June 28th - June 29th
Fort Chiswell,
VA to Blue Ridge Parkway to Asheville, NC to Great Smoky Mtn. National Park
I-81 to I-77 to Blue Ridge Parkway to I-40 to 441
After a good nights sleep and a decent shower in our expensive hotel off the interstate, we head back a couple of miles and took the I-77 south. Just before the border of North Carolina we got onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and drove the last third of it through the Pisgah National Forest to Asheville.
Asheville was a quaint little town. It had a couple of cute little restaurants and coffee shops but I imagine you'd need a local to show you the way around. Downtown was so small that you could nearly miss it, the intersections of highways sprawled about the same square footage. There were Baptist churches everywhere (much like most places down here).
On the way to Asheville, we stopped at Crabtree Meadows for some lunch. We were starving but probably should have saved it for Asheville cause there wasn't really anything else going on. So we decided to get some food and drive down to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and camp for the night. Like in Front Royal finding a grocery store was not very easy but we eventually did.
Friday, June 29th
Great
Smoky Mountain National Park to Cherokee National Forest to Gadsden, AL
441 to 74 to I-75 to I-24 to I-59
The next day we drove down through the Cherokee National Forest. We had lunch at a swimming beach at the Ocoee Lake. They had a cute beach with picnic benches on a little outcropping looking out onto the lake.
Next stop was Gadsden, AL. We crossed the border of Alabama and experienced our first time zone change. Quite funny really - how is it for people that work on one side and live on the other? It must be quite confusing. We also drove through Chattanooga and got stuck in rush hour traffic - in the future we'll avoid cities during rush hour.
Gadsden was nothing to write home about. We found a campsite right in the middle of town next to the Noccalola Falls. It was your average city campsite; the sites were very close together, but at least it had a swimming pool. Hardly anyone was camping with tents, mostly RVs, very family oriented. It just blows my mind to think that people actually vacation in places like that.
Right next to the campsite was a fair size waterfall. The falls were named after Noccalola, the daughter of an Indian chief. Legend has it that she jumped to her death when her father gave away her hand in marriage to a neighboring tribe for the sake of peace. There was a statue of her diving into the falls as a tribute to her memory. Right next to that was the strangest thing. A stone triangle with the Free Mason's emblem on it and 3 chairs made out of cement and rock facing at right angles to it…hmmm?
After exploring the falls and weird Free Mason thing, we found a putt-putt course and just had to play a round. I couldn't remember when I last played and I kicked James' butt! - He got to cook dinner that night ;-)