First, we drove over Mount Camerer to the Cosby campground to visit with campground hosts Clyde and Debbie. They have been gracious enough to take over our month of June commitment this year so we could take a cross-country trip to visit Son Christopher in California. We canceled that trip when we decided to buy a house. Now, they are being gracious enough to spend part of our June time here in Big Creek so we can visit family before heading back to Florida to watch the house being built. Of course, I am still waiting for THE BOOK to arrive. I can't get any real estimate when that will be. The answer is always "very soon". I could scream. Here we are, back in the Smokies another year, without any books to promote in the area where they are most likely to sell. In fact, I could scream even louder. The end result is that neither us, Boss Larry, nor Clyde and Debbie have no idea when we are doing what. We told them today that we are sure to stay in Big Creek through the first week of June. May is a wastin', as my granddaddy would say - if he was still alive.
These baby maple leaves were hanging over the Cosby host campsite. Baby leaves are almost as cute as baby mammals, in my opinion.
I love this picture of Clyde and Debbie talking over the fence, even though Debbie's face is shadowed in the harsh sunlight and her sunglasses hid her eyes. They are lovely people and they love to be campground hosts as much as we do, maybe more so judging by the amount of time they volunteer. They are cute campground hosts and even friendlier than they look here.
We stopped at Subway for a quick sandwich before heading out to Cherokee Dam and Cherokee Lake. Andy has bee struggling a bit with balance lately so we wanted flat pavement where he can walk without any knee or balance issues. He has been reluctant to walk on any trails recently.
We found a nice shaded picnic table to look over the lake. I could see Andy relaxing by the minute.
After a while, we decided to walk on top of the dam. We noticed a walking path on a promontory sticking out into the lake and decided to explore it. At first, it was high above the water, like the top of the dam. The drop-off into the lake was awfully steep.
The path went down near the water level and we saw a young woman sitting on the bank fishing.
Around the far side, heading back up to the top-of-the-dam level, I spotted the great tree I took a picture of last year with the water in the background. A teenage couple pulled into a parking space, jumped out of the car, and sat on the grass by the beautiful tree and looking over the lake. How romantic! See them under the tree? Young lovers?
Without speaking or looking at each other, they both got on their cell phones. I exclaimed,
"They're texting! Or, maybe they are browsing, but they are not even looking at each other". Andy had an observation, being the astute student of human nature that he is.
"She is texting "Here I am sitting by a beautiful lake and HE's texting." He is texting, "Here we are on the grass by the lake and SHE is texting her friends." ".
We walked along the top of the dam for a while. The weather was a lot warmer than we had anticipated and I was getting hot and sweaty in my jeans. We turned around and headed back to the shade of the picnic grove before getting all the way out to the gates.
These thistles are growing on the steep hillside of the dry side of the dam.
We took the loop path along the water again, since it had some shade. The scent of honeysuckle was powerful and intoxicating. I climbed a few steps up the bank to get some closeup pictures. So Sorry. My camera does not record scent!
That heavenly scent always brings back childhood memories of when my brother Chris and I would pluck honeysuckle blossoms and suck the nectar out of the base. Yum. I tried one today too.
There were quite a few of these tiny purple blossoms beside the trail too.
I love to see patterns in mown grass. Golf courses are always cool. The other day, we passed a lawn in front of a church that was plaid. I can't figure out how they did that. This pattern on the dry side of the dam looked like a maze or an irregular labyrinth.
I could not remember the word "labyrinth" so Googled it and found a great write-up about labyrinths here. I love labyrinths and was very disappointed to visit the Chartres cathedral and find the most famous one covered with chairs.
We headed for a nicely positioned picnic table in the shade, but it was already occupied. It scurried away with its acorn right after a took a couple pictures from far away with the zoom lens.
We sat in the shady cool breeze and watched the lake. I liked this little family paddling by in a canoe. The photo does not really show how high above the water we were.
We headed back to Big Creek relaxed and refreshed, ready for another week of campground hosting.
It was a big surprise at the evening campground walk-around that ten sites were occupied. We have had very few in the recent cold and wet weather. Campers were still arriving as I tried to get a headcount. I started over three times.
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