Summer in Appalachia

We left Bobby Brown State Park and headed for the Georgia Mountains. Our big surprise of the day was unexpectedly stumbling upon Ty Cobb's home town of Royston. I knew my mama would be mad at me if we didn't take this opportunity to poke our head inside the Ty Cobb museum. It's located in a medical office building, which at first seemed a little odd, until we learned how much Ty Cobb donated toward healthcare. This museum is quite a little gem. We saw a 15 minute movie and there was lots of memorabilia to peruse. We just knew Nana would love this place. Mom, check out today's pics, especially the photograph I took of Ty Cobb in an A's uniform. Even tho he played with Detroit for most of his career, his last two years were with the Philadelphia Athletics. We continued further into the mountains stopping for lunch at Chuck's BBQ, a very, very local joint. Ned dined on Chuck's speciality of "pig wings" - don't ask, while I had a plate of pork, with a side of Brunswick stew. Only in the South can you get meat with a side of meat...After our carnivorous lunch our big planned stop of the day was the town of Helen. Admittedly we had been warned that it was a tourist trap. Well, they weren't kidding. It's a very cheesy Bavarian village where people can float down the Chattahoochee River in day glo pink tubes, otherwise known as "tubing the Hooch". Think of it as a low budget Solvang with the Truckee River running through it. We decided to keep on trucking and had a wonderful drive through the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. This area is just incredibly beautiful and reminded us a lot of Smokey Mountain National Park, with it's dense broadleaf woods. We rolled into Harrison Bay State Park around dinner time on a Friday night, knowing that our chances for a campsite were slim. Even tho the park is pretty filled up, we completely lucked out by nabbing a spot on the lake! We're loving this spot so much we're putting it down as a possibility for next Memorial weekend. (what me plan ahead?) It was so fun watching the sunset from our floaties in the lake. See today's pics - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Harrison Bay State Park, TN