Highland Waterfalls

Nan and I left Carol's on Saturday and drove Rte 64 to an RV park in Franklin, NC. The view:

We stayed at a cute little Passport America Park, farm family-owned.

Koi and frog pond

Lots of nest boxes and birds

I think this is a tree swallow.

Nan having fun with the bathhouse decor.

We parked Nan's rv and took Silver Lining on the winding mountain roads to see some waterfalls.

This wasn't one of them, but I climbed down the bank to see, so took a pic.

The first waterfall we stopped at was named Dry Falls near the town of Highlands. Don't know why they named it that because we certainly got wet as we walked behind it. The water falls about 40 feet.

The path behind the falls.

Looking out through the water at Nan as she takes a picture of me.

There goes Nan behind the falls.

A view of the trail down to the falls. Nan's newly repaired knee got a workout.

"The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence but by oft falling." Lucretius
The power of water amazes me.

Want to watch the waterfall? Click on the video.

Forget-me-nots growing on the wet rock wall.

Nan gets a photo.

Don't know what these are called. On edit: this is a Japanese Pieris, also called Lily-of-the-valley shrub.

The next stop was Bridal Veil Falls. 

Which you can not only walk under, but drive under as these motorcycle riders did. I didn't do that with the rv. The waterfall was not the only water falling.

View from behind.

Next we drove across the GA border to Sky Valley where Nan owns a time-share condo. Along the road we passed these rhododendrons in full bloom.

 The sun came out again and we stopped for a dog break at this Osage Mountain overlook.

Loved the name of this trail, but it was too wet to hike.

 Entrance to Sky Valley

 Nan's condo overlooks this lake.

And there is also a waterfall here.

For a memorable end of our day, Nan treated me to dinner at Dillard House. View from the parking area:

Dillard House serves family style dinners. You don't order anything, you just eat what's for dinner. And let me tell you, there's a lot of it. This was the appetizer course:

 The meat and vegetable course: chicken fried and bbq, roast beef, ham, okra, green beans, greens, squash, corn, carrots....

 We managed to do a good job. And the doggy-bags provided two more meals each.

 Nan and I have agreed if we see something we like in any of the gift shops we pass through, we'll just take a picture instead of buying. So here's my picture from the gift shop.

Nudging Northward

I was heading towards friend Sarah's in Huntsville for a visit anyway. But before I could get there, the devastating line of tornadoes came through Alabama, leaving Sarah thankfully safe, but in the dark.
This photo from the Huntsville newspaper shows why most of northern Alabama was without power for over a week.

When I found out roads were clear, and it was safe to do so, I headed that way to see if I could be of help. Passed utility crews, FEMA trailers, and National Guard convoys on the way too.

Met Sarah in Birmingham where another forum friend, Wendy, invited her to recoup with elec. & hot showers. We spent two days there. Left to right: Wendy, Sarah, and me. Sarah had spent several days after the storm in line at one of the few grocery stores to get her cell phone charged, and buy a little rationed food and ice if she was lucky. She also had to wait in long lines to get enough rationed gas to get to Wendy's.

The dogs were not excited about a group picture: Left to right, Sarah's Nicky, Wendy's Pepper, and my Roe.

Then it was on to Sarah's house in Huntsville. This is my camping spot in her drive. Her electricity had just been turned on after more than a week. I was able to help out a little cleaning refrigerators, cooking meals, and picking up downed limbs, leaving her free to look after her sister who was in the hospital. She was fortunate not to have any damage other than losing all the food in her refrigerators.

Sarah's dog, Nicky is waiting for a chipmunk to come back out of the drain pipe.

Roe is just waiting...

Nicky hanging out after the chase.

Bandit really liked all the rocks in this campground.

 Notice how this tree grows over the rock.

Sarah took me to Fresh Market where I discovered a new way to drink wine. No stemware needed, you just spray it in your mouth...almost bought some for my wine-drinking friends. Oh wait, that says "Wine-Away"...so never mind.

Once things were squared away at Sarah's, she and I left for a visit with Carol in North Carolina. We carefully chose a route to avoid the worst damaged towns as we didn't want to get in the way of rescue and cleanup workers. We did see downed trees, utility crews, and piles of debris in Lake Guntersville.

 We had another great get-together at Carol's. First forum friend Nan came. There was never a shortage of food. Left to right: Carol, Sarah, me, Nan.

Nan was a day late and several dollars short. We saw her coming on Thursday, and I ran out the door waving to meet her. I kept waving, and she kept driving...right on by. No one got a picture of me running down the road behind her, waving and yelling, or the two neighbor dogs chasing behind me. Nan was tired after her long day driving and with no cell phone srevice to call me or get my frantic phone messages, she went back to an RV park and paid for a night's stay.

When we finally connected, Sarah and I took her car to get Nan for dinner. On the way we passed these beautiful poppies in the road median. Sarah stopped so we could get pictures.

My campsite in Carol's back yard.

 Blooms on the tulip poplar tree in Carol's yard.

On Friday, Nan brought her RV back to Carol's, and another friend, Carolyn came to visit. Of course there was food involved. Left to right: Carol, Carolyn, Sarah, me, and Nan.

Sarah was in charge of all the weird food. She brought butternut squash spaghetti sauce, polenta which we sliced and fried, and date-honey goat cheese....all of which was quite good and I would eat again.

Bandit and Roe made themselves right at home in Maggie's house, but no one would consent to a group pet picture again.

We ate, and talked, and laughed, and played cards...

And listened to the Whip-poor-will songs at night. If you want to hear the Whip-poor-will, click on the video:

Nan and I are traveling northward together to a women's forum get-together in Pennsylvania in June. 

Next up: the Highland area waterfalls.