North Carolina – Our RV Trip

Ancient Mountains

By Jennie Simpson | November 20, 2021

Hey Guys! We spent two weeks in Pigeon Forge so we could explore Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It was a very busy two weeks…we did as much as we could…and we didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what’s available to do in the area.

I’ve put off visiting this area of the country for awhile now…for various reasons. The main reason is how incredibly busy it is. Great Smoky Mountain NP is America’s most visited National Park. It’s crowded. The towns of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are the two main towns people stay in when visiting and Guys, it was insanely busy. Crowds aren’t our thing. And…if I’m being completely honest…I was comparing the Smoky Mountains to the Rocky Mountains…the Smokies didn’t seem that impressive to me.

The Appalachian mountains that you find within Great Smoky Mountain NP were formed 480 million years ago while the Rockies are much younger and were formed somewhere around 285 million years ago. When the Appalachians were younger and still growing, it’s thought that they were actually bigger than the Rockies are today. We’ve come to affectionately refer to the Smoky Mountains as old man mountains. Today, the highest peak in Smokies is close to 6,600 feet and while it’s not as high as what you can find in the Rockies…the views are still impressive. The park get’s it’s name from the constant presence of fog that seems to cling to the mountains. While the fog is thinker in the mornings, it’s pretty much there all day and can make for some very interesting views.

One of the most visited places in Great Smoky Mountain NP is Clingmans Dome. I always thought Clingmans Dome was the name of the tower you can hike up for a view, but actually, a dome is what they call a rounded mountain or ridge top. Clingmans Dome stands at 6,643 feet and is the highest point in the park. The trial to get to the observation tower is only half a mile long, but it feels like you’re hiking straight up. It’s a steep trail and has zero shade so if you ever go, be prepared for that. Once you reach the top of the observation tower, you’re rewarded with a 360* view of the Smoky Mountains and if you’re there on a clear day, you can see five different states. We went on a clear day and once I caught my breath from all of the up…the view was fantastic! In the 1800s people called the peak of Clingmans Dome, Smoky Dome due to the seemingly ever present smoky effect of the fog and clouds.

You never know what you’re going to find when you head out on a trail in Great Smoky Mountain NP. We found an old CCC camp one day This particular camp was also used to house and continue some of the CCC projects by Conscientious Objectors of WWII in 1942. Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933 to combat two problems in the United States… reforestation of our Nation’s timber resources due to the commercial logging and the unemployment problem during the Great Depression. The average CCC employee was unemployed and unmarried men between 18 and 22 years old. All over the Country, CCC camps were established to house, educate and feed the volunteers (where were paid $30 a month) while they built roads, trails, and buildings that we still use to this day. The National Park System benefited greatly from the CCC and the Great Smoky Mountain NP benefited more than any other park. There were 22 CCC camps that housed up to 3,000 men. The camps were abandoned a long time ago, but you can still find traces of some of them. We’re big fans of the CCC program and what it offered our people in their time of need and all of the amazing things they did for our Nation.

Mingus Mill was built in 1886 and was used to grind corn and wheat for some of the nearby communities. It was in pretty bad disrepair and restored by the CCC in 1937. Today, you can go and see how corn and wheat used to be milled. You can even buy some fresh corn meal or wheat flour from the miller that’s posted there. We enjoyed walking around the mill and chatting with the miller there. We’ve been to other mills before, but it’s always interesting to see the differences in each mill.

Before it was a National Park, it was home to thousands of people. You can see the homes and livelihoods that were left behind when the area was made into a National Park. Land was purchased as it became available and the few that didn’t want to sell their homes or leave their businesses and move were incorporated into the park but with the right to remain on their land until they died. There are cabins all throughout the park that are left over from another life. All of the ones we found were open to exploration.

Alfred Reagan was a farmer of cattle, crops, fruit and even timber. He and his wife made their life and raised their family in one of the small communities on the rocky mountainside of the Appalachian mountains. Life was hard but good. They used all three colors available from Sears Roebuck offered to paint their home. We found that it was interesting that this was the only cabin we found that was painted.

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, Swain County gave up pretty much all of it’s privately owned land to make a portion of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and to create Fontana Lake. The lake was used to create the electricity to run the aluminum plants for the Oak Ridge Tennessee’s National Laboratory during WWII during the Manhattan Project. Hundreds of families were forced to leave the small mountain communities that had been their home for generations. With the creation of Fontana Lake homes and the old highway 288 that lead to them were all under the waters of the lake. The citizens of these small communities were all promised by the government that a new road would be made so they would continue to have access to the small cemeteries where generations of their family members were buried. For environmental and construction issues that came up during the construction…the new road was put to a stop and never finished. The “Road To Nowhere” was born. Today it’s a neat place to go for a walk. You can walk all the way through the tunnel and take one of the trails at the end. The day we went, it was raining so we didn’t do any hiking, but I’ve read that you can hike by some of the abandoned homesteads.

Water is a constant presence at Great Smoky Mountain National Park. If it’s not the rain (an average of 55 to 85 inches per year depending on where you are in the park) it’s the rivers/creeks/streams or waterfalls. It makes for a very interesting and diverse park. We had the best time chasing waterfalls of all sizes during our time exploring this NP unit! What we didn’t love…all of the up that most of those waterfalls took to see. Whoo!! So. Many. Stairs!! If waterfalls are your jam…Great Smoky Mountain NP has over 2.000 miles of waterways and over 100 waterfalls for you to explore to your heart’s content.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park was park unit 186 for us. The boys got their Junior Ranger badge and chatted with a Ranger about his time at the park. If you ever want to know an insider’s tips to a park…talk to a Ranger. In a park that is as busy as GSNP…tips about the not so popular, but just as good places can be invaluable.

Seven years ago…when we were just starting to plan out this crazy nomad life of ours…I sent off for information about attractions from several states. Tennessee sent me a ton of park brochures from Great Smoky Mountains NP. I filed them away and kept them safe until we were able to finally use them this year! We used them all in our planning and explorations. You can buy them in the park and I would highly recommend it. The little tidbits they offer about the park are great.

Apparently, there’s an event almost every weekend in Pigeon Forge. While we were there, the event was a car show and it was a full week thing. It was basically like a huge tailgating party that stretched over several blocks. Cars were out, people were out, there was food and fun and…scooters. Guys, the scooters were a spectacle all on their own. We saw so many scooters being ridden around by people. It was funny to watch the scooter trains as they wound their way through the cars and streets.

There’s a road called The Tail of the Dragon that is a huge draw for motorcycles and sports cars. It has 318 curves in 11 miles. I expected more views from this stretch of road…It was mainly just views of the road in front of us. We did see tons of motorcycles and expensive sportscars zooming around. There’s one pull off and the view wasn’t that great. I did some research and found that there are close to 100 crashes a year on this 11 mile stretch of twisty road.

Did you know there’s a Tennessee Whiskey Trail? We did the Kentucky Bourbon Trail…if you missed that post, check it out here…So, we thought we should do the TN Whiskey Trail too! In KY you got a t-shirt when you finished the trail. In TN you get a poker chip at each Distillery you visit and then when you’re done, you send off your passport and get the rest of the poker set! We did a few distilleries in the two weeks we were in Pigeon Forge. Ole Smoky was fun and we got a special t-shirt (that is super soft) for doing a tour. It’s still weird to have a kid who’s old enough to do the tastings with us now…

If you’re a foodie, you’ll have plenty to choose from between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. There are tons of options. We enjoyed everything we got. It was super crowded so we didn’t go to too many places, but the spots we hit were all good. Corky’s BBQ and JT Hannah’s were our favorites.

We were in Pigeon Forge the last couple of weeks of summer so the flowers were kind of slim pickings. I did find plenty of mushrooms/fungi though! So many different shapes and colors!

There are something like 1500 bears in the Smoky Mountains. We heard from so many people that they always see bears when they go. We saw signs about bear activity but didn’t see a single bear. Not even a foot print. Due to road work, we didn’t get to go to Cades Cove, which is supposedly where a ton of bears like to stay…maybe we’ll see some next time.

That’s it Guys! We liked Great Smoky Mountains National Park a lot more than we thought we would and we will definitely go back and do some more exploring…soon! When we left the leaves were just starting to hint at changing colors. I’d love to go back during prime fall colors!

See y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour

Oh Carolina…

By Jennie Simpson | November 16, 2016

Hey Guys!! We spent a week in the Raleigh, NC area.

We didn’t do much.

We made it to the State Capitol Building.

Most of the North Carolina State Capitol Building is a museum. They’ve arranged rooms to resemble what they were in years past. The room above is the geology room. We love it when there’s a museum in the SCBs! We learn so much about the state through these museums.

Y’all know we love foodie spots. Let me introduce you to Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar. You can get burgers, sushi, and burger/sushi fusions!

There were so many options…you could eat there everyday for months and not get the same thing twice. We absolutely loved Cowfish!! The owner came out and talked with us while we were there and guys…he was so nice. Seriously. If there’s a Cowfish near you, go check it out!

We also spent a week in Columbia, SC.

We didn’t take a tour at the South Carolina State Capitol Building, but we did get to roam around. I thought the dome was pretty.

Most of the SCBs we’ve visited have a redish/pink color scheme in at least a few of the rooms, but both of the Carolina’s SBCs were more earthy tones with blue highlights. It was a nice change.

We made it to Congaree National Park. I’d been looking forward to this park since I’d done the initial planning for our whole nomadic fifty state tour. It stuck in my head because there was a caution that this park inhabits six venomous snakes and alligators. Six. Six venomous snakes all in one park. And then they add alligators on top of that!

No, I don’t like snakes. Not even a little, but I felt like we were be safe enough with the boardwalk trail. We got there the week after Hurricane Mathew mucked up our plans and sent us fleeing to Asheville. So…we were already irritated with Mathew. When we got to Congraee we learned Mathew wasn’t done messing with us. Nope. He’d blown through the park and messed up pretty much all of the trails. We got to walk a teeny tiny bit of the boardwalk trail. We were so bummed. I’d been looking forward to it for soooo long and then bam! A hurricane.

But it wasn’t a total loss. We found an all you can eat buffet at Little Pigs Barbecue. All. You. Can. Eat…BBQ!!! What?!?!

I counted four different kinds of pulled pork! There was also all the fixin’s! All of them. Oh, and by-the-way…in the Carolinas anytime you hear BBQ they mean pork. Always. It was soooo stinkin’ good! Little Pigs is a no frills kind of place, but that’s ok because it helps keep the cost down. When was the last time you’ve eaten at an all you can eat buffet for $10? That includes a drink. Yum-oh!

We have officially fallen in love with the Carolinas!

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

The Biltmore

By Jennie Simpson | November 8, 2016

Since Hurricane Mathew interrupted our time on the North Carolina coast, we headed to the Asheville area to escape the weather. Asheville is where you’ll find The Biltmore.

Built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt, The Biltmore was just one of the Vanderbilt family homes. It’s huge. Let me see if I can remember the details…thirty-three bedrooms, forty-three bathrooms, 250 rooms, and sixty-five fireplaces all add up to a grand total of about four acres of floor space.

We opted to take the ninety minute guided audio tour. We feel like audio tours really add to the experience. In the photo above, you can see the Winter Garden. The Winter Garden is actually inside the mansion. That’s a glass roof you’re looking at and what used to be a working fountain.

On one side of the massive banquet hall is this set of built in shelves with the organ loft. The organ actually works. In the basement, there’s a room that has the air pump for the organ. I love the shelves!

On the other side of the banquet hall is a wall of triple fireplaces. Because three is always better than one, right? This room was huge. The pictures can’t even begin to portray the true size of it. The ceiling in the banquet hall is seven stories high!

Here you can see the Breakfast Room where the Vanderbilt family ate lunch. Yep, you read that right. They named it The Breakfast Room, but they would eat lunch there. Maybe it was a really late breakfast…more like brunch?

The ceilings in The Biltmore were just as ornate and thought out as the rest of the rooms.

The Tapestry Gallery is more like a wide hallway. There are three tapestries hanging here that are a part of seven. Each tapestry depicted one of the Seven Virtues.

This fireplace was in the Tapestry Gallery. I love how ornate it is! Check out the turtles on the bottom of the lamps.

We’ve made it to my favorite room in the whole place. The Library.

I took more photos of the Library than any other room at The Biltmore. I mean…look at that fireplace! Can you imagine perusing the books to find that perfect read and curling up by the fireplace to have a quiet afternoon? Oh! See the big blue and white urn type thing? It once belonged to a Chinese Emperor about 500 years ago. He used it as a fish bowl.

This was George Vanderbilt’s bedroom. It’s huge! And I love all of the woodwork in it. All hand carved by super important artsy people. I don’t remember all of their names…there were so many different names said during this tour. Can you see the gold colored walls? That’s real gold. It’s gilded 24 Karat gold burlap.

All of the fireplaces were different. Different colors, different materials, different style. This one was in George Vanderbilt’s bedroom.

This sitting room joined the family bedrooms. There was a small table for food, a writing desk, and a game table. This is where the family would have breakfast while they planned the day’s events.

Edith Vanderbilt’s room was oval shaped and decorated in gold and purple. Edith made sure she knew all the names of everyone working at The Biltmore during a time when it was improper for the family to speak to the staff. She also made sure to send care baskets when children were born. Edith went so far as to start a trade-school that taught weaving and wood working so the servant’s children would be able to learn a craft or trade that they could use to earn a living.

The Biltmore was really built so the family could entertain guests. The third floor living hall was right outside all of the guest suites. The guests would wait to go down to breakfast here as they sat around and chatted.

I loved looking at all of the old family photographs. Notice the books against the wall? George Vanderbilt had a 23,000 volume collection of books. That alone makes me like him. I mean, anyone who takes the time to accumulate that many beloved books has to be good, right?

This is in one of the guest suites. I really enjoy the way they have the rooms set up. It’s like we’re getting to take a peak back in time. With the dress on the bed with the gloves over the footboard…it’s like catching a fleeting glimpse into their lives.

This is in the same guest suite. The vanity table all set up and waiting. This guest suite was just for single ladies. The single ladies and single gentlemen were kept in separate suits since it was inappropriate for them to sleep in the same area of the house.

Check out this chandelier. It’s three stories high with three chandeliers on it. Can you imagine trying to dust that thing?

In the basement you’ll find the recreation area. Complete with a bowling alley,

a 70,000 gallon heated swimming pool that they only kept filled for a few days at a time,

and a gymnasium because even back then being healthy was important.

They supplied private dressing rooms because no self-respecting lady of that time would be caught walking through the house in a “bathing costume”. There was a row for the women and a separate row (on the other side of the wall) for the men.

The library was my favorite room…the pastry kitchen is a close second. Imagine having an entire kitchen solely for the purpose of baking…

There would’ve been more than a dozen people in here working to prepare the meals for the Vanderbilt family and their guests. The copper pots hanging above the worktable are actually original.

Check out the mortar and pestle! Huge!

This was the servant’s dining room. The dining room maid would have served the servants three meals a day here.

There were sooo many pantry rooms. Each dedicated to different things. This one is mainly for the canned goods.

Most people have one room for the laundry. At The Biltmore, there was a sewing room, main laundry room, drying room,

and a dying room. Notice the box and bottles of dyes?

This was the smoking room. More books. The books were everywhere! It was a book lovers dream!

This pic gives you a good idea of the many different levels at The Biltmore.

This is the view the Vanderbilt Family and their guests enjoyed. George Vanderbilt and his architect used a ladder to determine what the best view would be before they began building.

We got to The Biltmore around 2’ish…we didn’t leave until around 8. There are so many things to look at.

We took a quick walk through some of the gardens, but we didn’t have time to look at everything.

Here are some of the pretties…

look how bright and vibrant they are!

I would love to see the gardens during each season.

There was a wine tasting included with the house ticket. If you know me, you know I’m not really into wine. The boys thought it was funny to watch my face as I tasted each wine.

The boys all got grape juice to try. They also had their fill of these pallet cleansing little biscuits that were sitting out.

We ended up getting three bottles of wine! lol! I found two white’s that I actually like.

When we left it was dark. There were several hummingbirds flitting between these big flowers and we stood there for a few minutes watching them. The picture’s not the best. It was dark and I only had my phone…but this little hummingbird decided to see what The Dude tasted like and flew down to lick his leg. It was pretty funny!

We had a great time exploring The Biltmore!

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

A Time Of Firsts

By Jennie Simpson | November 2, 2016

The plan was to stay a week on the outer banks of North Carolina enjoying the Kitty Hawk area. Mother Nature threw a monkey wrench in our plans though with Hurricane Mathew so we only stayed for three days. We crammed everything we could into those three days and in the process totally fell in love with the area.

My main reason for going to the area was to visit The Wright Brothers National Memorial. In the photo above you can see the original buildings the Wright Brothers lived and worked in while they were at Kill Devil Hills trying to get their contraption to fly. You can also see the Memorial up on the hill. This is the first and biggest memorial to be built for someone while they were still living.

Nope. It’s not the original, but it’s a copy right down to every detail, built the same way the Wright Brothers would have built theirs. The original was destroyed when a gust of wind caught it and threw it around before they could get it tied down after the fourth flight attempt.

You can see the stone markers signifying where each of the first three flights landed in the picture above. You can also see on the sign, a copy of the photo that was taken of that very first flight that lasted all of 12 seconds and went a grand total of 120 feet.

There’s a neat little area set up that shows what that first attempt looked like with the Wright Brothers and the few guys they had helping. Notice it’s on sand? That’s because when the Wright Brothers were there the area was more like a desert. Not much grass and no trees. Go look up a picture of it on the interwebs. You’ll be surprised at how different it looked back then.

On our first morning there, we got up to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic. It was pretty spectacular.

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It was an amazing way to start the day! We even spotted a pod of dolphins playing in the surf!

We made it to Roanoke Island where the first English Colony was formed and where the first English child (Virginia Dare) was born in the New World.

You might remember from your history class that the fate of the people of this colony is unknown. The only clue was the word “Croatoan” carved in a tree. Nope. It’s not the original tree, but it is a fun picture opportunity!

We only made it to one of the area’s lighthouses since our time was cut short, but it was a really neat lighthouse and it was one of the Visitor Center’s for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. We didn’t make it all the way down to Cape Hatteras either…but, that’s ok. We’ll just have to go back and visit the area again.

After talking to our neighbors (hi neighbors!) we decided to go to Corolla Beach and try to find the wild horses. We didn’t see them, but we had fun driving on the beach!

We did take time to play on the beach. It was right outside our RV park. We could see it from our door and hear the waves at night. It was pretty fantastic! Littlest wanted to fly a kite on the beach so we went and found a kite. It wasn’t hard, they sold them everywhere. It was our first time flying a kite on the beach! You’ll notice we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We didn’t mind.

We spent the entire afternoon building sandcastles, playing in the waves, finding seashells and sea glass and just…relaxing. None of us wanted to leave.

We tried Duck Donuts for the first time. It won’t be our last. We’ve all declared Duck Donuts as our favorite donut place. You walk in and order your donut with the glaze/frosting you want, add whatever toppings you want, and top it off with the drizzle of your choice. And then you get to watch them pull your donut out of the fryer and make it so when you get it it’s still warm!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it!! We’ll be in Raleigh, NC next week…guess what donut place is there! Muuwaahahahaha…I’ll eat one for you.

We also got our very first taste of North Carolina BBQ. We’re fans. It’s quite possibly the best BBQ we’ve ever had…anywhere. We went to a place called High Cotton. Guys, we’ll go back to the Kitty Hawk area again just to eat there. It’s really that good. We got to chat with the owner while we were there and he’s the nicest guy. If you’re ever in the area, you have got to stop in and grab a meal. Then get one to go so you can have “leftovers” the next day!

That was all the time we had. The boys managed to earn three new Junior Ranger badges before we had to head inland. We weren’t sure what Hurricane Mathew was going to do and it’s better to play it safe in situations like that, but we’ll be back! We didn’t even scratch the surface of what there is to do there.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016