Al’s Nemesis is Back

 

Blairsville, GA (high 78, low 65)

 

A few days after we got here, there was a lost beagle running around the park.  Several people were caring for him and looking for his owner.  His owner was finally found and he returned home, some 12 miles away.  I wasn’t so sure they deserved to have him back, since he was not neutered, but it wasn’t my decision.   Before he left, he visited Al in the golf cart and left him a nice present of poison ivy.   We have discovered that dogs seem to carry poison ivy from running through it in the edge of the woods or rubbing against other dogs who do. They have enough oil on them to share with Al.  Al is very, very sensitive to it.

So……  Al got his first batch of PI of the season.  He did all the usual things and thought he was getting better, when he started getting a rash all over his body, which kind of came and went from one area to the other.  

It took us a few days to realize that this newest rash was from his recently acquired allergy to regular laundry detergent.  We had changed to the hypo allergenic laundry detergents, but when we got here, I was so happy to have my big washer and dryer back, that I went to the store and got some of the Tide pods that I had used and liked last year (before we realized that was the problem).   I felt so bad that I had caused poor Al to suffer even more.    I have since washed everything again with a hypo allergenic detergent and he is slowly getting better.  He’s had to take Benadryl, which makes him extremely sleepy.  He had a few days of mostly sleeping, but yesterday we did get out and go up to one of our favorite spots.

 

Here are some pictures from Brasstown Bald mountain, which is the highest peak in Georgia at 4784 feet.  

It was nice and cool mid afternoon.

The dying vegetation in the forests below cause a haze.  Some days it’s hazier than others and yesterday was one of those hazy days.  We always like it up there and have even gone up on rainy cloudy days.   Sometimes you can even see Atlanta which is 90 miles away.

It’s always pretty.

 

 

Here is a picture I borrowed from the internet.  I thought it was spectacular.

Today is farmers market today, so if we can get motivated, we’ll be going into town for some nice fresh produce.

50 Amp Power Problem

 

Blairsville, Ga (high 82, low 60)

We’re keeping busy around here, but haven’t been on any hikes yet.  Al has been having problems with both of his knees.  One is bad enough that the doctor is ready to do a knee replacement.  Al wants to see how it does this summer and if he is able to do any mountain hiking. He hasn’t been able to find out because his “good” knee is giving him more problems than the bad one.  It’s been very hot up here this year, so we haven’t been very interested in hiking anyway.  This is the third summer we’ve been here and it’s by far the warmest we’ve seen.  We’re hoping this unusual heat wave will end soon.

We took a drive over to Highlands, North Carolina.  It’s supposed to have some really high end RV resorts and expensive houses.  They must be hidden because the only thing we found was a little touristy town with shops and a lot of people.

This building appeared to be some kind of apartment building.  I loved the beautiful flower boxes.

It’s a picturesque little town, but the crowded streets reminded me a little bit of Key West, without all the fun and interesting people.  There were no bars, so that might explain the lack of interesting people.  :)

The kids seemed to enjoy this fountain.

The ride to Highlands was very scenic and we stopped often to stretch our legs and take some photos.

We came upon this place that appeared to be like a dry waterslide.  The people you see on the right of the picture were standing on some sort of escalator thing that gave them a ride back up to the top of the hill.

Once on the top, they got in an inner tube and rode down to the bottom.  It looked like fun.

We made a stop in Dillard Georgia to pick up some fresh produce at Osage Farms.  Everything is fresh picked, delicious, and reasonably priced.

 

We’ve been going for our morning and evening golf cart rides looking for bears, but have only seen turkey and deer so far. 

Al is always on the look-out for rocks, so if he sees any along the road, he stops to grab a few. He’s using them as borders for our trees and planters.  The recent grading of the road brought up quite a few nice rocks for his collection. 

Most of you know, we have another Rv site just down the street, that we rent out.  On Sunday, our new renters came in in a big Tiffin bus with 4 slides and a tag axle.  It was the largest RV we’ve had in the site, and I was happy to see that they fit just fine.

The problem started a few hours after they arrived.  The 50 amp circuit breaker shut down.  We assumed they had overloaded the circuit because they have 3 ac units on the rig and it was pretty warm outside.   It happened again a few times so we decided we might need to replace the breaker. 

Al doesn’t like to mess with electricity.  Fortunately, one of our friends here is a retired electrician and he agreed to change the breaker.   He thought we might need to pull the meter in order to change the breaker, but as it turned out that wasn’t necessary.  It turned out there was a crack in the breaker, which I’m sure explained the problem.   for my records:   we used a 50 amp double pole General Electric breaker that we found at Home Depot.   

Changing the breaker would have been easy, except for the fact there was a big motorhome that was close to the pedestal and not much room to work.   Our friend Pete had to crawl down under the slide and get on his knees to open the box to be able to get to the breaker.  He has bad knees, so it was pretty hard on his body. Poor guy.  He wouldn’t take any compensation for his work….but we’re going to figure out a way.   Thanks Pete!  (Pete is a long time reader of my blog, which is how we met him in the first place)

 

The other day, we took a drive to one of our favorite shops in nearby Hiawassee.  Al found a cute bear wall decoration that he couldn’t resist.

 

 

We also found a smaller one just like to go with it.

I love the 3 dimensional look.

There are a lot of artists here that do some amazing work.  It’s always fun to visit the shops and see all the art.  

Yesterday, we finally took the time to sit outside and read. 

I found another good book about hiking the Appalachian Trail. This one is called Hiking Through by Paul Stutzman.  He made the hike after losing his wife to cancer.  I am really enjoying it, especially when he talks about places nearby.

I’ve read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, which by the way has been made into a movie to be released after Labor Day.  It stars Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.   If the movie is half as good as the book, it should be a great and funny movie.

I also read Wild by Cheryl Strayed, but it’s about a thru hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. 

If anyone has any other thru hiking books they recommend, let me know.  I’ll be needing a new book soon.