Blue Ridge Parkway

 

Blairsville, Ga (high 85, low 52)

 

Did you notice our predicted high temps today?  Yep.   85 degrees.  No fear, the high for tomorrow is supposed to be 60 degrees with a low of 38 for the next few nights.  We’ve had perfect weather until the last few days when we had a bit of a heat wave.

Our Tampa/Wesley Chapel friends arrived here about the time of the heat wave.   Hummmmm?

Fall in the north Georgia mountains is the best time to be here and we try to enjoy every day.  Unfortunately, the fall foliage show only lasts a short time, so you have to catch it while you can and that means a lot of driving if you want to catch the best shows.

Last week we took a very long drive up to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  I’m behind on my posting but will post some pictures later. 

Twice this week, we did a fall foliage tour nearby on Brasstown Bald Mountain, which is the highest peak in Georgia.  It was gorgeous.  More on that later.

We got up and were on the road by 6:40 am yesterday morning.  It was dark when we left and we normally try not to drive at dark.  

It’s about 80 miles from here to Cherokee, NC which is the beginning (for us) of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It’s actually the end, I guess since it starts at mile marker 1 in Virginia, and ends at mile marker 469 in Cherokee.

We took the scenic route from Hayesville, NC on Highway 64.  Shortly after we left Hayesville, the colors started getting very pretty.  As we approached Cherokee, the color was faded.

It was pretty foggy as you can see.

 

 

Of course, the Appalachian mountains, whether they be called the Blue Ridge, the Smoky, or the Appalachians, are noted for being “smoky.”

It started off pretty chilly with temps in the 50’s, but by mid afternoon it was getting pretty warm.

We make a quick stop at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in Cherokee.  There is a herd of elk that often hang out there. We were hoping to see the herd with the big bull Elk.

 

We only saw a young bull that was not allowed to be around the herd. There is one bull elk in charge and he chases any other males away.

This is rutting season (mating) to you might be lucky and hear them bugle.   Fighting is common among the males.

 

The entrance to the Blue Ridge is a short drive away.  Getting a picture of the entrance sign, is about as difficult as getting a picture of the Southernmost sign in Key West.  

 

The fall color wasn’t great in Cherokee, but it started to change very quickly as soon as we got on the Parkway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The nice thing about the Blue Ridge is that there are a LOT of scenic overlooks. Some have picnic tables and some have nearby hiking trails.

 

 

 

There are many tunnels on the parkway.  A lot of people take motorhomes and drive the Blue Ridge.

I don’t think we’ll be taking our motorhome up there anytime soon. There are others not this tall.

This next overlook was was about as high as we got in elevation.  The trees had really lost a lot of leaves and the color was fading.  We didn’t go any further but it appeared the color was better at lower elevations.

 

I loved all the Blue Spruce trees that were at this overlook.  Sadly there were many dead ones due to some sort of blight.

 

 

 

You can see all the bare trees.

 

 

We would have loved to have been able to keep on driving and heading further north, but unfortunately, we had to head back home.

 

We left the parkway and took a side road  back to Cherokee.  It was Al’s choice.  My vote was to stay on the parkway.  He had to admit I was right and the parkway would have been the more scenic. He thought it was going to be a pretty mountain road but it turned out to be a busy road with tons of electric poles and wires and trashy homes and businesses.   The expressway has no businesses and only occasionally can you see a home off in the distance up on a mountain.

We ended up back at the visitor center in Cherokee, hoping to catch the elk herd.  They are known to be there grazing in the field early morning and late afternoon. 

Everybody knows this and the cars were piling into the visitor center. It reminded me of going to a drive in theater years ago.

We saw an elk cow at the edge of the field, and felt sure the rest  would show up soon, but we were so tired by this time and we still had a two hour drive home, so we left before the herd came.

 

We had a lovely day and thoroughly enjoyed our drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Festivals, Scenic Byways and Piglets

 

Blairsville, Georgia (high 72, low 48)

 

We’ve had well over a week of rainy, cloudy weather.  We’re ready for some sunshine and it looks like it will start today.

Despite the rainy, cloudy weather, we’ve been to a couple of the fall festivals.  First, was the local Sorghum Festival here in Blairsville.   I posted about it last year, so the only new thing we saw this year was this bunch of adorable piglets.

Aren’t they sweet?  Most of the time they spent rubbing up against something scratching themselves.  They were the itchiest little things!  Mama was busy rooting in the dirt.

On  Wednesday, we went to the Georgia Mountains Fall Festival in Hiawassee.  It’s held at the Georgia Mountain Fairground, and is by far the best venue for any of these many festivals.   The venue is big, well laid out and beautiful.  They have a beautiful campground on the lake, right across the street.  After the crowds at the JC Campbell Folk festival, I decided this is my favorite festival. 

The vendors and crafters are set up in old style unpainted buildings, which look like they’ve been built a hundred years ago.  Everything blends in with the surroundings and it’s very pretty.   Especially in the fall.

They have different musicians every day.  Most of them are country performers.  The tickets are $12, but for the price of admission, you get to see the daily show.  This is where we saw John Berry last summer.

We saw Ronnie McDowell this time.  He’s been around a long time, playing at the Grand Ole Opry, and has both written and sung some hit songs, including  Older Women Make Good Lovers, and You’re going to Ruin my Bad Reputation.  He and Conway Twitty also sang the hit duet, It’s Only Make Believe.

My wonderful (and fairly new) little Canon digital camera has quit working, so I used my old Canon.   I never could quite get it set right to take photos in the dark music hall, so I didn’t get a decent picture. 

Ronnie McDowell put on a great show, but the opening act, was another story.  The Paris Dancers were a group of seniors ranging from 56 to 81 years old.   They sang and danced, but it all seemed to be in slow motion.   :) 

The fair ends tomorrow. It’s well worth the price of admission.

After the concert, we were surprised to come outside and see it raining pretty hard.  We had to wait it out and by the time the rain quit, most everyone had left the grounds.

It was nice and peaceful.   And pretty.

They have a lot of displays.  An old school house, an old farm house, country store, and much more.  We didn’t have any crowds to fight.

We were told that in the old days, people would grow green beans, and then hang them up to dry during the winter.  These dry brown things are green beans.  When they got hungry for veggies during the long winter, they would rehydrate the beans and eat them.  Yum.  :)

The round things are dried tobacco.

The dogwoods were pretty.

There is a huge building with a lot of old tools, toys, appliances, farm equipment and much more.  It’s very interesting to see all this old stuff.

Old toys.

Remember these?

 

It would have been nice, if they would have had a sign on these items. I have no idea what these things are.

This old school bus was determined to be from about 1938.  It was parked right behind the school house.

 

Yesterday, we took a drive into Blue Ridge and got the oil changed in the truck, then took a drive along the Richard Russell Scenic Highway.  We were glad to see the leaves hadn’t all blown from the trees after last week-ends storms.

The leaves are just starting to turn in the lower elevations.

It went from sunny to cloudy off and on all day.

I love the “smoke” on the mountains.

 

It rained for a while.

The color was better at the higher elevations, but still not at the peak yet.

 

We turned around and drove back down the mountain, passing an Appalachian Trailhead, and then some thick fog/clouds.

It went from sunny, to this.

And to this. about a half minute later.

 

 

Back, closer to home. This is our road leading to the campground.  Note the yellow field on the right.  That is the soybean field that was such a lush green just a few weeks ago.

 

We have friends visiting in nearby Murphy, NC this week-end.  They are looking at some property for an rv lot.  We’re going to meet them sometime today…..and we’re hoping they will want to go to Shoe Booties Restaurant.   I’ve been dreaming of their lasagna all summer.