24 - Charleston, SC



Boone Hall Plantation, the 4th house (this time built from brick instead of wood)

FRIENDLY, SEXY, SOUTHERNERS:

Another place that had positive reviews was Charleston.  I suggested going there to Dave, who responded, "and what will we do there, what's there to see?" to which I shrugged and said "I don't know, but according to Wikipedia, it has civil war stuff, pretty Southern style homes and was voted America's Sexiest & Friendliest Place"... So on a whim, we decided to give Charleston a try. Our campsite, Jolly Acres RV Park (about 45 min from downtown Charleston) was a very nice campsite, complete with a dock & pond and food to feed the ducks and fish.
Our first full day was a Sunday and so not too many tours were open so we decided to drive to one of the more popular plantations North of Charleston, Boone Hall Plantation.  Boone Hall is one of the oldest active plantations (over 320 years) that today grows fruits & vegetables for the local markets as opposed to cotton, rice and indigo for England back in the 1700's.  When you look at the grounds, you kind of think you've seen this place before...we found out it is the most photographed plantation and has been the set for many movies & tv shows, (The Notebook, North and South, Days of Our Lives, The Queen, to name a few).


Row of Oaks along main drive up to Boone Hall Plantation



The plantation did a good job of mixing self guided areas with tours and performances/demonstrations to give you a better idea of what life was like in the 1700’s.

Slave quarters (the lucky ones & highest ranking)



Descendant from the time, illustrating the life and the Gullah language (slave slang)



Oldest tree on the plantation, approx 300 years!

THE LANGUAGE OF GULLAH:
Although we didn't do a tour about Gullah, we did learn from our plantation visit how it was derived and examples of what people would say. Today, if a person speaking Gullah was to recite Martin Luther's "I have a dream" speach, this is what a sentence would look like:

Ie hab uh dreem dat one uh dees ol’ day, ebby wally gwi’ be raise up, ebby hill ‘n mount’n gwi’ be mek lo’ down, de haad ruff place gwi’ be mek plain, ‘n de crookit place gwi’ be mek skrate, ‘n de glory ob de Lawd gwi’ be sho’ up, ‘n ebbyboddy gwi see um tegedduh.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

WALKING THROUGH HISTORY - DOWNTOWN:

 

The following day we spent on a walking tour of downtown Charleston. A little bit of history and architecture were the topics of discussion.  Charleston is like Washington D.C. in that there are no really tall buildings around. I liked how colorful the houses were painted, the wrought iron fences & gates, and bounty of trees & plants flowering everywhere.  It's like every square inch has something to look at. "This would be a fun place to live in" I thought, "yeah, but Dave would go crazy with the lack of space", was my second thought... We ended our day touring the Fort Sumter monument. Fort Sumter's claim to fame was being the site where the first shots were fired, starting the Civil War in 1861.



Fort Sumter, located about an hour from shore, (via ferry)



We were told if you are visiting Charleston for only a few days to plan on spending one day North of the city, one day in the city and the other South of the city on one of their beautiful beaches.



3rd largest cable stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere, New Cooper River Bridge



CONGAREE SWAMP:

Getting knee'd by a Cypress...in a swamp....???

We decided instead of visiting a beach to visit a swamp, or more aptly, a wetland area.  How many of us have had someone say, hey, let's go tour a swamp for fun?... Congaree National Park is a relatively young National Park (by designation) but in actuality is the oldest old growth bottomland hardwood forest in the US (bottomland meaning forests in lowland/floodplain areas).

Concerned about mosquitoes, we decided to walk the 3 mile, self guided boardwalk trail. One thing I learned was cypress knees. I had seen at craft fairs these wooden, cone-like objects, painted with some Christmas theme (mostly Santa Claus), but I never knew where they originated from. Since the wetland areas are prone to flooding, the cypress trees grow "knees" so that they can act as straws and allow the tree to breathe during flooding. 

Along the boardwalk

This kind of looks like a scene from Lord of the Rings, where are the Hobbits?

CHRISTINE THE TRUCK…

No, it's not something from a Stephen King book, it really, really happened!!!

We had considered going on an evening ghost tour but with logistics and having Catalina at home in the trailer, we decided to forgo the idea. Little did we realize we would have our own personal poltergeist experience. That night, while walking Catalina in the campsite, I noticed our truck started up. Curious, I walked towards the truck only to find Dave standing outside beside the truck looking straight at me all wide eyed. "Where's he going at this late hour?", I thought.  He wasn't going anywhere, he had heard the truck start up and came out of the trailer to investigate. I didn’t have the truck keys on me, they were in my purse in the trailer and Dave’s were in his pocket. So who started it???? Or should I say, “what” started it???

Well I guess we took this as a message that our truck wanted to go home...so after leaving Charleston, we started our way back to Texas, (with a stop here or there)...



Where Dave found Avril after the Christine incident..."is it safe to go back?"



23 - Great Smoky Mountains, TN

Have you ever been interested in going to a place just based on its name? I've always wanted to see the Great Smoky Mountains even though I wasn't even sure where they were. The only things I knew about them was that it's where Dolly Parton comes from and Ronnie Milsap sang about them in the 80's. Why are they called Smoky Mountains? Is it home for banjo playing hillbillies? Will we see more bears???...

To satisfy my curiosity, and add another chapter in our adventures, we travelled to Tennessee, (okay, that answers one of my questions from above!). Driving to the National Park, we had to pass through Pigeon Forge (a mini Las Vegas type attraction) in order to get to our campground in Gatlinburg, a small mountain resort town at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We didn't frequent any of the attractions at Pigeon Forge but you sure can get an eyeful from the road, definitely something for everyone!

Stock photo of Titanic attraction

I wonder what the bathrooms are like in this place???

Wait...do you hear banjos playing???

An awful lot of detail/construction for just the outside of this attraction.

Another stock photo of a well stacked lady!



One of many roller coasters at Dollywood





Gatlinburg had a nice look to it. reminded me a lot of Banff, Canada (another ski/mountain resort in the Rockies, just outside Calgary). Unlike the Rocky Mountains, the Smokies are smaller and more rolling. They are covered in a carpet of greenery and sit under an almost permanent bluish haze which is how they received their name.

The Smokies are the top visited national park in the US.  We discovered that first hand when driving the scenic Cades Cove Loop Road. This auto tour takes you through 11 miles of historical settlement areas from the early 1800's. There are many places to stop and hike trails or visit the historical buildings further. Surprisingly the 11 mile loop takes a couple of hours given the speed (or lack thereof) of the drivers in front of you. It is mountain driving with lots of twisty turny roads, so hopefully type "A" husbands won't get too worked up over it!


BEAR SPOTTING:

Yes we did see another bear, it appeared in front of the car in front of us. The driver of the car pulled over to the shoulder on the left hand side as the bear ambled along the middle of the road for a few more steps. Just as we were passing the bear, it ran into the trees to it's left. As we continued driving, we noticed the driver of the pulled-over car got out with his camera and headed off into the forest in the direction of the bear....All we thought was; that's an adolescent bear, I wonder where momma bear is? 

The next day we hiked 2 short but rather steep trails, (Chimney Top  & Clingman's Dome Lookout), but the views were worth it.  By the end of our second day I had learned the Smokies, being part of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, are the oldest mountains in North America.  Being glacier and ice age free, (the glaciers stopped just North of them), the plant & animal ecosystem here is quite unique.  Initially the name Great Smoky Mountains was derived from the gasses released from plants in the park, creating a bluish tint haze. Today most of the haze we see is from air pollution, (unfortunately).

Walking up Clingman's Dome Lookout, the highest point and great views

Clingman's Dome Lookout, kind of looks like a matchbox racecar track!

After being cooped up in the trailer for the last couple of days, (dogs are not allowed on the Park's trails), we decided to visit, "America's sexiest city" as well as "America's most friendly city"....

22 - West Virginia & Kentucky (WV, KY)



Where are we? Don't ask our GPS because it doesn't really know...New River Gorge, (well part of it)!


Leaving Virginia we drove to West Virginia (the geographer in me questions why they didn't come up with a more original name...).   New River Gorge, located in the Appalachian Mountains, is known to be one of the best white water rafting rivers around on the oldest river on the continent. The New River Gorge National River lies at the core of a globally significant forest containing the most diverse flora of any river gorge in central and southern Appalachia and provides essential habitat for endangered mammals and rare birds and amphibians.  Wow! we were pumped and excited to check out the park.

Only problem, our GPS had other plans and we ended up entering part of the park that wasn't a main entrance and after parking the truck and walking along the road for a couple of hours, all we saw was a nice picnic area to have lunch. We found large flat rocks along the river, so we hopped along them to our spot. While hopping, Catalina decided that she preferred to swim instead of hop...we think that's her first time ever swimming! Maybe the cool temperatures of the water was more of a motivator, but either way, while we sat and ate our sandwiches, she shook herself dry.

View from our lunchtime picnic area

An old railway converted to a footbridge, during the industrial period
of the 1870's, coal mining created small towns along the river.

MAMMOTH CAVE:

 

One of the larger rooms, just leaving the Rotunda Room

After a couple days in the area we moved onto to Kentucky. Our destination was Mammoth cave, the world's longest cave system, currently over 390 miles explored.  To go along with the largeness of the cave was also the size of our tour group; over 70 people and only one guide! If you were not at the front of the group you couldn't hear much of what the guide said. Fortunately we were at the front and the grandeur of the cave kept most people satisfied.  One cool feature in the cave, you could see where people back in the 1800's left their name, by candlelight.  Using the flame to blacken (scorch) the ceilings, people wrote their names & date they visited.

A LITTLE BIT OF THIS & A LITTLE BIT OF THAT:

WigWam Village, huge concrete teepees for you to stay in...far cooler than a Motel 6!

Our campsite was in Cave City, kind of an interesting place. Along the main road it wasn't uncommon to see 50ft tall T-Rex statues, haunted houses, raceways & amusement rides, Jesse James paraphernalia, WigWam Village, Yogi Bear's Jellystone park - and much more! After Labor Day it seems attendance goes way down since most places looked either closed or only 1 or 2 cars were in their parking lots.

CHOCOLATE, KENTUCKY STYLE!
One parking lot we did visit was the best fudge in Kentucky store! Our campsite owners highly recommended sampling the homemade chocolate bon bons and fudge at Chasers Kentucky Chocolates. "More gifts to bring home", I thought, but after about 3 days, everything was eaten with the exception of the bourbon balls (currently in the freezer)! If you are in the area, you need to visit this place, their dark chocolate is very, very good & it's homemade!


BOURBON TRAIL:

Since Kentucky is known for it's bourbon, we decided to spend the day driving the Bourbon Trail. The trail was North from where we were staying (about 50 miles) and consisted of 6 distilleries. You can visit them in any order and do it at your leisure. Not sure if we even liked Bourbon (we've never tried it before), our first stop was Jim Beam's Distillery, one of the more popular brands out there. The distillery was only offering self guided tours to certain areas of the compound, (Oct is when they were offer the full tour). That was okay since the displays were very interesting. I was amazed the casks (barrels) don't use glue. In fact the process involved in making one is to use 30-32 pieces of oak strips of wood which are then pressed into shape with steam and held in place with only 6 metal rings. The inside of the barrel is burned to char the insides giving the bourbon that oaky finish. Once the barrel is complete, the bourbon is stored in it for a minimum of 6 yrs.

Oh, the fumes when you walked into here....
millions of gallons all under one roof

After going through the process and seeing where the barrels were stored, we went to the tasting room, and the verdict is.....we are not bourbon fans!


A DAY TOO LATE:

Another tour we were excited to see was the Corvette factory & museum in Bowling Green. We arrived on Fri, Sep 14th, only to find out the last tour for the year was the day before. The plant is shutting down public access so that they can focus on their new body style for the 2013 model....so close, but yet so far....

We spent a few extra days at our campsite waiting for a rv part for Dave to install. Sometimes it's nice to have extra days padded between destinations, I especially enjoyed sleeping in for a change! September is a big birthday month for both our families, I was able to send my parents' cards from the town nextdoor to where we were staying, Glasgow, Kentucky.....I thought that was appropriate for my Scottish parents! :)

WHERE TO NEXT?

Our next destination is a place that sounds like an interesting place to visit, so without much research, we turned SE to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

21 - Shenandoah National Park, VA - The Bear Facts!



View from Skyline Drive, Blue Ridge Mountains, VA

 We had read the Shenandoah area was a nice place to hike and offered many scenic views. It's kind of a skinny ridge with a road running North/South for over 105 miles along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Lots of lookout points to pull over for those Kodak moments, trail heads starting at many parking lots throughout for your hiking pleasure, or you can sit back and enjoy the views and drive as much or as little as you like...One view we had not expected was of the bear kind...




Talented Catalina can balance on a fallen tree!



Upper Doyle falls, Shenandoah National Park

But before I dish the details, I was faced with a dilemma... (a) Sit down, procrastinate a little (or maybe a lot!), eat some snacks, check my emails, think what I was going to make for dinner, etc, THEN open up my blog and then THINK what I would write, and then write it.

     -or-

(b) Go to Dave's blog and copy what he's already written on Shenandoah...Well, I think you know where I'm going with this! We're on the tail end of our trip and so it's getting a little harder to keep things as "up to date" as possible.  Besides, why be redundant, if someone has already written the tale, then the most logical solution is to use what's already been written...so without further adieu, here's the recycled version from Dave's blog:

Walking along a hiking trail, Catalina suddenly stopped and sniffed the air, then looked into the forest and started barking. There, about 120 feet away, a black bear was at the top of a tree, charging down the trunk at a high rate of speed.

Not our bear but similar!

About five minutes after leaving the campsite that morning, it was realized that the bear spray had been forgotten. A debate ensued about whether or not it was worth going back for. After all, five minutes back meant ten minutes round trip, and what were the chances that it would be needed?

As the bear neared the ground, we were happy with our decision to go back. Dave handed Avril the leash and unholstered the spray.

In the moments before the bear reached the ground, we wondered which way it would go. It was clearly agitated and in a hurry to get somewhere, but would it charge aggressively, or run away once all paws were on terra firma?

See the fear in his cute little eyes?

A second later, the question was answered, as the bear hit the ground and ran in the opposite direction, clearly more frightened by us and the barking, than us of it. 

Judging by its size, the bear looked like it was an adolescent, which raised the question of how young, and where might mama bear be? She was nowhere to be seen. It was a while before the spray was returned to its holster!

Later in the day, we stopped for lunch at an overnight hut on the Appalachian trail. This was a rustic wood cabin with a lock on the door and a sign with a phone number to call for bookings. It looked like guests would have to either make pre-arrangements for a key or else the park warden would arrive in advance to unlock the door. In any case, the cabin was deserted and we enjoyed a picnic lunch in the sunshine on the stone steps.

Enjoying our lunch like this...

Rather than like that....

After lunch, we were a scant few yards back down the trail when Catalina suddenly stopped and sniffed. Another bear. Only this time, it was already on the ground and only about 80 feet away.

Dave passed the leash again and unlimbered the spray, but while doing so, the bear turned tail and again crashed through the brush away from us. Unfortunately, the bear’s line of departure was close to that of the trail. Consulting the map, it was apparent that the only way back to the truck was to take the trail in the same direction as the bear. For most of the way back, loud talking and much jingling of the bell was in order, and keeping the spray in hand for much of the time. Fortunately, the bear did not reappear and before long, everyone was safely back in the truck.

Although it was not needed, we agreed that we were happy to have gone back for the spray.

Several months earlier, we had received some advice, (thanks Sue & Paul) regarding bear deterrents. The best deterrent is of course avoidance, and large parties, loud talking and bells all help to warn the bears and let them know that there are people there and most will avoid encounters where possible. However, some are more aggressive than others and in a small percentage of cases, they will attack people. In this case, two options for defense are considered; a gun, or bear spray. Believe it or not, the spray is deemed to be more effective. It turns out that unless you have a really big gun, you are unlikely to kill and stop a charging bear before it reaches you. Assuming, of course, that in the excitement of the moment, you actually hit the bear.

However, bear spray releases a large cloud of extremely noxious pepper spray for up to 40 feet. You don’t have to hit the bear – you just have to be pointed in approximately the right direction to generate the cloud that he will run into. This is not your mama’s pepper spray, either – it is a particularly potent concoction. According to one invincible young man, his friend tried “a small amount” on him and he “just about died” (tongue in cheek). It is painful and (temporarily) blinding and asphyxiating. The bear will be highly motivated to get away and in any event, should be sufficiently disoriented to allow the users to get out of Dodge.

All is calm and peaceful again :)

After Shenandoah, it was off to New River Gorge and the mountains of West Virginia. These are among some of the more uniquely shaped hills that we had seen on his trip. Lots of mountains and hills seemingly haphazardly placed atop one another, and covered in a thick carpet of trees, often with creeks or rivers flowing through the valleys below. Although not as high or imposing as the mountains of the West, they had their own unique beauty.

Quite the balancing act here!!!