North Carolina

After the bustle of Nashville, we settled in for nine days of relaxing time in the Great Smoky Mountains. The leaves were just before peak, making for some gorgeous vistas as we drove the park roads.

While changing leaves have been adorning the hills for millenia, we were also struck by a plant that arrived much more recently: Kudzu. This invasive species was all over the highway borders, even coating some construction equipment in a scene that could be from a post-apocalyptic movie.

We take great pleasure in visiting museums and learning local history. Our RV campground wasn’t far from Cherokee, NC, which has a fascinating story. The town is populated by Cherokee Native Americans who stayed behind (hiding in the hills) when the rest of their tribe was force-marched to Oklahoma on the trail of tears. Barred from owning land, they pooled their money and gave it to a white man who was adopted by the tribe as a boy. He purchased much of the land for the tribe, and they have lived there since, working to preserve their language and culture. We learned this history at a local museum and demonstration village.

Jerusha found a loverly diary spot on our walk around Lake Junaluska.

We enjoyed the foliage on our frequent walks in the woods.

Ken’s been trying out the iPhone portrait mode, taking some easy glamour shots of his beautiful bride.

As a rule, we don’t have much luck seeing wildlife on our walks, other than the occasional bird - perhaps we’re noisy trompers. We did see an elk from the road while driving.

Our dear friends Rob, Katherine and Lyla live in Charlotte. Rob and Katherine visited the RV and shared a meal with us.

We later joined them in Charlotte and visited Lyla’s new retirement home - a really lovely community. We took a walk on the nearby greenway, then went out to eat some North Carolina Bar-B-Q – the vinegary kind.

Speaking of local food, we continued our tradition of trying local foods. The most charming was our visit to a very local breakfast place. After seeing high ratings on Yelp, we drove to the location but found an auto repair shop instead. We were confused until we noticed the restaurant was in the auto repair shop. It was quaint and local, and we tried livermush, biscuits and gravy and grits.

We finished with a fun visit to Charlotte, where we took in an outdoor murder mystery.

Then it was off to Savannah!