Waterfalls and a Scenic Drive

Cleveland, Georgia (high 82, low 62)


Thanks to Erin and Rick for their suggestions on how to get Windows Live Writer back onboard.  Unfortunately, even when I try to update Live Writer with my new password it gives me a message saying, "the blog cannot be accessed using the specified user name and password."

I'm certain I entered the correct user name and password.  It works on all my Google accounts, but for some reason it won't link to Live Writer.  I'm extremely frustrated because I really hate posting my blog through Blogger.  It takes forever to upload photos and it's not as user friendly.   

I'll keep messing with it, but in the meantime any and all suggestions are appreciated!

(I don't know why I get this white background when I cut and pasted, but this is another reason I hate to post the blog using Blogger.)

I also noticed my pictures aren't coming out well either.   What's up with that??

We've been real busy every single day exploring the area.  There is so much to see and do here that we've not really done justice to anything.  We've  done quick tours of a lot of many places, saying to ourselves that we'll come back again when we have more time.   

I've lost track of the days, but of course I've taken tons of pictures.  I want to share some of them because it's so incredibly beautiful up here right now.   They have had a lot of rain and everything is so green and lush.   The temps are 10 degrees cooler than in Florida and the humidity isn't as bad, so we've really enjoyed the cooler days.   We've done some short hikes and since they are in the forests, it's really very pleasant even though the temperature has been in the low 80's.

We drove some beautiful back roads from Blairsville to Hiawassee.  The lush vegetation on the rolling hills and valleys,  is incredibly beautiful.

They grow a lot of corn and hay around here.  They say the bears like to raid the corn fields.

The hay is a light golden color when it's growing and when they mow it, it leaves a beautiful green field in it's place.    I don't know which is more beautiful.

You can see this house in the valley with the mowed grass by the house and the hay in the fields surrounding it.

We've done some hiking in the lush green forests.  It's shady and cool and there is usually a stream beside you.

We did a short hike at Desoto Falls.  There were two trails to choose from.  We chose the lower/shorter trail.  We'll go back and do the upper trail soon.   According to the sign, a piece of armor was found nearby that is thought to have belonged to Hernando Desoto or one of his fellow explorers.

There are so many waterfalls around here, that it would take a long time to visit them all.  We heard that Anna Ruby Falls is not to be missed, so we went there yesterday.

As it turned out, we had to go up the mountain to Unicoi State Park.  You have to go through Unocoi to reach Anna Ruby Falls.   We didn't take the time to explore Unicoi.  They have a campground, but we didn't see it this time.  I can tell you that the road to the campground was very steep.  We saw a large motorhome coming down, so I guess it's do-able.  We'll go back another time.  It's a lovely park.

After you go a few miles down Unicoi road, you get to a gate for Anna Ruby.  As it turns out, they accepted Al's national Senior pass, so we didn't have to pay the $3.00 each to enter.

What an amazing place this was!

It's a short  4 tenths of a mile up a paved trail.   That's the first paved trail I've been on and it was kind of nice.  It was pretty steep, but you didn't have to watch your feet all the time to avoid tripping.    It was probably a good thing because the entire trail was along a very fast moving stream with a lot of smaller waterfalls, and many good photo ops.

It was very shady and cool in the forest setting.  With all the rain lately, the water was really moving.

The sound of the rushing water was with you the entire way, getting stronger and stronger as we neared the main waterfalls.

There is another 5 mile trail that takes you back to Unicoi State Park.  I imagine it would be pretty strenuous.

I have some other photos I would like to share, but it is taking me so long to upload each of these pictures via Blogger, that I will have to do it later.....if I can ever get Live Writer working again.