The End of the Vacation

Table Rock proved to be the best campground because for the last 2 days we had not been able to shower.  Sponge baths were getting old and we were very glad to take a nice warm shower before going to bed.

Wednesday we drove through the mountains of upstate South Carolina.  It is such a beautiful state and the roads are well maintained and clean.

It was nice to get out of the twisty roads of North Carolina and

Table Rock (vacation part 5)

After a good night of sleep in Deep Creek, NC we headed down the mountains.  We have visited North Carolina many times and one thing that seems to be consistent in all of the western part of the state is that they love twisting, winding, mountain roads.  They don’t have any issues with people using their cell phones while driving because it is impossible to take a hand off the steering wheel or your eyes off the road long enough to push the buttons.

These signs are everywhere.

And the road look like

Deep Creek (vacationpart 4)

Our second night of camping was in the Great Smokey Mountain Nation Park on the North Carolina side in a campground called Deep Creek.

The road to this campground is a winding road down the mountain to Bryson City and then into the park.  Once you pass through the city the road is lined with little shops like this, as well as, roadside stands that sell everything from ice to firewood.

It is a lovely drive into Deep Creek as you pass by waterfalls…

Crossing Over the Mountains (vacation part 3)

Our first day of exploring in the Smokies was beautiful.  This was our first view of the mountains.

There is only one road that crosses from the Tennessee side of the Mountains to the North Carolina side, and it is truly a twisty curvy road.  Lots of  90 degree turns and it is only a 2 lane road.

This was a new road sign to me

Elkmont in the Smokies (vacation part 2)

It has been 30 years since I last went camping so I’m not really a novice at this – but I’ve forgotten alot in that period of time.

One thing we never had to be concerned about in our previous camping experiences were bears.  When our son was young and we went camping it would be in Arkansas or Louisiana-not many bears in those areas.  However, when we started doing research for our Smokey Mountain adventure we discovered that almost every page of every website on camping warns you of black bear activity in the area.  It took a lot of prayer on my part before I was willing to consider going camping with bears.

When we arrived at Elmont (a campground in the Smokey Mountain National Park)

Vacation (part 1)

If there was ever any doubt that my Husband and I are NUTS it’s our decision to going camping. I first must confess that my idea of roughin’ it is staying at a hotel with no room service. That being said, our recent trip to the Smokey Mountains was a great success.

Early Saturday morning we left home with the car stuffed to the gills with various pieces of equipment setting out on our newest adventure – for 10 hours we traveled to reach our first destination – Knoxville, TN.

Churches

We went riding down some state highways a few weeks ago and I was hoping to find some interesting churches to photograph.  I had forgotten the weather.

It has been extremely hot and muggy down here recently and the highways we were driving on are in the bayou country-even more muggy conditions.

We came across this absolutely lovely church in south Louisiana. 

It took 3 photos before

Next Adventure

We have decided to do something we haven’t done in decades-go camping.  My hubby has some vacation time coming so we thought we would take next week off and go on a trip.  This trip will be divided between camping, hotels and staying with family-if all goes as planned.

In anticipation of our adventure we had to purchase a new tent.  The tent we used years ago is long gone and we wanted something a little bigger.

This tent is 10 feet by 10 feet and 7 feet tall.  We set it up in our dining room so we could be sure we had all the pieces and so we could practice putting it up.

The inflatable mattress

Visitors

Last week was a very busy week around our house.  Our son and his family came to town to pick up books for school for next year.  They have four children and homeschool all of them, so buying books is expensive and hectic.

Our family arrived about 2:30 Wednesday morning.  Hugs and kisses were given all around and then everyone went to bed.  Everyone relaxed that afternoon and some friends dropped by later in the day.  A fun time was had by all.

The next day started our whirlwind traveling to

Waveland, MS

I am not sure if Waveland has made the national news as a result of the oil spill but it certainly did after Hurricane Katrina.  Waveland was ground zero for the hurricane in MS.  We live about 5 miles north of Waveland and decided to take a trip down there to see the effects of the oil spill.

We were extremely shocked on one hand and pleasantly surprised on another.

As we drove down the beach road we were shocked at how much recovery still remained to be accomplished almost 5 years after the hurricane.

The road we drove on would have been exciting for a 4-wheeler but in our SUV we had to go very slowly.  This is a photo of the GOOD part of the road, most of it did not have concrete or asphalt at all and was very bumpy.

It was also disheartening to see how many houses had been washed away and all that still remains are the pilings.