Tennessee

Candler, North Carolina  (high 70, low 52)

After several days of rain, it finally cleared up and Wednesday was a gorgeous sunny day.

We  had an appointment at 4:00 pm yesterday to take Chatty in to have his sutures removed.  The surgeon in Charleston gave us the name of a colleague here that was also a board certified surgeon and experienced in the type of surgery that Chatty had done.  It’s quite a complicated surgery in that his anatomy is changed so that he urinates like a female.    The surgeon in the Asheville,  Dr. Crouch was a very nice man, who treated Chatty like one of his own patients.  He took a lot of time with us and answered some questions.  Chatty left a little worse for wear, but suture free.  The best news was that Dr. Crouch didn’t charge us a dime!  How about that!   If you ever need a good surgeon in this area, he is at Western Carolina Surgery center.  He is a board certified surgeon and does not accept patients except on a referral basis.  Evidently he does one surgery that only 14 others in the world can do. 

The 4:00 vet appointment, kept us a little closer to home yesterday, but we were anxious to get out of the house after a couple days watching it rain.   We ended up heading west, on I-40  and we actually ended up in Tennessee.

The foliage was really showing signs of changing on the higher elevation North Carolina side.

There was a pretty long tunnel.

There were a lot of areas with warnings for falling rocks and many areas like the ones in the picture below, with fencing to keep the rocks from falling onto the road.  Scary.

Whitewater rafting is a pretty big business in this area apparently.  There were many buses with racks on tops for the rafts.  Evidently, this is not the prime white water rafting time of year, but the week-end rain probably has helped the water flow.

We opted to stay off the Blue Ridge Expressway yesterday.  It’s beautiful but since we had limited time, we decided the interstate was best.  It’s a lot less curvy and easier to drive and the views were pretty good.

The area along the river was pretty remote and there were some interesting old barns and even this old truck.  Some areas looked a lot like the area in the movie Deliverance.

We stopped at a pretty rest area on the way back, and had lunch.   Subway has become our new best friend with their veggie subs.

The plan today is to visit the Biltmore Estate.  It’s a huge place and evidently will take the entire day.

They do not allow pictures inside the house so I guess I’ll either have to sneak some in, or just concentrate on the exterior shots.