Traveling Team Fischer

Great Smoky Mountains National Park was next on our list, and we were able to explore Georgia along the way.  A favorite highlight from the journey was the little town Juliette, where we dined on fried green tomatoes at the Whistle stop café, and enjoyed a stroll through town with the mayor, Otis the rooster.

The least favorite was waking up in one of Georgia’s lovely state parks to a “take shelter now” tornado warning on our phones, which were in do not disturb mode when said warning was broadcast hours earlier.  Reading that kind of message will wake you up faster than coffee.  Suffice to say, we’ve disabled that little phone feature.  The parks, by the way, were beautiful.

After driving in the rain for what seemed like forever, we finally made it to our destination.  We hoped the rain would stop soon, as we noticed the river was so flooded, it was about to flow onto the streets in town, as well as creep into our campground.  We didn’t put the feet down on the camper that first night, in case we needed to make an escape to higher ground.

Happily, the rain did stop, and water levels dropped rapidly.  We could finally relax and go explore.  One of the mills we saw was overflowing, partly due to the recent wet weather, partly due to its age.    

We took a loop through the park were we could see so many animals out and about.  Turkeys, elk, bear, and deer all made appearances for us.  The deer were shiest than the other animals, keeping their distance in the morning haze.

We also heard about the nearby “waterfall loop” that took us out of the park.  The sun was out and we had a great time trying to find all the falls on the map, as well as checking out a covered bridge or two.  We stopped at quite a few breathtaking falls, but skipped those with trails that were not user friendly for us.  A few of the falls had trails that went behind them, which left us soaking wet.  All in all, it was a fabulous day.

We tried to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, but parts were still closed, even in April, due to snow.  There was a bit of the white stuff that looked recent for some of the drive we could complete.  Our hope is to be able to drive the parkway from Shenandoah to Smoky Mountains this fall, weather permitting.