the blog
“We have been “Traveling Life’s Highways” (seeing America through the eyes of a veteran) over 23,000 miles around the United States and Canada. For almost five months, we have stayed in over 100 RV resorts including: National Parks, KOA, Good Sam, and many mom and pop campgrounds. Twin Fountains RV Resort is the best that we have found.”
"If I croak while I’m doing this, at least I’ll die doing something I wanted to do, and I’ve had a good and long run.” - Dr. Bill Weber, 91 said the climb was tougher than he expected. At points, he wondered if he would make it. (Sept 22, 2018 - Breaks the climbing record as oldest to climb Devils Tower)
Monday, April 9, 2018
Crashing early last night around eleven after multiple long days of working on the RV it was easy to stop and pass out. During the night I awakened to the soft sounds of popping corn as it had started to rain lightly. I have always loved the sound of rain fall on a camper or RV as it gives a soothing feeling of calmness.
I rolled over and fell back asleep and woke up about seven to go outside for a short walk across the river. The sounds of the water cascading off the rocks were ever present during the night as the river is just a few yards away from the RV. No one in the campground is awake, a sleepy little village made up of about twenty campers. The rain had stopped, only misting now and the clouds hung low over the mountain just past the treetops here.
It’s time to make coffee and relax a bit before breaking camp and heading into Cherokee to visit the Indian museum. Coffee pot, check, thermos, check, coffee cup, check, coffee filters . . . now where did those get packed? Pull out water from the refrigerator . . . it’s frozen, not a good start for morning coffee. Digging through things while the coffee water boiled I cannot find the filters anywhere so I do not let it dampen things and move on to plan B, use a napkin to strain the coffee grounds. It worked but the edges of the napkin wicked the fluid and it dripped on the counter top. Easy cleanup on aisle 1.
Finally fresh coffee to drink as I ponder where the filters are, it’s always those little things to work out when you start a new adventure that makes you crazy. Planning for the food, the cleaning supplies, the clothing for all kinds of weather conditions on a trip like this there is always something to forget or you did not think of. I planned well and things are here in the RV it’s just which nook or cranny is it placed until I learn the location of things. Things under benches you do not want to have to dig through everyday so placing things that you use for easy access and cold weather jackets in the not used much areas is the way to do it.
Anyway, that’s how the morning went but with coffee and a bowl of cereal it is off to a damp but great start to this new dawn. More later today . . . !
Cherokee, North Carolina – Museum of Cherokee Indians
The first stop on this journey is in the town of Cherokee, North Carolina. It is on the reservation home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. At Oconaluftee Indian Village, the 18th-century Cherokee lifestyle is preserved via live demonstrations in the summertime at the outdoor Mountainside Theater, the drama "Unto These Hills" tells the tribal story. Cherokee is the southern gateway to the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park features campgrounds and Appalachian hiking trails. It is also the southern start (or end) of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
After a stop at the Cherokee Veterans Park it was time for a visit to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian which was really informative about the history of the seven clans which make up the Cherokee nation. They are: Long Hair, Blue, Wolf, Wild Potato, Deer, Bird, and Paint.
There were displays on basket weaving, pottery, wood carving and bead work. The information about the “Trail of Tears” was informative and heart breaking seeing the visuals in this museum of how this tribe was forced westward from their native lands.
I met a woman in the campground in Cherokee, North Carolina named Joy who reminded me of the Don Williams song “Maggie’s Dream” since there were similarities between the two women.
In Maggie’s Dream the elderly woman in the song is a waitress who has never ventured outside her little area around Asheville, North Carolina. Has the same customers, knows what they will order from the menu and dreams of finding a man someday but as she ages is content with her situation.
Joy was a Cherokee native who has lived in that town all of her life and she told me she had never ventured away further than Sylva about thirty miles away. I guess she was in her late forties, a small frame woman with a nice smile and bright eyes. She said she had worked in different jobs around their town all her life and had no desire to travel or venture away from what she knew to be familiar and safe.
It was an interesting conversation in the few minutes I was checking out of the campground. She gave me a big hug as I left.
This was not a typical birthday for me as I am normally off doing something or being with lots of friends but this year all day was spent preparing for departure the next day. I started working on things about seven thirty in the morning barely having a cup of coffee as I knew there was much work to do to finish up the remodel on the RV and then to stock it with everything.
I worked on building a new cup holder and place to store items in the cab as the plastic one did not hold a cup well and I spilled a drink driving it to the house so I knew I needed to remove the original one and build a wooden one that suited my needs. That took several hours of the morning and there was a misty rain falling so going back and forth from the saw to the RV reminded me of the song, “Raindrops keep falling on my head.”
Finishing up the RV took a lot of work and with that the usual complications found on any project. I have had a new toilet for a couple of months sitting nicely inside its shipping box. When I ordered it there were pretty pictures of the front and the water and waste controls but none with the position of the water supply. The old one’s supply line came up vertically from the floor straight into the inlet adapter but the new inlet was pointed horizontally out the back with no way to make a conversion to the water line. Frustration was starting but I quickly went to plan B and cleaned up the old one and re-installed it. It was now about two in the afternoon as I started finishing the trim in the bedroom.
I worked on trim, stocking, and ran into the next hurdle, the water heater. I tore out the old six gallon heater and replaced it with a new propane tank-less heater I installed in a cabinet in the bedroom. I ran water and a gas line to the location of the old heater’s plumbing. Naturally no leaks but for some reason the igniter didn’t fire off so no hot water. I fooled around with that for several hours trying to get the batteries combination the right way as I could not tell on the appliance. I tried several things but will have to wait and call the factory support on Monday.
Packing, stocking and trying to arrange things blew through the rest of my birthday falling to sleep around two thirty in the morning. I’m hoping to finish up in the morning and depart by around noon.
Departure Day 4/08/2018
It was early to rise with a quick cup of coffee and back to work just after seven am. Stocking and arranging things took most of the morning and my sister wanted to meet and grab a quick lunch before both of us headed out in different directions. The morning and early afternoon was misting rain with the occasional wind gust leaving one damp running back and forth stocking things. The last of the work was done installing the dinette table, securing the two gas cans and cooler to the rear luggage rack and it was time to go. Not exactly as I had planned but luckily the drive to the first stop in Cherokee North Carolina was only about an hour and a half away.
Official departure time was 5:15 pm.
Leaving Helen the sky brightened with clouds and bits of blue sky as the drive north through the foothills in Clayton Georgia crossing into North Carolina just after six. It has been years since I played in this area spending several years here when I worked and flew hang gliders for Tut Woodruff who owned Hang Glider Heaven in Clayton and lived on Lake Burton. We flew there and several places in North Carolina during that time so these roads and fields were like seeing an old friend.
The police were out in all the small towns, Clayton, Dillard, and Sylvia along the way just like years ago earning their town money from people in a hurry. It was a steady climb up and over the mountain and the beauty of the river outside Sylva was breathtaking with the dogwoods, cherry trees and other blooming along the roadway. Arriving in Cherokee around seven the place was pretty quiet with just a few people milling around driving past the casino and along the river to the campground.
The campsite sits along a river where you can hear the sounds of water crashing along the rocky bottom. This is about eight miles out of town in the surrounding mountains. The camp host left a note on the office door with the site number so there was no one around. The camper next to this one was just coming back when I backed into the slot and he started a campfire. I made the hookups and settled in for the night after the long last couple of days leading up to hitting the road.
First “meal” on the road, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, lol. Too tired to cook and not sure where everything is yet so cooking will have to wait until this trip progresses. Hopefully a much needed good night's sleep and visit the Indian museum tomorrow before hitting the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway toward Asheville, North Carolina.
Traveling Life’s Highways is the website created so you can follow along and participate on this journey across America.
The website is: travelinglifeshighways.com
“A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles.”
Join me as I wander and write about the places traveled. Good Friends make the time and experience whole and sharing the places and stories along the way keeps everyone involved and hopefully amused by what is seen and the people met Traveling Life’s Highways.
“I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way”
For many years now I’ve wanted to travel the country, write about it and give you a point of view “seeing America through the eyes of a veteran”. Much has happened in our lives and I think we have all lost a little of the feeling we had so many years ago when things were simpler, the roads before us were not filled with so many potholes to avoid, and we looked for the good in everyone. Maybe it wasn’t Mayberry but we thought of America once in that way and I want to find it once again and show everyone it still exists during this conflicted times.
Most of life is about attitudes and how you act and react to things happening to you and around you. Often we judge things and cynically look at thing with a skewed perspective.
“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.” — Kahlil Gibran
During these travels I will be showing photos, blog posts, and other things (possibly a weekly podcast) so you can follow along, comment and share your stories of your travels. I will be using multiple platforms on social media; the Traveling Life’s Highways website, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Youtube (pod cast).
“All you need to know is that it’s possible.” – Wolf, an Appalachian Trail Hiker
I have felt this way for years and Mark Twain expresses it beautifully:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream! Discover.”
Please hit the Like button on the pages so you will be alerted to the next photo, blog post or funny experience Traveling Life’s Highways! (Yes Placido Flamingo will be on this trip)
D. Whittington
