On the road again

An Adventure Near Home

Tues Oct 28

Around 10:30, we left the mountain house in the motor home heading somewhere!

Actually, I did look at a map.  We think we are generally headed toward Gatlinburg, TN and Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountain National Park.

Rather than Interstate Highways, we decided to take the back roads and I noticed that the little town of Hot Springs looked like it might work.

After more than two hours of driving (whew!), we've arrived at Hot Springs Resort and Spa.  It must have been 20 years or more since we've been here.  It's only a couple hours (or less) North of Asheville.

Hot Springs, NC

It's a neat little town and is a favorite for hikers on the Appalachian Trail - which runs through town.

We saw several old VW vans around town.  This little town seems just right for these old hippiemobiles. We actually owned two VW vans, but we weren't hippies.

We have an ideal campsite right beside the French Broad River right on some rapids in the river.  Clara loves the sound of water, and tonight, we will have plenty of the sound of water.

We immediately signed up for a one hour session in a "world famous" Natural Hot Mineral Water jacuzzi style tub - clothing optional!  We didn't take advantage of the option.

The French Broad River is only a few yards away from our hot tub.

After about 45 minutes, we were totally relaxed and decided we'd had enough, so we went out to dinner (after getting dressed appropriately) at a little restaurant right in the middle of town overlooking Spring Creek.

The colors are very spotty across the mountains, but Hot Springs seemed to have the best we've seen

Wed, Oct 29

Today, our destination is Cades Cove.  But somehow, we didn't seem to make it.  Instead we've stopped at an RV Park in Pigeon Forge.

And I had forgotten that Gatlinberg and Pigeon Forge are a females shoppers paradise.  A big OOPS!

This evening we went to the Smoky Mountain Opry.  A fun variety show

Cades Cove

Thurs, Oct 30

Another big day of travel.  Actually a short distance at slow speed.  On leaving the Sugarland Visitors Center, Clara decided it was her time to drive.  She just happened to drive on about the crookedest, narrowest road in the mountains.  Really scary for me sitting in the passenger seat.  I thought for sure that some of the trees and rock outcroppings were going to take out the right side of the motor home. 

But she did a great job and we are in Cades Cove, one of the most scenic attractions in the mountains

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After settling in, we took a ride around the 11 mile loop in the valley.  I guess the biggest surprise was the amount of traffic.  I had thought that this late in the season, there wouldn’t be many tourists here, but I was wrong.  It took us about 2 hours to travel the loop. 

This evening we had a fire, met our neighbors and went to bed early.  There is no Internet or cell phone coverage at all.  It’s a different feeling to be that shut off.

If this looks like there is smoke in the RV, it's because there is.  Clara was "trying" to fix some biscuits on a metal tray.  Instead of putting the convection oven on "convection", she hit the microwave button, then went outside to tend the fire.  The next thing we know, smoke is pouring out of the RV .  No permanent damage, just a little smelly for a while.  But the biscuits looked pretty bad!

Fri, Oct 31

We decided to get an early start and ride the loop again.  It wasn’t quite as crowded this morning, but still a lot of people.

We were fortunate to have gotten out early because the bear and deer were still out.  It’s really interesting watching the people watch the critters.  

We can always tell when someone sees something.  They stop in the middle of the road (single lane) and finger start pointing out the window. 

We do see a couple of big black bear, lots of deer, and some wild turkey.

One stop (we didn’t stop in the middle of the road, we found a proper parking place), there were three male deer in a field, and two of them kept seeming to fight each other.  They would seemingly lock horns, tussle a while, then back off and go back to grazing, then they would look at each other, go at it again for a while, then stop and go back to grazing.  This went on for at least thirty minutes.  I’m not sure whether they were playing, or really fighting.  Anyway, it did create some excitement. 

This ain’t no zoo!  These are wild animals, and was interesting how many people got out of their cars and walked to 200-300 feet so they could get close to the animals.  I kept thinking, “wouldn’t it be neat if one of the bucks turned toward them and started to charge.  There would be cameras and people flying everywhere.

It’s clouding up this afternoon and from what we’re hearing, it is very likely to snow tonight and/or tomorrow.  We have planned to leave tomorrow, but I guess if it snows, we’ll stay here until we’re sure the roads are clear.  We sure don’t want to be driving the 15 ton sled around the mountains with snow on the roads.

This afternoon we drove out of the park into the little town of Townsend, Tenn so Clara could make a couple of phone calls.  Our friend, Sheila had hip surgery and we wanted to check on her.  Not much there, but again, it was a beautiful drive.

Sat, Nov 1

8:00 AM.  Well, it did snow – and quite a bit. 

We kinda figured when we stopped hearing the rain hitting the roof last night that it was likely snowing.

It appears that there is 3 to 4 inches on the ground this morning, and it’s still snowing. 

If the loop is open, we’re going to take a ride around it.

The dead tree that we didn't notice yesterday is beginning to become a big concern because limbs are continuously falling.  I had to go up on the roof of the motor home and take some small ones off.  I big one could do some serious damage.

I think the roads should be okay to get out if we want to today.

11:00 AM.

It continues to snow, and snow, and snow!  By now we have at least 6 inches and maybe more.  The weather forecast is for 12 -18 inches at higher elevations.

The problem I had not thought about, but was there all the time, is the weight of the snow on these trees that still have their leaves on them.  Tree limbs and trees are beginning to snap all over the place.  I’m getting a little (no a lot) concerned about a big tree right over our motor home.  A few limbs fell during the night, one on the roof which I had to climb on to and throw off.

The park service employees were out in force clearing the roads of trees and shaking the snow off of limbs and trees that hung over the roads in the campground.  We literally could not get out of the campground because of so many low hanging limbs, branches and trees leaning over the roads.

A park ranger comes by and tells us we can move to a big parking lot at the park entry if we’re not comfortable, so move we did.  However, before moving, I had to scout out a route that we could get out without damaging the motor home because the trees are beginning to hang over the road.  I walk a route and shake as much snow off the limbs as possible and get it so it is passable.

Then we move to the parking lot.  This happens to be where they are staging the cars and small RVs that have to get out today.  One of the rangers tells us that last night a tree fell right across a tent, but luckily, no one is injured.  Therefore a lot of tent campers and small RVs are desperate to get out.  So they have a crew that is clearing about 5 miles of road of trees and limbs so that they can get out. 

They’ve set up a caravan to be led out in the parking lot, so we will sit and wait out their movement and we’ll set up for the night in the parking lot.  Trees were falling into the parking lot as we sat there watching.

The caravan of campers wanting or needing to get out of the park starts lining up in the parking lot where we think we're going to stay tonight.

12:30 PM.

A ranger came up to us and said if we wanted to go with the caravan to get out that we could tag along as the last vehicle.  We think about it for a while and decide that it might be a good idea to go ahead and leave now that we have the chance.  Although the snow is supposed to stop later today, it’s supposed to get really cold, so there is no assurance that we can get out tomorrow.

So we follow the caravan out and stop at the first RV park we get to.  We’ve descended about 800 feet and there is almost no snow at all down here in Townsend.  So we’ll settle in for the night and decide what to do tomorrow.

Clara goes ahead of me in the CRV rather than hooking it up and increasing the weight of the sled I'm driving.  The roads were clear - the problem was the trees falling.

We had no problem getting out, and we keep wondering if we did the right thing.  Being in Cades Cove with a snow of this much is a once-in-a-lifetime event.  We had all we needed to stay 2 or 3 more days.  Kinda wish we had stayed.

There was no going back.  There were hundreds of cars at the gate wanting to get up to the cove, but they weren't letting anyone in.  

We settle in at an RV park in Townsend, TN for the night looking forward to future adventures.

Sun, Nov 2

There is a road that goes straight through the park from here to Cherokee, but that is closed for quite a while.  So we decide to drive around the South side of the park, which will take us into familiar territory in Western NC.  

I picked the route that looked like it would be scenic, and it was also the shorter route.  When we got on Highway 129, we kept seeing signs warning truckers to not use this road because of steep grades and numerous switchbacks.  That should have been a good enough warning that we were in for quite a ride.

We saw this sign when entering NC AFTER most of the real challenge!

And quite a ride it was.  

We have driven a lot of steep roads and a lot of curvy roads (Two that come to mind are the road to Jerome, Arizona (Bill Bass will remember that one well, his first experience driving a motor home) and the Million Dollar Highway in Southwestern Colorado).  However, this stretch of about 20-30 miles was by far the steepest and windiest road I have ever driven in a motor home, or even a car.  

It was really unbelievable how steep some of the curves were.  The hitch for the car bottomed out twice in the curves, something that has never happened on a highway.

We rounded one curve and there was a guy in a pull off taking pictures of cars and motorcycles coming around the curve.  I think the primary purpose was to take pictures of motorcycles.  He had a big sign with his web site (129photos.com).

This is a photo I purchased for the guy taking pictures on THE DRAGON!  

Tonight I looked up Highway 129 on Wikipedia:  The section that is located on the North Carolina–Tennessee state line is known as the The Dragon, a popular motorcycle and sports car destination. This name is apparently derived from the roadway's resemblance to a dragon's tail. This segment runs from Tab Cat Creek to Deals Gap and has about 318 curves.

Well, now I know why it seemed so bad!

For the first couple of hours, it was fun!  Then it stopped being fun.  Then I was ready to get off the road.  

We ended up in Cherokee before we could find a campground that we were willing to stay at.  We're in a nice KOA, which has a hot tub within an enclosed hot tub which we've enjoyed.  

Tonight we're in recovery mode!

Mon, Feb 3

We had a brief discussion this morning about whether we wanted to head back toward Spruce Pine or stay here another day.  This is a real nice RV park, and the heated pool and hot tub are about 100 feet away from our door.  So we decided to see what is here.

We drove up highway 411(which opened to traffic this morning) through the park to Newfound Gap on the Tenn/NC line.  It was a real easy drive, and we would have taken it rather than Hwy 129 if it had been open.  But then we would have missed all the fun.

It was very obvious at Newfound Gap that there had been a lot more snow up on the mountain than we had in Cades Cove

After driving back to Cherokee, having lunch and finding nothing of interest, we headed back to our campsite.

On the way, we pass the Cherokee School (which adjoins the Park), and we'd been told that Elk sometimes congregate in the area. As we rounded a curve, there were a herd of elk crossing the highway.  There were about 13 or 14 females (I don't know what female elk are called) and one big male (I know that because he had antlers - and mighty impressive ones)

Now we understand why the perimeter of the school looks more like a prison wall that a school yard - to keep these big guys away.

Yeah!  They were that close to the car.  I had the car in gear and my foot over the accelarator in case he got too interested in us.  We DID NOT approach the elk, he approached us.

One male and 14 females.  Sounds about right!!!

After this little adventure, we came back to the campground, jumped in the hot tub or pool for an hour or so, and then relaxed for the evening.  Tomorrow we head back to Spruce Pine.

This has been a great trip.  I never thought we would enjoy just RVing in our backyard (I guess we can call this part of the country our backyard, we've lived or had a home here since 1972).  It's really great to do it in the off season.  I'm sure most of the places we've been would be miserable in the summer because of the crowds.  Maybe we need to do more of this!