house shopping galore

The last few days have been spent looking at houses and doing research about this area, comparing it to other areas of the country that we might be interested in.  Some of our house hunting has been done with a realtor but some of it has been by boat.  We've been tooling around the lake in the inflatable checking out coves and some houses that have For Sale signs on the dock- kind of mixing business with pleasure, stopping at some islands for a quick swim, etc.
   There hasn't (yet) been a house that leaps out at us as perfect, but we are going to look at quite a few more in the next couple of days.  We're really just trying to get an idea of what's available and what the going rate is-I'm not feeling any urgent desire to buy anything and settle.
     Last night we went into Irmo to have dinner with some friends who are in the area for a doctor's appointment.  Paul and I went on a cruise a couple of years ago with the Burns's and their daughter Christina, who is our daughters best friend. The girls had their own cabin on the ship and had a blast, as most teenagers would! We haven't seen them in a year so it was a great dinner- we closed up the restaurant, and then stood outside talking more! 
The weather here has been hot- record heat in some cases.  Yesterday and today there were some really nasty storms in the area, but so far they have all bypassed the lake, so we can hear the thunder but we don't get the wind and rain.

PS Re: the trailer tires

2 weeks ago we blew a trailer tire while traveling down the highway.  The fender was ripped off along with the tire, and minor damage was done to some wiring.  Upon inspection, we could see that a 2nd tire already had some tread separation and would be the next to blow. After researching these tires, we elected to upgrade all 4 tires to one with a better safety history and speed rating.  We filed a claim with Goodyear and yesterday they agreed to pay for all the damage and 4 new tires for the trailer.  We only had to pay the difference between the price of the tire we had and didn't want, and the upgraded tire.
   Although we weren't happy to have this kind of problem with tires, we were happy with Goodyear's response.

Turtles, butterflies and fish

That just about sums up the past few days.  We have spent lazy afternoons on floats on the lake, watching the turtles pop their heads up for a minute or so at a time.  Its too hot to do any hiking, in fact its too hot to do much of anything.  We did spend a day with a realtor in Gainesville, GA checking out some houses on the lake.  We drove through a few towns to see what they were like.  I definately like the lake, but a lot of the houses on the lake were built a long time ago and are actually just cottages- really old and small cottages. We may come back here some other time and spend a longer time checking out the area.  Unfortunately, we were so lazy, and the weather was so lousy (windy with potential thunderstorms every day) that we did not put the dinghy in the water to check it out.  We really should have.
   We left Georgia yesterday, and are now in a campground on Lake Murray, near Columbia, SC.  This lake has much easier access, and the water is about 15 feet from our door, with a sandy/rocky bottom. Yesterday we once again floated around, staying cool.  The high yesterday was 102, and the low temperature last night was 80°.  This morning we made sure to get the dinghy in the water before it got too hot to move.  We took it around for a while this afternoon, getting an idea of how the lake is laid out, and then drove around Chapin, the nearest town to us.
Not very adventurous stuff, and the next couple of weeks will be spent checking out the area more.  There is a rodeo coming into town on Saturday, so I hope we remember to go see it!

Gainesville, GA

Well, we did a complete about face in where we were going next.  We were planning on going to Thurmond lake to check it out on the way to Chapin, SC, but when we did some research on the web, we found that the lake is mostly surrounded by national and state parks, with not much housing, so we reversed our decision to pass up Lake Lanier in GA, and thats where we are now.  Oh, and my extremely mechanically talented husband fixed the USB cable enough so we can get internet, while we wait for the new one to arrive. Awesome~!
I really like this lake as a potential retirement spot. Its 45 miles from Atlanta, the water is warm and clean, and there are quite a few marinas with restaurants right on the water.  Plus the lake is very large with lots of nooks and crannies. We'll do some more investigating and maybe spend some of the winter here if still  like it that much. We've just been hanging around for the most part, although yesterday there was an "Aquapalooza" on the lake, so we took the truck over to the party and had lunch at a restaurant on the water.  We have been to an Aquapalooza before, which is really one big organized party on the water, with games, music etc. Its a pretty fun day!
    I have a cousin who lives near Atlanta, so we are trying to hook up with him tomorrow, if he can get some time off.  It would be a bonus if we lived close to him too, since he's a lot of fun.

Uh oh.

In a moment of clumsiness, I closed the truck door on the cable that allows me to hook up the laptop to the cellphone and surf the web. Therefore, until the new cable arrives, my internet access will be spotty at best.  The park we are staying in for the next few days is a Core of Engineers Park, with no wi-fi.
  The cable is being shipped to our box in MI and as soon as it arrives we'll have our mail forwarded to us in SC. It will probably be at least a week though.  Most McDonalds have wi-fi, so there may be a Big Mac in my future.

Smoky Mountains to Anderson SC

This National Park has a scenic drive, as most of them do.  We try to drive these roads since they usually have a lot of  "bang for your buck".  The average person spends 4 hours when they visit a national park, and the scenic drives are designed so that visitors can see lots of interesting things in a short time.  Here, we passed by trailheads for several interesting hikes.  We hiked 5 miles (R/T) to Abrams Falls. Had we brought swim suits we could have gone swimming once we got there, but I didn't even poke my foot in the water.  The humidity is so high, I was afraid my feet wouldn't dry enough to go back into my boots. Once we were back in the truck, we continued on the drive.  There are many old buildings that were preserved and we stopped to look at some of them.  The Oliver family lived on this land for over 100 years before the land was taken to make the park.  Many of the original buildings are still here, although some of them have been moved.  One farmhouse has a "stranger room"- a room attached to the main house but with no access to the interior of the main house. They used it when someone passing through the area needed a place to sleep.

     Once we had seen enough, we veered off and went exploring down a narrow gravel road.  Halfway to the end, a bear crossed the street right behind our truck.  We watched him disappear into the thicket.  I did get a picture but not a great one.   Further down the road we were surprised to see a Mama bear and her cub cross the street.   We realized that if we turned left onto the next road, we'd see them again, so we did that and watched them approach.  Once they went off through the woods again, we moved to the next road and waited for them.  This time I got out of the truck and onto the toolbox in the back, so I could get a better picture. This was a main road, so when the bears did show up, a lot of cars stopped to watch them, but we had prime seats!
     The weather once again ruined our plans for the afternoon.  We were hoping to go tubing down the nearby river, but the heavens opened and the rumble of thunder could be heard, so we gave it up and went home to eat dinner.  The humidity is pretty uncomfortable and we were both looking forward to getting to a campground with electricity.
Yesterday we drove from the Smokies to Anderson, SC.  Anderson is near two large lakes -Hartwell and Keowee. We are checking the area to see if its "retirement worthy" for when we decide to stop traveling. The lakes are great but the towns don't seem to be what we are looking for.  Our original intent for this week was to spend it in Lexington, SC, near Lake Murray, but we decided that since we'll be there for 2 weeks, we can afford to take this week to look at other lakes.

     We took off this morning and headed to Stumphouse Tunnel.  This tunnel was supposed to connect Charleston SC with the midwest, and was started just before the civil war.  Unfortunately, the mountain is solid granite and of course there were no power tools to use.  They averaged clearing about 200 ft of tunnel per month and after excavating 4300 ft  of the 5800 ft needed, they gave up.  Its been abandoned since then but the first 800 ft is open to the public.  There's also a very pretty waterfall nearby- we just viewed it from the platform and didn't hike down to it.
 

Hiking the Smokies in the Rain

July 12, 2010
Today was a great test for my new North Face Gor-tex jacket. When we left this morning to go hiking, it looked like it might rain so we brought our rain gear with us. Before we even got the trail, it had started. The trail was 5 miles round trip to Alum Caves Bluff. It is warm enough that the rain wasn’t bothering us, and we only have 2 days here, so we want to make the most of it. My jacket worked great, although, being in the rain for hours, you’re still going to get pretty wet. We were both wearing our quick dry clothes, so once the rain stopped for a while, we were pretty comfortable again. We did see a pretty view at one point, but the rain pretty much wreaked havoc on the visibility. In fact, once we finished that hike, we drove to Clingman’s Dome, one of the highest peaks around, but by then the fog was so thick, visibility was about 100 yards. And it was still raining. Not drizzling. Raining.


      On our way in to the park yesterday with the trailer, we tried to stop at the Visitors Center to learn about the park and get information so we could make plans but we were foiled by the fact that ALL the RV parking spots were taken by cars, and not RVs. Very irritating. Since we didn’t get there yesterday, we stopped in this afternoon.

         Smoky Mountain National Park got its name from the blue/gray mist that hangs around the mountains most of the time. It is the most visited national park, with 9 million visitors a year- more than double any other national park. Half of the land for the park was bought with money donated by the people of Tennessee and North Carolina. John D. Rockefeller donated the rest of the money needed. The campground we are in has over 200 sites, and its one of 3 campgrounds in the park. They do take the bears here pretty seriously. We had to sign a paper acknowledging that we are aware that we can’t leave any food items outside if we aren’t out there with them. No coolers, no food, no grills. And if you do leave a cooler out- the rangers take it, and leave a note for you to go to the ranger station if you want your cooler. And you get to pay a $75 fine. There have been several bear attacks and they have had to relocate or euthanize many bears, due to campers leaving food around.

Once we had our fill of the visitor’s center, with the rain having stopped, we headed out on a 2.6 mile walk to Laurel Falls. It is a paved trail, which made it less than exciting, and the falls were ok, but nothing spectacular. I am not sure any falls will be spectacular after seeing Yosemite, but you never know, and at least we got some exercise.

We have no internet, or phone, so I posted this when we drove into town for fuel

Land between the Lakes, TN

     Land between the Lakes used to be called Land between the Rivers, but many years ago, after repeated flooding, people were moved out of the way, dams were built, and Kentucky Lake and Lake Barklay were formed. After all that, the land between the two lakes became a national recreation area. After being here for 4 days, I want to say that there really isn’t much to do here, but that wouldn’t be fair. There’s not much to do here that Paul and I like to do. There is hunting, fishing, ATVing and not too much else. We drove the road that goes through the center of the peninsula and it was like driving down a toboggan run surrounded by trees. There wasn’t much to see along the way, except a few deer in the fields. Of course there is boating, and we did take the inflatable out a few times, but the wind kicked up pretty fast and we had to head back while dodging 1-2 foot “seas”. It calmed down later, but while we were out there, we did notice that the lake is murky enough that you can only see down about 2 feet.
         We visited Fort Donelson yesterday to get an idea of the civil war history of the area. Before the civil war, no decision had been made as to whether this area really belonged to Tennessee or Kentucky, and no one cared, since it made no real difference. But Kentucky initially remained neutral during the civil war, and Tennessee fought with the Confederates, and the decision was made to fight against the Union with the South. Unfortunately for them, Ulysses S. Grant was the general who was in charge of the Union army and he quickly gained control of the fort, taking 13,000 men as prisoners. Securing use of these two rivers opened up Nashville and the surrounding area for the Union army to invade.
         The weather has been hot and muggy, as it has been pretty much everywhere in the country. It’s been nice to have the air conditioning, although we have sat outside a lot, because somehow there are NO mosquitoes here at ALL. I have no idea why, but there weren’t any in Branson either. We’re not complaining about that, that’s for sure.
        Tomorrow we leave here to head across Tennessee, bringing us closer to Smoky Mountain National Park, our next destination. We’re a little nervous because once we get there, we’ll have no electricity for 3 days, so I hope its not too hot and humid.

Missouri to Tennessee

July 4th the weather started out lousy in the morning, so we just hung around until late afternoon. Once the rain stopped and it seemed like there would actually be fireworks, we threw the grill and some food in the back of the truck and headed out to find a spot to watch them. The ones we wanted to see were being set off on Table Rock lake, so we found a grassy area near the lake and cooked some burgers once we got settled. The fireworks were not of the caliber that we are used to but we had a great time hanging out. The weather was perfect- no jacket needed. Getting back to the trailer was a long process, since we had to get in line with thousands of other cars.  

              Our last day in Branson was spent on the other large lake in the area-Taneycomo. Two lakes- separated only by a dam, and yet they are so different. Table Rock Lake had warm, beautiful blue water, and was wide, and roundish, like you would think a lake would look. Lake Taneycomo is on the other side of the dam. This lake is long, narrow and shallow, and seems more like a river, with trees growing all along the banks- and the water temperature is about 20-30 degrees colder. It is fed water from 140 ft below the surface of Table Rock Lake, which makes the water about 55 degrees and perfect for trout. The lake is stocked with up to 80,000 trout per month from a nearby hatchery (which we toured). We took the inflatable a few miles down the river, and watched fish swim and jump all around us. There were so many fish, we could see trout swimming around the people who were trying to catch them! We went as far as Branson Landing, the river walk where we had gone shopping the other day. On the way there we went slowly, because the lake is pretty shallow in most spots- only 3-5 feet deep. On the way back though, we zipped along wherever we knew it was deep enough.

          Back at the trailer we headed to the pool to cool off before cooking dinner, then once the boat was dry we put it away. We were invited to our “neighbors” for dessert. We had become friendly with some of the people in the trailers near ours, and they had made homemade ice cream and cobbler, so we weren’t about to turn that down. We sat around until we couldn’t stay awake anymore, then said goodnight.
          This morning we drove very carefully to Springfield, where we had all new tires put on the Everest. The old tires will be sent to Goodyear for evaluation, and we’ll see what they will do for us. Once that was done we drove all day long and ended up in Dover, Tennessee, in a National Recreation area that is called “Land Between the Lakes” because its basically an island, with Kentucky Lake on one side, and Barklay Lake on the other. The site we have is on the water, and the sunset was awesome tonight.
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July 4th weekend

For years, the week of July 4th has been a particularly fun time for me.  For the many years that my dad and I had a boat, we would take that boat onto the Charles River for 5 days with a bunch of other boating friends.  We'd all tie up together, and then the party would begin!  Of all the years I've made that trip, 1998 was the most special. For the first time after the death of my dad, I had to drive the boat by myself the 3 hours from Danvers to Boston. On July 2, 1998, with my boat tied up to 8 others, I was having a grand old time partying. A solo boater pulled up and asked if he could tie his 30 ft boat up to mine for a couple of days, since it looked like we had a safe spot with a great view. My friends and I agreed we had room for him, so a few minutes later his boat was secured and he spent the next 2 days partying with us.  That solo boater was my husband Paul. Two years later we were married, and I've never been happier.
      Life brings changes, and we no longer have a boat, and although every July 4th  I miss my boating friends,  the memories of our Boston trips will always make me smile.

        As for the last few days, we did take our dinghy out on Table Rock Lake  for the day on Thursday.  We packed a picnic lunch to eat out on the lake, and the water was the perfect temperature for swimming.  Thursday night our show was "The Haygoods"- a family of 8 siblings who not only sing great harmonies, they play most of the instruments themselves as well.  All of them play the fiddle, which made their rendition of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" awesome.  I really enjoyed the show.  Afterwards they asked the audience to stick around because they had a film crew from L.A. there to tape a live version of their new original song, and they needed an audience for the filming.  It was fun being there while they did 4 takes. Who knows- maybe someday we'll see ourselves on TV.

    Yesterday it was time to zip on the ZipLine for the first time!  I was a little nervous  as I let go of the tower for the first time, but after that initial moment,  I really enjoyed the trips along the cables. Would I do it again?  Probably not unless there was something new and unique to it.  It was a lot of money just to zip on 4 ziplines for the heck of it.  It was fun though, and I wanted to try it, to see how it was.
     Last night we went out to dinner at a small Mexican restaurant- the Margaritas were great, and the entire dinner was under $50.  Not bad.
Paul started the day feeling a little lazy, and then feeling guilty for feeling lazy. We didn't feel like venturing out too far, and it is supposed to rain today, so he is doing projects around the trailer, and I am doing laundry and catching up on paperwork.  Tonight is our last show- a comedian named Paul Harris.