The Carolina's and Georgia

The drive from Charleston to Atlanta included part of SC route 78, a state highway that brought us through a number of small South Carolina towns. The manager of the local Piggly-Wiggly in Bamberg, where we stopped to pick up a few groceries, came out to see the RV and sent us along our way with a free sample of their cheddar cheese bread.

We had been warned about the Friday afternoon Atlanta traffic and were not disappointed: however, although we had to deal with a full five miles of bumper-to-bumper on I-285, traffic in the opposite direction dragged on for almost 20 miles. (picture of traffic) This is definitely not Vermont (for that matter, I can’t remember seeing anything like this in Connecticut!).

That night we had a lovely time at the home of old friends LuAnne and Tim in Atlanta, who took us on a driving tour of some of the many estates at the north end of the city limits. LuAnne & Tim’s gardens in and of themselves are beautiful and, in our opinion, worthy of inclusion in any home improvement magazine.




Next we headed north to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; the park is bisected by the Tennessee/North Carolina state line which coincides with the Appalachian Mountain Trail.



A short walk to the tower at Clingman's Dome provided a 360 degree view of the park.




Leaving the national park , we began a several day journey along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Based on our life-long New England viewpoint, we’re admittedly somewhat uninformed about eastern U.S. mountain ranges beyond our local Green and White Mountains, and about eastern peaks beyond New Hampshire’s 6,288 foot Mt. Washington. The greater Smoky Mountain area includes a number of 6000 footers, and even the Blue Ridge Parkway reaches a height of just over 6,000 feet at its highest point.