Martinis, Contrails, Waterfalls, and Seizures

 

Blairsville, Georgia (high 65, low 38)

 

We’ve had a busy few days.  We had friends from Tampa visiting over the week-end.  They are looking for property, and may have found a nice  rv site in nearby Murphy, North Carolina.  

They spent the day with the Realtor, but afterwards, we met them at Shoe Booties Restaurant/bar for drinks.  Stephanie and I decided to try  one of their specialty martinis.   They were delicious, and I think when we get back to Florida, I’ll be going to the liquor store to get the ingredients to make my own.  Liquor stores are few and far between around here.  :)

While Stephanie and Barry were with the Realtor, we took a drive over to the Ocoee River, to the whitewater center.  This is where the 1996 rafting events were held in the summer Olympics.  I’ve posted about it before, so I’ll only post a few pictures.

The water is controlled by a dam, and unless there is a water release, it’s mostly rocks and very little water.  When there is a water release, these are large rapids, and people are white water rafting all along this river.

We see this cute little snake.

They are having a water release next week-end, so we may go back for that, although it will be at a slightly different location.

We were looking for fall color, but it’s still too early in this area, I guess.

 

On another one of our sightseeing trips, we headed to Moccasin Creek State Park and found the trout farm next door.

They raise and release trout in the mountain streams.

There were a LOT of trout.

We drove around Lake Burton and Lake Rabun.  There are some beautiful houses both on and off the water.

They are beautiful lakes.

 

Last year, we hiked to nearby Angel and Panther falls. We decided to wait until fall to go back this year. Unfortunately, even with the heavy rain we had a few days ago, the waterfalls were kind of puny this time of year.  I guess the best time to see these falls is during the summer when more water if flowing.

Al thought this might be a nice cave for bears.

It was a fun 2 mile hike.   It started out easy, but there were some more challenging areas with some fairly steep climbs.

If you’re interested in seeing more of the hike, check out last years post HERE

You can compare this years pictures to last years pictures to see the difference in the waterfalls.  

There are three main waterfalls along the one mile path, with smaller waterfalls also.

First main waterfall.

This is the second waterfall.  I can’t remember if this is Angel or Panther falls.

I love the stair like rock formations.

I guess I didn’t take a picture of waterfall number 3.  It just wasn’t too impressive this year.

The leaves sure are falling.

 

Isn’t this rock pretty?  It looks like 6 different rocks, but they were all one piece.

 

 

Along  our travels, we came across some nice cabins. If you ever come up to this area without a RV, here are some very nice cabins for rent.   They are near Hiawassee, GA.   Nice river, and some big trout in the stream

 

Although the fall color was minimal, it is always pretty in this area.

Blue skies and jet contrails.

 

 

We noticed a lot of jet contrails in the sky.  Then we noticed this gold colored spot in they sky.   You can see it on the right top of the next photo.

At first, I thought it was the sun behind the clouds, but then we noticed the sun was to the left of the gold patch. 

We wondered if it was from one of the jets, but the gold spot didn’t dissipate or change like the contrails.

 

The contrails  made the clear blue sky look white. The sun was blinding at times but the gold spot was always there.

At one point there were two of them, one on both sides of the sun.

 

I don’t know exactly what we were seeing, but the gold spot seemed to stay in the same area and didn’t seem to change.  We watched it for at least 20 minutes while we were heading in that direction.  

The sun was starting to set and we still had a long way to go before we got home.  We try not to drive at night in these mountains.

 

Monday morning, we were awakened by the sound of a cat having a seizure.  Big Noogie ended up having three seizures that morning.

We took him to the vet and had all sorts of tests done.  Nothing was conclusive as to the cause of the seizures, but he was sent home with antibiotics for for a bad tooth, and high blood pressure pills.  I never knew animals could have high blood pressure, or that the veterinarians could check their pressure.  Evidently, they have a little cuff, just like they use on humans.  Their BP is supposed to be the same as ours.   Who knew.

So far, no more seizures, but we really don’t know the cause, so one could occur at any time.  He’s about 16 years old, so we know he’s on borrowed time. 

We stayed  home on Tuesday to keep an eye on Noogie.  He seems okay and hasn’t had any more seizures.

We made a road trip yesterday and had a fun day.  More on that later.