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Ninety Six

November 6, 2014 Drew

Ninety Six is the name of the site we visited today. This Revolutionary War era National Historic Site is steeped in pretty a violent and bitter history. The place is basically just a bunch of earthen mounds (the remnants of a star shaped fort and attached town) with a visitor center at this point, but the story that they contain is pretty intense!

It was decently warm, but raining this afternoon, and there weren’t really any other visitors to the site. We checked out the little museum, watched a very well put together video, and went out to the site.

Ninety Six started as a popular Cherokee trading route. Some early pioneers built a trade post, and a town eventually formed. Then everything fell apart. The gist of the story pits one group of Americans (the Loyalists) vs. their former friends and neighbors (the Patriots) in a strikingly similar, mini precursor to the later Civil War. It’s a story about people fighting each other over a site that very soon afterwards lost any real significance, and is now essentially non-existent.

We felt the graveness of the battlefield, we imagined the struggles of the people that used to live there… then we found ourselves down the road shoving our faces full of greasy fried chicken and sweet tea. Such is life on the road in South Carolina!

We’re staying in the Greenwood State Rec area, and got a sweet site on the shores of Lake Greenwood.

Road Trip, South Carolina

Keowee Toxaway

November 2, 2014 Drew

We spent the last three nights at Keowee Toxaway State Park. They were by far the coldest, but also the best nights so far!

The drive down to Keowee Toxaway was really pretty. The steep and windy roads of the North Carolina Blue Ridge gradually straightened and stretched out into the Cherokee foothills. The leaves are in a wonderful sort of middle stage between fall and winter – some are still hard at work clinging to the branches, while many have fallen, covering the road in orange and red layers. The pictures (and my lack of any decent photo editing skills) don’t really do it justice.

The Jeep is certainly glad to be out of the mountains as well. I’ve noticed that it likes to drink a lot of gas while we tow this camper. I started the drive with a quarter tank thinking I would stop at the next station. That station never seemed to arrive; I was getting a little nervous as the needle crept lower, so Noelle checked the Google maps.

The Google said there was one location for gas a little way off our route. We made the turn, found the town, and found the station – except it wasn’t a gas station anymore. It was more just a decrepit old building and a decaying concrete lot… I went a little further down the road and spotted a nice modern gas station just in time – whew!

As we got back on the scenic highway 11, we passed not one but TWO gas stations right off the main highway – the moral of this story is that Google Maps sucks. Oh, and I should probably start looking for gas stations at a half tank from now on!

We eventually pulled into Keowee Toxaway State Park – this place is beautiful. It’s on a lake, it has hills, it has trees (watch out for falling walnuts, those things are deadly!), it has electrical and water hookups, and its only $16.50 a night – sweet!

Also, this campground was pretty empty, unlike most of the other “RV” places we stayed at. Most of the campers at those places looked more-or-less permanent. I kind of wanted to camp, not live in a trailer park…

We took it easy this weekend; got some work done, made some good camp food, hung out. We went and saw the lake, and did the 1.5 mile nature hike. At one point a deer came trotting down the path to say hello to Noelle. I got a decent picture of it too (I know I need to get one of those sun shade things for the stupid camera to fix the glare spots).

We had a great three days here, and this is the first place that we are honestly a little sad to say goodbye to – I hope we can find more places like this. It’s starting to get pretty damn cold at night, so we’d better be heading further south soon!

North Carolina

Carl Sandburg Home

October 30, 2014 Drew

We’re starting to head a little bit further south. We stopped at the Carl Sandburg Home, made a pit stop in Saluda, NC, and found a really decent campground for the night.

We left our first 3 night camping stint really happy with the way things are working out. The camper is doing really well; the systems are functioning properly. It is cozy and comfortable inside, and we’ve gotten few nice comments from the other campsite guests.

The work I did extending the electrical connections seems to work perfectly, the cord doesn’t pull out of the end anymore. But… now the driver’s side taillight doesn’t turn on (except when you turn the lights on). We tested it when I was done wiring everything up and it worked fine. Either something broke in the 2 days since I wired the connector back together, or something broke. Either way… something is broke!

Pulling into a Cracker Barrel with a rig – it doesn’t get any better than that!

We stopped by the Carl Sandburg home on the way to our next site. Noelle and I definitely seem to have a thing for big old houses. This was another $5 each to get another personal tour through the mansion. I’m not exactly an expert on poetry, but the words and life of the Sandburg’s seem sometimes very relevant to us on this little journey we’re on.

Oh, and they had a goat farm! She wants one…

A nice little stop in Saluda, NC before heading to the campground – sweet!

We have a general goal of going down the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway 11, so hopefully more on that to come.

North Carolina

Linville Falls

October 28, 2014 Drew

We made it up to the mountains today! The scenery was beautiful, the Jeep performed without issues, and the weather was amazing. Definitely the makings of an excellent day!

The plan was to take highway 221 up to Linville Falls then hop on the Blue Ridge Parkway heading south – and that’s exactly what we did.

The Linville area was absolutely breathtaking. We got our first little bit of hiking experience for this trip at the falls as well. We were there around noon, and the weather was crystal clear and warm.

Seeing stuff like this is part of the reason why we are doing this whole adventure roadtrip thing – the world can be a beautiful place sometimes!

After an invigorating hike at Linville Falls, we headed down the Blue Ridge towards “Little Switzerland.” We had an amazing BBQ lunch, and then kept on going. The fall colors really are awesome. I was worried we might be a bit too late in the season, but the lower elevations were still so vibrant.

We tried as hard as we could to kill the car on the multiple snake turns of highway 80, but it kept going like a champ. We capped off a great day with some great burgers over coals at the campsite – living the life!

As I read over this post, it sounds way too cheery for my usual self. I guess some days things just work out, and this was definitely one of those days.

North Carolina

Old Fort, NC

October 27, 2014 Drew

Day 2 started out cold and crisp. We packed up camp, and headed down the road to Old Fort, North Carolina – not without incident of course!

The first thing I noticed this morning was the red glow of the check oil light in the Jeep. It has come on before, but it still made me nervous. Are we running low on oil? Is the oil pump going bad? Are we going to die here all alone in the crazy campsite?!

The answer is probably not – I checked the oil level after getting out onto the main highway. Everything seems ok, and the light went out after I started up the car again.

I stopped a few minutes later at an Autozone to look into picking up a new electrical 7 pin connector. That’s when I noticed that the wires had pulled out of the current setup again. It looked like the cord had been dragging a bit on the ground, and caused the thing to pull out of the connectors. I bought some stuff at the Zone and ziptied the electrical cord a little tighter to the trailer tongue.

As we pulled into Old Fort, I took a fairly sharp right turn, and the brake controller switched to ‘n.c.’; the cables had pulled out again! This time, it was because they stretched too far. So basically, I can’t win – the cord is either too long and drags, or too short and pulls. For like the 5^th time I pulled the 7 pin connector apart and reassembled. At least I’m getting pretty good at that.

Old Fort was pretty cool. There is a big arrowhead monument next to an old train station-turned-museum. The lady at the museum was really nice, but everything else in the town was closed because it’s Monday. You don’t do anything around here on Monday don’tcha know.

We kept going to our new campsite – the cord pulled out again, but I said screw it. We were only about a mile from the site. This place is better than the first night. It’s a “Passport” site, so we are getting a 50% discounted rate. They have free wifi, and all the RV hookups you could want. We spent the afternoon and evening just hanging out. Noelle kept organizing the camper, and I went around testing all the components. Everything seems to be working pretty well – the electrical is in good shape, the fridge and water heater work. The plumbing seems secure – the sinks and shower work! Everything drains out to the sewer pipe, so as of now, we are a fully functioning RV – sweet!

I also spent some time adding about a foot of length to the trailer wire connection. I’m hoping this will solve the issue of the wires pulling out.

We’ve had another successful day on the road, and a really great night of camping. We’re hoping to do some sightseeing up in them mountains tomorrow!