May 7 and 8 = Two Days Off

On Sunday, when we went to the Beantrees with Clyde and Pat, the waitress took several pictures of us with my camera and also with Pat's.  She must not have been pressing the shutter button hard enough; I did not get a single picture of us.  So, Pat sent me one of hers.

What a surprise and treat that was!

Now on to our "weekend".  While volunteering in the park, we have customarily taken off Monday to do laundry and shop for groceries, then on Tuesday to do some sightseeing in the region.  Now that we don't have the big RV, we also do not have a washer/dryer.  

We stopped at the Big Creek Country Store to give Kelly some more copies of "Big Creek" to sell. Then we made another stop at the Hartford, TN post office to fill out a general delivery form to get our mail there.

We drove to the Cosby campground half an hour away to use the washer and dryer there.  An advantage is that we got to visit with the Cosby camp hosts, Clyde and Debbie. The washer and dryer are in the basement garage of the ranger station.  The host site is right next to it.  We merely step over the lowered rails of the split rail fence between them.  I spotted this lone violet as I was crossing the fence rail.

Clyde and Debbie are champion campground hosts.  They volunteer for most of the season.  They live near the park and can run home occasionally to check mail and tend to the house.  We sat and shared camp-host stories while the laundry was running. Here are Clyde and Andy in front of their trailer.

Debbie just blinked for every picture I took of her.  What you see is what you get here.  She is always smiling and friendly.

Andy and I went out to get some lunch at Carver's Apple House while the second load was in the washer. Then we decided that, since we were already nearly there, we would go on to Walmart to pick up things we forgot to bring.  It was so annoying to spend money to buy things we have at home and should have brought with us. Even though I brought some of my extensive cleaning-rag collection, I did not bring enough. I ended up using every hand towel, dish towel and cleaning rag in the RV to sop up that flood I caused a few days ago. I didn't have a clothesline or clothespins to hang them up to dry.  I needed some measuring cups and spoons - got plenty at the house. How could we have forgotten a power strip for the computers?  By the time we got back to Cosby, move the laundry from the washer to the dryer, and visit with Clyde and Debbie some more, it was almost dark when we got back to Big Creek.

Today turned out to be another chore day, rather than a real day off.  I discovered a lump on my gum above the crown I got last fall.  Boss Larry recommended his dentist and I made an appointment for this morning. Andy was thrilled that Dr. Morton is in Sevierville, in close proximity to the Mellow Mushroom. It took us an hour to get to the dentist's office.

Dr. Morton said it is probably an abscess but could be something under the gum. He prescribed some antibiotics and pain medicine.  If that doesn't fix the problem, I'll make another appointment for next week. Doesn't everyone just love the prospect of a root canal?

We did not get our grocery shopping done yesterday.  After lunch, we stopped in the Food City and the Walgreen's pharmacy to fill my prescriptions. Again, it was nearly evening when we got back to Big Creek. Maybe our next day off will be more fun.

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June 9, 2015 - Cosby Nature Trail

The mushrooms from Sunday are already brown and now a whole forest of them has popped up next a tree near the toilet building. I wonder if a bunch of mushrooms is called a colony. If so, this is the colony I watched last year with multiple generations. This is clearly a good environment for them even though they are not that close to the toilet building or the septic tank.

Someone was being clever with the remains of a fat log in Site 1 and has burned it from the inside out.

 

Local and regular camper, Windy informed us that we need to be politically correct. He is no longer a hillbilly, but is now an Appalachian American.

Kathy’s one request while here was to go to the Applehouse because she wanted to buy some more stone-ground corn meal in their produce store. We went there for our dinner and enjoyed watching the horses with a youngster out in the orchard while we ate. Kathy bought some more produce and Andy picked up some seedless jam. Then we headed to Cosby campground.

I was aware that Cosby had the nature trail, but never got around to going there to walk on it. It was much prettier than I expected and a lot different than Big Creek, just over the mountain. The trailhead is next to the amphitheatre where we listened to the bluegrass music a few weeks ago.

We crossed many streams, or maybe just a few many times. The path was winding so it was hard to tell. The first crossing was over a stone bridge.

 

Andy did not bring his walking stick today. He did not have any trouble stepping on stones to cross water or on the many log bridges.

 

The path was in a small valley and was mostly level. It felt like a river delta with all the water. I guess it is the Cosby Creek Delta. One time we had streams on both sides of the path. There are only a few large trees there, but the vegetation is lush.

Andy paused to pose for me here.

When I walked across, I stopped to take a picture of the creek below my feet. The water was moving fast.

 

This is the view downstream from that log bridge.

This is a crazy tree trunk. I am tempted to call them roots. I recall that we saw another tree like this over in Sugarlands, near park headquarters the first year we were here. It was in a similar environment with flat land and plenty of water. I’m too lazy to look for the picture to compare them right now.

Kathy pointed out this mushroom tree.

I looked inside this hollow log and decided that it would make a good bed for a bear or some other creature.

June 6, 2015 - Max Patch

Andy took the walk around the campground in the morning since we were expecting company. He did the morning vacancy count and was back at the motorhome when Dianne and her daughter Ellen arrived. They were bearing gifts. Ellen delivers produce for their local farmer’s coop and brought us a paper grocery bag overflowing with all sorts of produce. We will be eating healthy this week.

Andy suggested taking them to Carver’s Appplehouse for lunch. Dianne was happy to go since she had read about it so often in our log. We perused the produce section and the candy shop after we ate. I admit I weakened when confronted with some excellent licorice. Ellen enjoyed driving over the mountain road back to Big Creek.

A large group of horse trailers were parked in the field at the entrance to Big Creek.

Spence and Linda had stopped by the motorhome to visit and were turning into the horse camp as we drove up Big Creek Road. Ellen turned in behind them to say hello and they said they would return to the motorhome after they finished cleaning the horse camp. I was happy that Dianne got to meet Spence, the star of my Big Creek Journal. Dianne said he was just as she expected him to be from my logs.

It was late afternoon when we decided to take Dianne and Ellen to Max Patch. Ellen got more mountain road driving experience than she was expecting. When we turned off the interstate, we saw that the west-bound ramp was closed for the road construction. “No problem, we’ll just take the road down the back side of the mountain to Del Rio” I assured them. We enjoyed our walk on Max Patch and the visibility was good, a little hazy, but still 360 degrees of mountain tops.

I could look at this all day.

 

Here is a look at the top of Max Patch from the beginning of the trail.

 

The Flame Azalea is in bloom up there.

I think this cluster was a darker hue than what appears in this photo.

The bald was covered with tall grass and wildflowers. The blackberries have a long way to go before being ripe so I guess I’m going to miss them this year too.

 

Here are Dianne and Ellen walking across the top of the mountain.

When they got close, they posed for me.

Buttercup.

It was hard to keep up with Andy.

The road down to Del Rio seemed a lot longer than the one up from I-40 and it was not direct. We came to two intersections where we had to decide whether to turn left or right. Fortunately, we chose correctly both times and reached US 25/70 where we turned left to Newport, Tennessee. It took us a long time to get back home, but the scenery was great.

On the radio

At 1748 there was a newborn elk in the Job Corps area.

A ranger made a traffic stop and dispatch reported back that the man from Florida was wanted nationwide.