Smokey Mountain Waterfalls

We have just completed time with our friends Nita and Paul Crowder.  We made plans to meet them near Highlands NC to hike and photograph some of the waterfalls in the Smokey Mountains, but first a few words about our trip from Charlotte.

We woke up early Sunday morning to prepare for our journey and since we had been in the same spot for a couple of weeks it was time to dump the black water tank.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, that is the tank that holds the sewage.  I pulled the lever and the contents began to flow and suddenly a pin hole leak appeared and raw sewage was spewing like a small fountain.  I quickly slammed the valve shut and averted a major environmental disaster.  Fortunately we had purchased a replacement hose a couple of days earlier since this one was getting a little long in the tooth, so very little time was lost and we were soon on our way. 

About half way to our destination we ran into torrential rains but were progressing very well, although somewhat slowly, when suddenly our windshield washers came to a complete halt.  Unable to see clearly we began to look for a place to pull off, but the roads were twisty and no shoulder.  About 300 yards later we came to an underpass that allowed us to pull over.  We waited for about 15 minutes for the rain to slack up and then continued on, looking for a safe place to pull off.  We found a parking lot and called the road side service.  Since it was Sunday and the next day was Labor day no repair shop was open.  The service sent an truck out to lead us to a Walmart parking lot to spend the night.  The RV gods were smiling on us however, because the tow truck driver was a mechanic and he and I finally determined the fuse was blown but it took some time to locate it.  There are more places on a motor home for fuses than one might expect and more expensive fuses.  The 15 amp fuse we needed cost $15.  Ouch!  Anyway the wipers were now working and we were on our way.

Since it was the Labor Day weekend the choices for RV parks was limited.  Based on the Internet pictures the place I finally found seemed nice enough for our purposes and would serve as a base camp for our hiking adventures.  Talk about disappointment.  In an attempt to be as nice as possible the best I can say was it was a minus 5 stars.  Once again the RV gods smiled upon us and we were able to find a very nice park that we could move into on Labor Day afternoon.

Labor Day was a literally a wash out.  The remnants of tropical storm Lee came through.  It has been quite a while since I have seen that much rain.  Our thoughts drifted to our friends in Texas and the terrible drought they are going through and how much they could use this rain.

Tuesday was cloudy and very cool but no rain.  Finally our original purpose for the trip could be met.  Our first hike was to the Holcomb Creek Trail and the Holcomb Creek Falls.  The drive up to the trail head was scenic and the last few miles were on graveled Forest Service roads.  We even had to stop and clear the road of a fallen tree so we could pass.  Who said old retired people couldn't do hard work.

Well, now what?

What about pulling this limb down?

One old man and two younger women can do amazing things.

After all this hard work we finally made it to the trail head and started the one mile hike to Holcomb Creek Falls.  It was worth the hike as you can see by the photos below.

It's great to be surrounded my nature.

 

Holcomb Falls

First time we had ever seen a snail with the full shell.  Nature is always interesting.

We continued the next day hiking and visiting more waterfalls.  I can't remember the name of the first but the second was Bridal Veil and the third was Dry Falls, which was far from dry as you can see below.

Paul and Nita had to leave and head back to Atlanta, leaving us to our own devices for a couple of days.  We unloaded the Burgman and took to the roads for some site seeing and to check out some more local campgrounds.  The scenery was breathtaking and we discovered some more campground choices but none as nice as River Vista, where we were stopped.  We met a lot of really nice people and enjoyed our two days.  Sherree took most of the pictures below from the back of the Burgman and she did a great job.  Enjoy.

Nothing like a motorcycle ride thru the Smokies

Beautiful flowers      and         unusual Ballerina geese

Grandsons and Cars

If you were looking for somewhere to take two active young boys, what better place to go than a drag race and car show.  As it happened both events were happening at the z-Max Drag Strip and the Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Since we were parked at an RV park just across the street from both venues, we thought, why not?  Checking on ticket prices I discovered the drag races were $20 a person with children getting in free and the car show was $10 and children free.  We decided to wait until late to arrive so we could see the best races.  On the way we got stuck in a traffic jam and were concerned that we might miss the best races.  As it turned out that was fortunate for us.  By the time we arrived the ticket offices were closed but the gates were open so we just walked in, free of charge.  As a retired grandparent, free is always good.  The boys had never heard of a drag race nor a car show, much less seen one.  They seemed to really enjoy the races, especially the jet car.  Talk about loud, but it was very cool.

The car show was not as much of a hit with them as it was with me.  They are not into old cars or hot rods, at least not yet.  I have never seen so many cars in one place.  The entire infield of Charlotte Motor Speedway was covered.  I could have spent hours and hours there but we stayed only for about two.  The video below sums up our time at both.