Saturday, October 26, 2013

Lake Chatuge Damn

 

Blairsville, Georgia  (high 58, low 39)

 

Well, we survived the coldest night so far this year.  It was 24 degrees this morning.  There was frost on the pumpkin….or there would have been, but we put the pumpkin in the cabin last night along with my flowers!

Can you see the frost on the deck and grass?

frost on deck. 24 degrees

Our two maple trees evidently are not the pretty colorful kind, but our neighbors have some beautiful trees.

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Our new heater kept the house about 62 last night, which is apparently as warm as it will be with such low temps.  That’s fine with us though because we like cool temps when we sleep and of course we’re under the electric blankets.  Despite their fur, the kitties get chilly, so we have an electric blanket on the couch for them!  So far we haven’t had to run the dreaded noisy furnace!

 

We took a drive up to Murphy, North Carolina yesterday, and picked up our friends Karen and Ken.  We decided to have lunch at Shoebooties Cafe for lunch.  Al and I had a delicious black bean burger.  One of these days I’m going to try their “shoetini martini” sampler. They have a $24.95 all you can eat snow crab special that Al wants to try, so that might be the time for the martinis.

After lunch, we walked down to the Trail of Tears Museum.  It was only $3.00 per person, and well worth the money. They had some wonderful Indian artifacts as well as a lot of information on the removal of the Cherokee Indians from this area.  What a shameful time in our history.

After visiting the museum, we decided to take a drive towards Franklin, North Carolina along the scenic highway 64.

The fall colors are fading with many trees bare.  There were still some pretty spots though and the vistas from the higher elevations are always pretty.

I loved the sheer rock walls along the highway.

highway 64 between Murphy and Franklin NC

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highway 64 between Murphy and Franklin NC

Here are Ken and Karen posing for us.

Ken and Karen Williams

We didn’t really have any specific plans, so when we came across the sign for the Lake Chatuge Damn, we decided to check it out.

We were glad we did, because it was beautiful.

Lake Chatuge Damn

It was also very cold.   You could walk around this barricade and walk along the walkway on the berm.  There was a campground in the distance.  The further we got, the more the wind picked up.  The cold wind on my face gave me the feeling you get when you eat ice cream too fast.  We decided to not walk all the way across, but we’ll go back on a warmer day.  It was lovely.

Lake Chatuge Damn

campground at Lake Chatuge Damn

Lake Chatuge Damn

There were some gorgeous slate rocks along the berm.

rocks along Lake Chatuge Damn

You can see the wind blowing across the water.  Burrrrr.

Lake Chatuge Damn

Since it was too cold to walk to the campground, we decided to drive.  It’s a lovely campground with beautiful waterfront sites.  I didn’t even think about taking pictures of the campground.  Sorry.

Lake Chatuge was formed by the TVA in 1942.  There are 7200 acres of water and 133 miles of shoreline.

Al at Lake Chatuge Damn campground

 

Lake Chatuge Damn

We left Lake Chatuge, and headed a little further towards Franklin, but decided we’d better turn around or we would be going home in the dark.

It was a lovely day spent with good friends.

Today, we’re going to hang out around home and do a few chores,  and hopefully can start painting the little cabin on the new RV lot.  It’s small so we should be able to get it done pretty quickly.  Of course, we have to wait for it to warm up a bit.

Despite the chilly weather at night, other than yesterday, the days have been pleasant and we’re not feeling the urge to head south just yet. 

19 comments:

  1. Holy Smokes! That's colder than here, and I'm in CANADA. Well, I don't want to fuel the fire of misconceptions about Canada, we're mostly at the mercy of the Jet Stream.
    I've never understood why RV manufacturers have held onto the idea that the noisy RV furnaces are acceptable. European RVs have diesel fired boilers that take up a fraction of the space and aren't nearly as intrusive. And it's not like you have to actually GO THERE to look at one, all that stuff is on the net!

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  2. are y'all hard piped in on your water. . .that's my big concern when it starts freezing. . .needing to unhook the water hose. . .sounds likes it's getting close to time to roll. . .we are in Atlanta this week. . .only down to 32* here last night. . .and supposedly for only about an hour. . .

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    1. Yeah, Janice, we have been unhooking the water hose at night for the past few nights. Just in case.

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  3. It is a might chilly here too. Warm in the sun, however. Be glad to get to Florida in a bit over a week.

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  4. Nice looking lake and surrounding area. Sounds like you've got the cold beat as long as you stay inside.

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  5. Ooh, I'm headed toward that chilly weather! I can't wait, but I'm sure after a couple of days my Florida blood will be freezing! :)

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  6. I've been in the middle of that advancing cold front for over a week. I'll be looking forward to warmer temps.

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  7. 24 in Dillard this morning too. We just leave the kitchen faucet on low trickle all night and of course gray tank valve open. Never had a frozen line. Heard from another rver years ago that method works down to 20. I usually unhook at 25. Last night the projected low was 26 so I let it go.

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  8. Trail of Tears Museum is one of my favorites. Why we thought we needed to treat these people like that is way beyond me.

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  9. It has certainly been unseasonably cold the last few days! We will be glad to see more normal temps return! Beautiful pics! :-)

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  10. Oh brrrrrrrrrr that's colder than here and I was hoping it was going to be warmer further south. Hope this winter isn't as bad as some are predicting. It was colder here in Virginia than in Bar Harbor Maine. I turned our furnace on once shortly after we got the RV and it was way too noisy for me. Wonder why they don't come up with another plan?

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  11. That is cold enough for me. I hope the kitties know how lucky they are with their own electric blanket!

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  12. You Floridians sure know how to stay warm! An electric blanket for the cats, too funny! :cD

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  13. We had a great time Karen! Thanks for taking us around town. Loved the sights! Cya in Florida mean Karen. Lol

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  14. The autumn leaves look beautiful. Reading your blog made me very glad that we're in Arizona.

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  15. Oh, it looks so beautiful there! Such pretty photos. Too bad it was too cold to do much more walking.

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  16. We contemplated heading to Georgia, but them temps are actually colder than here, northern NY state, so will se where we end up heading.

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