Holding On To Summer As Long As We Can

We spent just over three weeks at the beach.  While there we kept ourselves busy by going to the beach nearly every day.  We did not go on the coldest days, of which there were very few.


We tried our hand at surf fishing and crabbing.  George won "Bass Masters" for catching the most fish while surf fishing.


When we weren't enjoying the beach we spent a lot of time cooking and baking some of our favorite treats.
   

We did make a few healthier dishes.


We had a wonderful time and were very thankful that we were able to spend so much time down there.  We tried to watch the Wallops Island Rocket Launch, originally scheduled for October 27 but rescheduled to October 28 due to a stray boat, but we never saw it.  It blew up 6 seconds after launch and never made it high enough for us to see.  It was fun to trek out to the beach and wait for it though.  Eventually we returned back to the north, where the cold winter weather is very unwelcome.

Blue Valley Camp

We found Blue Valley Campground in the Nantahala National Forest.  So we set the GPS coordinates and followed the route shown.  Unfortunately, the road our GPS led us down is no longer a serviceable road.  Instead we ran right into Glen Falls.  We still had some daylight left so we decided to hike down and see the falls.

This was the path that led to the scenic overview and the falls.

This was the view from the top of the mountain.

This was the view from the top of the falls.


It was so cold that there was snow still on the rocks by the falls.

When we returned the car we studied the map to see how else we could get to the Blue Valley campground.

We figured out an alternate route and headed off.  This was our camp at Blue Valley campground.

That night we made fajitas on the fire.  We did not have any raccoon visitors.

Highlands, NC

We left Grapevine campground and headed towards Highlands, NC.  It's a nice little town with upscale shopping and dining.

We walked around the town a bit then headed off to Blue Valley Campground.

Pickens Nose Camp

We left Deals Gap to head towards Georgia to spend the night at Lake Chatuge.  George found another free lakefront campsite there that is supposed to be open year round.  When we arrived at the entrance though it was gated shut.  We searched and found Thrifts Ferry primitive campground about 60 miles from us and on the way to Anderson, SC where we were ultimately headed, so we headed in that direction.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse and the rain was pouring down.  We still did not have windshield wipers but we were making our way without too much trouble thanks to RainX.  I spotted a campground called Standing Indian in the Nantahala National Forest.  We had to navigate through some fog and the rain and when we finally arrived at the campground it was closed.

Our GPS had rerouted us through the National Forest to continue towards Thrifts Ferry so we followed it.  We began climbing the mountains and as we did the fog became thicker and the rain fell harder.  Our headlights were not penetrating through any of it and the RainX was no match for the dense fog.  We were not "outsmarting the elements" very well as the RainX motto suggests.  At times it felt as though we might drive right off the edge of the mountain.  The road was so narrow and winding without a single place to pull over.  We had to keep going.

Here is a short video of us driving through the Nantahala Forest at night.

Eventually we made it to Pickens Nose trail head.  Camping is generally not allowed at trail heads.  However, there was a wide open clearing and in that weather no one was hiking and we had not seen a single other car on the forest road.  George and I agreed that if a Ranger were to say something we had two choices; keep driving with no windshield wipers or fog lights and put ourselves and others in danger, or pull over and be safe.


We spent the night at the entrance to Pickens Nose trail listening to the rain and wind.  It was a fun night.  During some of the worst wind gusts it felt as though we were sleeping in a hammock!

The next morning we awoke, packed up our van and continued out of the forest.  Winding through the twists and turns in the daylight was a little scary.  We were glad we stopped when we did the night before.

We only had to stop once so I could clear debris from the road.

We eventually made it out of the forest and onto paved road.  A few hours later we were in Anderson.

Tail of the Dragon

To get to Santeetlah Lake camp from Townsend, TN we had to take US 129 also called the Tail of the Dragon.  Sadly, it was at night time and it was dark.   We couldn't see the many of the 318 curves and twists the road has to offer.  George was determined to take our motorbike out on US 129 to really enjoy all that this road has to offer.  We made a plan to take it out the next morning in the daylight.

When we awoke the next morning the sky was overcast and it was raining off and on.  The temperature was very warm and aside from the rain it was a perfect day to take a ride down the Tail of the Dragon.  Therefore we packed up our van and headed towards Deals Gap to find a staging area near the Tail to park our van and get our motorbike down.  Of course, we still did not have windshield wipers!

On the way we passed the Cheoah Dam.

Here we are riding on the Tail of the Dragon.

After we finished the Tail we headed for the Foothills Parkway.


We came across a tree that had fallen into the road but luckily were able to drive around it on our motorbike.