Down the Mountain

We awoke early and got everything packed up. By 8:30, we were on our way to Asheville, NC. I did something disgusting this morning too. I was so desperate for coffee that I got it out of a machine at the campground. They didn't even have milk or creamer to add, they had "whitener". What the heck is whitener?
You see, I am back on my on-again, off-again relationship with caffeine, full throttle, baby! David's grandfather gave me a can of instant for use on the trip, which has been a blessing but I couldn't find where I put the darned thing. You'd think finding things in a tiny camper would be easy since there's not much in there to start with. That's in fact, completely opposite because we are continually losing things on this trip, it's pathetic. Long story short, I got my coffee for whatever it's worth.

We went north-ish to the Sugarland Visitor Center. We needed directions and thought this would be a good place to get them. Since David's phone went kaput in Natchez and we returned the GPS in Nashville, we've had to use maps. It really, really, stinks using maps. It's like, "Hey, you turn left at route 101. " A few minutes later, "Um, I think that was 101 back there." Then you pull off to look at the map again and argue about whether it really was. You turn around only to find it was 101 NORTH when you needed SOUTH. It's just a lot of wasted time and energy! I shouldn't complain, at least we had the forethought to even get maps from AAA before leaving.

Once at the Visitor Center, we toured the museum and checked out the gift shop. Aurora got a Smoky Mts. guide, Athena got a book all about yucky stuff in the Smokies, and Arianna was plumb out of money but asked her moneybags, Athena, for some little plastic bugs in a tube. David advised against it because she won't have money left when she wants something in say, Ashville. Athena bought it anyways, what a sweetheart. Then they attended a Junior Ranger program about using a compass. It was fun and informative for the big girls but way out of Ari's league. I am glad they finally got to attend one of the Junior Ranger Programs though. They have booklets too and once the booklet is complete, they get a Junior Ranger badge but we just weren't staying long enough for that to happen. Next time. We got our directions to go through the park and it was a breathtaking site along the way.

We pulled off once to look at the scenery but when we got back into the bus, she wouldn't start. I imagined us broken down on this mountain in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone service all night long. My heart started to pound in my chest. Somehow, he got it started and we were off again...but no more roadside pull-offs for us, no matter how beautiful it was! Then his brakes started making this funny noise and I couldn't even look out the window anymore. All I thought about was Maxine's story about the brake fluid burning out as they coasted down the mountain.

I was disappointed when we entered the Cherokee Nation. I don't know what I expected but it wasn't what we saw: motels, bars, Mexican restaurants, tourist trapping mini malls selling moccasins and gourds, and a casino in the works. They had their own local government and their own alphabet whick looks like a cross between ancient Greek and Arabic. We did't stop because we were scared of breaking down. Because we're using maps, we took a long, out of the way road to get to the interstate but at least we go there.

When we got to Asheville, we stopped for food at a lovely Mexican place. The food was good and cheap, the bathrooms were clean and the service was excellent. The bus luckily started up just fine, maybe the mountain driving just made it testy. We checked in at the campground and it began raining like crazy. I decided it was time to wash clothes because we were wearing our last clean set of everything.

The kids liked the laundromat and the few arcade games there kept them from climbing all over the laundry carts. I liked that you can wash a quad load. We washed, dried and folded everything. Clean laundry makes me happy.

We returned to the campsite and fell asleep. Tomorrow we meet up with David's friend, Sean and discover Asheville.

Things I learned: Wild hogs are an invasive species to Smoky Mountains Park. For many years, they have been trying to trap and remove hogs from the park because they rototill everything in their path in their quest for roots. There is a fungus called Devil Horn that grows from nub to 3 inch horn in a matter of hours. It smells like rotting flesh and the flies love it. Slime molds are unique in the sense that they move like animals and reproduce like fungi. They kinda move like a mini version of "The Blob".