North Carolina, Tennessee (again) and Virginia

We made it to our kids’ in Virginia today. We had originally planned on taking the Blue Ridge Parkway, but we found out it isn’t really conducive to large RVs. Then the other option is finding places to stay along the way and take our Jeep to the places we want to see. It’s another 45 mph highway, and we found that a lot of the camping areas don’t open until April 15th to May 1st. No, we’re not in a hurry, but with the weather the way it’s been and not knowing where to go, I decided to just go head to Springfield where our two sons and daughter-in-law live.

North Carolina:              This is a 9-story observation tower, and “the most photographed view”, but there was no way we were going to be able to stop without knowing about that ahead of time going down 9% grade, and there was no RV parking anyway when we went past. And, of course, it was raining again.
            

Tennessee:            

Virginia:     Natural Bridge in Virginia is near the highway we were on so we stopped to see how much it was, what we could see, etc. I know people who have seen it say it’s great, but we couldn’t justify $40 to see it. It’s another $16 for both of us to see the cavern. We saw a lot of pictures at the gift shop. They also do a night show, which we wouldn’t be staying around for (same price). The road runs across the naturally created bridge, and nothing can actually be seen from the top as protective fences at the top block any view. Storms were on the radar and we decided to keep on going. Click here for history.
                           

Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort

 We decided to spend the next two nights at Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort at Cherokee, North Carolina. Being a holiday weekend, we wanted to stay off the highways, and the resort parking lot was fairly empty. Saturday night we had a row of RVs and trucks, but Sunday was only a couple of us. They have a strip on the highway side of the parking lot for larger vehicles, and even have some picnic tables and a walking trail to the resort, or you can go to the shuttle stop and catch a ride.
                 
We did not try our hand at gambling, but a few people tried fishing in the stream beside us. I didn’t see anybody catch anything though.

From Tennessee to North Carolina

This is a traveling day from Chattanooga, TN to Cherokee, NC. The road we went on, Hwy 64, then 74, is a lot of up and down, steep grades, corners and twists. The speed limit varies from 25 mph to 65. We were surprised there was a lot of traffic on it, but there’s not much for the upper east-west in North Carolina and it is a holiday weekend.

We started out with an elevation of 832 feet. First picture below is of Lookout Mountain where the battlefield is that we were at yesterday and took pictures with an elevation of 1850 feet.  I think our highest elevation driving today was 2720 feet.

                                                               
The 1996 Centennial Olympics was held on the Ocoee River in Tennessee. Also the 2013 World Freestyle Kayaking Championships were in another area of the river in North Carolina. There is a lot of wildwater rafting, kayaks, ziplines, etc. along this river. They definitely know how to make money on the Ocoee River. Lots of people out this Easter weekend, and I bet the water is cold!