May 23 - Great Smoky Mountains National Park & Blue Ridge Parkway



We didn’t manage to get up as early as we had planned but after a fairly quick breakfast we headed into town to fuel up and then on our way to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway. We only went a short way on both. We went to the park first and went to the first visitor center, Oconaluftee. It was a nice new center that’s only been open for 8 weeks. The exhibit was excellent, telling about why and how the park came to be and of the purchasing and moving of all the residents in the area. Behind the visitor center is the Mountain Farm Museum, which is a collection of period farm buildings that would have been there when the park was founded and moved there to one central location from all over. We were disappointed there were no costumed interpreters or animals but they did have an excellent garden. In the visitor center an employee questioned Ocoee on Bill’s cap and most think it refers to Ocoee River in TN, but Bill said it’s outside of Orlando and the guy said he knew where it was, he used to live there. Apparently he used to work for Sysco and lived in The Hammocks for 6 years. He retired and has been in Maggie Valley for 5 years I think. Small world.



The water was COLD

Mingus Mill

Right up the road was the Mingus Mill. We both like old mills so stopped there and it’s just off the road and a short path to it. The mill is powered by a very long water sluice that empties into a turbine that runs the millstones. It’s currently having a huge pipe that was original (125 years) replaced but come June they will be demonstrating again how it milled corn and wheat. I bought a small bag of the cornmeal and made cornbread using the recipe on it and boy, was it good. Should have bought more.

View along the parkway

There we turned around and headed back to the Beginning, or maybe the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is just inside the border of the park. We drove it to the exit for Maggie Valley and then took Rt 19 back into Cherokee. Stopped at an overlook and ate our picnic lunch. Some of the overlooks are pretty nice but some need some tree trimming to really get to see the view. We went through 4 short tunnels, 2 of which the RV would not have made it, so we know not to plan to take it on the Parkway.

It was nice to have an hour or so to sit by the river and read. The sound of the river is so relaxing and the weather has been perfect. Warm enough in the day and cooling off at night. We finally used the little Flame Disk grilling thing I bought someplace on closeout. It cooks for 40 minutes and is about 12-14 inches in diameter. We put it on a flat rock under the ground grill at the site and Bill cooked pork chops for tomorrow night and a burger for him and a salmon burger for me for tonight. We had corn on the cob and I had some 3 bean salad and we both had cornbread with the pumpkin butter we got today at the visitor’s center. Yum!  We ate outside on our picnic table and felt like real campers.

After walking Xena we made our trek to McDonald’s to try and post blogs, make phone calls and do email. Dell was really not doing well tonight and Bill used Toby. I didn’t get the blogs posted as I need to get the photos I want to used uploaded first and that was a problem. Maybe tomorrow. When we got back to the RV Bill realized he left his cap in the booth, but with no cell reception we couldn’t call to check on it. Will have to stop by tomorrow when we’re out. Also did not get our package from Kerry with Bill’s wallet and the pet meds. This is not good, only two more days to get it before we leave.

For a late dessert we had some strawberry shortcake, another yum! Watched some TV, read and now journaling.