Back on the boat

We spent six days at that cabin in Stecoah and drove and walked most of the roads and trails anywhere near.  Even though it was chilly, it was so inviting on the back porch that we sometimes had meals out there.

I really liked the old hand-stitched quilt with the jagged edge and the soft colors.   I wanted to buy/bring it home, but realized that I have a nice one I made at home that I like and this one will delight so many people if it stays just where it is.

 

 

On one of our expeditions, we went to Fontana Dam and Lake.   It dams up the Little Tennessee River.   Used for hydroelectric energy it fluctuates greatly in depth during a year.

 

It's the highest dam east of the Rockies.

 

 

All along the east side of the lake and dam is the back side of the Smoky Mountain National Park.  We drove over the dam then parked and walked down a forest service road.   The picture above shows you what the Smokys are looking like now.

 

When we came back we saw a trail going up a nearby hill.   We followed it and this is what we saw:

 

 

 

We saw so many nice headstones of babies that died the year they were born.

 

 

You haven't seen our sweet little rental car - It's a Ford Focus.  Guess we'll have it at least through Dec.2.   It's parked just below that cemetery.

 

 

This is another nearby large lake that doesn't fluctuate in level so much during the year.

 

Several days our route took us along the Nantahala River where so many outfitters were that it's obvious it's a very popular tubing and kayaking destination much of the year.

 

A view from our cabin window showing how high the mountain around were.

 

For Arkansas readers/sailors:   On one of the last days there, we came across a locally-famous restaurant in Murphy, Doyles, that is owned and operated by a man who grew up in Paragould, Arkansas.   When I read in the menu about him I had to ask more.  Somehow, found himself a first mate on several sailboats, all down along the islands and as far south as Panama.  He sailed for nine years until his then captain, learning that he was good at gardening, asked him to come to that particular county in North Carolina where he had some land and where the climate was just right for growing vegetables.

So Doyle has been up here ever since.  He opened several restaurants in ritzy areas of Atlanta, but now contents himself with growing vegetables, running the restaurant in Murphy and riding motorcycles.   Well, not  "contents himself."  He said he would like to get back down south and on a sailboat.

Now for what's happening now, not so picture-worthy.    We drove back to Charleston area - Folly Beach marina, where our boat is.   The day after we left, a couple in the slip next to us got cross ways in their slip in a bad current.  To get away from their slip they put the boat in full-throttle and rammed into the back of our boat, ripping the dinghy off the davits and the foot of the dinghy motor off the motor and the motor brackets off the dinghy!   Now that we're back we can see the damage.  The inflatable dinghy is also ripped and unglued at one side of the transom where the motor was.   So now, in addition to waiting for the new transmission to arrive and be installed, we are looking for (and have found) another motor.  We also have found someone who can replace and repair the damaged part of the dinghy, but not until next Friday.    Luckily the man who did the damage has contacted us and plans to pay for the damage.  

It's been COLD here and rainy.  And today, there's a gale warning for winds up to 40 mph!  And we're on the end slip with the wind coming right at the stern of the boat.   Outside we hear pounding and slapping and the water is often coming over the dock.  So what are we doing about it? Nothing we can do!  So I've spent the morning pre-preparing stuff (dressing, cranberry sauce and giblets) for a Thanksgiving meal we plan to have here tomorrow.  And  Tom has just made us a great late breakfast. 

Needless to say, we've felt down about our endeavor.  But see no choice but to follow through on plans to be in Florida for the winter.  Where else should we be and why not be on the boat then?

We'll keep posting as we "adventure" our way down there.

The wilder side

When our week was up at the cabin near Saluda, we had a down day, not knowing what to do or where to go next.  We have time to spend before the transmission comes in and is installed in the boat.  And its getting expensive, living in motels and cabins.

 

But Tom found a "loft" for $40 set in far western North Carolina, we booked it and immediately were happy again.   We took five hours for what should have been a three hour trip by driving on back roads through drizzly rain, having a very good time.   Somehow we both like setting out to parts unknown.

 

And, while shopping for groceries near the "loft," we got a call from the owner saying she was going to upgrade us to a cabin,  'cause she'd had a call for the loft from Appalachian Trail hikers and she liked to have it available for them.    So now we're in a cabin for three days and as long as we want after for $40/night.    And, it's cute!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the cabin comes with a cat!  Really!   The owner had saved the cat from a dump but her cats were rejecting it.  She wants us to take it and we might.  We need a cat and dog eventually for our new home somewhere, and this cat is fun, friendly and loves to ride in cars (boats?)  But if it doesn't show up down here in the next day or two so we can continue our acquaintance, it will be left behind and we'll find a cat at a more convenient time.

 

 

Oh, I see I have downloaded pictures from when we hiked in Dupont State Forest near the first cabin.   There there were three waterfalls along one trail.   Wonderful hiking trails all through the area. 

 

 

Love the lacy pattern, a middle section of the falls made.

 

 

As we drove here, we came upon another very popular natural water feature, Sliding Rock, in the Mt. Pisgah National Forest.  Here, during the season, the Forest Service actually charges a fee and provides a lifeguard to let people come get in the water and slide down the rock to a deep pool below.   We've seen pictures of an 80-year-old man and grandchild sliding down and think it's something we'd like to do if we're ever here again. 

 

Yesterday we drove over to a most  beautiful clear, forest-to-the -edge lake and also stopped at the Joyce Kilmier National Memorial Forest, where they have preserved 9000+miles of forest as a wilderness.   The trees  at the memorial site have never been logged.  The few remaining very big  ones are VERY big.

 

 

Joyce Kilmier, was the man (!) who wrote the poem beginning, "I think I shall never see a thing as lovely as a tree."   He died in France fighting in the first World War.

 

While on that adventure loop yesterday, Tom drove us up the Cherahalla Skyway, a road that goes from  here to Tennessee and where it  gets higher than a mile.  The road was still going up when we stopped at  the sign below.

 

I'm missing the access to wonderful Danishes and great breads and fantastic restaurants that we had closer to Hendersonville.  But I don't miss the traffic rushing all around us.  Here it's sparsely populated and mostly national forest for miles and miles and  miles.

Stuck in the mountains

I'll start with showing this cabin that we have rented for a week starting Sunday night (10th).   We didn't see many pictures when we rented except some of flowers, but it turned out to be cute and comfortable.   (You read in the last blog that we have to spend time away from the boat while it's being repaired.)

 

 

I can't get the remaining pictures on this blog to go bigger as I usually can.  Sorry.

 

This is the coat rack.

 

 

 

Tom likes this very simple, but functional kitchen.

 

 

 

Now back a ways:  When Tom was working last week, I had chances to go out to find hikes around Knoxville.   I took one around a lake at Big Ridge State Park.  Toward the end I got to see this grist mill.  The sign that explained it was what touched me:  It said that everyone from every walk of life brought their corn there to be ground.  It turned out to be a big social event - they traded knives and horses, some played music and all got chances to visit with people from around the area.   Sounds like the nicest time.  We don't have many ways to meet and share needs and funs with others in our communities any more

 

 

The day after we left Tennessee, we explored North Carolina a bit.  Below is Tom looking out from the Falling Off Rock near Hendersonville, NC.

 

 

 

I have to tell you about the visit to Carl Sandburg's home.   It's a 247 acre national park that Sandburg's wifepractically gave to the country a couple of years after his death.   She left everything "as was" and walked away with a suitcase.  So it' not replicas of anything - it's all just the way they left it - a huge beautiful house overlooking the mountains with open fields and gardens.

 

Sandburg was a poet and biographer.   He got that way from traveling the country on the rails during the depression, learning to sing the songs he heard and accompanying himself on the guitar.   He was consulted by two presidents about how to be effective in communicating "with the people."   Below is where he sat to write each morning.

 

 

 

 

I

 

I especially liked seeing the kitchen "a la" 1953.

 

 

His wife became renowned for raising the best goats, especially the best milkers.  She had the world's biggest producing milker record for ten years.  Descendents of the herd are kept there by volunteers who encourage people to enjoy and interact with the goats.

 

 

 

Tom came away from them saying he may want to raise a pygmy goat!

 

Sandburg wrote about how it's important for a man to get away from the worldly environment and think..  He often came to this chair site on a granite boulder near the house when it was nice to sit alone or write.    Tom looks just right there, maybe thinking high thoughts.

 

 

 

 

Okay, change of subject: today, we drove and explored the small town Saluda near the cabin.  Then we headed off to Lake Lure.   It turns out to be a beautiful lake set among mountains.  Many of the mountains have rock outcroppings that make them more dramatic than just plain 'ol mountains.

 

 

Toward the end of the day, we hiked up a steep mountainside at Florence Nature Preserve where we followed a small stream and eventually saw this small waterfall.  It is just so good to walk hard and breath hard, climbing up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continued Sojourn

I won't be posting any pictures 'til after the 14th because of lack of internet bandwidth.    But I can tell you what's happened to us.

We had a grand week in Powell, TN, above Knoxville, where Tom went to work each day and I hiked or shopped or explored. 

The transmission on  our boat had not always been going into forward gear and it got worse on our last trip toward Folly Beach, SC.   So it has been pulled and determined that we need a new one.  We heard last Thursday that it won't be here 'til about Nov. 25 (yes, Thanksgiving!)      And while it's out another person is going to completely service the motor, putting rear seals on it and making sure it otherwise is in good working order.

Liveaboards are not allowed at the marina.  So here we are, with time on our hands in the mountains - not a bad place to be.  

Tom had promised to show me Ashville, NC so we went there straightaway.   That day was overcast and when we got there, traffic was everywhere and all the motels were full.   I didn't get a very good impression of the place.  We drove on toward Hendersonvillle where we found a motel and had dinner at a place where a man was playing a saxophone while we had very reasonable priced, very good food.  I talked a few times with a woman sitting alone who turned out to be the wife of the musician and who had lived in a nearby small town (600) in the mountains, Saluda, for a few years.  She said she had lived in small apartments and very large homes and is now very content in her 650 square foot cabin.    I could relate to that, having been living for a good part of this year in 360 or so square feet on the boat.     And Hendersonville is relatively flat and open with the downtown main street updated with very wide park-like setting where people can sit at tables or bicycle while cars go slowly down the street. Here there are greenways between towns and in parks for bicycle excursions.

We decided to take a cabin here for a week and last night was our first, in a cabin down a windy road, about a mile from Saluda, the little mountain town.  Yesterday, we drove up to a place called falling off rock where there was a wide view and we hiked trails below on the rocky crest.  Later, we went to Carl Sandberg's home here.  I will say more about that and show pictures when I can.  He is an inspiring man.

I have just read yesterday's blog entry by a woman who has left her farm in northwest Arkansas and spent many months looking for a similar small farmsite here in the North Carolina.  In Arkansas, she was disillusioned with the many draughts, freezes and untimely ice storm.  Her post yesterday described a place she finally found here  that will be just right.  

After this year on the boat, we may follow her path.  We'll have to see how we feel when the time comes.

Inland sojourn

So we picked up the Enterprise rental car and started our two-week land trip, having lunch at a Vietnamese sandwich shop (yes, you read that right) in Charleston which we agreed was really yummy.  Springs rolls with peanut sauce, then very flavorful meats with crunchy vegetables in a toasted bun.  

Then we headed west and north through northern South Carolina, southern North Carolina and then northern Georgia (maybe not in that order!).    We noticed right away that fall had come.

 On the drive north through Georgia, we saw a few fields of cotton, something I normally don't see.



Tom found only small scenic roads for the drive.  We took two and a half days to drive about 8 hours over to the Smoky Mountain National Park.  Leaves there were past their peak, but we saw some pretty ones.
When we got to the Smokys themselves, I learned that you may only go into them a few ways and then, unless you're camping, you drive out of them the same day.  

We drove up to the highest part of the Smokys, Clingman's Dome, where there is a tower.  It started to sleet and we didn't climb it.

These berried trees were in many places at the top of the drive.  I should know what they are - a type of hawthorn?

You can see the sleet here - little white slashes.

We had just started down from that high part when Tom pulled over into a trailhead for the Appalachan Trail.   We saw that it was just 1.7 miles to the next trailhead.  He volunteered to let me walk the trail while he took the car on down to the next access.  So I got to walk awhile and alone.  Fun!

I came to a fence!   It turns out that the Forest Service had fenced 20 acres to keep out wild boar to protect a stand of bass trees.  They created this stile so one could walk up and over the fence at entrance and exit to the plot.

It continued to sleet while I was walking.

Tom was starting to walk the trail back toward me when I came out at New Found Gap.

  

Tom at the stream near the place we picnicked.

Cade's Cove.  Apparently a cove is a grassy valley surrounded by mountains.  This was very beautiful, but too popular.   We got stuck in traffic and Tom had to drive us out a back way that he knew that turned out to be so pretty and calm and took us down a nice log-cabin feel motel that overlooked more forested hills.

The day after we drove through the Smokeys, we took a foothills parkway over toward where Tom's son Josh and wife Stephanie live.  Here we could look back to the Smokeys.