Wednesday morning we left Tennessee for the short run to North Carolina. Departing King's Holly Haven RV Park we first had to deal with the traffic back through Pigeon Forge and Sevierville but the traffic eventually eased. We did get a surprise at one point to see a large trailer approaching on the wrong side of the divided highway then turn across both lanes to enter the construction area. The tractor had a bit of trouble negotiating the soft ground. Gillian just had time to get the camera out.
We had decided not to drive the rig up through the Smokey Mountains and New Found Gap which we had explored yesterday by car but rather go around. Gillian in Navigator mode was giving directions to Art who though following with out arguement was rapidly becoming confused. He had briefly glanced at the road atlas yesterday but hadn't really put much thought into route planning. Eventually all became clear when he realised that we were not driving the counter-clockwise route to the west and south as he had supposed but were in fact driving around the north end of the Smokey Mountains.
The countryside continued to delight the eye almost everywhere we looked.
After an hour and a half of this we had arrived at the state line where we stopped at the North Carolina Welcome Center for our lunch break. The fall colours were at their best, even rubbing off onto the rigs in the rest area!
We spent an hour in this restfull spot then had just one more pleasant hour on the road before our stop for the night at Apple Valley Travel Park in Hendersonville, North Carolina.At we were assessing the heavily treed spots for possible satellite reception the owner came over and said that if we didn't need a sewer connection we could park in front of the office where water and electricity were available. There were some tall trees to the south west but it looked possible. We have had good luck before in heavier treed areas.
As soon as we were parked Art connected the power and tried the satellite dish. No luck. It kept pointing at the tallest tree, no signal. Art moved the rig 10 feet forward and like magic we had TV news from home!
Apple Valley Travel Park is a very pleasant place with very pleasant owners. The sites are treed and what we would have to call "rustic" No manicured lawns and concrete pads and BBQ stands but very nice all the same. There was a common room with a very large book exchange, card table, pool table and free wireless internet. The price too was very reasonable if we remember correctly. We could have been quite happy staying here for a while but Mexico was calling!
Next morning Gillian drove off in the car on a grocery run (actually, if truth be told it was a booze run--we were almost out of wine, whisky and vermouth). Upon her return we took a photo of AbqL the traveling rock in front of the campground entrance sign, hooked up the car and were on our way some time after noon.
An hour later we arrived at the South Carolina Welcome Center which again we made our lunch stop as it was getting on to 2 o'clock.
Two days ago Art had noticed the lettuce getting pretty wilted so rather than just toss it out he stuffed it into a glass with a few inches of water, covered it with a plastic bag and put it in the fridge. Today it looked and tasted crisp and fresh!
One hour and a bit later we set off again, a 2 hour run brought us to our night camp at Lake Hartwell Campground Campground in Townsville, South Carolina. This park was again a rustic campground, in the trees on gravel and dirt. We had our TV! In spite of the trees the satellite found a hole to peek through--after Art moved the rig forward about 10 feet! We thought we might spend 2 nights here for internet and a bit of sightseeing.
Along the way we had noticed a couple of signs to the "World of Energy" so in the morning we set off to see what it was all about.
Following the signs we eventually arrived to find Duke Energy power generation plant. This section was at the Nuclear Energy Site. Leaving the dogs in the car in the shade and the reflector sun shield in place we took the self guided tour around the displays which were in large part aimed at school aged children. A scout group was just leaving as we arrived.It was interesting and informative anyway and quite well done. Duke Energy is the company that provides electrical power to the area and uses a combination of coal fired steam, hydro electric and nuclear. The very large artificial Hartwell Lake is one part of the water supply for the hydro system and is also used for cooling the nuclear plant.
A couple of interesting statistics: only 9% of the US electricity requirements is generated by renewable resources, hydro being by far the largest percentage. Duke Energy burns 4800 tons of coal each day to meet the electric needs of the Carolinas. 2.54 gallons of finely powered coal per one hundreths of a second! During our recent travels we have seen a lot of coal being moved.
Now it was time for lunch. We tried the GPS and followed its suggestion, only to find on our arrival that the place had been closed for years. Same with the second try. Third time lucky? This time we chose a place that was close to several other listed restaurants and successfully arrived at a very good Mexican restaurant at the end of a strip mall. We sat out on the deck and enjoyed our much delayed lunch. It was as authentic as it could be with locally available ingredients and not expensive. We sat on the deck with a reasonable view across the parking lot.We returned to the RV park to recover from our stressful day, a little TV and then to bed, ready to move on in the morning, with Georgia on our minds.
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