Cooked up that thick Smithfield bologna with green onions and some red Chimayo chile powder – Nummmm!!!! It shouldn’t even be called bologna. It’s too good. Trudie agreed – I talked to her and Carol on the phone.

Then I got dressed up as much as I could in camping gear, but did add the lovely shawl I bought in Santa Fe for a little festive touch, and went to the Smoky Mountain Opry. An overly enthusiastic usher hopped in a photo with me – we took 3 – I am sure for sale later.

The M.C. said that the two men who own the Comedy Barn also started the Opry – and meant for it to be family entertainment for all ages. That explains the discounts for buying both venues.

The show started out slow with mediocre music covered up by a laser light show. At one point, they actually sent two guys with guitars down in flying halters from the rafters. Then it got better. They had music impersonations by Charlie Bob Smith that included a great duet by Louis Armstrong and Kermit T. Frog – both sung by Smith, acrobats to music, a tribute to music thru the decades with a Singin’ in the Rain number with real rain in a channel, the Beatles with Hey Jude, Broadway tunes like Lion King, tributes to Simon & Garfunkel, Nat King Cole, and Tina Turner, and then a bunch of gospel and patriotic stuff. Overall I ended up liking the show. For one of the gospel songs, they let some very well-trained doves fly over the audience. It was a surprise and impressive.

Day 75, Drive to Great Smoky Mountains

Day 75. Woke up late – 8:30 am. Packed up my stuff, including dishes from yesterday’s lunch. Took down the camper. It was 1 pm before I got on the road. Realized that I forgot my retirement memory book at Grant’s house, so made a stop there. The kids were amazed to see the camper down – it looks so small when it’s down. I brought back Nasir’s sock, Naima’s scarf, and their rocks. Can’t forget the rocks!!!

Gassed up the car and hit I-40 west which will take me all the way to Tennessee where I get off on Hwy 321 to Pigeon Forge. Had to stop twice on the way to nap, but only ate junk food all day – brownie, doritos, etc. Stopped for gas in Marion, North Carolina where I also picked up ice for the cooler and propane gas for the furnace. This is my first peak at the Smoky Mountains.
Reached Gatlinburg before sunset, but not Pigeon Forge. I thought I had missed the town, but I didn’t. Pigeon Forge was not what I expected. I thought it would be a beautiful, bucolic small mountain town; instead it is a long skinny suburban strip mall with flashing and neon lights and great big digital billboards. Actually found the campground relatively easily, but had to fire up the GPS to get there. When I got to the campground around 9 pm, it was dark. I backed into my campsite at Creekside RV Resort and did a better job than usual. But I kept hitting the picnic table slab with the passenger side trailer wheel. Decided to unhook the camper and push it around the slab and back toward the electric box. I thought I had the 3rd wheel attached, but it wasn’t. Made it around the slab, but then when I tried to straighten it out – the 3rd wheel fell off. Spent the night sleeping in the car.

Total trip mileage to date – just a hair under 8,700 miles. The car also turned over to 34,000 miles on this leg of the trip.

Camping with the Grandkids at Raleigh Oaks

The kids woke up at 7:30 am and said they were cold. I turned the furnace on right away when we got there the night before and it ran intermittently all night, including a couple of times in the morning. I was not cold.

The rain stopped before 4 am. It was still cloudy, but the sun was poking out a little. We got dressed (a real challenge) and drove to Four Oaks Restaurant for breakfast. Naima and I had the 2 egg breakfast. Nasir had a bologna, egg, and cheese sandwich. The bologna was thick and home-made. He ate all of it, except the toast. And he also ate too much of Naima’s grits – according to Naima. The waiter later told me it was Smithfield bologna, so I bought some when we went to the grocery store after breakfast. Naima said Mommy & Daddy should take them here (Four Oaks) for a vacation, so I don't know how to explain the forlorn look on her face in this photo.

Back at the campground, I put some clothes in the laundry and the kids went to the tot lot. When I got to the tot lot 10 minutes later, they were already prepared to go swimming. We changed into yesterday’s underwear and T-shirts and went swimming. Raleigh Oaks has a hot tub (which Naima likes but Nasir did not), and a large pool with a decent sized shallow bubbling end and then steps from there into a 3.5 and 4 foot kidney shaped pool. Even the 4 foot end of the pool had a sitting bench all around it. They played in the shallow pool and the hot tub. I did for a little while, then sat down to work on my computer. Facebook still not working. But the blog does.

The kids wanted to learn how to play table tennis (ping pong), so we did that for a while. Naima was getting pretty good and we had a little volley going for a while. Nasir does not get the point. He wants to hit the ball as hard as he can so it goes out of bounds. Luckily, he thinks it is great fun to chase the ball down and bring it back.

Naima was hungry for lunch, so we went back to the campsite and cooked up the Ramen noodles she wanted to buy at the grocery store – shrimp flavor. Nasir picked lime shrimp and he wanted green onions in his. He ate over half of that (I had the other half) and about a third of Naima’s. He was hungry.

Naima did dishes while Nasir and I put the laundry in the dryer. It was close to time to get them back home (Daddy had said to return at 3 pm). We called Daddy on the phone and he gave us until 5 pm. Naima came up with a plan. We could get dressed, pack all their stuff in the car, and then play mini-golf until it was time to go. I agreed, but then the kids fooled around getting dressed so we only had 20 minutes to play mini-golf. So we did. I picked my laundry out of the dryer and headed back to Raleigh – and did not get lost.

Oooh, forgot to mention that I painted half of Nasir’s race car blue while the kids were getting dressed in the most fun way possible –getting dressed, not painting.

When we got to Rolesville, the front door was open but the screen door was locked, and the garage door was open, but the door into the house was locked. Grant wasn’t answering his phone or texts. So, we went into the back yard. I painted the other half of Nasir’s car, while the kids played on the swing set. Daddy finally woke up and let us in.

We baked Naima’s tea set in the oven and then goofed around in the sun room until Mommy work up. We all drove to a shopping center they like

– an outdoor mall – and ate at a specialty beer place called the Yard House. My beer, a milk stout, was excellent. This was the only meal Grant let me pay for on the whole trip. When I said good-bye to the kids, Naima clung on for a while and said she wished I could stay longer. I told her that I did too. But I have reservations and tickets.

It was late again before I got back to the camper that night, so I did not pack up like I usually do. I also ran out of propane gas in the middle of the night, so it was chilly sleeping – temps in the high 40s overnight. I’m glad the kids were not there that night.

Easter and More Camping Fun

Mommy put out stuffed animal and rug bowling gifts in the kids’ rooms for Easter and an Easter bucket on the kitchen table. I worked more on my blog until the kids came downstairs. Nasir is not a kid who can wait for candy.

We all (Gma, Daddy, Mommy, Naima, and Nasir) went to Fleming’s Steakhouse for Easter brunch. It was elegant and delicious! The kitchen is in the open so diners can see them working hard back there. I had a filet mignon with broccolini and potato leek soup. Naima helped me eat the soup and declared it nummy. I finished the meal off with a mimosa – tasted like it had a little apricot juice in it. I really liked it and will have to remember that for my next Sunday brunch.

After brunch, we tried to walk around in the mall, but it was closed and locked. Except the Cheesecake Factory, for which the Wyoming Street block club had given me a $25 gift card. Thank you Wyoming Streeters! We bought half a Dulce de Leche cheesecake with a “to go” container of glazed strawberries. And took it home. That is my new favorite cheesecake flavor. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

At home Mommy & Daddy took naps while Gma and the kids first assembled Nasir’s race car, and next painted Naima’s tea set. Nasir was pretty good with a hammer. And Naima was pretty good with a paint brush. She painted the tea set in every color offered in the package with squiggly lines and dots. It is beautiful!!! Tomorrow we have to bake it. We showed Daddy & Mommy when they woke up. Because the kids were going camping with me again, we packed up the car. Then we ate our fantastic Dulce de Leche cheesecake with strawberries. Well, 4 of us did; Nasir ate ONLY strawberries. And Naima proved that she is the only princess in the world who hates strawberries.

The kids and I drove in a heavy rain back to Raleigh Oaks campground in Four Oaks to spend the night. We did NOT get lost this time because we went a longer route, took I-95 up to an exit just a few blocks north of the campground. When we got back, we noticed that I had failed to close the camper door window. It was damp on the rug, but not wet.

We told scary ghost stories and sang songs. Then we put on PJs and went to sleep. Nasir had to hop around for a while, but when he went down, he crashed.

NC Museums - Natural Sciences and Political

The kids slept like logs all night long. They woke up at 8 am. I had slipped out at 7 am to shower and wash my hair. We drank orange juice and ate the ridiculous number of snacks they brought with them. They loved the camper, really enjoyed “camping,” and wanted to come back.

We got lost again driving back to Raleigh, so missed our promised 10 am return. (On a side note, the car turned over 8,000 miles on our drive to Raleigh). We planned to go to the North Carolina Museum of Natural

Sciences. But first we were all hungry. We decided to look for a non-chain restaurant downtown. On our drive to the Museum parking lot, we spotted the Oakwood Restaurant, and decided to give it a try. It was another inspired random find! They had Cuban and Argentin-ian food, so not the same old thing. The waitress was fabulous! I had pulled pork with this special house-made hot sauce that I wanted to buy. It came with fried plantains and some spicy green beans. Grant had picadillo (the 2 “ll”s are pronounced as a “j”) – ground beef, green olives, onions and peppers in a tomato sauce. He pronounced it excellent. Mine was too. We had the waitress, who was superb, take a couple of photos of the four of us.

Then we went to the Natural Sciences Museum – to the Extreme Mammal special exhibit. On the way up, we checked out the skeleton of a whale they had suspended from the 2nd floor ceiling. The mammal exhibit was very well done and all of us learned some new stuff. It was some reading, which Daddy did for the kids, and a lot of hands-on activities. Here is a short 35 second video. One display encouraged you to put your finger on a wheel and the screen would exhibit how animals move – whale, bat, dolphin, tiger, kangaroo, etc. The kids really liked that one. They showed a replica of a grass-eating dinosaur tooth that the kids could rub (the tooth, not the dinosaur). One display consisted of 4 boards with 4 animals’ scat (resin), their real fur, and a plaster foot print caste. You could rub the fur and compare you hand size to a bear, raccoon, and 2 others. That was popular with Naima and Nasir. They especially liked that Daddy’s hand was bigger than the black bear’s hand. We were there for over an hour – maybe closer to two hours. I bought each of the kids an endangered beanie baby stuffed animal at the Museum store.

We saw some of their regular exhibits on the way out and they were fun too. We took photos in the courtyard. Then Grant suggested that we explore the State Capitol across the street. They had a lot of old, both Civil War and American Revolutionary War statues on the lawn. Inside, this 1840 Capitol is only used as a museum – they built a new, larger Capitol building in 1961. It was fun to see how much has changed and how much as stayed the same with legislatures since the early 1800s. Their Committee rooms (4 of them) were the size of cloak closets – and in roughly the same location – just outside the Chambers. They had one desk set up with all the accoutrements that the typical Senator would have at at his desk – top hat, top coat, spittoon, quill pen, law books, etc. It was very well presented. We went out to the rotunda and took some photos. A nice stranger took photos of all 4 of us.

While Naima and I were waiting for Daddy to get out of the restroom in the Museum, we decided that ice cream would be restorative. When Daddy came back he said he had the very same thought! We picked up Mommy at home and went to a little roadside Ice Cream Lodge. Tisha & I had butter brickle, Grant had praline pecan, and the kids had chocolate. Hand-made and good!

When we got home, Grant had to go to work as a grocery store security guard at 6 pm. He suggested that I might want a nap since I had told him I was tired. I slept for over 3 hours. I really was tired!

I spent the night at their house. The kids and I watched TV; they called it a slumber party. Tisha went to sleep early because she had to go into work at 4 am. Nasir is a little ADHD and spent most of the time hopping and dancing around in front of the TV. Naima did a “packet” (i.e. homework) on Daddy’s TV tray. Daddy called about 10:30 and ordered the kids to bed. I worked on my blog and downloading photos for a little while before going to bed. Tisha has the guest bedroom set up like a Hawaiian tropical retreat. It was very welcoming.