Our Mountain Trip-The Last Episode

I am sure you are all sick of hearing about our trip to the mountains.   But I need to chronicle the best part.    After leaving Ga, we traveled over the mountains to Tellico Plains, TN.   We then drove out the Cherhola Skyway which is a beautiful stretch of highway that runs from Tellico Plains TN to Robbinsville NC.   Here the leaves were in full color.

We camped at a campground called " Indian Boundary"  in the Cherokee National Forest.    It is remote enough that there was no cell service or internet service for 5 days.     It was wonderful being unplugged.    

This photo is of the beautiful lake at Indian Boundary.   There was a hiking trail around the entire lake and we hiked all or parts of it each day.   

We met our dear friends, Bill & Barbara to camp there and had such a good time with them.

I just had to show you this next lovely picture of my friend Barbara's backside.   She was in the creekbed, looking for salamanders to use for fishing in the lake.   Apparently fish love them, I just loved catching her on camera.

 
We had a camp fire everynight, but on our last night we spent an evening with some other campers we met.  My husband loves to play the guitar and is always up for what I call a "pickin' and grinnin' " session.   It was loads of fun.

On the last morning there as we said goodbye to our friends, Bill and James serenaded us to a wonderful rendition of "Jesus Loves Me"    There was some joke in there about how we didn't appreciate their sense of humor so early in the morning, but it was okay because Jesus loved them.  lol

 While leaving Indian Boundary, I did a little quilt block hunting.   On the side of the welcome center is the first quilt block I found on a small portion of "The Appalachian Quilt Trail".  If you have never heard of it, look it up.   It takes you to all kinds of places.    We only got to do a few on this trip.

One of particular note was in the town of Athens TN at the wonderful coffee shop.

 My barista made me a wonderful Carmel Latte and thru in the latte art.

 Don't forget the Antique Mall,

We arrived in Murfreesboro and spent some time with DBIL& DSIL and went to the Grand Ole Opry.    If you get this close to Nashville, you just gotta go to say you've been.

The show was good and Little Jimmy Dickens who is almost 90 still seems to be going strong.

I checked out a couple of fabric stores on my trip, but have been trying to cut down on the fabric spending.  
There is a cute shop in Murfreesboro called Quilt Connection and I bought way to much fabric.    It is a great shop and if you are ever in the area, you should stop by.

We headed home through Alabama and didnt stop except for gas & food, so I dont have any pictures from the trip home.   I will show you my fabric purchases and the plans for some of them in my next blog.   Hope I didnt bore you too much, but had to get it documented for posterity.

Have a great weekend and I will catch you later.

May God Bless you and Keep you and your families

in the palm of His hand.

Janice

Our Trip to the Mountains Part 2

While staying in Hiawassee, we went to the GA Mountain Fair and I left my camera in the truck for most of the day and didn't get very many pictures.   It was the National Fiddlers Convention and they had a competition for Fiddlers, Bluegrass Bands, Mandolin, Flat Pickers, Finger Pickers and Banjo players.   It was great music and lots of fun to hear all of the musicians, who after the competition, sat around the fair grounds and played for the love of music.   There was a young banjo player who was so great, I just had to get a picture.

They had great craft cabins laid out all over the grounds, with a Blacksmith shop, log splitting, shingle making, soap making, weaving, quilting, fudge making, kettle corn, bee-keeping, a grist mill, and many other folk crafts.  They also have lots of touristy type booths with crafts for sale.   It was a great time.    Ga Mountain Fairgrounds always has the Fall festival the last 2 weekends in October.   We will definitely go back in the future.

 The fall colors and beautiful mountain lakes, were pure eye candy and kept us in a relaxed and restful mood for all of our time there.       On our last night in Hiawassee we went to a restaurant called "Deer Lodge", they are on Hwy 75 going toward Helen GA from Hiawassee.     We were in the mood for a steak and little did we know that 3 people could share one ribeye.     They were hanging off the plate as you can see in the picture below.    I highly recommend it.   It is a no nonsense kind of place with not alot of ambiance, but the food was great.    

We had a campfire every night and it was pretty cool for a Florida girl, but my mother used to call it snuggling weather and I agree.

After we had packed up and gotten our pop-up ready to head out, we drove up to Unicoi State Park.   It is the home of Anna Ruby Falls, a great lake with swimming and boating in the summer and a lodge with a great restaurant.    We had stayed there in a cabin about 8 or 9 years ago.     The hike from the visitors center to the falls is about .5 mile all uphill.   But the views are worth the hike.

We said goodbye to our friends who were staying one more day and then traveling up to NC as we started our trip across the mountains into Tennessee.    I will share that part of the trip later tonight.   

Ralph & Jo - We enjoyed our time with them so much.    We will definitely do it again.

Our Trip to the Mountains Part 1

We began our caravan with our friends who own an Airstream.    We headed up to Hiawassee, GA.   
















At a rest stop along they way, we met a couple who raise Lamas for show.   They were on their way to the Ga National Fair.    It is in Perry GA.    It is a huge fair, but we didnt have time to stop.    I made a note to check out next years fair date as a possible weekend trip, as it is not very far from home.

Once we got into the North Ga Mountains, one of the first stops we made was in Blue Ridge Ga.     There is an orchard store there name Mercier Orchards.      We have been there before, but our friends never had.     The store has a bakery with the best fried pies and apple dumplings with cinnamon ice cream.     They have about 20 diifferent kinds of apples and we bought Crispins.     They are our favorite kind and we get some every year.    James (my DH on the left) and our friend Ralph got tired of shopping and sat out on the wooden benches among the pumpkins.   It is a great store and if you every get up that way during apple season or anytime really it is a great place to stop and rest your legs or spend hours going through their numerous rooms of merchandise.

The lake at the resort reflected the mountains.   It was your typical RV resort.   The sites were level and clean, but a little too close together for my tastes. It had great facilities for kids and familys, wi-fi and cell service.  Not really roughing it.   But we had a great time, sitting by the fire and visiting with our friends.

The trees had begun to change and we visited a wonderful lake near our RV resort for a quick hike and to check out the camping facilities in Clay County NC.  We were on our way to Hayesville NC, where most of the shops were closed, because it was Sunday.



I have some other things to show you, but I will leave it for another day.   I am going to try to blog everyday until I finish sharing my trip.    That may take a few days.   I am tuckered out from all the fun, and then my grandson broke his arm the day after we got home.   In the ER all night, but that is a story for another day.

Fall into Fall Give-A-Way

I wanted to give a shout out to Debi for organizing this great blogger give-a-way.


http://fall-into-fall.blogspot.com/. 
Be sure to check out this blog and visit all of the wonderful bloggers giving away wonderful prizes.   Maybe next year I will have a big enough following to feel like I can participate.