Food and Friends in the Mountains: The Cherokee Rally

It is raining hard with sheets of water pouring over us as we start our 150 mile journey to Cherokee, North Carolina.  This is our fifth trip to the rally at Happy Holiday RV Park.  And this time I am “in charge”!  (What was I thinking!!)
We had just spent the previous night waking to the weather radio sounding alarms.  Now we are driving back into the storm and more tornado watches.  Thought about stopping and trying to find a safe place to camp.  But didn’t…..just kept on plowing through the bad weather.
We set up in the pouring rain, a miserable experience!  But a warm meal, cable TV and the electric heater get us through the first night.
Wednesday and Thursday provide more rain….everyone is waiting patiently for the promised beautiful weekend weather.  And it finally arrives!
Thursday night we attend the Meet and Sweet.  Too busy to take any photos……hubby says he has never eaten so many deserts!
Friday we participate in the Dutch Oven demo….my new camera got a workout!  More on the camera later….



Donna outlines  Dutch oven basics.

Chocolate and cherries!

Samples going fast!
Saturday morning it is time to get out of the campground!  Socco Falls is on the way to the Parkway and the new camera needs some use!  (Last week after trying a Nikkor 18 to 200 lens, just could not handle spending that much money!  Decided to buy the Nikon 3200 two lens bundle.)
Now I have two cameras with two different lens….which presents a learning curve.


This is the same waterfall…..should have had the wide angle with me instead of the telephoto.  Oh well….guess that’s part of learning.

There is lots of color the first mile or so going up the Blue Ridge Parkway but soon all the trees are bare! 




My spirits restored by the solitude, it is time to rejoin the rally….egg parade in progress!




The maroon and white trailer repeats the color scheme inside.
The below trailer is a home built…this couple had brought their 16’ Casita all the previous years.


Inside shot of the home built!  Very creative couple!

Some of our buddies chose a quiet spot on the back creek.  And we got a primo site on the front creek…unfortunately our expensive neighborhood was full of mud!

Like all rallies, it is over way too soon.  We join our friends on Florida row to enjoy one last campfire.


Rallies are just a good time!  Lots of love, lots of laughter and after meeting the same people over and over…..a real feeling of family.  Love the diversity in the fiberglass community! 
My experience as a rally host is mostly positive….but turning it over to someone else next year.  Dates are set and reservations have been made…more good times in the future!
What now?  Planning on Arizona after Christmas and maybe a short trip to the Gulf next month….want to see Gulf Shores and eat seafood!

Mt Pisgah on the Blue Ridge Parkway

view from the campground

After spending eight glorious days and nights at this idyllic mountain retreat, we returned home jumping back into home updating projects.  The bath is mostly done and it’s time to take a break before returning to kitchen painting.

Waking at 4 AM this morning with blogging on my brain, it is time to take another look at our favorite summer get away.

Introduced to this magical place over 20 years ago, we were drawn here initially for biking and hiking opportunities.  The campground has 5 loops, two RV and three tent, with around 140 sites.  There are no hookups for electric, water or sewer and we never need a reservation….due to the lack of facilities! 

The Mt Pisgah campground is the highest, coolest and most secluded on the 489 mile Blue Ridge Parkway.  At 4, 980 feet, it  provides us with cool breezes and temps that welcome a fire at night.  Mt Pisgah, photo above, is at 5,721 feet with the television tower being the highest east of the Mississippi River.  There are showers in the campground now….years ago we bathed under a sun shower hung in a rhododendron thicket.  The fee is $16 per night, $8 with a senior pass.  The time policy allows camping for 30 consecutive nights, a recent change from a 2 week limit.

The campground is at mile 408 on the parkway, about 15 miles south of Asheville, NC and 61 miles from Cherokee, NC.  It is 5 1/2 hours drive from our home in Chattanooga, 200 miles.  We never hurry as it’s beautiful …traveling through two river gorges and 40 miles on the parkway.

Within walking/hiking distance of the campground, a restaurant, inn and camp store can be accessed.  These photos were taken in early evening from the deck behind the restaurant.

Always love seeing the beautiful flowers found growing along the parkway.  The elevation makes for a much later season.  We find columbine, a very early blooming wildflower, on a hiking trail.  Rhododendron is blooming throughout our campsite.

This wildflower, fly poison, is found along the campground road.

Calla lilies are in the restaurant’s garden.

From the eastern overlooks, Looking Glass Rock, (near Brevard, NC) can be viewed.  There’s a steep hiking trail that climbs to its base.

Sylvester seems to enjoy the trip…or maybe he just likes getting away from his two older sisters!  Lots of entertainment can be found just outside the window.

Sylvester lets us know when it’s bedtime by crawling on top of David’s book, persistently returning every time he’s removed.

A few fiberglass trailers breeze through the campground, most staying only a night.  We are fortunate to make friends with Holly, new Casita owner, and Carrie, proud owner of a pre-owned Scamp.  Will be seeing them again at future rallies!

Too busy talking to get any pictures of their rigs but the campground does have an abundance of small trailers.

This is a cool but pricey little all-aluminum trailer… Camplite.

A 1960 Shasta…no peak inside …still remodeling.

Beautiful homemade teardrop type.

The Retro Lite’s owners are on a multi-month trip….fun people who travel constantly.

The last few days on the parkway are spent hiking…. driving to the Shining Rock area and taking the Ivestor Gap trail.

It is mostly flat, an old roadbed, but the large rocks in the trail prove challenging.  Will take the Art Loeb trail next time!

More of the Same and Blue Mountains

 

What can I say about this summer?  It’s been difficult?  Long? Exhausting? Hot? Not to mention depressing and confusing….

Our downsizing has continued.  Some days we do nothing, other days are full of accomplishments.  The basement is now  mostly organized.  All the boxes have been explored and categorized.  Unused items have found other homes….occasionally in the trash and we have moved on to phase two: painting the kitchen.

“The kitchen paneling and wall paper will look better painted” the realtor said and we both agreed.  The paneling is done and looks great!  Now dreading  painting the wall paper!

Before

After

The confusing and often frustrating part of this project is our ambivalent feelings about selling the house.  Most days it is a “go”, definitely the right thing to do.  But there are also many times it’s a “how in the world are we going to manage in that little duplex without a basement or garage?”  These thoughts mostly arrive in the middle of the night or in odd moments while sitting on the deck looking at the flowers.  And then there’s the cats.  How do we downsize them?

Speaking of the flowers…last year we were in Alaska during the daylily season.  This year I took many pictures as a way of keeping their memories while saying good-bye. 

We received encouragement from a blog post during one of our downtimes.  The Winnie Views post of “How to Eat an Elephant” arrived just at the perfect moment to help me to realize that the plan of updating the house for 3 months, selling the house in 4 months and heading out to AZ by December 1 was causing the stress.  So the plan is now thrown out the window.

The new plan is to keep painting, keep throwing out the stuff we don’t need and take a break from it all!  We headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway and our little bit of heaven at Mt Pisgah Campground.

It is now day 3 here at 5,000 feet and my body, mind and soul are being renewed.  We have done very little but walk and ride the campground and sit, inhaling the cool breezes and peace that flows through the mountains.

We hope the tranquility will last and stay with us once we return to the flat lands.

Great Smoky Mountains & Cherokee Rally

 

Arriving at Happy Holiday RV Park in Cherokee two days before the rally, we decided to drive north on 441 to see the leaf changes.  The national park had just opened that morning and visitors were flocking to the different attractions.

Our first stop is at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center to tour the Mtn Farm Museum.   The old farm has many out buildings similar to the ones we remember from our grandparents’ homes.

Notice the old fencing around the garden plot!

The farmhouse was gated to prevent entry but pictures were made from the door.  Image living here back in to 1800’s! 

 

After admiring the Oconaluftee River,

we are heading for Mingus Mill, a 1886 water-powered turbine grist mill.

 

Love this old mill…it’s still grinding corn!  Fresh corn meal can still be purchased inside.

After a few more stops we are back on 441.  The trees are becoming more vibrant as we ascend the mountain.

The mountains are obscured by the thick haze that gives them the name of “Smoky”.

 

The winding road and parade of colors is hypnotizing as we cruise up to Newfound Gap.  Then our stomachs are protesting with hunger and keep us from exploring Clingman’s Dome, 7 miles farther up the road.

Forty-five minutes later we are arriving back at Happy Holiday RV park, our home for the week.

This is our 4th rally at Happy Holiday and it’s the mountains and the trout stream that keeps pulling us back.  And, of course, all the cute little white trailers!

Our home and the creek just behind us.

The RV park is huge with two creeks and a lake (pond) in the middle.  The eggs are mixed in with the larger trailers and motor homes but all appear to be happy.

The morning mist is lingering over the campground

 

A few late flowers are scattered at the more permanent sites.

The rally has the usual egg parade and potluck dinner…..those at the end of the pot luck line were ravished with hunger but said it was worth the wait!

No pictures from the pot luck…too busy eating!  And only one mod is captured.  Our shoes are always in the way….love this idea.  It is just in front of the bed.

A few unusual trailers… this is Troy’s silver painted Burro.

We camped next to him in 2011…nice to see old friends.  And others made new friends.

In honor of Halloween…..kept this non-tripod night shot of the lake and trailers.

Love this lantern!

This fur baby is 16 years old and has cataracts.  The sunglasses are not just for show!

The sunshine is abundant on Friday and we are heading east on 19 in search of fresh apples and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Beautiful day!

 

And suddenly it’s all over…but not before we make our reservations for next year!

PS    To my loyal readers:

Apologies for being so late with this post!  And the lack of comments on your blogs.  Trying to find the balance between living in the Casita world and living in our Chattanooga world.