May 19 - Arrived at Cherokee

We were up at 7:30 after a restless night. We hadn’t considered it had cooled down a lot from home and left a couple of windows open and it was cold out. We got out the extra blanket but I really didn’t sleep well. I made a good breakfast and we didn’t have much to pack up since we didn’t hook up the sewer or have cable. We were on the road at 8:30 again, must be our designated time.

Our site

Traffic heading towards Atlanta was not too bad until we got on 285 and there had been an accident or something and it took us over 30 minutes to get about 4 miles. We managed to stop for fuel and break stop at the same time. Then we stopped for lunch and on to Cherokee. The roads took a definite turn to hilly and curvy but it was 2 lane or more almost all the way. We arrived at River Valley Campground, which is on the reservation around 3. We were supposed to have a back in spot on the river but IF we could have angled into it, it would have been tough to get out and around the curve to leave. It really was not a very deep spot. So we looked at some others and took a pull thru right across from the river so we can hear it and just walk over. The campground is in a valley along the Oconaluftee River. It’s stocked with trout and we can either fish here or at some of the ponds up on the road.

Cleaning our trout dinner

View of the river

We mostly got set up. We put out our carpet, put the plants on the picnic table and got one chair out. The ground was too hard to put our banners up but we put our new kokopelli stone out that has our names on it. When we were setting up the plants a couple came by and asked if we’d like some fresh trout he had on ice. I jumped at that, so Bill followed them to their RV and brought back a cooler of 10 fish. Bill did a great job of cleaning them and I put 3 packages in the freezer and we had the rest for supper. Yum! I had forgotten to take something out of the freezer and was going to go with orange chicken from Trader Joe’s but this was better. Made some whole wheat rotini with a cream cheese sauce and broccoli. Bill thinks we have broccoli every night so guess I better get some different veggies tomorrow. We walked down to return the cooler and that section is year round people. Well they don’t live there year round but most leave their RV’s in place and have built porches to them and nice awnings. It’s like a little neighborhood. It’s really nice there and we met some of the neighbors and everyone was really nice. Lots come from Florida for the summer to escape the heat.

The goose family

I took Xena for a walk after dinner and her new leash broke and she almost got away from me. We saw 2 geese along the river with their 2 babies. When we got back I fixed as best I could. It’s the nice one with a flashlight and holder for the poop bags. Bill did the dishes while we were gone and then we got the TV’s all hooked up to the cable. Our little flat connector that goes in the window to the bedroom works perfectly but it took us some time to get the big TV up and running. It’s never easy as the wiring is a mess in this RV. We settled in to watch the season ending of The Mentalist for 2 hours and then when Bill went to brush his teeth before bed there was no water but I could hear it running outside. Oh no, what now? The elbow connector ruptured so he had to just hook it straight in and not shut the compartment door til he checks if he has another one or we get one tomorrow. At least we have water again!

We have NO cell service or Internet here so it will be a long week! We’re too low in the valley. I’m hoping to type up my blogs and we’ll get to a wifi zone tomorrow and I can post.