Wednesday
Wednesday morning we got up, packed and hit the road all before 8:30.
Our first stop was literally across the street from the KOA where we bought ice and drinks.
We got on the Skyway and stopped at a few overlooks. It was beautiful as always and the weather all week has been so clear and perfect.
In Robinsville we stopped at the Junaluska Memorial and picked up a couple letterboxes and a bonus surprise geocache! The cache had a geocoin, so it was a double bonus. The kids made various trades in the cache and it was off for some lunch at the town square. Suzette has a travel rule that she will not eat anywhere that she can eat at home. We ate at Lynn's Restaurant and for dessert, we all tried something, for the sake of it being an adventure and all. I had blackberry cobbler, Suzette had fried banana cheesecake and Regina had triple chocolate layer cake.
I made a wrong turn-an ongoing saga today-and we turned around and headed back on the right road.
I got us to Andrews, which turned out
to be in the wrong direction and I opted to turn around and when I did, Regina
and Suzette and Zachary in the other car were just not there. This part
involves some mild drama which parents may want to censor.
I turned around to go look for them, they went past me at an intersection.
I got caught at the light and they were gone when the light changed and I could
make a U-ie. Well, there we were, no cell phone, I have 6 of the 7 kids
in my van and we are a couple miles outside Andrews, which is in the total wrong
direction from the Scenic Waters Byway.
So, I turned on my hazard lights and began a pursuit that reached some 100 mph
and the kids all agreed it was even more fun than the day before when I let
them stand in the seats with their heads and shoulders poking out the windows,
holding on to the luggage rack while I drove up to the bald. I am sure
is covered under my insurance.
Jon said we broke the land speed record and in a minivan.
In all actuality, I hit 100 for about 2 seconds, decided it was futile and slowed
down and turned around, deciding what I would do is call the number where we
were staying tonight from a payphone and tell them we would be in, and then
take the kids on to swim, which had been the plan for the day. We all
knew where we were going to end up tonight.
When I turned around, I passed them again, and we yelled things at each other out our windows. I pulled over and parked to wait...and so did they on a different street. And, we both turned around to find the other one again and passed each other again and more yelling things happened.
Finally heading back the correct direction with Regina back on my bumper, we got to the Scenic Waters Byway, which, in case you were wondering, involved very little water and a great deal of looking at your own tail lights heading up tight curves.
We ended up totally missing (again, a theme of the day) our first planned stop at the Nantahala Gorge. We drove up and over to Wayah Bald, making a wrong turn to another bald, which held phone towers and buildings and no view of anything. We sat in the parking lot of the No See Bald for a while, chatting about what a horrible tour guide I am. Well, mostly that was me, but good grief. We had traveled all of 60 miles and probably put 100 miles on our cars doing it.
Back to the road and the correct bald, where I let the kids ride poking their heads out again and when we got to the parking area, MY child for some reason kept leaning out of the van and I rolled first her window up on her and she started yelling and I let her out and rolled MY window up at the same time and she had grabbed my door frame during the previous squashing incident, so I got her fingers in the window and she started screaming and I thought her hair had gotten stuck in the track of her window and I tried to open my door and it was stuck-because her hand was rolled up in my window...So the child was nearly cut in half, squashed in a window and stretched like Gonzo on that Muppet Show episode with John Cleese.
More drama ensued, ended in loads of tears, a fresh ponytail and the first aid kit needs a new break-n-shake ice pack.
The view from the bald was lovely, there was a tower!
Back in the van, on the byway, down
through Franklin where we got on 64 and stopped at the Cullasaja Falls, Quarry
Falls and Bridal Veil Falls.
Cullasaja Falls was beautiful but so dangerous, there is barely a spot to pull
off, cliffs up and cliffs down and 5 feet of paved space off the crazy-busy
road where the yokels were driving WAY too fast.
Cullasaja Falls
Quarry Falls, we got out and played a long while. The kids slid down the
waterfall and swam in the freezing water.
Quarry Falls
Bridal Veil Falls has been something I have wanted to do forever. Suzette
tried to tone down the thrill of driving UNDER the waterfall by comparing it
to the one at Hurricane Creek that you walk under, or, you know, a garden hose,
but I was having none of that! It was spectacular and thrilling and I
did it twice.
After the thrill of the waterfall,
I checked the map and decided we could head south for 20 minutes and be in South
Carolina, our 5th state for the trip! We had all but decided tomorrow's
adventures were cancelled, we all had road rash from sitting in the vans all
day. We head down the road, giddy and oohing and ahhing at houses and
views and checking the map. We were nearly at the state line and all excited
about nearly being in South Carolina and we look up at the bend where the state
line was and it was.......
......Georgia.....
Well, so we had dinner and drove back up to Cherokee to our cabin and I have to say, the ONE thing I learned in school that stuck was that you NEVER color two adjoining states on a map the SAME color.
We got to the cabin with little hassle, unloaded and hit the sack.
States for today:
I don't want to talk about it.
Day Four