OMG. That first part wasn't too terribly hard, though it was strenuous. The falls were beautiful. But the hike back up? I thought I'd die. We weren't planning on hiking far, so we didn't take any water with us. Big mistake. No walking stick, either. But after lots of stops for me to catch my breath, I made it to the top without needing either paramedics or a body bag. (Wasn't so sure about either of those outcomes halfway through.)
The next day we drove back to where we'd started and went south on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a while. I have a book started that is set on the Blue Ridge, so I needed to do some research on the area.
From there, we headed to Smoky Mountain National Park. We loved the Smokies. So cool and peaceful, even with all the tourists. We drove through Cade's Cove, and we hiked up to Clingman's Dome. Saw bears and deer, wild turkeys, and more motorcycles than we'd ever seen in one location.
The hike up to Clingman's Dome was difficult for someone with COPD and mild heart failure, but I did it. The view was worth it, as was the sense of accomplishment.
From there we headed down to the Indian Village, but got there too late. Something to do on the next trip, I guess.
The next month, we had to go pick up our daughter (and a trailer load of her things) from Boston. We took a scenic route that took us through the Ohio Amish country. Loved it. So peaceful up there. Hubby really enjoyed the lunch at Mrs. Yoder's kitchen, too. Then we drove up through Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. We stopped at Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, Ithaca, Lake Placid, and took a ferry across Lake Champlain. I got to swim in a waterfall pool in Ithica, and there was an Amish couple on the ferry, both highlights of the trip for me.
In Maine, we went out to see the Portland Head Light (lighthouse) and drove through Kennebunkport.
All in all, we drove over 7000 miles, visited 20+ states, saw some amazing sights, got some great pictures, had lots of fun, and found places we'd love to live.
Have you taken a major road trip lately? Tell me about it in the comments!
2 comments:
Not recently, but in Dec. 2011 we had the best road trip ever!!! From home (Vancouver Island, through Washington, down the Oregon Coast, down to Disneyland for a week, then drove to Vegas for a few days (from there did the Grand Canyon day trip...unfortunately it was cold, foggy and snowy, with only glimpses of the canyon!!), then headed north again, stayed in San Francisco for a few days (my absolute favorite!!), headed north again through the Napa Valley, then just drove, I have vague recollections of Oregon on the way home and drove through Seattle (yikes!) and on home. I loved that road trip!
We're going to make a similar trip next. The plan is to drive from Texas to Los Angeles to visit the kids, then drive up to Seattle, take the Alaska ferry to Whittier, drive to Fairbanks, cross over to Canada, drive down to North Dakota, and back home. I've never been farther north than San Francisco, and never across the northern border, so that will be fun.
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