Cappy's Corner

6 STATES, 9 DAYS

Written by Mini on Thursday, June 19, 2008

Day 3



Ahhh, it is morning now and its time to eat. Everyone is awake and ready for our next day. We decided to first check out our campground before leaving, since we were not able to see it when we arrived the night before. The adults switched off on the hikes because it was too dangerous for any of the kids. So off we went. The campground was not what we expected. Where our RV was parked is directly over us in this picture, you just cant see it. We walked around for some time taking pics of all the different things that we don't see here in Florida.

After we had been exhausted from walking up and down the steep incline of the mountain, we decided that it was time to start our adventure for the day. The kids were playing in the playground and they were starting to get bored, time to leave. The one great thing about having the RV was the fact that they all pile in and we go, simple!!!

We are now off to the Cumberland Falls State Park where we get to see our first waterfall. It didn't take us a long time to get there. That was, of course, driving on the Cumberland Parkway, which was a beautiful scenic route. We saw many trees as you might expect, also rivers and streams, again amazing!! I think that was my word the whole trip. So we arrived at the state park and headed towards the waterfall. We first walked out on the riverbank leading up to the waterfall. The water levels there were quite low so we were able to walk a good distance on the banks. When the kids were done looking at fish and collecting rocks, we went to the falls. Now as you know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but this was beauty beyond any imagination. My favorite pic at this spot was when I was watching Max watch the waterfall. That is beauty, the innocence of a child in nature.

The Cumberland Falls is 125' of cascading waters. It was a beautiful curtain of water. Locals had said that many, many years ago you were able to camp down at the waterfall and go behind it, where they used to tell stories and have adult beverages. Ha! I wish I could have done that!!!! We stayed at the falls for two or so hours, checking it out from every possible level. After viewing the falls, the kids had ice cream and we departed to our next spot.

Because of where we were, we had to go back through Tennessee to get to North Carolina. We arrived back in Tennessee at about 2:15 pm that same day. We stopped at a local boat ramp so that Jason could collect his rocks. We played at the waters edge for a while, skipping rocks and wading in the cold water. JT was not supposed to go in being fully clothed, but sometimes you just can't help wanting to get wet, and he did.

We continued our trip to North Carolina. We knew towards dawn that we were getting close. We pulled off the road when we noticed smoke covering the roads and the water. We must be in the Smoky Mountains now, if not, we are real close. We realized then how the Smoky Mountains got their name. Jeff and Jason took off to take pics and I stayed back with the kids. The smoke of the mountains engulfed them as I watched from a distance. It was a little cold and creepy, like out of a horror flick. When we first arrived at this spot, you could see a bridge in the background. By the time we left, the bridge was covered with smoke. Awesome!

Well from here we continued driving until we reached the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, about 8 pm. We headed to Fontana Village, which I already knew from a previous trip had a campground. This one was a sight to see. We set up camp and again relaxed by the fire. This was the first night that we could explore, so we did. We took the kids in groups for walks in the dark. We saw all kinds of bugs and they were huge! There were so many different kinds of moths, spiders, flies, and caterpillars. I took a lot of pics of the bugs, I love bugs!!!! Jason was in the bathroom when he noticed a beautiful green moth. I know that we don't see these in Florida, at least I never have.
The adults enjoyed the rest of the night after the kids went in to watch a movie and go to sleep. We sat around discusing our wonderful day and what was going to be next.......