East Coast trip Days 33 to 36

Day 33,
Left Creekwood Farm RV Park, Waynesvill, North Carolina (outside Ashville) and began driving to Stone Mountain near Atlanta Georgia. Along the way, we came across a Toll Road sign that was displaying prices that we could not believe. Maybe Orange County should make better use of the money they charge. All of the freeways and rest stops we encountered on our trip (not including California) were very well maintained, very modern and clean.

 Outrageous Prices

 Beautiful tree near Stone Mountain, Sue believes it a Dogwood Tree.

 

 

 Close up of the flowers

Our home for the next few days

Found this beauty standing proud near our camp site. Turkey Vulture? Must be waiting for something to die!

Wall-E doesn't stand a chance with Ellie getting the ball. The ball is above and behind her.

 Ellie getting some air chasing the ball

Day 34,

Got up early and headed out to explore Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is the largest monolithic granite dome in the world. The carving on the mountain were proposed in 1912. After numerous starts and stops and numerous designs, the carving seen today was not finished until 1972.

The size of it is deceiving, as it looks a lot smaller than it actually is. The carving is 90' by 190'. the relief cut into the mountain around the carving covers 3 acres. The lake at the base of the mountain is actually the same size as the carving and the relief.

The carving depicts three figures of the Confederate States of America: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis. 

The carvings are so large that workers could duck into the ear or mouth of the horses to avoid the rain. 

Very Detailed



Looking down at our RV camp site from the top

Its amazing anything can grow out of solid granite

 Can you say root bound



Day 35,

Left our retreat at Stone Mountain and began driving to Huntsville Alabama to visit the Space and Rocket Center. We spent the night at a nice Walmart Supercenter in Gardendale Alabama.

 

Day 36,

Arrived at the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center for our rocket and space education.

Now I know this type of museum isn't everyone's cup of tea but for me its the ultimate experience.

Sue was such a trooper to explore the entire Space Center with me.

 

We watched 2 IMAX movies on a domed screen on topics from the Space Shuttle to Hubble Space Telescope to the Stars & Galaxies beyond. It was awesome.

They had a large amount of rockets from the early beginnings of our space program to the largest rocket we have ever built and launched, the Saturn 5.

Words can not describe the size of the Saturn 5. It is immense. Sue is standing next to one of the 5 first stage rocket motors on the Saturn 5. And this is just the first of 3 stages of this rocket. 

 

 Most of our early rockets

 One of the first stage rocket motors from the Saturn 5

 The Saturn 5 Rocket in all of its immensity.

 The first stage rockets of the Saturn 5

 Looking up from the bottom, its huge!

Another shot of the first stage

The Saturn 5 laid out in its individual stages, all 363' of it.

 

East Coast Trp Days 29 to 32

Day 29,

Today we left the Cape Hattares RV Park in Waves, North Carolina and drove north along the Outer Banks to Kill Devil Hill to see the Wright Brothers Museum and the spot where they made the first successful powered flight of a winged aircraft. It is hard to believe that just over a century ago we were at the threshold of aviation and now we routinely send men to space and fly aircraft that weighing more than a million pounds. Wow!

I didn't know that there were actually four flights made by the Wright brothers before the plane was destroyed in a wreck. the shortest was 1230 feet and the longest was 852 feet.

 We are standing at the spot where Orville Wright took flight

Flight Marker 1

Flight Marker 2

 Flight Marker 3

 Flight Marker 4

Overall view of the flights

We spent the rest of the day driving west towards Waynesville, NC

We spent the night in a very nice Rest Stop just outside of Hickory North Carolina. I will say that we have seen some of the nicest rest stops in all the states except California. A number of states also provide 24 hour security on site.

Day 30,
We finally made it to our next camp site at Creekwood Farms RV Park in Waynsville North Carolina. Another beautiful park. We ended up at a very nice site that backed up to a large creek.

After getting set up in our camp site, we decided it was time to play ball with the pups. This is something Ellie can not live without. We tell people the little orange ball with the blue stripe is her Heroin. If she doesn't get her fix daily, she mopes around and gives us her sad puppy dog eyes.

Day 31,
Sue and I drove to downtown Ashville NC to go on a Segway Tour of the old historic downtown district. It was a blast! It was my first time on a Segway but after a few minutes of instruction I was able to drive it without killing myself. I would say that if you have never taken a tour on a Segway, you should try it. It's fairly easy to learn and a blast to drive.

 Entrance to the park

 Our River View

Very Nice Spot

I want one!

Day 32,

Today we drove into Ashville and visited an Emergency Readiness Store. Some may call it a

survivalist store. We didn't buy anything but thought it would be fun to explore the store.

Afterwards we drove to old main street where Sue bought some doggy treats from a Canine Bakery.

We finished the day relaxing back at the RV park.

 

East Coast Trip Day 26,27 & 28

Day 26,

We left Savannah this morning and drove to Lumberton North Carolina. We spent the night at the Sleepy Bears RV Park. I give it a 2 out of 5. The people that operate it were very nice but the park could use some improvement.
It is a common theme here in the south. Every where we have been the people have wonderfully pleasant and polite.

Go Sleepy Bears!

Day 27,
We left Camp Sleepy Bears :-( and headed to the Audubon Center at Beidler Forest. This forest is not like we have on the west coast, it is a forest of trees in a swamp covered area. It is just as beautiful but in a swampy way.
The drive into the Center was on a gravel road just big enough to get the motorhome through. This made Sue very nervous. We made it in and out with only a few low hanging branches busted off. No damage to the motorhome.

Which way do we go? Can we make it?

The Audubon Center was very informative on all life that lives in or around the swamps.

We took a one and three quarter mile boardwalk stroll over the swamp. We kept our eyes open for any wildlife. Sue was first to spy a snake sitting on a log. We later identified it as a Eastern Cottonmouth. This is one of the poisonous snake that inhabit the swamp.

 Eastern Cottonmouth (poisonous)

This snake and the Brown Water snake (non poisonous) look similar but the difference can be seen in the head. If you look down from the top of this snakes head, you can not see its eyes. They are covered by the wide shroud over the eyes. The Brown Water snake (see below) eyes can be seen from the top.

 

Sue really wanted to see a turtle but none to be found. We did spy a frog, we think is a Green American Bullfrog.

American Bullfrog

 

 We spied about 10 snakes in total, 2 Cotton Mouths, 1 Red Bellied Water snake and 6 Brown Water Snakes.

 Red Bellied Water Snake (non poisonous)

 Brown Water Snake

Brown Water Snake 

 Brown Water Snake



Eastern Cottonmouth (poisonous)

We did see a couple of Downey Woodpeckers but they were too fast to get a photo of.

 

On our walk we saw the many different shapes of the trees and the so called Cypress Knees of the swamp. I guess they don't know for sure what these Knees actually do for the tree but they do make for an interesting and spooky looking swamp.

Cypress Knee Info

 Strange looking Cypress Knees 

 Not a swamp I would like to trudge through

 A 1000 year old Bald Cypress Tree

Bald Cypress Tree Info

 

After the Audubon we left and drove to Greenville North Carolina and spent the night at our favorite dry camping spot at the Walmart Super Center.

 

Day 27,

We got up and moved the motorhome to a Laundromat parking lot. Sue was doing laundry as I drove to Grady White Boat manufacturing plant in Greenville. I took a tour of the plant to see how they make the best fishing boats in the US. These boats are on the pricey side as their  top of the line 37 foot fishing boats starts at about $650,000. Maybe some day when we get rich.

After the laundry and tour was finished we drove east to Cape Hatteras. I guess the official island chain is called the Outer Banks. This is a thin strip of land that runs north and south off the coast of North Carolina.

We parked the motorhome at the Cape Hattaras RV Park. This area has a season where stores and shops are closed until April 1st. When we arrived there was only two other motorhomes in the park that can accommodate about 100 motorhomes. Needless to say we had the pick of anywhere in the park. We ended up with a nice spot on the sound side of the island.

 

Day 28,

Woke up today to pouring rain. The weather predictions here are very accurate. If they say it's going to rain, it does.

We loaded up the pups in the jeep and drove south to visit Okracoke island. After driving about 45 minutes, we got to the ferry that we needed to take to get to Okracoke island. There was a long line for the ferry and with the rain not letting up, we decided to turn around and head back. We camped out in the motorhome until the rain stopped at about 3pm. Being on the sound side of the island we were blessed with a very nice sunset. After playing ball with the dogs a few times, we decided to pack it in for the night.

We had our pick of sites, can you say empty?

 Beautiful crepuscular rays

 One big happy family

 Ducks are heading south for the winter

 Finally some blue sky

 Beautiful Sunset

 Beautiful Sunset Widescreen version

 

Till next posting, thank you checking out the blog and also for the wonderful comments. Keep them coming.