Snow in the Mountains

 

 

Blairsville, Ga, (high 50, low 27)

I can’t remember the last time we’ve been anywhere where the weather was cold as it was yesterday.  The high temperature was only 37 degrees.   The wind was whipping all day long, with the occasional strong gusts that shook the motor home.  The sun never came out, so that made it even worse. 

It was too cold for the heat pumps, but fortunately our two little quartz heaters kept us nice and toasty all day without having to run the furnace.  Our furnace is our least favorite option for heat.  It’s noisy, and the dry air bothers our sinuses.   We turned the furnace on a few times, just to make sure it still worked and to heat up the basement.  We also kept the bay heaters turned on all day.

Today should be a better day.  The sun is already coming out, so we’ll soon be getting some nice free solar power!

We went up to the local favorite Jim’s Smokin’ Que yesterday for some bbq and Brunswick stew.  Afterwards, we decided to take a drive to check out the snow at higher elevations.

Brasstown Bald mountain is the highest peak in Georgia, so we headed that direction.

Despite the wind and cold, there was still some pretty color.

The higher the elevation, the more snow we saw.

It looks so cold up there.

It was a pretty ride.

 

We got up to Brasstown, we discovered the road leading to the visitor center was closed because of all the snow on the road.

It’s a pretty steep road with sheer drop offs, so I guess that was a good idea.  I’ll bet it was pretty from the top of the mountain.

A lot of other people had the same idea, I guess.

Someone made a snowman!

It was a small snowman. Can you see it?

This guy was going hiking.   Burrrrrr

These people were having a snowball fight. Notice the snowball I caught in midair?

We didn’t stay too long, because we turned the heaters off while we were gone and the little darlins were probably freezing.  :)   Just because they have fur, doesn’t mean they don’t get cold too.

This is a view of our campground.  You can see the trees are getting pretty bare.

There is still some nice color around the campground though.

Right across the street from our lot.

 

Our lot.

Since it was so bitter cold yesterday, we got nothing done in our preparations to head south.  We we won’t be leaving tomorrow.   Al still needs to drain the waterheater and washing machine in the cabin.  The hot tub also needs draining, cleaning and winterizing.  Hopefully the weather today will be more conducive to working outside.

We love our little home in the mountains, but I think it’s time to head south.

What do you think?

A Sad Event and a Happy Ending for Two Brothers

 

Blairsville, Ga (high 78, low 61)

 

Another cold front made it’s way south this week.   We had to turn the heat on when it got down to 48 degrees one night.  Being Floridians, we can’t get over how it could be this cool in July….but we love it.   It’s warming back up today but if it stays cloudy, I don’t think we’ll see any 80’s.

 

We’ve been busy working around here on the rv sites.  Our friends Terry and Ralph had rented our other site for the month of July, but they have gone back to the Tampa area.   Now that the lot is vacant, and we can work without disturbing anyone,  we’ve been trying to do a little maintenance there.

We’ve been meeting more of our neighbors,  and many more in Rivers Edge II, which is our sister rv park. It turned out that it was a good thing because one of those ladies came to our rescue.

Anybody that has been reading our blog, knows that we are both serious animal lovers.  We can’t stand to see a homeless of mistreated animal. 

When we were here last year, we met a couple that always took their two cats riding on their golf carts.  The cats were were much loved pampered indoor cats.

This is a family picture from last year.  Notice the two “brothers” on the back of the cart.

 

This year, we only saw him once and noticed the cats were left to wander around outside.

We started wondering if one of them was ill or something, and then became concerned that the cats were being fed.

We finally asked around and found out that she (and I can’t remember her name) was killed in a car accident a few months ago.  He has since found a new girlfriend who is allergic to cats.   Apparently he stays with the girlfriend and the cats were left pretty much unattended at the Rv.  We tried not to get involved, because we certainly couldn’t take them in, but I lost sleep a  few nights worrying about them, so we started feeding them.

It turned out that he had left food for them inside the Rv and one of the bay doors was left open with access to the inside of the 5th wheel.  We didn’t know this at the time.

In the meantime, I happened to mention the situation to Angie ( a nice lady in the neighboring Rv park).  She was also upset at the situation the cats were in, and she started feeding them as well.

Angie is my hero because she got busy and contacted everyone she knew and after only a few days, she found a nice home for both of the cats.  They will be indoor cats again and will not be separated.   Yea Angie!

Duane (the man who lost his wife)  agreed to surrender his beloved cats but was upset about losing them. I think he should have found a new girlfriend and kept the cats, but he was not used to living without a wife and was not able to do much for himself.     I told Al that if I should die, I would want him to find someone else (hopefully not in three months) but that she  better LOVE cats!  If he neglected the cats, I would come back and haunt him!

Now that the cats are safe, Al and I can quit worrying.

 

We met another lady that paints rocks.   When we first met her, she had a big rock that kind of looked like the face of a bear. 

She painted the face and Al really liked it, so we bought it from her.  It’s a big rock.

Here is is under our flag pole.

and a close up

The next photo is our beautiful hydrangea.  It will start to turn pink soon.

We’ve been planting flowers.

This is a hibiscus that is hardy in this zone, but looks more like it belongs in the Keys.

 

and some coneflower also known as Echinacea

 

 

rudbeckia

 

We have managed to find some time to do a little reading. 

Notice the blanket I have covering my feet.

Some of our neighbors in the soybean field.

 

Well, it looks like the sun is coming out, so I guess I’d better get busy.

Heed the Warning

 

Blairsville, GA –Rivers Edge Rv Park  (high 80, low 68)

 

Our friends Terry and Ralph have settled nicely into life here in Rivers Edge and we think they actually know more people here than we do. I think it’s partly because they have dogs to walk, and partly because they are more outgoing than we are. 

Ralph volunteered to help Al fix the lights on our deck that quit working while we were gone for the winter.  They spent a few hours and with the help from another new neighbor, we have lights again.  Today we’re going to take down the old rope lights and install the new led lights that we bought from e-Bay.

Our new neighbors behind us have a cute little girl that they call their “late life joy”.  She’s probably about three years old and she is a live wire.   Yesterday, he (Russ) went to dump his black tank and when he opened the bay, there was a sleeping water moccasin (he thinks) coiled up in the bay.  He grabbed a stick and flung it out onto the ground.

Al and Ralph went running to see what was going on. I was able to get a quick photo before the snake disappeared into a drainage ditch.  (remember I have a big strong zoom lens and I wasn’t very close) 

Apparently, the snake entered the wet bay by crawling up the water hose.  Russ and Erica are only here on the week-ends, so the snake has been left undisturbed until now.  It’s a good lesson for us to remember there is a lot of water around here and we all need to be more vigilant. Thank goodness the snake didn’t hurt that little girl.     Al has decided we’re going to get something to wrap around the water and sewer hose to block entry for any wildlife.  We have been careless by not blocking entry to the bays.  That will change now.   How about you?   Could a snake enter your bays from the sewer, water or electrical cords?   Be careful when you open your bays.

So, after that excitement, it was time to go to church.  Some other neighbors invited us all to a picnic at their church.  We got to feast on some good southern style home cooking.  Al and I particularly liked a wonderful home made peach and raspberry pie. 

The other night we saw this huge moth on the outside wall of the cabin. It was 3-4 inches wide.

Baxter has gotten to go on a few golf cart rides.  The other night ne met three dogs and a bunch of people. 

The hot tub has been feeling pretty good.  Here he is afterwards parading around in his robe.

 

It Was Our Lucky Day!

 

Blairsville, GA – Rivers Edge Rv Park (high 78, low 64)

 

We are still marveling at this cool weather.  We can’t quite believe how much nicer it is here than it was in Tampa, and we spend as much time outside as possible.

We were up early yesterday morning as usual, trying to fit everything into these very short days.  We run out of day before we run out of things we want to do. 

We spent the morning visiting some friends around the park, then sent our friends Terry and Ralph off to Babyland in Cleveland, GA for a trip to the Cabbage Patch. They had an appointment to adopt some Cabbage Patch kids for their granddaughters.  I’ll post some pictures tomorrow of their new family members.

 

By this time we were hungry, so we went into town for some lunch at Monte Alban, our favorite Mexican restaurant.

After lunch, we went to Ingles grocery store.  It’s the nicest grocery store we’ve ever been in, which is surprising, because Blairsville is a very small town.  We enjoyed looking around the store and finding all the hard to find things that we like and can’t find at most groceries.

Do you remember a blog post a few months ago where Al tried some free samples at a local Whole Foods store in Tampa and got food poisoning?     I thought we had agreed no more free food samples when they were left laying out.

So…..guess what he did yesterday?    Yes, he did.  He is like a hunting dog on a scent, when there is free food around.   As soon as I reminded him of the food poisoning episode, he remembered he wasn’t supposed to eat things like that.  Al, Al, Al……..    So far, so good.

 

As we were wandering around Ingles, I remembered a recent blog post Merikay wrote where she had been searching for some unusual food products.  She was happy to have found walnut oil, and oyster mushrooms.  I decided to see if Ingles would live up to her expectations and have those two items (which I had never heard of before).

Guess what I found?

Right next to the Walnut oil were a few other interesting oils.

I’m not sure exactly what you would do with any of these oils, but maybe Merikay will chime in and give us some ideas.

 

The other thing she mentioned was oyster mushrooms.  Guess what I found?

 

and how about these?   Do they taste like lobster, I wonder?

 

So, Merikay, did Ingles pass the test?   I think you’ll like the store when you get here this fall. 

 

As we wandered around Ingles, I was admiring the nice bags of frozen okra and butterbeans, wishing I had room in my small Rv freezer.   Al reminded me we have a big residential refrigerator here in the cabin.  Well, it’s not exactly a big by home standards, but by Rv standards it’s pretty big!   I grabbed some okra and butterbeans, and was also able to take advantage of a buy one, get one free deal on frozen blueberries.   It is nice having more room for this kind of thing.

 

We spent the longest time browsing around Ingles like kids at Disney World.  As we were getting ready to leave, I was paying, and Al walked over to buy a scratch off lottery ticket.

As we walked out, he was scratching the ticket as I was pushing the cart.  He said,  “I think I just won $100,” and then “No, I think, I just won $10”,  then,  “no, I think it’s $100”   I think he was just too excited to look at it carefully enough, so he just walked over to cash it out and see what he had actually won.   

Here he is when he came back with his loot.   It was indeed $100 and he was a happy camper.

So, a prudent person would take the $100 and enjoy it right?   We weren’t so prudent and decided it might be our lucky day, so we took the cash right back in and bought a couple more tickets.  I bought a $5 scratch off ticket which was a loser.  Al gambled big and bought a $10 scratch off ticket which believe it or not was another $100 winner!

So, he won $200 off of two scratch off tickets!   Way to go Al.  

 

We spent the rest of the day putzing around outside.  I planted some more of the flowers and Al did a little metal detecting, trying to find a survey pin showing where our lot line is located.

The birds have once again found our bird feeders and we’ve enjoyed watching them.  It appears we have a family of juvenile Cardinals.  It’s amazing how many birds are in this area.

We have a few goldfinch.  We had a lot of them last year, so we’re hoping more will come.

We have at least two hummingbirds, but I haven’t gotten any pictures of them just yet.

We have a neighbor that has a LOT of bird feeders on his lot.  He keeps them full and the birds are quite happy.  It is not easy to lure them away and it took us quite a while last year.  This year, we had the same problem.  The birds hung out at his place and ignored our feeders.  This year, it only took  a few days for the birds to find our feeders again. We provide the “good stuff” so once they discover our tasty treats, they tell their friends.

We buy shelled sunflower seeds at Wal-Mart, and all the birds LOVE it, including gold finch. No messy shells laying on the ground and there is no waste.  Anything that falls on the ground is quickly taken care of by doves or some other ground feeder.

We’re not sure what we will do today.  We may get rain, so I guess we’ll see. We have a big week-end planned, providing there is no rain.

A Picture Perfect Day

 

Blairsville, GA – Rivers Edge Rv Park (high 82, low 62)

 

We had the most amazing day yesterday.  It wasn’t so much what we did, but the weather, which was absolutely perfect.

After spending our winter in the Keys, where it was getting pretty warm by the time we left, then two months in Tampa with high humidity and mid 90’s every day, we were ready for some cooler weather. Yesterday could not have been more perfect, although, I admit I was actually cold when I got up yesterday morning!   I was better prepared this morning though and had my heavy winter robe handy.  I’m sitting here with my robe on and a blanket covering my legs.  It’s 53 degrees!   Burrrrrr (not complaining)

It never got out of the mid 70’s yesterday, with very low humidity.  It was actually chilly in the shade.

We decided to take our friends,  Ralph and Terry for a little sightseeing trip.  They need a little motivation.  :)

We rode along the Richard B Russell Scenic highway stopping to take in a few scenic vistas.  Our ears started popping as we got up to 3400 feet elevation.

We finally ended up in the pretty little town of Hiawassee, which is on a beautiful lake made from a dam along the Hiawassee River.

This is a photo of the town that I borrowed from the internet.  It was taken from the top of Brasstown Bald Mountain, which is the highest point in Georgia and just a few miles from our place.

We stopped to eat at El Cancun Mexican restaurant which had an amazing view overlooking the lake and marina.  We chose to eat outside, and out of habit, opted for the shade.  We soon realized we should have sat in the sun because it was a little chilly.  Again, NOT complaining.

Some people were out paddleboarding, and we also saw several kayakers.

 

Ralph mentioned he would like to play some golf while they are here, so we went looking for a golf course.   It turns out Blairsville has a gorgeous golf course.  We spent a good hour admiring it.

The golf course sits on the top of a big hill.  You look down onto the course, and what a view there was.  This is Butternut Creek Golf Course.

It’s hard to see in the pictures, but the course is very hilly with some steep inclines and a deep valley in the middle.

Neither Al or I play golf.  I wonder if you could rent a golf cart and just drive around the course?   It’s so pretty, I would love to do that.  :)

Ralph checking out the course. That photo looks posed, but it really wasn’t. It cost $25 to play.

The photos don’t quite capture exactly how beautiful this course was or how steep the inclines are.

After we visited the golf course, we took a drive out to Track Rock, which is another pretty scenic drive.

We wanted to show Terry this pretty subdivision. Nice place, isn’t it?

 

Our next stop was back home to pick up some walking shoes and then on to Vogel State Park, which is just a 2-3 miles from our campground.   Terry and Ralph wimped out on us though and called it a day!   Party poopers!    :)

Vogel State Park is a pretty state park with 103 campsites and 35 cabins.  It has a pretty lake where you can swim, paddleboard, or kayak.

Our mission was to hike around the lake to the waterfall trail.  With the weather being so fabulous, everyone else seemed to have the same idea, so it was pretty crowded.  We’re thinking in a few weeks the kids will be back in school and the crowds will probably be smaller.  We hope.

The trail leads around the lake, which surprisingly was full of blooming rhododendrons.  We didn’t get here early enough last year and missed the bloom.

Last one.  I promise.

 

The trail around the lake, cuts off to go to the waterfall.  It’s just a short distance and an easy walk.

You can see the waterfall from the top, but the best view is from the bottom.  Unfortunately, there was a large group of extremely rude people that decided to sit down and rest in the middle of the stairs.  I got down okay, but Al missed the window of opportunity and had to wait until they got finished lounging. They didn’t seem to mind at all that there were people both on the top and the bottom waiting for them to get out of the way.

In this picture, the women finally starting to stand back up and  getting ready to move, although they were clearly in no hurry and didn’t seem to care that they were blocking people from going either up or down the stairs.    I stood at the bottom waiting to see what they were going to do.  You can see Al at the top with his arms folded.

Rude people!!!   No one was moving, as the women were still trying to get off of their butts.

Al finally got down and we looked at the waterfall a few minutes and then ended up behind that same group along the trail. Fortunately, they were moving slow enough we could pass them.

Once we got home, we went over to Terry and Ralphs, and had happy hour and visited for a while.  Then we went home, got Baxter and took him for a ride on the golf cart.  I forgot to get pictures, but I’m sure he will pose next time.

We weren’t quite ready to call it a day, so we sat outside and lit the campfire.  It was getting pretty chilly by the time the sun went down and the fire felt pretty good.  We considered getting into the hot tub, but it was so chilly, that we  wimped out.

Today’s another day.  It’s supposed to be a little warmer. I think our cold front is on the way out.  Hopefully, it won’t get too warm.