Coming Home to the Mountains: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, NC 6/14/08

We left Modoc around 9:30 and decided to continue on the Heritage Corridor Nature Trail until Clemson. We still weren’t sure of our exact plans, but were leaning toward heading for Asheville to see the Biltmore Estates. The drive thru the South Carolina foothills is stunningly beautiful. It’s hard to compare all the back roads we have been on, but this particular stretch of road is truly picturesque. We traveled up and down rolling hills, thru broadleaf forests and really quaint southern towns. We passed a Dairy Festival (I couldn’t believe Ned didn’t want to stop for free ice cream), a couple of Black History Festivals, a Scottish Festival and several other small town celebrations. Most of the time we were hugging the Georgia border. We were on a quest to fill up our propane tank in the Winniemobile, and after several false stops finally came to a small campground run by two woman who had the propane AND the right nozzle. While striking up a conversation with them, and discussing where we were headed, they suggested an alternate route to the Smokey’s. Basically our choice was to turn right and visit Biltmore, or turn left and go through some remote areas, including the river spot where the movie “Deliverance” was filmed. Well, you probably guessed our decision. We scrapped the house tour and headed for Bluegrass Country. We were definitely not disappointed in our choice. The benefits were incredibly beautiful mountains and wildflowers, mainly daylilies, and the weather cooled down immensely- 70’s. We stopped for lunch at a roadside diner, and this time, were pleasantly surprised. It was the usual selection of one meat and several “vegetable” side dishes. We choose ham, black-eyed peas and cantaloupe (Ned also had mashed potatoes and gravy). It was delicious! (Note: the vegetable side dishes are usually a choice of fried okra, collard greens, macaroni & cheese, potato salad, coleslaw, black-eyed peas, and an assortment of fruit cobblers). Yesterday I mentioned that I was a little sad about our return journey. However, upon reaching the mountains this afternoon, and experiencing the absolute joy of being IN the trees and seeing the endless mountain ranges, it made me nostalgic for home. I realized how much I love living in Nevada City and having the Sierra’s in our backyard. We expected the most visited National Park to be packed with people, especially on a Saturday night. We didn’t have reservations and really didn’t know what to expect. Apparently, the North Carolina side is less visited than the Tennessee side. We really lucked out and have a gorgeous creekside campsite. BTW - Did you know that this National Park is free? We spent some time visiting the Mountain Farm Museum at the park. A light rain fell most of the day in the Smokey’s, so we decided to eat inside. We popped a bottle of red wine and munched on cheese & cantaloupe that we bought from a roadside stand. It’s beautiful sitting here listening to the creek and being surrounded by this luscious forest.

Days of Discovery/Nights of Thunder: Hamilton Branch State Park, Modoc, SC 6/13/08

Today officially begins the migration back home. For the first time we began looking for road signs that said “West”, it made me a little sad as I don’t want this trip to end. Before we left the campground this morning we looked at the mileage and noticed that we have traveled 5050 miles and biked 110 . We decided to drive the “Discovery Trail” thru the heart of South Carolina towards the Uplands. The South Carolina Tourist Bureau put together a series of discovery roads to learn about the local history. One can either do the “Discovery Route” or the “Nature Route.” They issue a map with corresponding events or sites for suggested viewing. One can choose to see the African-American Heritage, Civil War Memorial Sites, Plantations & Gardens, etc. We spent the day seeing a combination of most of the above, including the first “company town” in the South. The adventures of eating our way thru the South was a little too, - how should I say - “real” for me today. Within the first hour of our drive, about mid-morning, we stopped at a roadside stand selling fresh green hot boiled peanuts. They were okay. Glad I tasted them, but won’t be craving them anytime soon. They were hot, salty, wet and a little mushy. About 1:00 we decided to stop at Duke’s Bar-b-Que, an all you can buffet. There was fried chicken, chopped pork, fried gizzards, fried okra, hush puppies, black-eyed peas, pork skins, cracklins (hard & soft), mac n’ cheese, collard greens, rice & hash. I’m still cracking up at Ned. After being much braver than me and trying a small sampling of everything, he said, “What do you mean that was hash? I thought I was eating Brunswick Stew!.” He scrunched up his nose and said, “What do you think I ate?!” He then went on to list all the ingredients in what he knows is in hash and couldn’t recognize anything in what he had eaten. Can I just say that I think I will officially be done with tasting bar-b-que when this trip is over? We eventually worked our way to the Piedmont area of South Carolina and camped on Strom Thurmond Lake. It’s in a remote area right between the Georgia and South Carolina border. We have a beautiful campground right on the lake. (See photo taken at sunset). We did our usual floating in the lake to cool off and hanging out in the hammock. We popped a Bacardi “mojito”, nibbled some left-over fruitcake (weird eating day for sure) and were becoming one with nature when all of a sudden the sound of cars revving their engines jolted us. Soon after the national anthem began playing. We assume stock car racing is happening close-by. Perfect end to a very southern day. Ned really wants to check this car thing out. – gotta run. Addendum: It’s about midnight and we just got back from the “Modoc Friday Nights of Thunder”. It was a BLAST!! Stock car racing on a dirt track. The stands were filled with mom & dads, little kids with blue snow cones running down their faces, and lots of beer guzzling. It was so much fun watching all the posturing, car spin-outs, fan cheering and ear splitting noise of the cars while hanging out on a warm night. I’ve decided to embrace the southern culture and become a Nascar fan!

Old World Charm: James Island County Park, SC 6/12/08

Ned here, filling in again for Debi tonight. We decided to take the coastal road to Charleston. Our big challenge this morning was to locate a restaurant for lunch that Debi and I had seen on the food or travel channel called Gullah Grub. It’s located on Saint Helena Island. Gullah is the name of a group of people unique to this coastal area of South Carolina and Georgia who have maintained a strong connection to African cultural heritage, including their own language, due to some interesting history of the African slaves which were brought to this area in the mid-1700’s. Debi ordered crab soup with collard greens. I had catfish chowder, with lima beans. We both had red rice and corn bread with our meals, washed down with “swamp water”, a blend of sweet tea and lemonade. Both of our meals were good, and quite spicy, and we particularly enjoyed the welcoming attitude of Dot, who runs the restaurant. She was very sweet and patient in explaining to us about her Gullah culture. After lunch we headed toward Charleston, along some very beautiful back roads that crossed through lots of wooded and marshy lands. We found the county campground at Saint James Island (complete with splash park, climbing wall, but great biking trails) and then headed into Charleston to explore. Debi had seen Charleston before, and remembered loving all the beautiful old houses and gardens. We parked along the sea wall and took our bikes on an eleven mile tour criss-crossing all the beautiful old historic neighborhoods. I had to agree with Debi that this town has by far the most fascinating and beautiful historical housing district we had seen on this trip, compared to both New Orleans and Savannah. The well preserved architecture, gorgeous and fragrant gardens, and rustic brick and cobblestone streets dating from as early as the late 1600’s were truly amazing. (See the photo of Debi and I toward the end of our bike tour.) We had planned to eat at another recommended restaurant in Charleston tonight, but we realized that both of us were still really full from our Gullah lunch, so we settled on stopping at a little café where Debi ordered a decaf mocha, and I had a Reggae Rum Runner. We reviewed the map and decided on some interesting spots when we got back to the campground, but now we’re ready to get some sleep for the night and head out tomorrow on the South Carolina Discovery Heritage Trail.

Living the High Life: Skidaway Island State Park, GA 6/11/08

It was such a gorgeous morning and this flora is so different than we are used to, that we decided to take a bike ride thru one of the park’s nature trails. We rode under palmetto trees, and gigantic live oak trees draped in moss alongside salt marshes. (See photo). We saw a variety of birds, read about civil war battles that didn’t work out so well on this island and saw the remnants of an old moonshine still. We even climbed up an observation tower to see a nice overview of the marsh and slough area. Even though it was close to high noon about then (and hot) we decided to head into town and ride our bikes thru the Bonaventure Cemetery. For those of you familiar with the movie “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, you can appreciate how fun this was! We checked out lots of old and exotic headstones and monuments, some of them dating back to the late 1700’s. I believe the entire cemetery is about 600 acres, so we had quite a lot of fun zig-zagging about the different lanes and reading about those of nobility, and celebrities such as Johnny Mercer. We then decided to head to the historical district and continue to ride our bikes past all the grand old homes and garden squares. Savannah is really a gorgeous, genteel city. Well, by this time, about 2ish, we had ridden close to 13 miles and were famished! We decided to head for Tybee Island and check out the Crab Shack. It’s supposedly a local favorite and is highly recommended for the “Low Country Boil.” We each ordered up a plate along with some beers and margaritas and settled back on the deck, overlooking the marshes and ocean. We both agreed, this is the best meal yet that we have eaten on the road!! It’s a plate heaping with fresh wild Georgia shrimp, red potatoes, corn on the cob and sausage. Apparently, it’s all boiled together then some kind of “special” seasoning is sprinkled over the top. The tables all have big holes in the middle wherein you peel and shuck your shrimp, crab legs, oysters, etc. At this point, feeling nicely satiated, it was close to 4:00 and we decided why not go swimming in the ocean? The great thing about traveling with your home is that you can be quite flexible. We changed into our swimsuits (in the van), parked at the beach and played in the ocean for several hours. We even blew up our swim rings and had a blast being silly in the water, trying to “catch a wave”. When we finally got back to the van, we were hot, salty and sticky, but never fear Winnie is here!! We used our shower off the back of the van, stood out in the middle of the street and took showers. I think everyone dealing with the sand getting in their cars were quite envious. When we got back to the campsite, Ned whipped us up some mochas and we are having a quiet evening at home: Ned is swinging in the hammock, I’m writing blogs (yeah wi-fi here) , and we’re catching up on some much needed laundry. (Yep, the campground has a washer/dryer located near the showers). There is hardly anyone around us at the campground so we are enjoying our home of the great outdoors - Loving the high life. The question is will I ever be able to sleep within 4 walls again?!

From Sea to Shining Sea: Skidaway Island State Park, GA 6/10/08

We left Veterans Park knowing we had a long drive across Georgia. Confident that the Winniemobile was purring along just fine, we stuck to the two lane highways, choosing to see the countryside and small towns through the heart of Georgia. We traveled by pecan trees, sugar cane & cotton fields, skinny pine trees and lots of logging trucks. We stopped at a roadside barbeque, Harry’s, to continue our quest for the perfect barbeque. Ned had ribs, (with the obligatory 3 pieces of white bread & pickles) and I had a sliced barbeque sandwich. We liked this one better than Chuck’s. It was still a mustard based sauce, but less “mustardy.” Our next stop was in the town of Claxton, which proudly proclaims itself to be the “Fruitcake Capital of the World.” We couldn’t let THAT one go by, so we circled around the town until we found Claxton’s Bakery. They make something like 86,000 lbs. of fruitcake a day during their busy season. Yikes! (Okay, secret confession time. I think my dad and I are the only people in the world who actually like fruitcake). Of course, we had to venture inside and test it out. The person who helped us out was very friendly and was rather pleased that we were from California. We finally reached Skidaway Island State Park, outside of Savannah around 3:00. It’s a beautiful park with lots of oak trees dripping with moss. Very picturesque. We signed up for a spot for 2 nights and quickly left to explore Savannah. We walked cobblestone streets along the Savannah River, visited the famous City Market, toured the mansions in the historic district, and finally drove out to Tybee Island and stood in the Atlantic Ocean at about 8:30 pm. (See photo of Ned celebrating our triumphant arrival at the Atlantic Ocean). Tomorrow marks 3 weeks to the day that we left Nancy’s place at the Pacific Ocean. The best part of being on the Island is that the temp dropped to about 86 deg., was breezy, and boy did that feel good!! The ocean is the first body of water we’ve been in that is not uncomfortably warm. We have a lot of options tomorrow: swimming in the ocean, riding bikes through Savannah to get a close-up look of the houses, visit some museums and cemeteries – not really sure what we are going to do. Stay tuned!

Peaches, Plains & Passing the Test: Georgia Veterans State Park, GA 6/9/08

We had a bit of a late start this morning. We didn’t get up til 8:30 and didn’t roll out of camp til past 10:30. I think this heat and humidity just makes you take life easier. Our first stop was at a Volkswagen Repair Shop in Macon, GA. It felt great to have someone look at the car that was knowledgeable in Eurovans. He ran some tests, poked around and said “everything was within specs”. We passed the test with flying colors, let out a big sigh and luxuriated in the air conditioner running full time. We decided to take some country roads and our first stop was a peach packing plant. It was interesting to see how the peaches were labeled, sorted and packed. Better than that was stopping at a local farmer’s fruit stand and getting a “lecture” from him about peaches and how they should be picked and packed. He selected some for us that were picked this morning and said they should be perfect by tomorrow morning. Guess what’s for breakfast tomorrow? We drove for miles thru peach and pecan orchards & peanut & cotton fields. Our next stop was Andersonville National Historic Sight, the Prisoner of War Museum. The museum was done really well, but it was way too depressing for me and I couldn’t wait to move on. We continued driving thru the country amongst the deep red Georgia clay dirt and pristine homes. Every home seems to have the ubiquitous long front porch, with tall rockers set on them. We eventually made our way to Plains, Ga and spent the rest of the day exploring. Our first destination was the National Park Headquarters set-up in the old Plains High School. It had a very informative and sweet display on Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter’s life in Plains and his presidency. My favorite thing was the ½ hour movie that was shown in the old school auditorium. It was really fun to visit the old classrooms and read about history in this setting - much more fun than a typical museum. We drove by the train depot, which served as the campaign headquarters of Jimmy Carter. Did you know it was chosen because it was the only available building in Plains that had a bathroom?! We eventually drove out to Jimmy’s boyhood farm (about 3 miles outside of Plains) and spent a good couple of hours exploring. We had just finished his book, “An Hour Before Daylight” the night before about his life on the farm. It was so much fun to walk thru the farm, his house, the outbuildings, look at the fields, see the blacksmith shop and commissary, and relive 1930’s rural Georgia. (The photo is me standing in his backyard). What I really appreciated was that you were completely free to walk in every building, explore and not have things “behind glass” or park rangers following you around. In fact, we and one other park ranger were the only people there the entire time! I really liked the level of openness and trust that was placed on the public. To me if exemplified Jimmy Carter and what he believes. No matter what one thinks about his presidency or politics, you have to admire him for his integrity and deep religious convictions. We hadn’t eaten much (if you don’t count the scoop of peach ice cream at the peach factory) so we decided to just eat at The Old Bank Café in Plains. We got a patty melt for $3 and a salad for $2, served by a very sweet, but toothless young woman. We then ventured to our night’s destination, Georgia Veteran’s State Park. It’s really more of resort, with a fancy conference center, golf course, marina & country club. Our camping spot is right on the lake! I asked our neighbor if it was okay to just go swimming from here. Her reply, “Sure, go right ahead. There’s gators, but they hardly pay any mind to you.” It was the “hardly” part I had trouble with. We decided to hop on our bikes and go to the public swimming beach. As usual, we blew up our rings and floated around this huge lake (seems like the size of Lake Tahoe), but once again warm as bath water. After swimming we took a bike ride exploring this park. There are half a dozen army tanks, artillery guns, planes & helicopters on display. There are several memorials through-out the park dedicated to the various veterans of war. Right now, it’s about 9:30 and the wind has suddenly come up, lighting is flashing across the sky and the temperature feels likes it’s dropping (we just checked it’s 87 deg.) Down right chilly!

Georgia On My Mind: Indian Springs State Park, GA 6/8/08

We got up this morning and explored, on bike, the beautiful area of Chewacla State Park. It is in a heavily wooded park around a picturesque lake. Apparently, this is THE place to hang out before Auburn Univ. football games. In fact, some people store their huge RV’s here just for game day. We also noticed that many campers brought their own barbeques – you know those huge ones that most people have bricked in their backyards. These people take their barbequing seriously! We packed up and headed for Georgia, our first stop Warm Springs, FDR’s “Little White House.” It is very charming, and the museum is really interesting. Lots of history, films, memorabilia and very informed park rangers. I really enjoyed seeing FDR’s cars and how they were set up for hand controls. His house was much more simplistic than I imagined, but somehow I really enjoyed that. Ned particularly liked the “Stone Walkway of the States.” Each state donated a sample indigenous stone (2’ x 2’) often in the shape of the state. A plaque described the type of stone, the date the state was admitted to the union, and the state motto. It’s definitely hot here – mid to high 90’s. We decided to just go for it and drive the country back roads to our next destination with the air conditioning on. So far, the Winnie has been just perfect not showing any signs of low battery life or alternator trouble. Go figure. This part of Georgia is postcard beautiful. There are lots of rolling hills, pristine white houses with black shutters and big wrap around porches, and charming antique towns. Even though the pine woods are gorgeous, I do find them amusing. This Northern Sierra Girl is used to tall redwood and big fat cedar trees. The pine trees here are tall, but very skinny. They actually look like tiny Christmas trees on stilts. We only ate a light breakfast this morning, the usual cup of yogurt/bowl of cereal because we were holding out for a very special Sunday supper. Our 4:30 destination was “The Whistle Stop Café” in Juliette. It was the actual town and café where the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café” was filmed. I LOVED this place. It’s a tiny little town on the outskirts of a national forest. The café is located next to the train tracks and depot. It is exactly like it was in the movie, very homey, low key and just ordinary folks relaxing. (See photo of me hanging out on the front porch). There were only about 6 people in the café and the young women serving us made us feel so welcome with their southern hospitality. They sat down and talked with us, answering all my questions about the movie, the history of the town, the abandoned factory, etc. We were encouraged to walk around the back and make sure we visited the “barbeque pit”. If you saw the movie, you know what I’m talking about. The food here is FABULOUS. I had fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, collard greens & corn bread. Ned was less of a pig and just hand the fried green tomato BLT with a side order of onion rings. Let me tell ya – the best fried chicken I have ever eaten!! Of course, we split some peach cobbler for dessert. It was quiet warm and we couldn’t wait to get to the night’s destination, Indian Spring State Park – the first state park in the US! As usual, we were definitely not disappointed. Soon after pulling in, we blew up our swim rings, hopped on our bikes and headed for the lake. All the lakes so far have been really warm – close to 85-90 degrees. Sure makes me appreciate swimming in the Yuba River!! Anyway, we stayed in the lake until after 8:00 just floating around and gabbing. Damn it felt good. I think we did close to another 10 miles on our bikes today. I have to justify this southern home cookin’ somehow…