WaynesVille NC - 2018

We arrived at Pride Resort in Waynesville NC in the rain of course.  Not a big deal I guess, we just moved a little faster to set up camp.  We stayed here from 27 July to 2 Aug.  Here to finish up the Blue Ridge parkway and do other stuff too.  Wait, you will see.

As usual, we had to do a little backtracking on the parkway before seeing new trees.  Our first stop was the Cone Manor.  And luck would have it, the upstairs was open to the public the day we were there.  I guess it's not open that much to the public.  The mansion was built in 1901 by some rich dude.  I don't know if he just built it just because, or what, but you can visit it for free now.

Our next stop was Linville Falls.  I was a short hike because we decided to just do the upper section and not go to the lower section.  That decision was put in cement as soon as we ended the trail and saw the falls and where the people were at the bottom.  We had a better view.  Here are some pictures of that.

During our time here, we were lucky to see a mommy and baby bear.  They crossed the road one car a head of us.   Boy these bears are small.  The mommy was no larger than a medium dog and the baby was like our dog was when he was 8 weeks old.  In one of the visitor centers, they had a stuffed bear.  We took a picture of that so you can see the size.

The next day, on the road again, down the Blue Ridge.  This time we stopped at CrabTree Falls and did a hike to see them.  Of course we took the long way down and the short way back up.  Our 0.8 mile down turned into 2 miles down and 0.8 miles up.  I guess that's the way the water falls.  Anyway, here are the pictures of these.

Somewhere along the way, Terry says, lets take this side route.  It took us from the Blue Ridge to Great smoky Mountains National Park.  We did get to see Elk with Jewelry.  Ended up on a one way trail to the bottom.  The only good thing about this "Road" was the river at the bottom of the road.  Here are the pictures of the trail and elk.  But now that we took the shortcut, we still had 20 more miles of the Blue Ridge to complete.  I guess we will do that another day because now we are off to the other side of the Smoky Mountains to check out Cable Mill.

Ok, it took us about 2 hours or so, but we made it to Cable Mill.  Part of the road was a one way and everyone thinks it's ok to just stop and gander out the freakin window.  Pull the #$%^# over!.  Then all the traffic was backed up for about 15 minutes and during that time, a ambulance had to squeeze by all the cars to get to the Mill.  But like I said, we made it.  What's funny is the only sign by the buildings was a sign about a pig cage and nothing else.  Here is the pictures of the mill.

On our way out, we found out why we weren't seeing any bears.  We were looking on the ground, not in the trees.  Go figure.  Here are some pictures of the bear in the air.  You might have to zoom in on the pictures to see the bear.  Look for the black spot in the middle of the pictures.

The next day we finished up the parkway and went into Cherokee NC.  Interesting little town.  The welcome sign is in Cherokee, along with all the signs in town.  Don't think I ever saw that before. Here are some pictures of that.

After that we headed to Bush's Best Visitor center (we saw this after coming home from the Mill on the previous day.).  I wasn't that impressed with the visitor center.  I guess gone is the day when you can actually take a tour of a plant and get free samples.  We then checked out some covered bridges we saw signs for.  I guess they never expected a dually to use them when they were built.  Anyway, here is the pictures to bush's and the covered bridges.

After that, we took some down time and got ready for the next adventure.  Soon we were off to Rock Hill SC, staying at a City park called Ebenezer park, but that's another story.