Blue Marble Courthouse
Upper Whitewater Falls
Lower Whitewater Falls
Lower Whitewater Falls
Dry Falls, look closely on your left and you will see Don.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Glassy-eyed yet?
I am having such fun writing about the trip, I hope you are enjoying the blog. So, here we go. We looked over Murphy the next morning. It is the county seat for Cherokee Co. and has the only courthouse made of native stone in the state. It is unpolished blue marble and is beautiful. They must do a lot of upkeep to keep it so beautiful over the years. Included (hopefully) on the picture page is a photo of a large stone. If you realize what you are looking at you can tell it is a turtle carved from the rock. Left Murphy headed for Hayesville, Franklin, Highlands, and Cashiers, NC. Again the roads are windy and scenic. Several places Don has me hanging out the window getting photos of the river next to the road. Nice thing about a digital camera? I didn't hang out the window, just stuck the camera out and pushed the button. Actually got some good photos; but, boy, did we delete a bunch! NC claims the highest waterfall in the East - Whitewater Falls. Now they didn't say the East of what; because Fall Creek Falls TN is supposed to be the highest. When we got there we found out the difference. Fall Creek Falls has the highest single drop while Whitewater falls is more of a cascading fall. it really is beautiful. Of course I was punished again - there are 154 steps leading down to the platform overlook! Luckily there are not too many in one set. Since the stairs must wind to follow the landscape, there are several landings for resting. Therefore I don't think they added very many stairs by the time we started up them. :) On to Dry Falls. Why would we go to a dry fall? Good question. Guess we are just curious. Actually, there is water coming over the fall. It is called Dry Falls because you can walk behind the falls and not get (very) wet. Good news, a minimum of steps, mostly a sloping path. They actually had the gate to the path behind the falls closed, but we are resourceful. We could squeeze between the gatepost and the rock. (Does that prove we aren't really weight-challenged?) It was really slick so I guess that is why the gate was closed. I did not slip once to everyone's amazement, I am sure. This sounds like kind of a short day, but we did spend a lot of time just driving thru the mountains and enjoying the scenery and the quiet. Love and God Bless, Pat
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Another day on the road
Thursday we left Atlanta in beautiful weather headed Northward to Chatsworth, GA. As many of you know, traveling the back roads means great scenery and quaint small towns. Ok, the one big junkyard wasn't so beautiful (unless you are wierd).
Chatsworth has a nice courthouse square. The courthouse is red brick with white columns. The lawn was like carpet and so green. Of course we toured a little of the town trying to find it and then wondered how we missed it. The front of the courthouse looks out on a beautiful mountain scene. Luckily, I got a pretty nice picture and even captured the large "Drunk Driving School" banner across the road!
We decided we needed to found out what Fort Mountain State Park was all about. Guess what. Nobody knows! Along the ridge of the mountain there are long row of stones stacked sorta like it would be a fortification. The Cherokee have more than 1 legend to explain it, dating back to the year 1120. Anyway, in the 1930's the CCC built a hiking trail (actually more than 1) to a tower that they also built. We went about half way up so that we were at the wall. A couple we met there let us know that you can no longer go all the way up into the tower and that there was a snake "guarding" the entrance. You have already guessed that I went no further, Don went alone. I know it was only a little black snake, harmless; but, well, snakes are snakes Anyway Fort Mountain is a nice park and the road up there has some lovely overviews.
Later we saw a sign for the Vann House Historical Site. By following the signs we found it. We went thru the museum and then saw a video telling the history (good thing, cause even after the museum I still only knew that an Indian built it). Chief Joseph Vann of the Cherokee was a powerful man. Not only was he a leader of the Cherokee, but was influental in Washington DC. He became very wealthy and built a mansion to show his wealth. By hiring a renown architect of the time and masons from the nearby Moravian community, he built a large home in the style of the times. Chief Vann eventually sucumbed to the lure of whisky and gambling and was
later murdered. His son Chief James Vann followed in his father's footsteps as being very influentual. However, he was not powerful enough to keep from being removed from his home and sent to Oklahoma. He actually was run out shortly before the Trail of Tears, settled in OK and built a home there. That home was burned during the War Between the States.
Back to GA now. We were taken on a tour of the house. Being the only ones there it was basically a private tour. The nice young man was knowlegable and gracious. He told us to take as much time as we liked looking over the house. The furniture there is period furniture, definitely antique; but there is no original furniture since it was taken to OK and destroyed when the house there was burned. This house was repainted into the original colors when it was restored. They are bright colors of yellow and blue and rust and green. The house actually has 4 columns, but is painted so that from a distance it looks like there are 6. Evidently the number of columns announced how wealthy you were. As a final note, President Monroe was a visitor there.. Can only begin to tell you the things we learned, it was fascinating.
Then we traveled on to (drum roll, please) Ducktown, TN. Bet most of you didn't know such a place existed. We headed up to the Ducktown Museum, which wasn't easy since it basically a dirt road. We got there about 20 til 4 and they closed at 4. We went in anyway. The people were so very nice. Good old small town folks. The man says 4 may be when they close, but they stay as long as some one is there. He was really nice and a wealth of information. Ducktown was a mining area. It was what is know as "Hard Rock Mining" meaning it is not as dangerous as coal mining where the coal is soft. They mined a number of different things including talc. Until mid-20th century it was a waste land. The chemicals used and released in the mining had de-nuded the landscape. I mean it is hard to describe the pictures they had of the land at that time. Absolutely nothing growing - nil - nada- zip - zero. Do you get the idea? When the gov'ment came in and started reforestation, people were almost sad to lose their unique landscape as many of them had never known anything different. Next to the museum is a collapsed mine than now holds rainwater. We noticed a yellow substance swirling on top of the water and wondered what it could be. Duh! it hit us both at once, of course it was pollen. You'd think with the amount of pollen we had already seen - on and in our car - it would not even had been a question.
We left there about 5 and went to our hotel in Murphy, NC having had a full day.
God bless, Pat
Chatsworth has a nice courthouse square. The courthouse is red brick with white columns. The lawn was like carpet and so green. Of course we toured a little of the town trying to find it and then wondered how we missed it. The front of the courthouse looks out on a beautiful mountain scene. Luckily, I got a pretty nice picture and even captured the large "Drunk Driving School" banner across the road!
We decided we needed to found out what Fort Mountain State Park was all about. Guess what. Nobody knows! Along the ridge of the mountain there are long row of stones stacked sorta like it would be a fortification. The Cherokee have more than 1 legend to explain it, dating back to the year 1120. Anyway, in the 1930's the CCC built a hiking trail (actually more than 1) to a tower that they also built. We went about half way up so that we were at the wall. A couple we met there let us know that you can no longer go all the way up into the tower and that there was a snake "guarding" the entrance. You have already guessed that I went no further, Don went alone. I know it was only a little black snake, harmless; but, well, snakes are snakes Anyway Fort Mountain is a nice park and the road up there has some lovely overviews.
Later we saw a sign for the Vann House Historical Site. By following the signs we found it. We went thru the museum and then saw a video telling the history (good thing, cause even after the museum I still only knew that an Indian built it). Chief Joseph Vann of the Cherokee was a powerful man. Not only was he a leader of the Cherokee, but was influental in Washington DC. He became very wealthy and built a mansion to show his wealth. By hiring a renown architect of the time and masons from the nearby Moravian community, he built a large home in the style of the times. Chief Vann eventually sucumbed to the lure of whisky and gambling and was
later murdered. His son Chief James Vann followed in his father's footsteps as being very influentual. However, he was not powerful enough to keep from being removed from his home and sent to Oklahoma. He actually was run out shortly before the Trail of Tears, settled in OK and built a home there. That home was burned during the War Between the States.
Back to GA now. We were taken on a tour of the house. Being the only ones there it was basically a private tour. The nice young man was knowlegable and gracious. He told us to take as much time as we liked looking over the house. The furniture there is period furniture, definitely antique; but there is no original furniture since it was taken to OK and destroyed when the house there was burned. This house was repainted into the original colors when it was restored. They are bright colors of yellow and blue and rust and green. The house actually has 4 columns, but is painted so that from a distance it looks like there are 6. Evidently the number of columns announced how wealthy you were. As a final note, President Monroe was a visitor there.. Can only begin to tell you the things we learned, it was fascinating.
Then we traveled on to (drum roll, please) Ducktown, TN. Bet most of you didn't know such a place existed. We headed up to the Ducktown Museum, which wasn't easy since it basically a dirt road. We got there about 20 til 4 and they closed at 4. We went in anyway. The people were so very nice. Good old small town folks. The man says 4 may be when they close, but they stay as long as some one is there. He was really nice and a wealth of information. Ducktown was a mining area. It was what is know as "Hard Rock Mining" meaning it is not as dangerous as coal mining where the coal is soft. They mined a number of different things including talc. Until mid-20th century it was a waste land. The chemicals used and released in the mining had de-nuded the landscape. I mean it is hard to describe the pictures they had of the land at that time. Absolutely nothing growing - nil - nada- zip - zero. Do you get the idea? When the gov'ment came in and started reforestation, people were almost sad to lose their unique landscape as many of them had never known anything different. Next to the museum is a collapsed mine than now holds rainwater. We noticed a yellow substance swirling on top of the water and wondered what it could be. Duh! it hit us both at once, of course it was pollen. You'd think with the amount of pollen we had already seen - on and in our car - it would not even had been a question.
We left there about 5 and went to our hotel in Murphy, NC having had a full day.
God bless, Pat
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Day 2
Ok, my memory is not what it used to be. The trip to Stone Mt. actually occurred on Wed. afternoon. So, a little out of sequence, here is more.
After the zoo, we went to underground Atlanta. It is a big whoopee, don't bother. We had lunch at the food court and the food was actually good. Therefore I guess I can't say it was a total bust, can I?
Mary had chosen our next destination as the World of Coca Cola. Pretty fascinating place explaining the history of Coca Cola and their bottles. They even have a little soda fountain set up and a person behind the counter with the explanation of how Coke began at the soda fountain and the phrase "Soda Jerk". At the end they have a room with all the coke flavors and you can drink all you want. They have some unusual flavors. I guess they are not unusual in the countries where they are actually sold, but there were some that I would not even Think of drinking. Guess I am just not adventurous. But I wasn't the only one! Then comes the biggest part of the whole place - The Gift Shop! They had some neat looking stuff, but I think they really wanted to keep it there. With those prices, they must not have to restock very often. Guess I am just tightfisted.
The evening went as I wrote last night. (It is posted on this blog).
Wednesday morning, we went to their hotel and got more hugs to start our morning. What great kids - all 4 of them.
Today's adventure was the High Art Museum which is hosting an exhibit from the Louve. Absolutely fascinating. Such beautiful things. All those King Louis' really could collect. Then there was the regular collections. Lots of USA history. Furniture and other things from the colonial days forward. Also a small space showing some of the PA Dutch influence. And lots and lots of paintings.
We were lucky enough to have more school field trips. These were older children of course, and most were from private schools. Mostly they were well behaved. And trust me, they were not noisy - all the chaperones had to do was look at them and quiet reigned! The High Art Museum building is art also. A large spacious area and really pretty.
As I said we went from there to Stone Mt.
That evening we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, which seems to be one of Sheila's favorite places. It was hard saying good-bye that evening. They were leaving very early the next morning to head home and we would not see them again this vacation. It was really, really hard. The hugs were long and tight. As much as I wanted to I did not cry. We plan, God willing, to be in FL in May to see them.
Thursday, we started our loop trip of the Southern Highroads Trail. It winds thru the Chattahoochee and Nantahala National Forests. I'll start on that next time.
Love to all, Pat
After the zoo, we went to underground Atlanta. It is a big whoopee, don't bother. We had lunch at the food court and the food was actually good. Therefore I guess I can't say it was a total bust, can I?
Mary had chosen our next destination as the World of Coca Cola. Pretty fascinating place explaining the history of Coca Cola and their bottles. They even have a little soda fountain set up and a person behind the counter with the explanation of how Coke began at the soda fountain and the phrase "Soda Jerk". At the end they have a room with all the coke flavors and you can drink all you want. They have some unusual flavors. I guess they are not unusual in the countries where they are actually sold, but there were some that I would not even Think of drinking. Guess I am just not adventurous. But I wasn't the only one! Then comes the biggest part of the whole place - The Gift Shop! They had some neat looking stuff, but I think they really wanted to keep it there. With those prices, they must not have to restock very often. Guess I am just tightfisted.
The evening went as I wrote last night. (It is posted on this blog).
Wednesday morning, we went to their hotel and got more hugs to start our morning. What great kids - all 4 of them.
Today's adventure was the High Art Museum which is hosting an exhibit from the Louve. Absolutely fascinating. Such beautiful things. All those King Louis' really could collect. Then there was the regular collections. Lots of USA history. Furniture and other things from the colonial days forward. Also a small space showing some of the PA Dutch influence. And lots and lots of paintings.
We were lucky enough to have more school field trips. These were older children of course, and most were from private schools. Mostly they were well behaved. And trust me, they were not noisy - all the chaperones had to do was look at them and quiet reigned! The High Art Museum building is art also. A large spacious area and really pretty.
As I said we went from there to Stone Mt.
That evening we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, which seems to be one of Sheila's favorite places. It was hard saying good-bye that evening. They were leaving very early the next morning to head home and we would not see them again this vacation. It was really, really hard. The hugs were long and tight. As much as I wanted to I did not cry. We plan, God willing, to be in FL in May to see them.
Thursday, we started our loop trip of the Southern Highroads Trail. It winds thru the Chattahoochee and Nantahala National Forests. I'll start on that next time.
Love to all, Pat
You Asked For It
Ok, so only one person asked about our trip to Atlanta, but you all get to suffer.
We left Knoxville on Monday, March 26 (Apryl's birthday) headed for Atlanta. We left only 1 hour late, therefore the 1st thing we did was stop and eat breakfast. We travel better on full bellies.
We drove 1st to Kennesaw National Battlefield Park. From the top of Kennesaw Mt. you can see the Atlanta skyline 20 miles away. I am sure during the War Between the States they had a good view of Atlanta. We were able to barely make out the skyline behind the smog. It was a beautiful day and we could indeed see a lot of the valley. We walked back to the Illinois monument which was erected on the 50th anniversary of the battle - June 22, 1914. I thought it ironic this monument comemorating the bloodiest was in American History was dedicated even at the 1st ever World War was beginning. As always with history, it was fascinating.
We then drove thru Marietta to our hotel and just took life easy for the evening. Sheila called about dark to say they had arrived at their hotel.
Tuesday morning we went right over to their hotel. It was wonderful to see Michelle and Mary leaving their room for breakfast. The hugs were great. It had been way too long. Caught up with Sheila and Michael in the breakfast lobby. Their hugs were great too.
We all piled in the Suburban and headed for ZooAtlanta. It was a good thing we had the computer with Maps and Streets because it wasn't that easy to find. But find it we did and even parked close to the entrance. We got our tickets to see the Pandas for 11:00 so we had time to walk around the zoo first. ZooAtlanta is very compact, you don't walk far to anything. It was such a beautiful day that the animals were active. One of the elephants was stretching its neck and trunk as far as they would go trying to reach a leafy tree. The crowds were not distracting it at all. Oh yes, the crowds. At least half the 1st and 2nd graders of Atlanta were on a field trip to the zoo that day. They had plenty of chaperones and were pretty good most of the time. Speaking of children, the monkeys were having a good time playing in their cages. A couple of them were reaching thru the netting trying to get the green leaves from the trees. Sounds like a trend doesn't it? One of the monkeys only had 3 legs, but it did not slow him down at all! The gorillas were great. The males were sitting around looking important and the females were busy with the children. One momma had twins and they kept her pretty busy. One of them really wanted to roam so she was forever reaching out and grabbing a leg to pull him back. He would almost make it out of reach and there would be her hand. Another one's baby was a "clinger". He would be playing around, but if she moved he had hold of her leg in the blink of an eye, and then he would crawl up on her back. Once he stood up and beat his chest. Of course, nobody had the camera up for a photo. Bummer.
Then it was in to see the pandas. We did not wait in line very long and got into the compound pretty close to our ticketed time. They give a very nice tour with lots of information. The pandas were all asleep. The daddy did wake up and look out at us from his cozy nook. The mommy yawned real big (they do have big mouths) and turned her head away so all we could see was her back. The baby though, never moved a muscle. Yep, she was asleep on a limb with her back to us. So we can say we saw her, but just her curled up back. We were all happy we got to go though. As we were leaving the park, the elephants were being fed. They were inside the building and at one time they were all lined up with their faces stuck as far thru the bars as they would go. It was so cute.
From there we went to Stone Mountain. No school field trips there! Don, Sheila, Michelle, and Mary rode the gondola up to the top. Sheila and Mary then walked down; but Don and Michelle stuck with the gondola ride. We walked around the park while waiting for Sheila and Mary. The grounds are lovely. Then we headed back to the hotels. Don and I rested for a while, but I understand that Sheila and the girls went shopping.
About 5:45 we all met Chip and Abby (my brother and his daughter) for dinner. It was great catching up and seeing how Abby has grown. She showed us the dance she does to "I enjoy being a girl". Chip sang for her. He carries a tune a bit better than me. Then Abby wanted Michelle to dance. We explained that she could not dance in a small space; so distracted Abby by telling her about Mary's riding. Abby wanted to know if Mary had ever fallen off her horse. Mary just laughed and said she had plenty of times.
We missed Lisa being there too, maybe next time.
Well, this e-mail is long enough. If you made it this far, thanks. I'll be back with more soon.
We left Knoxville on Monday, March 26 (Apryl's birthday) headed for Atlanta. We left only 1 hour late, therefore the 1st thing we did was stop and eat breakfast. We travel better on full bellies.
We drove 1st to Kennesaw National Battlefield Park. From the top of Kennesaw Mt. you can see the Atlanta skyline 20 miles away. I am sure during the War Between the States they had a good view of Atlanta. We were able to barely make out the skyline behind the smog. It was a beautiful day and we could indeed see a lot of the valley. We walked back to the Illinois monument which was erected on the 50th anniversary of the battle - June 22, 1914. I thought it ironic this monument comemorating the bloodiest was in American History was dedicated even at the 1st ever World War was beginning. As always with history, it was fascinating.
We then drove thru Marietta to our hotel and just took life easy for the evening. Sheila called about dark to say they had arrived at their hotel.
Tuesday morning we went right over to their hotel. It was wonderful to see Michelle and Mary leaving their room for breakfast. The hugs were great. It had been way too long. Caught up with Sheila and Michael in the breakfast lobby. Their hugs were great too.
We all piled in the Suburban and headed for ZooAtlanta. It was a good thing we had the computer with Maps and Streets because it wasn't that easy to find. But find it we did and even parked close to the entrance. We got our tickets to see the Pandas for 11:00 so we had time to walk around the zoo first. ZooAtlanta is very compact, you don't walk far to anything. It was such a beautiful day that the animals were active. One of the elephants was stretching its neck and trunk as far as they would go trying to reach a leafy tree. The crowds were not distracting it at all. Oh yes, the crowds. At least half the 1st and 2nd graders of Atlanta were on a field trip to the zoo that day. They had plenty of chaperones and were pretty good most of the time. Speaking of children, the monkeys were having a good time playing in their cages. A couple of them were reaching thru the netting trying to get the green leaves from the trees. Sounds like a trend doesn't it? One of the monkeys only had 3 legs, but it did not slow him down at all! The gorillas were great. The males were sitting around looking important and the females were busy with the children. One momma had twins and they kept her pretty busy. One of them really wanted to roam so she was forever reaching out and grabbing a leg to pull him back. He would almost make it out of reach and there would be her hand. Another one's baby was a "clinger". He would be playing around, but if she moved he had hold of her leg in the blink of an eye, and then he would crawl up on her back. Once he stood up and beat his chest. Of course, nobody had the camera up for a photo. Bummer.
Then it was in to see the pandas. We did not wait in line very long and got into the compound pretty close to our ticketed time. They give a very nice tour with lots of information. The pandas were all asleep. The daddy did wake up and look out at us from his cozy nook. The mommy yawned real big (they do have big mouths) and turned her head away so all we could see was her back. The baby though, never moved a muscle. Yep, she was asleep on a limb with her back to us. So we can say we saw her, but just her curled up back. We were all happy we got to go though. As we were leaving the park, the elephants were being fed. They were inside the building and at one time they were all lined up with their faces stuck as far thru the bars as they would go. It was so cute.
From there we went to Stone Mountain. No school field trips there! Don, Sheila, Michelle, and Mary rode the gondola up to the top. Sheila and Mary then walked down; but Don and Michelle stuck with the gondola ride. We walked around the park while waiting for Sheila and Mary. The grounds are lovely. Then we headed back to the hotels. Don and I rested for a while, but I understand that Sheila and the girls went shopping.
About 5:45 we all met Chip and Abby (my brother and his daughter) for dinner. It was great catching up and seeing how Abby has grown. She showed us the dance she does to "I enjoy being a girl". Chip sang for her. He carries a tune a bit better than me. Then Abby wanted Michelle to dance. We explained that she could not dance in a small space; so distracted Abby by telling her about Mary's riding. Abby wanted to know if Mary had ever fallen off her horse. Mary just laughed and said she had plenty of times.
We missed Lisa being there too, maybe next time.
Well, this e-mail is long enough. If you made it this far, thanks. I'll be back with more soon.
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