Wednesday 1st April John and the boys had arrived into North Carolina ready to collect me from Charlotte airport the next day. The kids didn’t know that we had booked a Theme Park that Lisa (Carol’s sister) had recommended as it was not far from where they live in Waxhaw and we had been invited to spend Easter Weekend with them.
So John, Will and Charlie spent the day in Carowinds, (which actually sits right across the border of South and North Carolina), on Thursday then caught a taxi out to the airport to meet me in the evening. I was so desperate to get back to them and burst into tears while running through the arrivals gate. 12 days was a very long time to be away from them all, especially having been with each other pretty much 24/7 for 10 months!! 
I was completely exhausted and had terrible jet lag for days but we sat up for hours that night while the boys proudly showed me their project books that they’d been working on in my absence and told me all about what they had been up to.
We spent another full day and night at Carowinds all together. William had been desperate for me to arrive so that he could actually go on some of the bigger rides. Theme parks are not really Charlie’s thing. As well as coming short on pretty much all the minimum height restrictions he just doesn’t really like going fast!! So on Thursday the 3 of them had done a lot of fairly tame rides while William earmarked those he would go on the next day when there would be another adult to stay with Charlie!!
We were there bright and early on the Friday morning and in time for the park to open. Joined the queue to get into the park then stood behind a line of security personnel making a human barrier for 20 minutes until the rides themselves opened. At which stage Snoopy and Charlie Brown (well actors in huge Disney type costumes) led the crowd in the National Anthem at which point everyone stood still and sang along. It’s been a while since I last went to Alton Towers but I’m pretty sure they don’t open with God Save the Queen – perhaps they should! That done the security guards walked the line slowly back before finally letting the crowds run past them.
This was our one chance to get onto any ride of our choice without a queue. Will and John chose the Intimidator (Nascar drive Dale Earnhardt’s sponsored ride) whereas Charlie and I opted for Woodstock’s rollercoaster. Sadly there was a 3 hr. queue for The Fury, the highest and fastest giga coaster in the world (no clue what a giga coaster actually is) so we didn’t get to ride that one.
We almost got Charlie on the Cyclone, another pretty full on roller coaster. He changed his mind just as we got to the front of the line, but the kind man working there said he could wait for us just at the exit. So Will, John and I got on and the ride set off. It had slowly rolled just 10m out of the starting enclosure when a load of alarms went off and it ground to a halt. We sat in the carriage on a steep uphill section at the start of the ride for nearly 10 minutes. There was some sort of announcement made but we couldn’t hear it. Someone walked below us and shouted up that they’d get us going as soon as possible. I was worried about poor Charlie stood there waiting for us.
By this stage I was going into full panic mode. I tried, in vain, to lift the restraints so I could climb out onto the emergency staircase running alongside us, which presumably is there for this very eventuality. I really really wanted to get off. But suddenly it just started up again and there we were doing loop the loops on a ride with some sort of unexplained problem. I literally closed my eyes and muttered under my breath “just get me off and back to Charlie” for the full 2 minutes of the ride while images of the carriage flying off the rails and killing us all and leaving poor Charlie an orphan rushed through my mind!
I have never been as happy to see anyone as I was to be reunited with Charlie. We asked as we got off what the problem had been and were told that someone had hit the stop button and they didn’t really know why / what had happened. I was fine with this as an explanation until we then witnessed it going round on 3 full ‘rides’ with no one on board. Suddenly furious that they hadn’t given us the option to get off I marched back and spoke to the manager. He explained that anytime they have safety issues they have to send the ride round empty 3 times before letting people back on it. Great idea and a sensible safety precaution I said. But he could not understand why I was cross that they had sent it round with us on it BEFORE then sending it round empty 3 times!!!!! Unbelievable!!!
On Saturday we drove to the town of Waxhaw, where Lisa and Chuck live. It’s a really lovely old town just south of Charlotte (named for the Native American tribe that once lived here). The kids hit the skate park while I slept in the van – that jet lag is a killer.We arrived at Chuck and Lisa’s house early evening. Their twin sons Patrick and Connor are now 17 – last time we saw them they were 7! We drove into their road hoping their house would be one of the ones on the left with the flat driveways and not on the right with the steeply sloping driveways. Guess where it was? So we had to take the trailer off and Patrick and Connor pushed it up the driveway, having first moved the basketball hoop. Then John inched Frankie up onto the driveway. All this maneuvering obviously drew much attention from the neighbours, who had kindly agreed to overlook the Association Rules that says that no RV’s can be parked on the cul-de-sac!
They live in a gorgeous house complete with porch (which john is determined we will have in our next home – not sure sitting out and watching the world go by is so enticing when the sun isn’t shining). Lovely Lisa had set the boys up in their own room upstairs and we were in a huge room downstairs (yes in a place with stairs!!!). The boys immediately settled in and made themselves at home. They were in heaven – 2 grown up boys to play with, pizza delivery, a fridge full of Gatorades and an X BOX!! The cul de sac they live in is full of kids to play basketball with; all of who were very sweet to Charlie who obviously is not built for the game.
Easter Sunday came and Lisa and I headed to a church service held in the boys High School. Called Five Stones (from the story of David and Goliath) it was a really interesting and different approach to the traditional Christian church. It felt a bit like attending a conference at first – refreshment stations, display boards, branded literature and hundreds of friendly name badged representatives welcoming the huge congregation. I really enjoyed the service, which included a live ‘rock band’ on stage, huge screens from which the service was followed. A very uplifting and refreshing experience – very very different from anything I had experienced before.
The Easter bunny had been so the boys fought between themselves and Duke their gorgeous great doggy on an Easter Egg hunt. Carol’s other sister Bryn and her son Eric and husband Paul, who live nearby, joined us for a really lovely family Easter lunch. I think the last time we met was Dad and Carol’s wedding party over 15 years ago!! It was just sad Dad and Carol weren’t there with us too…
We wandered out onto the cul de sac for deserts and drinks with their lovely neighbours – most of whom seem to be retired NY police officers. Sharon and Vince and Laura and Joe were really welcoming and their kids played with ours all afternoon. They all have huge houses, which we got to tour. Once John visited Vince’s cinema on the 3rd floor we started talking about whether there were perhaps any other houses for sale on the cul de sac!! We ate, drank and played corn toss – which apparently means you know you’re in North Carolina!
A very different but wholly enjoyable Easter day ended with the boys watching the first baseball match of the season with Patrick who is a sports journalist in his spare time. He and Chuck tried to explain the rules to Charlie; anyone who has watched sport with Charlie will appreciate how hard this is as he basically thinks he is a world expert on all sports!!
We really didn’t want to leave but finally managed to pack up, prise the kids off the x box once we’d done all our laundry and of course got Patrick and Connor to push the trailer off the driveway once more and left Lisa and family in peace. We had had such a lovely time. We only drove half an hour down the road to Cane Creek State Park.
Here we parked up in a lovely spot on a lake in a very quiet campsite. The kids disappeared immediately to go fishing. They came back with one that they said was big enough to eat. There is a possibility that one of us might just have got a small meal out of it had we been able to fillet it properly. As it was we ended up with enough for about one fish finger. They found some mates immediately and together found a dead turtle, which they were very excited about. Now hooked on basketball thanks to Patrick and Connor they played with their mates at the Basketball court.
On the Tuesday the boys were up and out of van by 7am fishing. They came back for 20 minutes to eat their breakfast then went back to fishing. They caught dozens of crappies – is that really what they are called or are they having me on? Basically we didn’t see them all day. They made friends with a boy called Andy who was here for the week with his grandparents. They were lovely to our boys and ended up filleting the huge fish they caught that day. Apparently the highlight of the day was watching a snake eat a dead fish. Lovely. We had been meant to leave to head up into Smoky Mountains but the kids were having such a great time we couldn’t drag them away so we booked for an extra night. It is this total luxury of freedom that we will miss so much when we have to go back to the routine of every day life. After supper they disappeared off for s’mores with Andy and his family – we had truly hardly clapped eyes on them all day.
The next day the boys were up at 6.30am and fishing with Andy. They’d already tucked into a full pancake breakfast by the time John and I got up. We thought we might have a job getting them away but they appeared to have finally tired of fishing. I think what finished them off was hooking a turtle and their mate Andy just cutting him free when William wanted to try to get the hook out of it’s mouth. He spent the rest of the day going over it in his head and asking us repeatedly if we thought a metal hook might biodegrade in the turtle’s tummy (which is what Andy had told him!!).
We were on our way to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park not quite sure what the camping options would be and thinking we might just Wal-Mart it over night so we could properly look at the options in the morning. On the drive I was reading through my Lonely Planet USA’s best Road Trips book for the 1000th time and I suddenly noticed a major flaw in our route planning. We had planned to do the Great Smoky Mountains Trip this week then maybe head to Nashville then up north to Mammoth Cave National Park then back down again to the Blue Ridge Parkway where there was another ‘road trip route’ we could follow. I spotted that actually the 2 different routes actually only passed each other by 20 miles. STOP!!! So we quickly changed our course and headed instead to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
It was so lovely to see mountains again; we had been a long time in the very flat southern part of the USA. So we were back to Frankie chugging up hill, ears popping for us all as we very quickly climbed up to 3500’. Crossed the Eastern Continental Divide and through a town called Blowing Rock at an elevation of 4000’ we were testing Frankie’s gearbox again. We stopped overnight in a town called Boone with promises of Gem Mining for the morning.
We made our way through a huge bucket of gravel and sifted through to find the gems (garnets, rose quartz and lots more) the kindly folk there offer to cut or polish them for you. Funny then that when they ‘checked’ our bucket of gravel to check we hadn’t missed anything they found a sapphire that we apparently had ‘missed’!! We’ve promised the boys we’ll buy them a stone tumbler so they can do it themselves with the huge bag of gems they now have. We could all be receiving home made jewelry from now until the end of time!
We got on to the Blue Ridge Parkway that day and spent the next few days visiting places on and around this National Parkway, nicknamed America’s Most Beautiful Road. It certainly was with all the trees in bloom and gorgeous wisteria trees dripping in purple flowers along the roadside. The roads themselves were absolutely immaculate; brand new tarmac and not a pot hole in sight. The parkway links Shenandoah National Park to the north and Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the south; both of which we planned to visit. The Civilian Conservation Corps started work on the Parkway in 1935 during the Great Depression after Roosevelt’s great idea to harness the strength of thousands of young out of work young men to build countless National Park properties.
Every few miles there are overlooks and stops with trails. One stop we made was at the Moses Cane Memorial Park. Here is the huge mansion the philanthropist and conservationist (who made his fortune out of denim) bequeathed to the National Park Service along with 3600 acres of land, which includes 25 miles of carriage trails and 30,000 apple trees. Can’t really imagine living anywhere like this and creating all those trails from which to enjoy the scenery from one’s carriage, let alone then leaving it all not to your family but for the whole country to enjoy – call me selfish!!
We’d hoped to visit Grandfather Mountain where you make your way over a creaky old suspension bridge 228’ long to take in some stunning scenery. But for the one of the first times on this trip we were told we just couldn’t access it in our ‘large vehicle’. So we settled instead at a completely empty campground at Linville Falls. They’d only just opened for the season and so we enjoyed having the whole place to ourselves. We hiked up and over the river to where it crashes 2000’ down through the gorge. Pretty impressive – but not enough to stop William nagging us to hurry back to the campsite so he could go fishing!!
We carried on southbound along the Blue Ridge Parkway past the Black Mountains (they really were!) and some hilarious places (well hilarious if you are 11 and nearly 8) like Bald Knob trail and Big Butt Trail to Mt Mitchell State Park. Named for Rev. Mitchell who died on the mountain in 1857 while trying to verify it’s height – his gravestone sits at the summit. It is 6684’ above sea level, which makes it the highest mountain east of the Mississippi River. The weather was looking pretty threatening but we hiked to the top, up over and along the mountain. Just the kind of hikes the kids like – rocks to climb over, ropes to help you down rocky outcrops, slippery and not a gravel path in sight (which is the epitomy of a terrible hike as far as the kids are concerned). We got back to Frankie just as the heavens opened.
We came off the parkway, driving down and out and back into civilisation. It always feels like an assault to the senses leaving the National Parks – suddenly lots of other cars, 4 lane highways, traffic signals – and the road quality dramatically worsens!! Having tested Frankie’s gearbox coming down off the mountain John was delighted to be led straight into another series of hairpin bends as we made our way up and over Hickory Nut Gorge (great name eh?) and through the village of Bat Cave (I promise I am not making this up), through Hicksville (that isn’t actually a real town but is what it felt like) into the village of Chimney Rock.
We camped on the edge of Rocky Broad River, a river with some enormous boulders in it. Saturday we woke and the sun was shining and the river was gurgling below us and we just couldn’t leave so we booked for another night. We drove up to Chimney Rock State Park (which is what we had come for) but it really didn’t feel like any other state park we’d visited. It cost $44 for us all to go in – about $40 more expensive than most state parks!! We did manage to do a ranger program but the rangers seem to be somehow not really involved in the actual running of the park. We did see a ranger talking about the mountains etc. and he showed us the foot of an eagle. Did you know that birds of prey have their talons squeezed together when they are ‘relaxed’ and that when they open their talons to grab something that is their muscles contracting? It’s so they don’t have to exert so much effort to keep hold of prey when they are flying. Well now you do!
We hiked uphill to the Hickory Nut Falls through forests that felt like they were in another season compared with our cold hike from yesterday. The falls were used in the filming of Last of the Mohicans, which they are delighted to tell you at any opportunity. The blossom was out the birds were singing like Spring had sprung. Then did the 660 steps up to Chimney Rock itself – we rejected the elevator and counted our way up then down again! Stood on top of the 315’ granite monolith we got to see the stunning views including over to Lake Lure where they filmed Dirty Dancing – pretty exciting stuff eh?
We got back onto the Parkway on Sunday and drove through more stunning scenery. Mt Pisgah and Cold Mountain (where the Charles Frazier book was set). Such pretty countryside and every conceivable colour of trees, reds, purples and every shade of green in the rolling hills as we came down off the parkway. It really is a very beautiful part of the world. One night in Lake Junaluska at a very strange campsite, which was part of a Christian retreat, but had a lovely view over the lake, before we got to the Great Smoky Mountains.
On Monday 13th April we entered the National Park via the town of Cherokee. The Cherokee people have lived in this area sine the last ice age and although many died on the Trail of Tears (when they and 16,000 other eastern Native American’s were forced by President Andrew Jackson in 1830’s to move West into what is now Oklahoma) the descendants of those who escaped or retuned are known as the Eastern Band of the Cherokee. A very strange town with Tribal Bingo and a Tribal Pawn shop, a theme park called Santaland (not feeling particularly in keeping with their culture). A very odd ‘gateway’ to the park honestly. Although our experience with the other places where you could access the park were in truth equally strange (more of that later).
We headed straight to the Oconaluftee Visitor Centre where there was lots of Information about the formation of the park. I had just read Serena, which was about a logging company who were fighting the NPS to keep their land. It also had reference to the Vanderbilt’s at Biltmore Estate and the Calhoun family in Charleston all very poignant considering our location. Despite the book’s main protagonists turning out to be murderous adulterers, the ‘real’ families that were evicted by the NPS to form the park did actually have my sympathy.
The first campsite we stayed at in the park was Smokemont, which was once a logging camp. Situated on the river we took one of only 3 sites that were occupied only. Despite it being a horrible grey rainy day it didn’t put Will off fishing. Charlie and John settled down for a snooze and I sat on the riverbank with Will. When he got his line trapped on a tree for the third time I waded out up to my thighs to retrieve it. He was doubled over laughing and I was in agony in the freezing water. It took hours before I could feel my toes again.
The campsite’s charm was it’s basic facilities and remote location. However, the battery charging warning light started flashing and fearful we would have another problem like we did at New Year John was outside with his tools trying to work out what was wrong with it. So the kids were sent to bed with head torches to write their journals and by which to do their bedtime reading.
It had been raining all night and the noise on the roof of the van kept us all awake half the night. When we woke up it was still raining so we delayed going out for as long as possible by doing maths – desperate times!! We walked off to the stables run by NPS to ask about riding and at only $30 per hour it seemed rude not to. We then walked back to the campsite and walked the full length of it to find the start of the trail. We hadn’t realised quite how enormous the campsite was. We discovered that we were in 1 of 5 bays currently open. The Great Smoky Mountains is the most visited of all the National Parks – it gets 9 million visitors a year!!
We hiked a 6-mile loop trail, which was beautiful; through forests, along the river, over streams, little waterfalls with wild flowers and blossom. There were thousands of tiny blue butterflies that kept fluttering away as we made our way up the path – it was like a scene from a Disney cartoon. About 1 mile in it started to climb uphill quite steeply. Once we’d crossed over Oconauftee River did we start the real uphill – zigzagging up and round the mountains. Basically 2 ½ miles of constant uphill walking – the kids of hands on your thighs uphill walking. Owwwww. All in hot humid rain. Every time we turned a corner we thought we must have reached the summit only to find another uphill section ahead of us. There was a lot of moaning. John singing to keep spirits up. Sang the Banana Split song with a few changes to the regular lyrics – William cracked up. He told me afterwards “I laughed so hard I forgot my name!” which struck me as a great expression.
We had some work calls to make so drove out of the park on the Wednesday to get some phone reception and Wi-Fi. So we found ourselves sat in Cherokee in the pouring rain before heading back into the park. The battery light was still flashing with an error so we decided we had to get out and find a site with power for a night – worked out that the solar panel doesn’t work so well when it’s pouring with rain non stop!! We were especially delighted to have seen in the ½ hour we were connected to the world that there was a heat wave in the UK – this really cheered me up, as I pulled on my waterproof trousers ready for our horse ride!!
We had a really lovely afternoon horse riding through the mountains. My horse was called Ruger and was described as ‘cruise control’ by Jason the stable owner. He also said when I suggested today might not be a great day for a ride to the waterfalls – “I like riding through the forest in the rain. It gives you a new perspective on it!” You really need to hear me say that in my best impression of his southern drawl to get that. His voice was the most relaxed laidback soporific thing I have ever heard. It prompted hours of ‘Jason Talk’ including some hilarious impressions of “Things you would never hear Jason say… and the kids doing high pitched stress screeching voices… Guess you had to be there!
The ride was fabulous. Up and over the top of the campsite we’d been in and alongside a lot of the beginning part of our hike yesterday. We went up and over rocky paths, over and along streams and springs. Truly lovely. The kids are such complete naturals, curse them! I just let Ruger lead the way. We stopped half way at a waterfall, which was lovely even in the rain. It really was a lovely experience and Jason was right – it did give you a new perspective on the forest!!
That was it.. We thought maybe Frankie may not make it through the highest point of the park at 6643’ at Clingsman Dome so we then drove out of the Park and headed up and over the top of it ready to re-enter the park on the Tennessee side.
Wickenswanderings 