Buck Bald Mountain

You read that right!  What better to do on a beautiful afternoon and evening but travel up the back roads to the Tellico area.  My nephew, Jerry, Mark and I took off, actually it was a practice "date" with Jerry and I asked Mark to come along. 

We stopped at the Tellico Beach for a big burger, fries and a soft drink.  We took our dinner and stopped along the Tellico river and ate.   You can see the ducks (look closely) marching along side the river and next to the picnic tables looking for someone to give them some snacks.

The river sounded so peaceful.  It reminded me of going out on the pontoon boat on a really stressful day at the office and just sitting there listening to the water take my stress away.  Jerry took my camera down to the shore line and took a movie so I'll always have the sound of the water to take with me.


Sun was getting close to setting so we had to hurry to make our destination so we had to leave the Tellico (Tellliquah) area but I'll definitely be back to renew.  So what was the hurry?  Jerry told me about the top of this mountain where we could get a 360 degree of the countryside, where we could see the sunset and moon rise at the same time.  Now I'm very partial to sunsets so I was ready to go but I didn't see how it could be my memories of Key West's sunsets or the sunsets from the airport mesa in Sedona AZ but I was willing because, did I mention how much I love sunsets?

Here we go about 20 minutes from Tellico, nearer Coker Creek TN, off Hwy 68, up and up we climb.  There is the sign, Buck Bald Mountain in the Cherokee National Forest.  One lane well maintained gravel, rock road.  We headed up about 30 mph, Jerry assured me we could come down much slower, well pass one car on the way up, over to the side so we can both get by, yep wider than it looked.  Whew!

Jerry said, "are you ready?"  We rounded the switchback curve and OMG, there before us was the handiwork of our God!  Laid out before us was sure enough, a 360 degree view of NC, GA and TN.  This site used to be the home of a fire tower (far tar) and it was obvious a perfect spot for that.

I revert back to the first feeling I had when I viewed the Grand Canyon.  AZ doesn't have anything on TN.  My goodness it was beautiful. and it does take your breath away.  I'm devoting large size pictures so you can get a 2 dimensional feeling of the awesomeness.  We discussed our friends Mike & Michelle from Canada and know this will definitely be a place we will visit when they come to town.





I changed the settings on my new camera to sunsets and wow, the color and detail was much better.  There happened to be a forest fireon the mountain across from us and I'm sure that added to the vibrant colors of the sunset.

If you can see  the V cut in the two mountains, that's where the Hiawassee River cuts through the mountains, Etowah is just to the right over that mountain.  Oh my, guess that's the difference in girls and boys, when I was growing up I never knew this place existed, whereas Jerry just ran the roads and didn't think twice about taking off on a forest road.  He has other places to show me so I'm gonna make the most of it.  We also have plans to take Taylor to some of these places when we are back in July.




We decided  to have our own fire and Jerry likes my firestarters made with toilet paper rolls, dryer lint and candle wax.  They work really well.  Jerry had taken some wood and we just sat on top of the world enjoying the stars, views, talking about life & "stuff" and being in the moment.

The heat from the fire is just right as it's a little chilly up so high.  We should have taken marshmallows or hot dogs and cooked out supper up here.

Jerry had it all planned.  Here I am with a glass of wine, quilt wrapped around me to keep me warm and a hoodie.  What more could one ask for?  I'd say if your a practicing dating, this has all the right elements.  I sure would take this over Olive Garden any day of the week!  LOL

Had to try my hand at a little artsy photography!  It looks like this glass is floating on water rather than a picnic table.  I thought it turned out pretty good.  Jerry said I should have tried it in black & white.  I'l try doing that in Picasa one day.  I like all the different colors though.






Wanted to use my self timer but forgot how to set my back fill light setting on my camera.  Then I remembered coming off the mountain that I had to flip my flash up for it to work.  Oh well, still nice shot of Jerry, me and Mark and then one of Jerry and Mark with a wine glass between them.  BTW the wine was from Savannah Shores winery in Etowah, so we were keeping it local!

The stars looked so close where we were, when we got back we tried to find the same ones and they looked so far away.  It was good to be alone on top of the world. 

Then, I heard a car, actually a truck.  I said, "that truck sound awfully close."  Then we realized we were not going to be along any more.  You have never seen three people move so fast.  Jerry took the cooler and poured the ice on the fire coals to put them out, Mark and I picked up the chairs and were off to the truck.  Of course it was pitch black up here by then, my phone was in the car and I couldn't see so Jerry pulled his phone out and gave me the light to see down the steps.  By the time we got to the car the big old "red neck" truck pulled into the parking area.  We were ready to jump in the truck and lock the doors.  The truck had dark tinted windows but I'd say it was a couple coming up to park.  On our way down we passed another "red neck" truck coming up.

So, it was time to go for us and I'll have to say my "date" would be one I would go back on anytime.  Everything was perfect.  Thanks, Jerry.
Later...

Friday Night In the Park

One of the advantages of being retired is to be able to do whatever one desires and I did. I went to my hometown of Etowah, TN for the all classes Etowah High School reunion. I was the last freshman class of Etowah High School in 1966. I actually graduated from McMinn Central HS in 1969.


Our class was not included in the reunion but it didn’t matter because I wanted to go and try to get together with some classmates I had met on Facebook. Those who showed up were Susie Bledsoe & friend, Tom Reynolds, Joyce and me. We decided it was past time for us to have our 40th reunion.

It was time for me to pull out my tye dye shirt since it was my 40th year since graduation and it was the 40th year celebration of Woodstock. Oh yes, people were able to see me in my tye dye shirt but I think the effect was lost on this group. Yes, folks, I was celebrating 1969 and Woodstock. LOL

It was a wonderful night, weather was perfect, band was pretty good, however they didn’t play 50s & 60s music. The music was more or less big band, 40s, jazz and blues. Good music for a full moon night. It was fun getting to meet all these people who had gone to school with all my older sisters.

Joyce Arms Farley met me down there as we had grown up together, went to church together and kind of stayed in touch and when we saw each other, we didn’t miss a beat. It was like we picked up right where we left off. She has stayed in Etowah and raised her girls there so she knew just about everyone and I would have to say now who is that?

Danny, class of ’58, came up to us and said we looked too young to have graduated during his era. Joyce and I looked at each other and said oh, but we were only 8 when you graduated. LOL Now don’t you know that he didn’t appreciate that at all?? Oh well, it was fun to be able to do.

I reconnected with Sara and Johnny Austin who was my sister Wanda’s bff in school. Sara had heard that I was going to be an RV full timer and she wanted to talk about it. She and Johnny extend time with their 5th wheel. We talked about all the trips they have taken and what my plans were and that made the evening just extremely exciting. Of course, you know that was what I loved to do. Maybe one day we will see each other down the road, Sara.

For those of you who don’t know about Etowah, you should make a trip over to the lovely mountains of east TN at the foothills of the Cherokee National Park. The Hiwassee River borders on the south and that is good for tubing, rafting and fishing.

Etowah is blessed with outlet stores and surplus stores. More and more folks are moving in and renovating the downtown area. Antique stores abound and while walking through the street on Saturday morning there looked like a good selection of antiques. I would highly recommend stopping by Etowah. Below town you can RV at the Black Bear Cove that you can read about on my blog on/around Memorial Day 2009. During this time of year they have a rail excursion which runs up through Ducktown and it’s a great trip when the colors change. Check it out sometime.

But I digress. I have agreed to assist with our 40th reunion on October 24, 2009. Yes, you read correctly. That is soon but we figured we would get just as many people there on this short notice than if we had given them 1 year to plan. We meet this week to plan. Everything is in jello right now. More to come on this. Yes, Becky, I know what I said about my reunion. It will be good to reconnect with some folks.

Saturday night I went up to Nephew Roy’s house and went to the pond. There we had a huge bond fire and fished. I caught 2 HUGE catfish. It was so much fun that I do believe those were the first fish I have caught. They ran like crazy but they were confined to the pond so they couldn’t run from me. It was exciting.

Later…