Bye-Bye Baby, So-Long Smokies, and Our 3-Month Anniversary!

We spent most of Monday, 10/24, in the car doing the five-hour round-trip trek to the Knoxville, TN airport. We were sorry to see Rian go, but we know that she was anxious to get back to Floyd (her four-legged child) and has responsibilities and a life of her own to live.

We needed to stretch our legs (and get in some steps!) when we made it back to the campground so we walked part of the Bradley Fork Trail and finally found the old Bradley cemetery. Many of the headstones were unmarked, but those with dates were from the mid-late 1800s into the early 1900’s. Very cool.

Headstones from the late 1800's in the old Bradley Cemetery.

The Bradley Fork runs through the campground.

On Tuesday, I dropped Rog off to ride the Tsali mountain bike trails. These trails are rated as “Epic” by the International Mountain Biking Association and he was super excited to check them out. There are four loop trails, but they alternate use with horseback riders so only two are available for mountain biking on any given day. Rog lucked out, as the two longer loops (about 29 miles total) were open to bikes on Tuesdays.

Rog is excited to embark on his "epic" mountain bike ride!

He's off and it's a beautiful day for a ride.

Fast, fun trail and no rock garden!

This part is a little narrow and wet if you miss the turn!

Great trail and awesome view of Lake Fontana.

I headed back to Bryson City with the laundry. Whoohoo!  I actually lucked out too, as the laundromat had free Wifi. So I worked on the blog and was able to amuse myself until Rog called to say he was ready to be picked up. I’d been a little worried about his rib giving him trouble and when he called almost two hours earlier than expected, I thought maybe he’d opted to cut his ride short. Nope, he’d ridden both loops and everything else that was open to him. He really enjoyed the trails, fun riding, great views and far fewer rock gardens wanting a piece of him. Lol.

We grabbed dinner in Bryson City and then headed back to camp to prepare for our departure in the morning.

We stayed Wednesday night in a RV park in Kinards, South Carolina and arrived at our next destination - Poinsett State Park in Wedgefield, SC – in the afternoon on Thursday, 10/27

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The Garmin did us wrong again (will we ever learn?) so we had to look up the directions on the park website. “Continue on Hwy 261 until you see signs for Poinsett. Park will be on the right.” That sounds easy enough, right? HA! You know it’s never a good thing when I’m apologizing to Rog and wondering what in the heck I’d gotten us into as we’re driving the narrow, windy road to the park. It just kept narrower and narrower until it was just a single lane one-way road without any traffic control. Please note – you cannot back up the RV while towing a car, so if we meet anything larger than a mouse coming in the opposite direction we are hosed! Ugh.  It felt like miles until we came to another sign for the campground entrance and then it just got better – a one-way, rutted, dirt road. Lol.  We did finally make it to our site and delicately maneuvered the bus into a lovely spot, avoiding the worst of the ruts.

Really, our campsite is great – it was just getting here that was a challenge. Part of the problem could be residual damage from Hurricane Matthew. We chose Poinsett in part because of the mountain bike/hiking trails and ALL the trails are closed for at least another week while they work on clearing downed trees and repairing damage. We visited the park office and explored the nearby ruins of an old mill. The mill pond is pretty and the park staff told us about an overlook we could walk to – but no trails will be open while we’re here, bummer. We’ll head over to Congaree National Park tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have better luck there.

ALL the park trails were closed, compliments of Hurricane Matthew.

Pretty mill pond and the visitor center. 

Not much of the old mill left, but I do love the mill stones!

The sluice from the pond at the old mill site. 

Sunset from the park overlook.

October 25th was our three-month anniversary on the road! We’re already a quarter of the way through our year – how did that happen?! So far we’ve traveled 6302 miles in the RV (not counting day trips in the CRV), gone through 705 gallons of diesel, stayed at 37 different places, visited 9 National Parks/Monuments, several state/local parks, and hit 23 states.  Wow.

I know I said our goal was to try to slow down some. Well, that didn’t quite happen. Are you surprised?? No? Me either. Lol.  We did manage fewer travel days this past month – staying seven days in Lewistown when we visited family and nine days in the Great Smokies when Rian came to visit us. But we still managed to pack those days full.

Looking at what we’ve got coming up next – the International Revolver Competition and then Randi and her fiancé Ryan join us for 10 days at Universal Studios/Disneyworld – it just isn’t realistic to think we’ll be taking it easy any time soon. Maybe AFTER that?? No, then we have three National Parks in Florida and the holidays are coming up quick! Maybe AFTER that?? Sure thing. Lol. 

You know what though, it’s all good. We are healthy and happy and busy is better than busted! The coach and CRV are still running well with just a few minor issues. Rog had to replace a part on fridge because the temp kept fluctuating and freezing our greens – maybe a sign I should eat less salad and more ice cream. Lol.  Oh and my FitBit died. Hmmmm… could that be a sign I should sit more, you know, to eat all that ice cream. Naaaah.  I actually had the foresight to pack Rog’s old FitBit when he upgraded, so I’m using that now and only lost a couple days of data. Of course, those were all 20K step days I assure you. Lol.  

I know you all are busy too, so thanks for taking the time to join us on our journey!