Tired on Thursday

Blue Ridge Parkway

After hiking for two days I was tired and decided that today would be an easy sightseeing day and so I set out to see part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. BRP reminds me a lot of the Natchez Trace, slow speeds, beautiful tree-lined roads and no billboards. After driving for a while there was a turnoff to Waterrock Knob that advertised a couple of overlooks and a Visitor’s Center, so I pulled in and looked around. I talked to the Ranger there and she recommended and “short half-mile hike” to the top of the Knob. Ok, I usually do a half-mile in a bit less than 15-minutes when I’m hiking, but didn’t count on 10%+ grade and this half-mile took me 23-minutes and really left me rung-out so I spent some time at the top relaxing and enjoying the view.

I saw that the rock in the area I was hiking had a lot of mica in it and when I asked the Ranger about it she said yes the silica was in the granite and that made it desirable to many.

What causes the haze of the Smoky Mountain National Park? Searching the Internet, "Place of Blue Smoke" was the name the Cherokee Indians gave to the Appalachian highlands on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee with the smoke-like haze a natural effect of oily residues and water vapor from the Smokey Mountain forest; today they say that haze is also from city pollution moving in. Still pretty but long range shots with a camera usually don’t do well.

I broke out my Hibachi again and did some more burgers, they tasted so good I had a second. And while I was out grilling a produce truck drove through the park and I bought a super good tomato and that was my salad.

Getting There Is Half the Fun. Or Is It?

WED July 7

Today I wanted to go hiking again and the RV park I am staying in is at the eastern end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and there is the close-by Cataloochee area that has several hiking trails marked on maps and is also a Park historic village area and an area that they have reintroduced Elk into. And it is very convenient, only about 17 miles from the RV park, … but … 5 miles on the road to the Cataloochee the asphalt stops and I am on a dirt road and after another 4 miles the 2-lane dirt road with some 5-MPH hairpin turns becomes a 1-lane dirt road for 2 miles before the asphalt comes back for the last 6 miles.

I finally decided on a trail-head and started off on the Boggerman Trial that roughly followed Cataloochee Creek. This was a lowland trail and hike and the trail had a moderate grade with 3 or 4 steep spots that thankfully were less than a half mile each. Butterflies, Dogwoods and the normal insects, thankfully I had bug-spray so I wasn’t bothered by biting bugs. The trail was beautiful with log bridges crossing the creek; about bridges had hand-rails, the Interstate Highway of log bridges, 3 or 4 didn’t have a hand-rail and in 5 places I had to do the old dance across the creek on stones.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

WOW!

Pulled in last night and it was actually chilly last night and I woke up this morning temps in low 60’s and fog, dramatically nice change.

Spent the day in the park, the first half driving around and enjoying the trees making green alleys of the roads and keeping everything cool, there are lots of butterflies out and they add to the beauty. Also lots and lots of motorcycles and I understand why, cool and shaded as I said and the roads are windy and the speed limits are between 35 and 45, perfect for touring. The park is long running West to East but the roads seem to run North to South, makes going from one site to the next a challenge and sometimes a long drive. I went in on the mid-southern end and drove up to a place called Newfound Gap, elevation 5046, and there I parked and spent most of the afternoon hiking the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail runs from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, it is 2,178 miles long; I didn’t do it all but I’ll give it hell tomorrow.

One thing I noticed when I was in the part was a lot of dying trees and when I asked a Ranger about it he told me that the Parks Hemlock trees were being attacked by a non-native insect called the Woolly Adelgid. They are fighting it but right now it seems to be mostly a holding effort.

After hiking and since I was only 15-miles away and had heard about it since I was in Supply Corps School in Athens GA in 1964 I drove over to Gatlinburg TN and what a waste. Gatlinburg was the consummate tourist trap with lots and lots of tourists and very slow-moving and crowded streets; if you were thing about visiting, don’t.

Ah Sucks! AKA, Where’s My Navigator

MON July 5

Headed out of Charleston today for the mountains of North Carolina and I tried something different, instead of putting in the destination address I put in the coordinates that were in the Passport America book, mistake. The coordinates took me 27 miles out of my way and since it was on back country very narrow roads, an hour to get to where I really wanted to be. Although the coordinates were wrong I should have studied the map better and realized that I was off course.

I was looking for someplace to eat lunch and had seen several billboards for Maurice’s BBQ in Columbia. I pulled off and parked the Tahoe and trailer under a tree and I only partially blocked the road. They had a strange way of serving a BBQ sandwich that the locals seemed to like but I had never had before, it was a pulled-pork that they had mixed a honey-mustard sauce into. I didn’t like it very much. The meat was tender but I don’t know if the BBQ was any good because all I could taste was the honey-mustard, I have to learn to ask.

This campground is right next to a flowing river and although there is small beach I don’t think I’ll be going in because the water was c-o-l-d.

Charleston SC

SAT July 3

Summertime and the live’n is easy and last night is the first night since May 15 at Hon-Dah RV Park on the Apache Reservation that I didn’t have the AC on in the trailer when I went to sleep. The rain has move out of the area and the weather is great, mid 80’s days to high 60’s nights.

I had been to Charleston just a few years ago in a previous life when I worked for Hyundai Translead and I did similar things on this visit I did then.

I started off my day with a boat ride out to Fort Sumter and enjoyed visiting again, this time I spent about half the time there listening to the Rangers talk and I learned a lot. Fort Sumter was fairly well reduced nearly to total rubble during the Civil War but was cleaned up a bit and back in service with the addition of Battery Huger at the time of the Spanish-American War, 1898.

When I got back I went to see the restoration effort on the Confederate submarine Hunley that sunk the Union warship USS Housatonic in Charleston harbor and became the first submarine to sink a ship. The Hunley was raised in 2000 and they are restoring it to a point TBD; very interesting history and also for the science in restoration.

The Hunley is being restored at the closed Charleston Naval Base and after the visiting there I drove to the quarters where we lived in 1953-1954. The Base had been turned over to the City of Charleston and in turn many shipyard activities have moved in to support Charleston which is the second largest container port on the east-coast. Also the City has sold some of the old quarters to private owners and developed a park along the Cooper River; the Commandant’s old quarters has not been restored and really is in disrepair.

4th OF JULY and a walk along the wall and through Charleston Battery Park; nice and pleasant and wishing I had the where-with-all to live in this area, ah!

Then I was off to the City Market to walk and shop and not buy anything. Ok I lie, I did buy 2 pralines; I know that pralines seem to be a New Orleans thing, and I bought a couple there also, but I bought two more in Charleston from the Savannah Candy Company, um, um, good. And then I topped it off with a delicious lunch of pasta and seafood, bring back half of it for another meal tomorrow.

The swimming pool at this park is nice, a bunch of kids, but nice and refreshing, in fact I went twice today.

There is a fireworks stand immediately outside this campgrounds entrance and I have heard pops the last two nights, wonder what I will hear tonight after the show?

Savannah GA

FRI July 2

I started out the day in seaport city of Savannah by going downtown and taking a tour of the historic distinct; a beautiful area that most of us have seen part of in movies. [I’ll get back to that later.] The guide stated that GA and Savannah was established as a buffer between the Spanish in St. Augustine and the English in Charleston and it was settled 65-years after Charleston was settled. He explained the layout of the City and how it was set to defend itself from the Indians, who turned out to be friendly, and the Spanish who only once ventured north from St. Augustine and who were defeated south of the city. Anyway we drove around and you could see how the city grew as the merchants grew and prospered off cotton and rice that came into the city through a series of railroad lines and a few canals. The restored homes in the historic district are beautiful and you can tell that the “culture vultures” are very active in preserving the heritage; wrought-iron railings and oak trees with Spanish Moss are everywhere and they even go with a different bike-path sign. And of course I had to see the Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.

The guide also said that Savannah is the setting for many movies and he cited Forrest Gump, Glory, The General's Daughter, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Legend of Bagger Vance and Something to Talk About as examples. He also stated that Robert Redford had just finished directing the movie "The Conspirator," a film about Mary Surratt, the lone female among those charged with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Surratt, a Maryland widow and boardinghouse operator, was arrested for her part in Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Surratt was hanged and was the first woman executed by the U.S. government. The film should be out in a few months.

Andersonville

THU July 1

I have realized that I have driven US-101 on the west-coast in San Diego and going up passing San Simeon, through Monterey and Big Sur and now I have been on US-1 to/from Key West and on and off several times through Florida and I sure I will hit it more times as I head north.

I drove into St Augustine, the oldest continuously occupied city in the US, and the historic district; kind of difficult pulling the trailer through narrow streets. Park, walk and see a few things, nice.

I woke up this morning to discover a new water leak in the trailer from the rain. But not to worry because it is on Marla’s side of the bed and she isn’t with me for a while, just one more thing on the fix-it list.

Road notes:
0 = Take exit 75 on I-75 in Georgia to a Stuckeys shop selling their usual Pecan Rolls, souvenirs and Mexican blankets.
0 = Needed a bacon for breakfast fix and the breakfast bar had fried baloney.
0 = You know you’re in the South when Grits, Black-eyed Peas are on most buffet lines
0 = You know you’re in the South when getting a “To-Go” cup is normal and you aren’t charged for a second drink.
Detoured away from the coastal region in order to go to the Confederate prison in Andersonville GA. [From the brochure.] “Andersonville, or Camp Sumter, was one of the largest of many Confederate military prisons established during the Civil War. During the 14 months the prison existed, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were confined in the stockade. Of these 13,000 died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding, or exposure to the elements.” But in a movie then had it also said that the Union administration during the war turned down a request to parole these prisoners because they felt they would have to parole a similar number of Southern prisoners and that meant fighting them all over again. The movie also said that Northern prisons were much the same as Andersonville; but it seems to me that Andersonville got the name because the victors write the history.

On the site of the actual prison the National Park Service has recreated an example of the prison stockade and several states have erected monuments to soldiers from their state that died at Andersonville.

Andersonville is also still an active National Cemetery.

The Andersonville National Historic Site is also the home of the National POW Museum.