April 19th NC & TN

 Saturday April 19th, North Carolina 

We used this morning to plan and then set out for most of the day. We are nestled just outside of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park so there are plenty of things to do. We chose to do some errands and then some driving.

We found a walking bridge over a river. It had a trail on the other side. Stephanie was the only one of us that crossed it. Silena and I went out a little ways. It was beautiful.






We drove along the Cheoah River which seemed high compared to other area waterways. It turns out that they open the Santeetlah Dam a few times a year to regulate water levels and this is one of those times. There were quite a few people taking advantage of the higher, fast moving waters to kayak. 


Most of these plants are under water.


We stopped to look at the Cheoah Dam.






Silena has always wanted to drive the Tail of the Dragon.  She wanted to do this on a motorcycle when she was younger, but settled for an SUV today. It is eleven miles of twisting, turning, mountain road.  On the first drive through, I was in the front while Silena drove. It is a wild and beautiful ride. I probably only enjoyed it as much as I did because we were in an SUV. There were motorcycles and sports cars that were traveling a bit more over the speed limit. We saw one car off the road where it hadn't planned to go. On the other end, we pulled off, had lunch, and I moved to the back seat so Stephanie could have the front seat experience. On the way back I closed my eyes a lot to avoid motion sickness.  



That car shouldn't be there.
Thankfully we missed all the activity around this.  Emergency vehicles did go, they seemed to leave without a passenger so we think everyone was okay. 


One of the things I was looking forward to last year when I had hoped to hike the Appalachian Trail was to walk over the Fontana Dam. I got to do that today.  

On the way.

Fontana Dam 












Sunset back at the Resort.



☮

Continued to read: No Time Like the Past, by Jodi Taylor.

Thank you for being here and being part of my daily happy things. Stay safe!


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