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