New Orleans - without Mardi Gras

26 – 28 Oct

We spent all three days going into the French Quarter of New Orleans.  It’s all happening there; street artists, musicians, entertainers.  You can wear almost whatever you want – although the pregnant, bearded nun with a beer in his hand looked a bit odd-one-out!  We ate Beignet, gumbo, muffletta and even alligator sausage; Alison drank Hurricane cocktails.  We saw Mardi Gras costumes in a museum but none on the streets, although there was a Halloween parade one evening.  We were treated to creole jazz music (sung in French).  We learnt about damage caused from hurricanes Betsy, Katrina and Rita.  On the route in and out of town we could see some buildings still bearing signs from Katrina. 

We had a swamp boat tour and saw many alligators, ranging from 3’ to 5’. We learnt how the wetlands on the south coast are disappearing and how they can help reduce flood and hurricane damage.

The RV site next to the marina is also a place where many people were mooring their boats/yachts for the weekend.  There was entertainment in the bar every evening, many wore fancy dress.

Friday night the wind picked up and the RV was buffeted all night.  Saturday morning there was a twenty-five degree drop from the previous day’s temperature.  Although there was sunshine we wore jumpers and coats for the rest of the weekend. It had nothing to do with hurricane Sandy on the east coast; just a cold front coming through.

Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana

23 – 25 Oct 

We stayed an extra night in Georgia and then set off for Alabama on the I-85.  We spent the first night dry camping at Walmart in Montgomery, the state capital.  It is summer again – it is sunny and hot!  We have also gained an hour as we have crossed into the ‘Central Time’ zone.

Wednesday morning we stopped off to see Joyce and Rick, who we had met in Georgia.  Their ‘southern hospitality’ was wonderful.  We planned to ‘pop in for a coffee’ but were treated to lunch of Brunswick Stew and Joyce’s homemade chocolate pudding – it was delicious.

The landscape changes and becomes much flatter as we travel past Mobile on the I-65 and then onto the I-10 and into Mississippi.  We travel over some impressive roads which take us over the watery marshes.

We stayed overnight in our first public campground at Davis Bayou National Seashore Park at Ocean Springs in Mississippi.  The site is in a salt marsh.  We went round the park in the evening and were treated to seeing fish jumping 2 or 3 feet out of the water catching flies – but no ‘gators.  We were woken to the most varied Dawn Chorus I’ve heard since we got to USA with at least a dozen or more different bird calls (although not quite as tuneful as the British blackbird).

 We continued our way towards New Orleans along Route 90 which followed the coast.  Many of the houses on the coast line are raised on stilts.  There were also several plots of land for sale; some looked like there used to be a house there with stone steps leading to nowhere.  We assume the house was blown away by hurricane Katrina (?).  We went through Biloxi with their casinos and bright lights. 

 

 

 

There were miles of white sandy beaches with only one or two people around.

 

We arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, where it is HOT!  I went swimming whilst Paul caught dinner with his fishing rod.  We are camping right on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain (the lake that flooded during Katrina) and next to ‘Trinity’ one of the biggest specialist yacht builders in USA. 

 

Georgia

17 – 21 Oct
Springer Mountain, Gold Rush and Apple Festivals

We travelled from Tennessee into Georgia to a camp site near Dahlonega.  On our first day here Paul went fishing and caught many small fish but only one worthy of a meal (for one).  So we put it in the fridge for another day.

We met some friendly folk from Alabama, Joyce and her family.  We experienced their “Southern Hospitality” and shared their BBQ, and company around their camp fire every evening.  They taught us some American words and we now know what a ‘Rutabaga’ is.  Rick kindly gave us one of the walking sticks he creates from tree branches he finds. 

On the Friday we set off to climb Springer Mountain – the southern end of the Appalachian Trail.  Unlike Katahdin, at the northern end, this was soooo much easier.  We drove up a dirt track for just over 10 miles.  The walk to the summit was only 1 mile with a 400ft climb!  Easy peasy!  ‘Rick’s stick’ was given it’s first outing.

As we still had most of the day left we went onto Amicalola Falls State Park.  It is a small stream but water falls over 700 feet down a series of rapids and rocks.  There are 604 steps which follow the water fall and of course, if you walk down them, you have to walk back up!

Dahlonega, GA, is the site of one of the first “Gold Rush” in 1829, and where the phrase “Thar’s gold in them thar hills” emanated.  This weekend happened to be their ‘Gold Rush Festival’ which we enjoyed on the Saturday and watched the town Parade from the balcony of the Gold Museum, an excellent front row view!

A little further up the road is the town of Ellijay and they were holding the Georgia ‘Apple Festival’ this weekend.  So Sunday we went along to that.

At the festivals we tried some American food – Corn Dogs, Blossom Onion and fried apple pie. Bring back “Fish & Chips” says Paul!

We are now off south again to New Orleans, travelling over 3 days with a couple of dry camps on the way.

 

 

Gatlinburg and Great Smoky Mountains, TN

13 – 16 Oct

We enjoyed the Great Smokies so much we decided to move over to the Tennessee side of the mountains.  We spent Saturday evening in Gatlinburg which was where the rest of the population was!  We have never seen so many cars in USA going nowhere – it was one big traffic jam for the 5 hours we were there.

 

 

 

 

We drove around Roaring Fork Drive – a 7 mile one-way loop taking in scenery and we walked up a trail to Grotto Falls.  We saw a couple of Salamander; one was very small and orange; the other a bit larger and dark.

There were a lot of old log cabins that have been renovated. The one below is an old grist mill.

 

 

 

 

We drove up to Cades Cove to see more wildlife.  It was one big traffic queue around an 11 mile loop!  The trees are looking gorgeous; yellows, orange, gold with splashes of brilliant red.  We saw some deer but there are really far too many people here this week.  We will be moving on again.

 

 

Asheville and Great Smoky Mountains, NC

9 – 12 Oct 

We visited the town of Cherokee.  The town and surrounding reservation belongs to the Eastern Cherokee nation and is on the south-eastern edge of the Great Smoky Mountains.  It had numerous souvenir shops, and casinos etc.  The Museum of the Cherokee Indian was very informative and at the Oconaluftee Indian Village Museum local people talk about the Cherokee’s ancient way of life.  Some of the local crafts sold here are made the traditional way; which is labour intensive and unfortunately puts items well out of a reasonable price range! $400 for a shopping basket.

We drove some of the Blue Ridge Parkway and were treated to lovely views of the mountains and the various autumnal colours of the trees.  We drove most of the BRP during our visit in 2003 so this section means we have completed some more.

 

 

We visited Clingman’s Dome – the highest point on the Appalachian Trail at 6643ft.  Normally you can see for 100 miles from here; but cloud came down and reduced visibility to about 100 inches! Yes that is Alison standing in the foreground.

 

 

 

We were treated to seeing some Elk near the side of the road; a herd of about 10 females and two stags.  One stag was strutting around looking very important for the cameras and even had a wallow in his mud hole marking his territory.

 

 

 

 

We went into Asheville and opened a US Bank Account. We needed to get across the road to another point, about 100 yds further up on the other side.  We thought we would be very British and walk.  , The Republican Candidate, Mit Romney, was visiting Asheville that day and the Interstate was closed for his cavalcade and traffic diverted.  There was no pavement, no pedestrian crossing and the traffic was continuous across all four lanes.  We stood at the side of the road for a few minutes and had to give up and ‘take the car’ 100 yds to the other side of the road!

 

North Carolina

6 - 8 Oct
We have spent a great weekend with Louise and Kev.  When we arrived it was 80 degrees. 

We went hashing with the Rebel Yell H3.  They are a new hash and the three of us swelled their numbers by 30%!  A great friendly bunch.

We are now off to the Great Smokey Mountains ....................

From Pennsylvania to North Carolina

4 Oct
We set off down the Interstate 81; out of Pennsylvania, through Maryland and West Virginia, and into Virginia. We could see the Shenandoah National Park running parallel to our journey. The countryside in Virginia is so similar to Wilts/Hants/Dorset. In fact apart from the buildings you would not know the difference. We stayed at a camp site near Staunton, VA.  The lady at reception had the most wonderful accent with lots of “y’all”etc.

5 Oct

We travel further down the I81 paralleling the George Washington Forest and then took a left and headed East over the Blue Ridge Mountains and eventually into North Carolina. The road over the mountains was narrow and pretty steep and the RV does well towing the car (driver does well too!).

We noticed the creeping vine, an invasive species, which smoothers everything. However it does make everything look very green and luscious. We really feel we are following the summer as it was hot and sunny again and the trees are still very green too.

We met up with Louise and Kev where we will be spending the weekend. Their neighbours are very kindly providing some parking space for the RV because it would not get down Louise & Kev's driveway.

 

Car Show & More Hashing

3 Oct
We woke to fog and mist and eventually set off for the Carlisle Car Show.  It was mainly stalls selling auto-parts etc.  There were some lovely old cars from the 50s and 60s era.  In the evening we met up with the H5 again.  It wa a live-hare trail again with 4 drink stops.  The trail took us along the Susquehanna River and we had a lovely view of the centre of Harrisburg and the Capital building all flood lit.  There was the inevitable river crossing (a tributary of the Susquehanna).  We got home with some wet and muddy kit!

 

Harrisburg, Carlisle

28 Sept – 2^nd Oct

We left Stillwater and travelled south to Harrisburg and are now staying at a camp site just north of Carlisle.

We finally got to go hashing on Saturday with the Harrisburg-Hershey Hash. Great bunch of people, made us feel very welcome. Quite a short run compared to UK hashes but plenty of beer stops.  We went to a local Micro-brewery for the après.  They had lots of beers including a stout which was 8%.  We then went onto to a pub by the Susquehanna River with some of the hashers.  We will be hashing again on Wed.

What could be better, two harriets and a fridge full of beer.

 

 

We spent Sunday visiting friends in the area.  Our thanks to Karen, for her hospitality.  It was good to catch up with everyone.

Yesterday we went up to Waggoner’s Gap ridge about five miles from here where the Hawk Watch Program takes place each year between Aug – Oct. This is a program that counts all the Raptors that migrate south from Canada. We were treated to a spectacular display by about 30+ birds, some flying at head height; turkey vultures, bald eagles, sharp-shinned hawks, red tailed hawks and many more. All birds of prey are now protected by law.

Today it’s raining, so we are catching up with all the boring things, cleaning – laundry – shopping etc.