Visiting Dana and Michael in Chattanooga

Friday-Saturday, July 15-16 - We left our little creekside camp this morning and headed to Chattanooga.  I kept looking for salmon swimming upstream in the creek, but did not see any.  We talked to a little boy in the campground here this morning, but we couldn't understand a word he said -- these Tennessee folks speak a language of their own.  We were in bear country too, but all I saw was a squirrel.  We drove 240 miles yesterday through the crooks and hills (long day), but today we have a short drive.  It was 72 degrees when I got up this morning.  We got to Dana's about noon -- 39 miles -- and parked the RV in the lot next to her house.  Free camping for a couple of nights - yeah!

They have a nice brick house on the northeast side of town.  They were both at work, so we drove out to the main street and found a Krystal hamburger place for lunch, then got haircuts and vacuumed the Florida sand out of the car.  Dana had a great home-cooked meal fixed for dinner and we had a relaxing evening catching up with them.

Saturday morning, after the full course breakfast she cooked for us, we headed into the city and drove around, then stopped at the Chattanooga Railroad Museum.

They have converted some of these passenger cars into hotel rooms.  Next we drove over to the TVA Railroad Museum, and took a train ride (3 miles each way).

The train ride took us over Chickamauga Creek and through the pre-Civil War Missionary Ridge tunnel.

Joe's past caught up with him here, and he's finally behind bars.

Back at the museum, we watched a demonstration of the working turntable as the conductor turned the engine around, and we walked over to the restoration shop.

After Joe and Michael finished their inspection of the turntable and we concluded this tour, we headed back to the house to get ready to go to a cook-out at friends of Dana and Michael's.  This was something of a roadtrip, but it was a very pleasant evening with good food and nice people.  But we were all tired and ready to call it a day.

Sunday morning, we said our goodbyes and sent Dana and Michael off to church, while we got ready to de-camp. 

Of course, we had to say goodbye to their dog, Kendall, too.

Their neighbor was trying to get the grass cut and was having trouble with the lawnmower, so Joe had a little consulting to do here.

We had a great visit with Dana and Michael and look forward to coming back again.  Maybe next time we can get a little fishing worked in.

South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee

Thursday, July 14 - The sun did make a showing after last night's rain storm, and the view from our lake point was breath-taking.

Thursday morning, we got up early and were hooked up and on the road by 8:20 a.m.  We had a little mishap when we stopped for breakfast.  Joe drove through a vacant parking lot to get back to Hardee's for breakfast, which was really rough.  We rocked and rolled back onto the highway, and the cabinet doors above the sink came open and dishes came flying out.  We heard lots of crashing -- I didn't even turn my head to see what disaster was taking place.  But when we got parked at Hardee's, only one plate had broken (although several plates as well as plastic bowls had hit the sink and floor).  So we picked up the pieces, swept the floor, and put everything back in place.  It could have been a lot worse.

I forgot to mention that yesterday Joe had to get the ladder down to wash the bugs off the windows -- he hasn't had to do much of that lately.  And he got it down a second time to retape his window because it had started whistling again.  The tape from Texas had finally come off, but the whistle is still there somewhere.

Back to today, we continued on through South Carolina and passed Clemson University, then we crossed the Seneca River back into Georgia.

We cut across the top corner of Georgia, for about 10 miles, then we hit the North Carolina state line about 12:30.  We really got into the hills here, I think we were in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountain Range.  We found a nice pull-off for lunch, with mountain views and a waterfall straight across the ravine.  The elevation here was about 3,000 ft., and it was 79 degrees.  Nice!

This road was really snaky, with some long grades and some "holy sh*t" curves.  Joe said it was the crookedest road he had ever driven, and it kept Lucille busy mapping all the crooks and turns.  It was narrow, too, and then we came upon a sign that said "road narrows ahead."  Joe said he already had one wheel on the yellow line and the other on the white line.  On one corner, a car came toward us across the middle line and Joe had to get off the road a little.  Also, there were boulders on some of the curves that jutted out almost to the white line.  My side mirror took the leaves off the foliage on some of those boulders.

As we came down this mountain, we came through the thriving metropolis of Highlands, which was full of the 65+ crowd.  It was a pretty little mountain town, with lots of shops and restaurants.

After we passed through this town, we followed a rocky, winding creek down the mountain.  It was on Joe's side, so I never could get a picture (I just had a rock wall on my side).  At one point we were at an elevation of 3820.  There were a few waterfalls as well.  It was nice to be in the mountains again, and out of the hot, muggy weather we've been experiencing.

We crossed into Tennessee about 3:30, having given up on finding a campground in North Carolina.  We didn't run the A/C all day, but by the time we got to our campground around 4:00, it was 90 degrees.  We camped at a National Forest campsite on a little creek, a very nice spot, and there were even fireflies out when it got dark.  We passed an area a few miles back where they were releasing water from the dam for rafting on the river.  There were bus-loads of people there, but it looked like they were all having a good time.  We did see a few rafts on the river.

Entering South Carolina

Wednesday, July 13 - Happy Birthday Audrey.

I forgot to mention yesterday that we saw a couple of dolphins in the waterways to/from Tybee Island.  Also another interesting tidbit this morning -- I did a search of "Savannah railroad museum" and my blog came up on the search engine because those words in yesterday's blog.  I got a good laugh out of that. 

This morning we got a late start -- I had to do the blog, and so I let Joe sleep in.  We got on the road just before 11:00 a.m., and after touring a little of Savannah again because we missed our turns, we crossed into South Carolina about 11:45.

This is a new state for me, although Joe was here back in his Army days when he was stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C.




As we drove along, we passed a gas station called "Brenda's," so apparently our pal Brenda has been holding out on us, just like Collins did last year.

It was disgustingly hot here today, 101 as we crossed back over into Georgia and came into Augusta a little before 3:00.  We wanted to see a little of the city, even though we weren't stopping here since they don't let you tour the Masters Golf Course.  We actually saw a little more of Augusta than we intended because, again, we missed a turn.  They identify their streets by name, and the map shows numbers, so we don't always catch the turn before we are passed it.  When we crossed back into S.C., we stopped at the Visitors Center to pick up information on the state parks.  We had a hard time staying comfortable in the RV, and hated to stop anywhere so Joe turned on the generator and air conditioner before we went in.  Joe did slam on the brakes later, though, when we saw gas for $3.349.  For whatever reason, gas is cheaper here than across the river.  Since we got such a late start this morning, we didn't get as far as we thought today and I started looking for a state park about 4:00.  The only one we found one with 50 amp electricity in this area was just 25 miles from Augusta (Hamilton Branch State Recreation Area), so we decided to call it a day.  We rolled 197 miles, but some of those might have been negative miles since we drove around in circles in Savannah and Augusta.  This is another pretty state park, and we got a site on a little bluff right on the Strom Thurmond Lake.

It was so hot when we parked, the lake was pretty calm, and not a leaf was stirring.  I was actually contemplating jumping in because it was so hot.

Within 15 minutes, a storm rolled through, the lake was white-capping, and we thought there might have been a little hail.  The temperature dropped to 84 degrees within an hour.  I was thinking we might drive to a nearby town for dinner so I wouldn't have to heat up the RV, but we seem to be in the middle of nowhere, so once it cooled down, I fixed dinner.  I think an angry squirrel is throwing pine cones on our roof, though, because we keep hearing strange noises.  After dinner, Joe and I took a little stroll down to the water; he actually waded in and said the water was bathtub warm.  The sun was trying to come back through the clouds, and several people were fishing just around the corner -- made us want to get our fishing poles out, but alas, no licenses.